Weight Loss Discussion Thread

[crowriver]

I thought an audax would help but all it seems to make do is eat like a horse for a few days afterwards. 

I used to have this problem. However I now focus on a higher protein diet for post-audax recovery. Not zero-carb, but lower carb than before the ride (when I carbo-load). Using salads/greens as the carbs with some lean meat (eg. chicken). I find this helps to avoid the munchies/pigging out syndrome.

[L CC]

I went back up a pound this week - I thought an audax would help but all it seems to make do is eat like a horse for a few days afterwards. 

The overwhelming advantage of the low carb diet for me is this: there is no post-ride hunger.
Relying on willpower to lose weight is a lost cause, long term.

(I still gain weight post-audax despite not eating more calories than a normal day).

[mcshroom]

Another kg down , and I can agree that you feel less hungry on and after an audax with a lower carbohydrate input. I also found that I am less able to climb hills during an audax in this situation though.

[TimC]

I have stopped losing weight, mainly because I'm eating too much (doh!). But that's a function of being very busy at work, which involves a lot of sitting down for up to 12 hours in one place with little to do but eat, and hence less time to get on the bike, go to the gym, get out and walk etc. Explainable but bloody annoying. Must Eat Less!

[Chris S]

I have stopped losing weight, mainly because I'm eating too much (doh!). But that's a function of being very busy at work, which involves a lot of sitting down for up to 12 hours in one place with little to do but eat, and hence less time to get on the bike, go to the gym, get out and walk etc. Explainable but bloody annoying. Must Eat Less!

 

If I had your job, I'd be too busy looking out of the window at the clouds/northern lights (delete as applicable).

 

[caerau]

Interesting that others have had my experience!  Thanks for the advice, I will think on it, although I'm rather reluctant to reduce carbohydrate intake during/before an audax.

To be honest I'm not that unhappy with my weight these days - it's vastly better than it was half a year ago and I can live with my current weight if it remains static  -although it is overall still dropping from the new year give or take a few blips.  It would be very nice to be 14-15 stone again though.

[L CC]

Interesting that others have had my experience!  Thanks for the advice, I will think on it, although I'm rather reluctant to reduce carbohydrate intake during/before an audax.

Cutting down on carbs just for endurance exercise sounds like a recipe for disaster. You wont be as acclimatised for using fat for fuel and will almost definitely bonk, badly, unless you can sustainably ride at quite a low effort.

[caerau]

Well indeed.  Hence my reluctance

Was the advice meant as a general all the time thing then?

[clarion]

I've lost 200g (or so) this week.  I weighed myself after having had breakfast a few hours before, so not the normal test conditions.  I have not ridden my bike at all this week, and barely walked anywhere, so it's all down to reducing intake.

[L CC]

Was the advice meant as a general all the time thing then?

For sure.
Thread here

I'm not sure I'd go so far as calling it 'advice'. It's an option that has worked for many people.

(I'm special - nothing works for me has yet worked for me, except marital breakdown and heavy smoking. Not really recommended.)

[TimC]

I have stopped losing weight, mainly because I'm eating too much (doh!). But that's a function of being very busy at work, which involves a lot of sitting down for up to 12 hours in one place with little to do but eat, and hence less time to get on the bike, go to the gym, get out and walk etc. Explainable but bloody annoying. Must Eat Less!

 

If I had your job, I'd be too busy looking out of the window at the clouds/northern lights (delete as applicable).

 

I do that, Chris - a lot, and I love it! But it does nothing for the waistline!

[Wowbagger]

I have stopped losing weight, mainly because I'm eating too much (doh!). But that's a function of being very busy at work, which involves a lot of sitting down for up to 12 hours in one place with little to do but eat, and hence less time to get on the bike, go to the gym, get out and walk etc. Explainable but bloody annoying. Must Eat Less!

 

If I had your job, I'd be too busy looking out of the window at the clouds/northern lights (delete as applicable).

 

I do that, Chris - a lot, and I love it! But it does nothing for the waistline!

I'd do both as well.

But can't you get some sort of turbo-trainer installed so that you can help power the engines or something? You could propose it under the Staff Suggestion Scheme as part of the company's environmental policy.

[TimC]

Great idea, Wowsa. I'll work on it. However, I'm not sure it'd do a lot for the punters' confidence to get the impression that the aeroplane's ability to stay airborne depended on the captain's fitness to pedal across the Atlantic!

