Confused about weight management

I think he meant don’t eat them all back, not don’t eat anything.

How many to eat back depends on the type of workout and your goals. If it’s 1000 calories from a 2 hour endurance ride then a lot of those calories will have come from fat, and you’re not doing a load of muscle damage which your body will struggle to repair while running a calorie deficit. So you can probably just replace the ~300 calories of carbs burnt and run a ~700 calorie deficit for the day.

On the other hand, if it was 1000 calories burnt doing an hour or so of hard VO2 intervals, then you’ve probably burnt through ~700 calories of carbs which need replacing so you’re not glycogen depleted for the next workout, plus you’ve done a fair bit of muscle damage which needs repairing, which needs fuel. In the interests of performance and recovery I wouldn’t want to run a big calorie deficit on those days.

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My coach doesn’t have me eat back calories unless the ride is 2hrs long or greater. That would typically be about 1000 calories and up.

The goal here is weight loss. If the rider is super light then of course one would need to eat back those calories.

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I’m not a nutrisionist, but you definetly should fuel your workouts.

Im following the approch of Don Fink and it works fine.
Want to loose weight: body mass (measured in lbs) * 11 → in your case 22011=2420 kCal / day + workout.
Want to stay steady: body mass (measured in lbs) * 13 → in your case 220
13=2860kCal / day + workout.
This should cover your active metabolic rate. I try to split it by 50% carb, 25-30% protein and 20-25% fat.

As far as you break down your calories:
You might pasted something wrong. 21g fat is very very low. Fat is not your enemy! As far as I did the math right, your carb/protein/fat ratio leads to something around 2500 calories.

You shouldn’t cut out any foot. Going keto… I’m not sure about this one. I, personaly, wouldn’t do it. For me, keto is something temporary for a week or two.

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I found the most successful approach for me was selective high carb / low carb days , if I’m on a big calorie burn day on the bike I consume enough additional carbs / protein / fat to see me through , normally in the form of Dates / Banana :banana: & Salted Cashew nuts , my days off or easy days the Carbs come right down but Protein remains the same , always remember its got to be sustainable or you’ll crack , me personally I find a lack protein rather than carbs makes me feel starving .

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This makes sense and is similar to what I do. But I’ve found myself occasionally under-fuelled. Do you not think carbs are still useful on the easy days in order to prepare for the next day of training?

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Depends on what you’re doing the next day. If I’m getting up early and going straight out on a long ride with a fair bit of intensity then I’ll have quite a few carbs at dinner as I know otherwise I will struggle to get enough carbs in before and during the ride. If I’m doing an easier ride where I can take on more calories during it, or not riding until later in the day so I have more time to fuel beforehand, then it’s not an issue (unless there’s dessert on offer in which case those carbs are going down anyway…)

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I’ve been using an app to track my calorie consumption (myfitnesspal), and the general rule is before this I’d been over-eating on the non-training days and under-eating on the training days.

I’ve tried to ensure I have the same or similar level of calorie deficit each day, but on the cycling days I’ll eat a bit more in the run-up to, during and immediately after an interval. The advantage of training and riding with power is you have a very good idea of how much you need to eat. Although broadly speaking - 1hr of TR = 1 bag of wine gums.

So far I’ve gone from about 70kg to 66kg in 60 days, which is the difference between a very cheap bike and a fairly expensive bike, which is nice.

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It is fascinating how varying the responses here are. I think one of the takeaways for @TRusername or anyone trying to figure this out is that you have to figure out what works for you.

There are a variety of viable options but which is best for you depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to

  • Balance between weight loss and performance
  • Current fitness level
  • Starting and target body fat percentage
  • Time available to train
  • Time over which you intend to lose the weight

For each of these points the answer exists on a continuum (I think of them like sliders) and depending on where you exist on each of them the recommended path forward is going to vary.

As an example - if you want to maintain your fitness while losing weight you need to pay more attention to properly fueling your workouts (both before, during, and after) and should probably run a relatively small caloric deficit. This would push your time to lose the weight out, but would keep your fitness roughly the same.

Whereas if you are focused more on dropping the weight ahead of a specific date (a wedding being a common example) then you would need to run a higher caloric deficit and really only focus on fueling to the point where you can complete the workouts and no more.

I think most people on here would agree that it is much healthier to take a long view and try to lose the weight over an extended period of time rather than running a severe caloric deficit. I think 1 lb a week is a very steep rate of drop - and while it may be possible for those with a comparatively high BF %, I still think it is unwise as it will likely lead to burnout and breaking with it. Focus instead on building a sustainable diet that you like and you don’t feel like you’re starving yourself.

I’ve included a screenshot below of everything I’ve eaten today on a day off the bike as a reference for what works for me. Note that I’m actually a bit over my daily goal but I’m perfectly fine with that given my current weight and location in training plan

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Chad’s phrase “Fuel your workouts.” has stuck in my mind, and I assume this is what you are referring to. Weight loss was addressed several times, and one of the pieces of advice (from @Nate_Pearson, I believe) was to eat less at dinner, but eat normally during the day. If one of your main aims is weight loss rather than performance, you can also adapt your training plan to focus more on burning fat via high intensity intervals or long, low-intensity sessions. I do most of my training sessions fasted by fiat (I have to do them early in the morning before breakfast), so that might be one way to encourage more fat adaptation.

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