Ive been following YACF for years now but have seldom ventured beyond the 'Audax' section so this thread is new to me and I plan to follow it.
I have a familiar story - left school/Uni - work - kids - poor diet choices etc etc leading to a weight above 18 stone at age 34. Started cycling again about 10 years ago and havent really stopped and saw a big weight drop of a stone within a few months. Ever since then though its been hard to maintain a steady weight loss especially given a propensity for occasional bad diet choices and booze.
I have tried several 'diets' or approaches such as fasting (2/5 or 16/8), hairy bikers and so on although none have lasted particularly well. Currently trying my own interpretation of a low carb high fat diet (that is low carbs derived from wheat) which entails eggs (occasionally also bacon or kipper) for breakfast (if im riding to work ill ride fasted and eat 2/3 boiled eggs together with a black coffee); lunch is usually some kind of protein such as chicken or meat with basmati rice/potato(sweet/normal) as is dinner; I try and add in as much veg as possible such as broccoli, pepper, tomato and also some mixed nuts. I even allow myself a beer or glass or two of wine. The first week of this the scales were dropping down suspiciously fast (1lb a day) which took me from my current plateau of 15'3" to an unheard of drop beyond the 15 stone mark to 14'11". Calorie wise this was coming out at 2000-2300 kcal per day which seemed enough (although at 6'5" and 15 stone Im supposed to be eating way more than that)
Alas a weekend of birthdays (booze, cake, burgers, crisps) and no cycling put paid to that and pushed it all back up to 15'3" so Im not sure how genuine this loss was. Im going to stick to this 'diet' though as it doesnt feel like im denying myself and it does mean I dont snack very much, although I do wonder if Im kidding myself that I can get away with the beer.
I promised myself 10 years ago that if I got below 13 stone id buy a Colnago. I think this might still be a long way off at my snails pace weight loss which is just as well as I cant afford one.