lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
Me: female, 5ft2, 7st 5lb cycle 10-12 hours a week and spend the rest of my life sat in front of a computer
Food intake: average 2,500 cals a day
Weight loss
- Thread starter Badger1
- Start date
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Me: female, 5ft2, 7st 5lb cycle 10-12 hours a week and spend the rest of my life sat in front of a computer
Food intake: average 2,500 cals a day
disorganisedmum
Regular
- Location
- Southend On Sea,Essex
Hi lulubel.Would you mind at all posting roughly what you eat in a day?I am virtually the same height as you yet nearly 3 stone heavier.I realise that as I do exercise alot that some may be muscle mass but am looking to get my weight down which is obv more diet related.However I would like to be getting in a similar number of hours on the bike but not sure of the best foods to eat to fuel it.Here is a rough breakdown of what I eat.Thanks
Before bike ride-banana
After bike ride-Protein shake (kinetica)
Breakfast-Porridge with spoonful of golden syrup
Snack-handful of nuts and piece of fruit
Lunch-wholeweat bagel,proscuito or wholemeal wrap with tuna and sweetcorn
half an avocade
Snack-couple of rice cakes with peanut butter or some fruit with greek yog
Dinner-lean meat/fish with loads of veg,no starchy carbs
prob don't drink enough water but am trying.
lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
No problem. This is today's food:
Breakfast - cornflakes, all bran, milk, sliced banana and 15g protein powder (423 cals)
Lunch - beans on toast with some grated cheddar on top (393 cals)
Dinner - cous cous, butternut squash and (a little) goats cheese on a green salad with pitta bread (684 cals, which is quite a big dinner for me)
Snacks - yoghurt, choc chip cookie, probiotic yoghurt drink, glass of soya milk, 10g dark chocolate, banana, pear, peach, cherries, banana and cinnamon bun, tiny piece of shortbread (1022 cals)
Total - 2522 cals
The protein powder at breakfast is for no other reason than it seems to help my allergies. I have no idea why. The snacks tend to be small, but frequent (the cookie and bun were around 150 cals each).
The breakdown of calories from different places is 16.4% protein/20.3% fat/63.3% carbs.
Actual amounts by weight are 99.6g protein/54.8g fat/409.5g carbs.
Fat is a bit low. I'd generally try to get closer to 90g protein/65g fat and the remainder carbs.
I probably drink over 5 litres of fluid a day, including peppermint tea and coffee, but it's incredibly hot here at the moment (38 when I was cycling this morning), so drinking that amount in the UK climate would be excessive for most people.
disorganisedmum
Regular
- Location
- Southend On Sea,Essex
Thanks alot for that,it's very interesting to compare.Diet is my big prob cos I am a terrible snacker.Maybe I need to eat a little more (of the right things) at each meal as even having porridge for breakfast,I am hungry less than 2 hours later.
Not sure what to do about this,may speak to a nutritionist or something.I am a real comfort eater too and the above is based on a "good" day where I haven't eaten a choc bar and packet of crisps!
How do you organised your rides?Do you just ride or do you do hills one day,lsd another day,intervals and so on.Thanks for your help.
black'n'yellow
Guest
You're not hungry - you just think you are. Discipline plays a huge role in losing weight. Similarly, eating more at meal times just to compensate for fewer snacks strikes me as being a little counter-productive.
People often confuse thirst for hunger.
lulubel
Über Member
- Location
- Malaga, Spain
That's a valid point, but possibly a little over-simplified. There are lots of reasons for "imaginary" hunger - thirst, stress, tiredness, boredom, etc. Also, if you're in the habit of eating at a certain time, your brain will remind you by triggering hunger signals.
For women, it can be further complicated by hormones and contraception. Increased hunger at certain times of the month is a well known phenomenon, and progesterone based contraception (injection, implant, some pills) are also known to cause artificial hunger. I'm on the injection, and it wouldn't be much of an exageration to say I'm constantly hungry. That's why I calorie count - because I can't trust my body's hunger signals.
Chocolate bars and most crisps are just empty calories, and won't do anything to help hunger.
I generally do a longer (2.5 - 3 hours) ride on Fridays and Sundays, and the other 4 rides are about 1.5 hours each. Within that, I mostly just ride. I certainly don't plan in advance, but see how I feel when I get on the bike. If I'm tired, I take it easy, if I'm feeling good, I'll push a bit/lot harder. Where I live, there's no way to avoid hills, but I can vary the amount of climbing depending on how I feel. I don't do any kind of structured intervals. I don't see the point, unless you have much more specific goals than just getting fitter/riding faster/further.
colin miller
Member
If you want to lose weight why not aim to add some muscle as this would help to burn more calories
black'n'yellow
Guest
If you want to lose weight why not aim to add some muscle as this would help to burn more calories
how would that work..?
colin miller
Member
You burn more calories the more muscle you have.
colin miller
Member
Get out and start riding some hills build up some leg muscles. This would help to burn more calories.
black'n'yellow
Guest
Get out and start riding some hills build up some leg muscles. This would help to burn more calories.
whoa there, fella - that's a bit inaccurate. Calorie expenditure relates to power output - not muscle size. And building leg muscle bulk is not helpful for an endurance cyclist.
MrJamie
Oaf on a Bike
I find writing down what I eat really helps me with working out where to cut back and realising how much im overeating, but ultimately for me its a bout will power and self discipline. The most important things for me were finding the striggers which you could put down to boredom (eating to occupy/distract myself) and drinking, even a couple of pints would often be enough to break my resolve and have me stuffing my face at midnight. The difference between losing and gaining half a pound a week isnt much and at the end of the year it could be over 3 stone different (+/- over1.5),
A few years ago I went from about 22 stone down to 16 and despite cycling a few times a week have simply eaten too much and gained back up to 19, although there is some muscle gain in that. Ive started again last week and im pretty much just eating considerably less and only avoiding high cal food like take-aways/chocolate. The science of it isnt particularly complicated when youve got a fair bit to lose IMHO as it takes a considerable amount of calories to sustain especially if you're active.
A few years ago I went from about 22 stone down to 16 and despite cycling a few times a week have simply eaten too much and gained back up to 19, although there is some muscle gain in that. Ive started again last week and im pretty much just eating considerably less and only avoiding high cal food like take-aways/chocolate. The science of it isnt particularly complicated when youve got a fair bit to lose IMHO as it takes a considerable amount of calories to sustain especially if you're active.
My weight gain was positively glacial compared to that, but I got there all the same! If you put on a pound every 3 months, that's difficult to measure accurately, but gives you 4 pounds a year, 40 pounds in 10 years, and in my case 80 or so in 20 years.
It then took me 14 months to take it off at a pound a week, and I've kept it off for the last 15 months or so. I'm much more haphazard at recording than Lulubel, but I reckon I'm on over 3000 calories a day, on around 8-9 hours cycling a week.
david k
Hi
- Location
- North West
think for calorie burn a quicker shorter ride but for fat burn a slow longer ride
so id presume for people who are very overweight they should go as far as possible and not worry about speed
for burning off extra calories a quicker burst
Just MO
