Nutritional advice for loosing weight

[Roaders]

I am a big guy and I started to cycle to loose weight. When I started around 3 years ago this went pretty well and I lost around 2 and a half stone. Over the last year or so though I have been struggling to continue losing despite having between 3 and 5 more stone to loose. This morning I weighed myself and was disappointed to see that I had put around a stone on since the start of January and am back up to nearly 21 stone I cycle to work 3 days a week. The cycle is 18 miles each way so 36 miles a day. The ride takes me between 1 hour 15 and 1 hour 30 and it doesn't really stress me fitness wise much, my heart rate stays pretty low. When I was wearing a heart rate montior I was struggling to get my HR above the minumum level of 120. I know that loosing weight is easy, exercise more and eat less! I am planning to start doign around an hour ride on Monday and Friday when I work from home and maybe try to get some weekend rides in. Food wise on the days I am cycling I typically eat: Breakfast (after my cycle into work) muesli with natural yogurt Trpoicana orange juice Coffee Lunch Soup with largish chunk of brown bread Fruit smoothy Supper Ready meal of some sort (or quite often an indian / chinese takeaway or pizza) Obviously I know that takeaways and pizzas are not good and I realise that this is my main problem. What I want to know though is what I should have for lunch. I want something that doesn't have too many calories in so that I lose weight but something that will give me enough energy to cycle home and enjoy it - not having a horrible long slog whith dead legs. Over the last few days I have switched my morning Orange Juice to around a half hour before I cycle home. This seems to give me good energy on the way home but does this mean that I am just burning the sugar in the OJ rather than my fat reserves? In the morning it can still feel like hard work though. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[z44z]

First off, it's lose, not loose. You're not "letting go" of it, you're getting rid of it.

Second, the way to drop weight is NOT to eat less, it is to eat better. The ideal is to eat foods with full nutrients but little or no fat. If you do that, your body uses the nutrients to build muscle and bone, but with no fat coming in, it uses the fat stores in the body for energy, thus reducing your weight. If you eat less food, your body thinks it's starving and becomes more efficient at storing fat to keep you alive. "Dieting" makes people fatter.

Third, learn the three Bs of cooking by yourself: bake, boil and broil. The three Bs do not include boring if you learn how to use seasonings, spices and sauces - I love my Worcestire and tamarind sauces.... You can cook for the next day while you're watching TV in the evening. And stop buying "take out" - restaurants put fat and sugar in the food so it tastes better and makes you want to come back for more. Just because it's "vegetarian" or "Indian" doesn't mean it's healthy.

Fourth, as I just posted in another thread, stop eating your big meal at the end of the day. The drawing below is something I once heard on a TV fitness show, and it's true:


http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/c039cadc40.jpg

Originally Posted by Roaders .

I am a big guy and I started to cycle to loose weight. When I started
around 3 years ago this went pretty well and I lost around 2 and a half stone. Over the last year or so though I have been struggling to continue losing despite having between 3 and 5 more stone to loose.

This morning I weighed myself and was disappointed to see that I had put around a stone on since the start of January and am back up to nearly 21 stone /img/vbsmilies/smilies//frown.gif

I cycle to work 3 days a week. The cycle is 18 miles each way so 36 miles a day. The ride takes me between 1 hour 15 and 1 hour 30 and it doesn't really stress me fitness wise much, my heart rate stays pretty low. When I was wearing a heart rate montior I was struggling to get my HR above the minumum level of 120.

I know that loosing weight is easy, exercise more and eat less! I am
planning to start doign around an hour ride on Monday and Friday when I work from home and maybe try to get some weekend rides in.

Food wise on the days I am cycling I typically eat:

Breakfast (after my cycle into work)
muesli with natural yogurt
Trpoicana orange juice
Coffee

Lunch
Soup with largish chunk of brown bread
Fruit smoothy

Supper
Ready meal of some sort
(or quite often an indian / chinese takeaway or pizza)

Obviously I know that takeaways and pizzas are not good and I realise that this is my main problem.

What I want to know though is what I should have for lunch. I want
something that doesn't have too many calories in so that I lose weight but something that will give me enough energy to cycle home and enjoy it - not having a horrible long slog whith dead legs.

Over the last few days I have switched my morning Orange Juice to around a half hour before I cycle home. This seems to give me good energy on the way home but does this mean that I am just burning the sugar in the OJ rather than my fat reserves? In the morning it can still feel like hard work though.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[CreekCycler]

Originally Posted by z44z .

First off, it's lose, not loose. You're not "letting go" of it, you're getting rid of it.

Second, the way to drop weight is NOT to eat less, it is to eat better. The ideal is to eat foods with full nutrients but little or no fat. If you do that, your body uses the nutrients to build muscle and bone, but with no fat coming in, it uses the fat stores in the body for energy, thus reducing your weight. If you eat less food, your body thinks it's starving and becomes more efficient at storing fat to keep you alive. "Dieting" makes people fatter.

Third, learn the three Bs of cooking by yourself: bake, boil and broil. The three Bs do not include boring if you learn how to use seasonings, spices and sauces - I love my Worcestire and tamarind sauces.... You can cook for the next day while you're watching TV in the evening. And stop buying "take out" - restaurants put fat and sugar in the food so it tastes better and makes you want to come back for more. Just because it's "vegetarian" or "Indian" doesn't mean it's healthy.

