Originally Posted by 616fun .
....Overall I have a deficit of 600-1000 per day....I'm holding quite steady - no gains, but no loses
I suspect you realize this isn't possible, you can't hold a 600-1000 Calorie daily deficit and hold steady on weight over the long term.
The most likely culprit is you're over estimating calories burned on the bike. But in the end it'll come down to calories in vs calories out and yes that includes RMR or other background caloric burn and not just what you do during exercise. Have you re-evaluated your BMR/RMR after you've dropped so much weight? That alone could be part of the issue as they'll drop a bit as you've got less body mass to support. Similarly any other lifestyle changes like more desk time or more driving and less walking could be influencing things but in the end it always comes back to calories in vs calories out and if you've stayed steady for over a month now then either up the caloric burn rate (increase cycling intensity, duration or both) or cut some additional calories from your diet. There really aren't any other options, but yes interval work is performed at a higher intensity so that is one way to increase caloric burn but if it ends up cutting your workout duration by too much or leaves you too tired to ride on subsequent days it can be a bad tradeoff.
If you want to give interval work a shot to see how well it works for you, I'd strongly recommend longer Tempo/SST/Threshold intervals that are at least 10 and preferably 12 to 30 minutes long if you have the available roads for them. These aren't, make ya puke gut busting sprints, they're basically mini time trial intervals where you block out time or distance and ride a steady fast pace that's very hard to complete but not impossible and not so hard you blow up mid way and have to slow down to finish. It'll take some time to dial in your best pacing for those durations but within a couple of weeks you should start to find your best sustainable pace.
A good guideline is to focus on your breathing while performing these sustained efforts. After the first few minutes you should be breathing deeply and steadily such that speaking more than a few words at a time would be tough but not impossible. If you're gasping and can't talk at all you're going too hard, if you hardly notice your breathing and could chat with another cyclist then pick up the pace. If you get thirsty you should be able to take a drink but it might take a couple of deep breaths first and then a quick swallow or two out of your water bottle if you're riding Threshold pace. Not every session should be this hard but on the more focused 'interval' days your riding should require focus and ideally in sustained efforts not a minute here, minute there.
These are typically much better for both improving all around aerobic fitness and for burning more overall calories than short gut busting minute or thirty second style anaerobic efforts. Yes, those super short and super intense efforts burn a lot of calories for a minute or so at a time but overall the workout sessions end up being much shorter and burning fewer total calories which is what matters and don't do as much for sustainable aerobic power and overall fitness which is much more valuable in the big picture of riding faster, longer and sustaining more power which translates directly to burning more calories per hour.
Good luck,
-Dave
