Happy Feet

I did a food challenge in Feb (an annual thing I do because I get bored in the winter) and only ate eggs and spinach for 28 days. One consequence was shifting to a zero carb and calorie restricted diet as a result. Here's what I wrote about it on the final day:

Weight - 191.7 (base 209.3) a loss of 17.6lb's. If I add the week before when I began ramping up for the challenge by reducing carbs and eating more eggs to get my body acclimatized it would be nearly 25lb's lost.
Eggs - 359 (359/28=12.8 eggs per day or 931 calories). To that I could add spinach, butter, olive oil and vinegar and cream in my coffee. Maybe 1200-1300 calories/day.

Thoughts - It was a good challenge because I really did not know if I could do it and I learned a lot about myself and food but as a weight loss strategy it wasn't as good as it appears. People who deny themselves in an extreme diet often yo-yo in weight as they seek to over compensate for what they feel they missed out on. I didn't really feel I missed anything (no cravings) and am coming out of it wanting to alter my eating habits long term so we will see what happens down the road.

I thought eggs and spinach, with a multi vitamin, would give me the essentials I needed but I did not anticipate an electrolyte imbalance that developed. As a result I needed to use two additional supplements (potassium and magnesium).

I felt progressively weaker and listless following a constant calorie restricted diet, especially in the last week, and found myself wanting to avoid unnecessary exertion. This led to less exercise than usual which in the long run would not lead to greater health benefits. I think I slowed my metabolism down as a result which would lead to less weight loss. It would be far better to have a more balanced diet that promoted vigor so that diet and exercise worked hand in hand. I also became far more susceptible to cold and shied away from diving and biking outside because of it.

During this period I was doing spin workouts at an average cadence of 90 for 1/2 to 1hr 2- 3 times a week and work in a physically active job. Since then I have continued to eat a lower carb and sugar free vegetarian diet and have maintained weight so far at 192-193lb's as well as doing regular 50 - 100 km rides on the weekends.

Liz33

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and opinions. I'll keep all this in mind as I work on adjusting and creating the eating habit that will work best for me.
For those who wonder where I get my energy from, I think I do eat good amount of carbs even though I'm not eating potatoes, rice, pastas, breads, and so on.
For breakfast I first have water and lemon, a bit later a green juice usually made with pineapple, celery, parsely, spinach, and cucumber, other times with kale, tomatoe and carrots, you get the idea. About once a week I make a smoothy of fruits or do a light oatmeal with almond or cocconut milk topped with fruits and cinnamon. I don't eat snaks between meals.
For lunch I eat things like zucchini spaghettis in tomatoes sauce with dumplings of chickpeas, or dumplings made of whitebeans and eggplants, plus mixed salad, or grilled eggplant rolled and stuffed with cauliflower rice, or I make fried cauliflower rice with veggies and somee beans, or beans salad, I make curries of different things like cabbage and chickpeas, or lentils and carrots, or whatever, use tahini, and make other stuff like avocado aioli, or veggy fritters, I do eat sweet potatoes, love them with olive oil and garlic and all my mixed salads which I always add to my lunches have nuts and seeds. I'm usually full and satisfied at the of lunch though I eat mainly salads, veggies and beans. For dinner I make soups usually with left overs and all kind of soups, I'm a soup expert lol. I've been eating like this and feeling great all winter, but last year and the year before I would a lot of rice and breads and desserts and I always eat plenty of high carbs stuff the mornings I knew I was going to ride my bike. I hadn't bike since I changed my diet, so now I'm going back out in this beautiful spring and I do ride a lot until my legs can't go on, so I do wonderrd if I'm going to need to change my eating and add more carbs because I see people stuffing on a lot of carbs and many fruits and sugars for rides, I'll see how my body works. It was very interesting reading your experiences. Thank you for sharing.

Oneder

Your brain doesn't run on glucose. Go ahead and eat zero protein for a couple days and see how your brain likes it.

friday1970

I drink beer. I drink..lots of beer.
My beer diet, in my opinion, has affected my cycling. Not so much any hangovers, muscle building. It's the weight. I'm dragging along a good 15-20lbs I should not have. This results in shorter rides, slower speeds, etc.
This year, I've decided it time to cut it back, lose some weight, and challenge myself to longer rides, to include 200-400k brevets. I'll find out how well I've done this weekend, the first of my longer rides. So far, only 6-7lbs lost

Happy Feet

Uh.. perhaps a typo on your part? The brain (all cells in fact) does run on glucose, whether it is derived from sugars, carbs, proteins or fats and many people (including me) can go days or longer without protein. No cell in your body burns actual protein.