Fourth, as I just posted in another thread, stop eating your big meal at the end of the day. The drawing below is something I once heard on a TV fitness show, and it's true:


http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/c039cadc40.jpg

Not to burst your bubble, but I would really like to see the science behind your advice? The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. Starvation mode does not really kick in under normal circumstances so it is not a worry that anyone would need. Dieting doesn't really work because it implies that you are using a temporary change in eating habits to keep off weight permaneantly. You need to make a change in lifestyle and keep with it to get and remain healthy. The amount you eat in one meal has nothing to do with how your body builds, does a huge breakfast make you have a sixpack and manboobs? I doubt it. Fact is keep up your exercise and do eat healthier foods, but count the calories and log the exercise you do. Aim to lose a pound or so a week (not sure what a stone is)

As for lunch look for foods that to not metabolize into blood sugar rapidly to keep energy stores up. Try whole grain bread and other foods. Consult the glycemic index for help with what to choose.

 

[marilynrose]

For foods, (avoid oily and fatty foods) Much better more on vegetables and fruits that can give you enough energy daily. Avoid Junk foods and alcoholic drinks. While exercising, make sure there's a water for dehydration so the fats can burn/release more faster. I don't considered the taking of diet supplement as a nutritional way but for others they find this as an extra plus to lose more weight. I think the most popular supp. in terms of losing weight is the Slender Factor followed by Herbalife.

 

[swampy1970]

Eat less, ride more and make sure you get enough sleep. Lack of sleep and too much stress will torpedo your weight loss attempts faster than the entire US navy unleashing it's fury on a Somalian pirate in a rowing boat.

 

[IrishTrekker]

I lost 40 lbs last summer by making some easy changes. First, I started riding my bike along a 17 mile loop with a few difficult climbs. I would do this every morning and it took about an hour. Previously, I had not been working out at all for a few years. Second, and most important, I cut out bad foods. No more pop, no more fast food, and I ate more often. I had only been eating twice a day and the meals were huge, not to mention they were terrible energy sources. I never got too crazy with calorie counting, but I just put forth an effort to understand caloric deficits and what type of calories are good energy sources for workouts. I realized that on average, a person burns through about 2,000 calories per day just being you. If you add a workout that burns about 800 calrories, you are up to 2,800 burned calories. When I took my caloric consumption down to about 1,800 per day (from about 3,000), I felt my caloric deficit was now about 1,000 per day. Obviously, these numbers aren't exact, but they gave me something to focus on.

Maybe it was just being a poor bachelor, but I found an eating regime that worked for me (this excludes what I ate/drank while riding):

8:00am - banana & english muffin with peanut butter

11:00am - cup of pretzels and cup of baby carrots

2:00pm - 8 oz chicken breast (prevously grilled a few and halfed them for the week) & fresh green beans

6:00pm - dinner was smaller portions of better food. It could be a pasta dinner or steak and potatoes. Whatever it was, I ate half of what I normally consumed.

8:00pm - fresh fruit and another banana

Now, I understand that everyone has their own philosophies on what to eat and when. For me, this schedule just worked. Everyone is different so don't take any one person's advice as gospel.

I would ride at 6:00am and be home by 7:00. During my ride, I would have a bottle of gatorade and an energy bar. On the weekends, I would double up my ride distance because I had more time.

All of this worked for me, and when I saw the huge difference it made in my body, I kept riding throughout the winter on my trainer in the living room.

Good Luck!

 

[Phoenix15]

Try joining Weight Watchers. They have been around forever because their program works so well for lasting weight loss. I would strongly suggest that you attend the support meetings. I got lots of great tips there and it kept me accountable and on track. I lost 67 lbs. & kept it off.
chino hills boot camp

 

[Lex Albrecht]

I was very fortunate this year to have a nutritionist as a teammate on my Professional Cycling Team. Anne Guzman develops personalized nutrition programs for individuals who are targeting general performance, event specific performance, and weight loss. Her Nutrition Solution company has a Facebook page that has a constant feed of tips, ideas, and even some recipes for sport performance. Check it out, LIKE her page, and I challenge you to try a couple of her ideas. Anne Guzman took the guesswork out of nutrition for me.

http://www.facebook.com/womenscycling.ca?sk=wall#!/pages/nutritionsolutionsanneguzmancom/196049807128056

 

[swampy1970]

... is it me you're looking for?

 

[alienator]

Nothing good can come from referring to Lionel Richie lyrics in polite company. I'm going to purge that memory from my brain with help from my therapist, Gibby Haynes:

 

[swampy1970]

Polite company? Where?


Metallica - Blackened. Live in some cool Roman amphitheater in Nimes, France.

 

[awilki01]

The advice on cutting out fats is not great in my opinion. Fats are necessary. But, the good fats is what you need to focus on.

I've had success with the 'Paleo Diet for Athletes'. You can pick up the book at Amazon - or probably just about anywhere. Stay away from alcohol. It is your enemy when trying to lose weight.

 

[jpr95]

Originally Posted by awilki01 .

The advice on cutting out fats is not great in my opinion. Fats are necessary. But, the good fats is what you need to focus on.

I've had success with the 'Paleo Diet for Athletes'. You can pick up the book at Amazon - or probably just about anywhere. Stay away from alcohol. It is your enemy when trying to lose weight.

+1. Fats help to suppress appetite during a meal. Also, any excess calories can be converted to fat on the body, it's not just fat intake that becomes fat on the body. Not to mention, much of the low- or no-fat food available then uses awful chemicals and additives to improve the flavor.

Our friends across the pond use the unit of "stone" to refer to body weight. 1 stone = 14 pounds.

 

[awilki01]

Yeah, fat has really got a bad reputation over the years. It is absolutely necessary for survival. People are getting sick from all these low fat diets.

Ever hear of rabbit starvation?

Rabbit starvation - man cannot live by rabbits alone, and you know why??
Not enough fat! Yes, you heard right, we need more fat than a wild rabbit provides.

I'm no model citizen here. I still have 35 pounds to lose. I've lost 40-45 already though. I have just plateaued lately and need to kick my eating habits back in gear.

 

[bubsy]

Yep too much protien and no fat for long enough = continuous diahorrea.