Getting beyond the plateau
 

I started out late last year at 240 pounds, through careful diet, bikram yoga and cycling I have dropped to 190 pounds but, have stayed at this weight for the last four months. I yoga less now but cycle more, time/miles/intensity etc. I know I have slacked on my diet lately and started eating meals with the family along the lines of pizza.

How do I kick start my metabolism to shed the next 20 pounds and get down to 170 for the 2011 racing season?

I'm going to throw this out there, and it may sound crazy, but if you want to "get beyond the plateau" and lose more weight, maybe you should stop slacking off on your diet?

Plateauing is normal, but if you really slacked off on your diet then basically what umd said. If you are eating reasonably then just keep exercising like you are and one day your weight will dip again.

^^ he's one crazy guy, that umd. Imagine thinking that eating pizza and slacking off on your diet is going to make it more difficult to lose weight. Ridiculous...

You need to change something that you're doing. Plateaus are a balance-point between opposing forces: calories-in versus calories-out. Multiple things you can do:

- count your intake calories, there numerous sites that help you track your meals and give you a total

- log all your workouts, use Walter Zorn's Kruezotter Bicycle speed site to give you total calories burnt on a ride. This is much more accurate than the numbers that HRMs spit out

- compare your calories-in versus calories-out

- work on cutting back some calories, 250-500 calories a day is easily done. Substitute high calorie-dense foods with lower-density ones. Such as replacing pasta cream sauces with marinara red sauce. Fruit instead of ice-cream for dessert, etc.

- change your workout regimen. Incorporate more sprints and intervals to max-HR. These will build up strength and endurance, allowing you to ride faster and farther to burn off more calories per hour of riding. Don't believe that BS about a "fat burning zone", there's no such thing. It all comes down to calories/hr burnt off. If you have 10-hours a day to ride and burn off 2000 calories, then go for it. I'd rather burn off the same amount in much fewer hours.

Good luck!

The bottom line is no matter how much you exercise, it's relatively easy to out-eat it. You've already identified that you are slacking off, so go back to what you know worked for you before.

I'll be a contrarian and say that slacking off on your diet was probably the best thing you did.

I mean, if you slacked for this long and didn't gain weight you basically got your body used to being skinnier than before. Not only that, but you got a much needed psychological break from the diet routine.

Get back on the horse, clean your diet even more than before (which should be easier considering that you did take quite a break) and you will be shedding the pounds off in no time.

Remember, you can't out-train a bad diet.

Back to logging food intake and exercise. I think that is why it was easy to fall off the wagon, I stopped logging my food intake and it is so easy to over eat.

Got serious on the diet again this week along with a nice bump in training time, now below 190.

There we go! I'd also suggest adding a new exercise. For example, running, weight training, swimming, etc. It shock your muscles and your body and kick you metabolism even HIGHER. Also, how often do you eat? I normally eat small portions at bf, lnch, dinner and then healthy snacks (yogurt, veggies) in between. That does wonders and keeps your metabolism going all day! Good luck!

I will second this and state that the occasional slack fest helps me break through, not with weight loss per se, but with body fat loss. It seems that I will hit a training spot where my BF gets stuck. Several days off and I'll see my BF start to go up slightly, then back to the grind and I see an immediate drop and breakthrough. I've read some genuine research that supports this phenomenon.

I don't disagree that the break can be good, but still the answer to continuing the weight loss is to stop slacking off...

I've read that when you are quite obese, the larger part of the weight is mostly easy to lose. It gets progressively more difficult and takes a longer time to lose the last 15% say.

Getting the cadence up (90+), keeping the legs at an uncomfortable, but manageable burn for the majority of the ride, and learning to BREATHE, got me right off the plateau. Also, I started slacking off on the nutrition, and eating a little slob food. It was good for a short break, but now, time to get back on the program.

If you want a lighter bike, lose 10 more pounds!