dieting advice

[jonathandanger]

I am looking for advice on a good diet, both for decent results and weight loss.

Let me start with a little information. I am 20 years old, 5'7," 150-155 lbs in the morning. I have tested my body fat on a machine at a gym recently... not sure how accurate it is, but it said 13.5%. I used to weigh a little over 160, but I was placed on a ritalin prescription a couple months ago and have lost weight. I am still fairly new to the sport, but I race category 5 with no real training program. I feel that I am not achieving my potential, and I would like to start a smarter training program for next season and maybe make the move to category 4. Right now, I am a little lazy, fairly stressed out, and very busy with school work, so I'm only riding between 50 and 100 miles every week. I don't make much money, and I live in campus housing where cooking my own food is almost out of the question. I don't drink a whole lot of beer, usually 6 a week or less. I work at a pizza place and take full advantage of free pasta. Otherwise, I eat a lot of bananas and taco bell. I used to avoid soft drinks, but I have started drinking them again recently. I know I should quit, but they are cheap calories, and the stress of school makes it harder to maintain a good diet.

My goal is to lose 5 to 10 pounds over the winter when I can afford the accompanying performance drop that comes with a calorie deficit, and then start eating the right food for spring endurance training.

Does anyone have any advice on how much food I should be eating, and what kind of food would be best? Keep in mind I'm pretty poor and eating like a cyclist puts a strain on my wallet.

 

[jhuskey]

Drop the soda pop and drink water. You can eat pasta just determine how much you are eating now and cut it by 25 percent or so.
Try training on an empty stomach. This will not only burn fat but teach your body to more effeciently use energy.

 

[Yojimbo_]

Drop all the junk food, including the beer, and eat real food.

 

[jonathandanger]

Thanks for the replies, although I guess I phrased my question wrong. What steps, if there are any, can I take to train under a calorie deficit and still get enough carbohydrates to ride well? I know some of you serious racers watch your weight closely, so I hope you might have some insight about this. Any good foods for that specific purpose?

As for my diet, I eat fast food out of necessity, and not as much as I made it out to be in my first post. I am making an effort to swear off soft drinks again, and as for beer.... Beer is wonderful, and I could never totally stop drinking it.

 

[fleshbroiler]

As for my diet, I eat fast food out of necessity, and not as much as I made it out to be in my first post. I am making an effort to swear off soft drinks again, and as for beer.... Beer is wonderful, and I could never totally stop drinking it.

Not all fast food is horrible, but you certainly can learn to eat healthy on a tight budget. Whole wheat pasta, rice and dried beans are plenty cheap and you can prepare them if you can boil water. If you don't know how to cook, check out foodnetwork.com. A decent intro to eating for fitness is Food for Fitness by Chris Carmichael.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

...What steps, if there are any, can I take to train under a calorie deficit and still get enough carbohydrates to ride well? ...

The key is to replace fewer calories than you burn per day and per week but as you've observed you need to replenish your glycogen stores with carbs if you want to continue training day after day. One approach I've used is to estimate calories burned while riding, assume half or more of those are carbs, which means fairly intense aerobic training not noodling around the block, and replace that portion not everything you've burned on a ride. On line calorie estimators like this one can help: http://www.nutristrategy.com/fitness/cycling.htm
Folks with power meters can get a very good estimate after each ride, but even these on line estimates are pretty decent.

It's key to replace a portion of your spent glycogen as soon as you get off the bike. Your body is much better at synthesizing and storing glycogen immediately after exercise and if you miss the critical half hour window after exercise it will take much longer to top up your glycogen stores. Here's a link that describes this and gives estimates of carb and protein levels you should consume right after a ride and later in the day: http://www.carbboom.com/education/recovery.php

That post ride refueling is real important and generally consists of low GI carbs along with some protein. Low fat chocolate milk is a favorite and has been shown to work as well or better than many commercially available drinks in studies like this: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/524370

Other strategies to losing weight while still gaining fitness are to eat well, eat smaller meals frequently, don't skip breakfast and don't starve yourself. Shoot for losing a pound to pound and a half per week at the most and you can still have plenty of energy to train. I lost nearly 40 pounds on a program like that last winter and gained nearly 60 watts in FTP at the same time. I hit the racing season in great shape and didn't suffer along the way by taking all winter to do it instead of trying to lose a lot in a hurry.

One key is to tune into the difference between satiety and the more common goal of feeling "full" after each meal. As a society we tend to leave the table stuffed instead of sufficiently fed and it takes some time to retrain yourself into recognizing enough vs all you can hold. Take smaller first portions and then wait ten minutes or so before seconds to make sure you're really hungry and not just eating more out of habit.

I eat fast food out of necessity, and not as much as I made it out to be in my first post. I am making an effort to swear off soft drinks again, and as for beer.... Beer is wonderful, and I could never totally stop drinking it.

I never totally stopped drinking beer either, but I do avoid fast food or eating out in general unless I need to. The problem is that portion sizes tend to be pretty big and it's hard not to eat food once it's on your plate. It's also less expensive to eat whole foods, fresh fruits and vegetables vs prepackaged foods or eating out.

I second the last post, if you need to learn to cook it's worth it both for your health and pocket book. If your meals tend to be fast food or prepackaged convenience meals like microwave food then you'll save a bunch by learning to cook whole foods. You'll also eat better and have more control over what you put in your body.

Good luck,
Dave

 

[Yojimbo_]

If you really want to lose weight, you can drop the beer for a few months until you hit your target, then pick it up again.

It all depends on how badly you want to lose.

 

[Piotr]

... you can drop the beer for a few months until you hit your target, then pick it up again.

The target being of legal drinking age.