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

This
'The AoMRC encourages NHS staff to pester patients about their weight in every encounter, but what fat person in their right mind would go to the doctor with a verruca, or a funny rash that might just reveal a life-threatening illness, if they know they'll get a right old finger-wagging?'

This I find quite offensive at the doctor's these days. If I go to the doctor because I want some eczema cream I have to spend 10 minutes getting my blood pressure measured, getting weighed and then getting lectured. 

Really they can just fark off.

Here's what one size activist has to say about that http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/healthcare-fault-and-fat-people/

I haven't been doing much weightloss recently. My eating has been poor for the past couple of weeks and today was the first time I'd swum in over a week. But it's a long road and I'm not going to beat myself up about it. My lovely black moleskin trousers (which annoyingly don't have belt loops) are falling off me, all my knickers feel less tight and one of our homecare organisers commented yesterday that I was looking thinner. I am going to have to buy new trousers soon - I am having to hoik my jeans right up into ankleflappers and belt them really tightly to keep them up.

I don't get 'the hunger' post Audax either.

Fboab, I feel your pain. I am now at the point where I need to burn crazy amounts every day to even stay stable. Taking the 1 week in 3 where I'm currently throwing up and not eating or really doing any exercise out of the equation, I'm eating 1500 a day, and burning off 1500+ in exercise. The maths quite clearly doesn't add up. #bangsheadonwall

Is it possible you're not eating enough? http://fitisafeministissue.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/metaboolic-health-is-a-feminist-issue/

[caerau]

Nice, I shall bear those tips in mind although I'm now of a size and level of fitness where I probably won't have that problem anymore (for the time being at least)

That's a nice wardrobe issue to have isn't it   I recall that one of the unexpected expenses of taking up cycling last year was the not the need to buy lycra cycling tights and overshoes but more the need to buy an entirely new set of normal clothes because my old ones got so baggy I started to look like Charlie Chaplin's stunt double.  The extra expense I did not mind on that occasion.

[SteveC]

The elusive initial '13' still eludes me 

That's what elusive things do.

It's still being elusive

No longer elusive!  13-12 this morning.  That's the lightest since I started my period of working away last spring.

[clarion]

Oops!  Small oops, but sadly significant.

I will be riding a bike for a short distance tomorrow.  I hope one day to be a cyclist

[hulver]

Slight rise this week. I'm not surprised, as I thought the fall the previous week was too large.

Still a bit disappointed though.

Need to do more training.

[Chris S]

Bad News: Roughly the same weight I was at the end of January 

Better News: BF% down from 20-22% at the end of Jan to 16-18% today 

Weight is such a rubbish metric. Yesterday it was 80.0, today more than a kilo more. WTF?

[caerau]

I suppose I could look it up, but chatting is more fun - how does one work out ones body fat %ge?

(I'm not sure I want to know - but I'm damn sure it's better than it was last May)

[ran doner]

Back up again this week - not unexpected.

On the bright side (until next weigh-in), there is a plane ticket for Prague with my name on for tomorrow. 

[Chris S]

I suppose I could look it up, but chatting is more fund - how does one work out ones body fat %ge?

The best way is with a DEXA scan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-energy_X-ray_absorptiometry), but I can't fit one of those in my garage and get the Volvo in.

So, for the layman at home - you have body fat scales, eg: Tanita - which are widely viewed as pretty rubbish for this purpose (and with good reason), manual calipers using one three or seven body sites (one - pretty inaccurate, three and seven - increasingly accurate; all require practice to get consistent results) and finally, the good old tape measure.

The scales are very susceptible to variations due to hydration, but if you use some over a period of time you get a "feel" for how they react to you, and you can get a reasonable estimation of bf%.
Calipers are pretty accurate once you get practiced, so you're consistent.
Tape measure is obvious. This doesn't give you a bf% of course, but it gives you an idea of changes in shape that are going on.

[caerau]

Sounds all a bit too much of a faff to be honest, I don't think I'm bothered enough to go out and buy calipers and such.

I guess the fact that back in november(ish) I had to invest in an almost entirely new wardrobe of clothes (particularly trousers) as I'd lost 4 inches off the waist size is a good indicator

Dropped back down again today anyway.  Under 16 stone again and 101 kg - lovely jubbly.  The 100 kilo barrier is looming 

[shyumu]

Self control is gone.

Weight appears to love my midriff too much.

[citoyen]

I guess the fact that back in november(ish) I had to invest in an almost entirely new wardrobe of clothes (particularly trousers) as I'd lost 4 inches off the waist size is a good indicator

Are your shirts less tight round the collar too? That's another good indicator of fat loss.

d.