Originally posted by patch70
I agree with Nicko71. Reduce the carbs, especially after lunch. The carbs you eat late in the day will not get burned. When you sleep, your metabolic rate slows and so all those calories will have to be stored (as more fat). If you have a lower carb intake, your pancreas makes less insulin. One effect of insulin is to encourage fat deposition.
Also, aim for long rides (ie several hours) with your heart rate at 65 - 75% of maximum.
This is just a myth about the time of day you should eat carbohydrates. The *only* thing that is important is the actual amount of energy that you consume. Eat more than you need and you gain weight, eat the correct amount and yiour weight stays the same, eat less than your needs and you lose weight.
Carbohydrates are particularly important for cyclists (and all athletes) as most exercise levels burn a good percentage of carbohydrates.
The idea of pancreas producing too much insulin and encouraging fat deposition is just incorrect. It's vitally important that you produce the insulin and your carbs are stored (primarily as muscle and liver glycogen). It's only an excess amount of energy that is stored as fat.
There aren't any supplements available that allow you to lose weight (there are actually some, but these all have very negative side effects) and certainly there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest that arginine increases fat loss.
To loose weight you need to create a negative energy balance. This can be done by upping your training (volume, intensity, frequency or a mixture of), decreasing your food intake, or a combination of the two.
Each ~0.5 kg (1 lb) of fat is ~ 3500 kcal, thus a daily negative energy balance of ~ 500 kcal is needed to loose ~ 0.5 kg / 1lb of fat per week. For people who are moderately overweight or only need to loose a few kg this is a sensible amount to aim for.
You should aim to cut out some of the less desirable foods out of your diet, e.g., cakes, chocolate, candy, excess alcohol consumption, fatty foods (e.g., pies, crisps/chips, etc) and sugary foods (e.g., sugar, sweets, etc), whilst increasing your intake of starchy low fat type foods (e.g., pasta, rice, veg, fruit, lean meats, bread, etc).
Remember, if you want to train (especially regularly for fitness, racing or weight loss) you *need* carbohydrates.
Ric