The main staple for most of the S.A. and SE Asian population is made up of either rice and beans or rice and dahl (lentils) with only the occasional outside protein additive. The combination of rice and beans/lentils creates carbs for energy and complete amino acids for tissue development.

HerrKaLeun

nuts and Avocado are high in fat

One thing that helped me narrowing down what I eat to use an app to track food (I use Samsung Health). I started out with more meat and cheese, which was tasy. But that got me short in fiber and potassium etc. To get all my good stuff with relatively few calories I eat a lot of fruit and raw vegetables. My salad is made with olive-oil-mustard-lemonconcentrate dressing.

in addition I eat whole plain greek yogurt and drink milk regularly. It seems very hard to get enough calcium without dairy products (Kiwi and Oranges are good, but also high in sugar).

For days without meat or fish (to me the same thing, cows and fish have muscles i eat) i typically eat 2 portions of plain black beans (lots of fiber and protein). I buy dry beans (since cans have lots of salt added)

I don't drink any juices (and OJ is just like soda, and has no fiber). I also avoid any "low fat" products since i found they taste ****ty, add sugar, and don't satiete me well.

When we go out or are guests I eat meat and whatever is available and a lot. That may be once a week or so. I also eat a donut or whatever someone brings into work. But what I actively buy for home is according to "my rules"

I went through the effort to make a spreadsheet to list all nutrients on a per-calorie basis to optimize my diet. Like when I'm short of calcium I know drinking milk is better than eating cheese (cheese also has lot of sodium).

I tried to do a "lot of fat" diet. But without eating lots of meat or dairy products it is hard to get above 60% fat. i like meat and dairy, but also know of the health problems when in large amounts. I'm happy when I'm above 50% fat. As long as my carbohydrate intake is fruit I'm not too concerned.

Last May or June when I started biking more seriously and started iterating my above diet I was at 215#. Now at 175# I just have 10# to lose to my ideal weight (I'm 6'). I "cheat" a lot with chocolate etc. I'm sure if I had more restraint I would be better off. Also biking season is just around the corner.

I don't care what someone calls someone's diet. I like everything I eat, and I'm sure eating healthier than a year ago.

fietsbob

I must carefully carry my take and bake Pizza home when I'm riding a bicycle..

Korina

^^^^^

Makes me glad I live in walking distance of Papa Murphy's. I loved their veggie calzone and was stricken when they discontinued them.

fietsbob

Its 6 blocks , have a pair of front panniers with D rings, on a over the wheel rack, a stretch net does the job..

there is a different section for arguing nutrition * so I just say something here, about transporting it...

I use my bigger rear panniers on my touring bike to go on grocery runs..

* https://www.bikeforums.net/training-nutrition/


...

DomaneS5

I could never do a low carb diet. I could live without bread and rice... but I like pasta and potatoes too much.

Stratocaster

I'm not a nutritionist or anything, but this ^^^is basically the advice I was going to give. While living your life, eat according to your "way".
But before and during your ride, make some exceptions. Consider these "exceptions" to be fuel for your ride, rather than going off of your nutritional plan.
Just my thoughts.

OldTryGuy

Isn't it pretty much no feet, feathers, fur or fins?

Gconan

Hemp hearts are a great choice for complete protein for vegans, vegetarians or anyone. Mixes great in smoothies. Did I mention that even though it is a plant, it is complete protein.

Gconan

Double post.

Happy Feet

I prefer the Missus test. What will she do?

Cut eyes out of potato (Y)
Eyes out if trout (N)

Trim ears of corn (Y)
Ears of lamb (N)

Crack nuts of Pecan (Y)
Nuts of ...

and so on

DropBarFan

Liz33, your diet seems a lot better than avg, I'm not sure if you really need to change much. I haven't tried low carb but in general I've found diet has a big effect on cycling performance & health.

Liz33

Thanks again everyone, and also thank you for pointing out there's another section for nutrition discussion. I didn't know.