I could read forever on forums about how i should and shouldnt eat but is there anywhere out there where i can obtain an exact of what to have for breakfast, what to have for lunch and what to have for dinner?
I am not a great cook and don’t have much time, so needs to be basic.
Is there an example list of foods that will be easy to make and will let me lose weight and give me enough fuel to power my 45 minute workout (5 days a week)???
I hope to hear from you soon.
Many thanks
R
I am no dietitian so this is an IMHO post read it as you will. There is only one way to get there: Measure it and Manage it. If you want it to be sustainable then following some diet recommendations by someone else almost certainly won’t work for you. The diet industry is predicated on this. You have to eat what you like eating.
Track what you eat and exercise… Calories in and out. A 250 cal daily deficit (on average over a week) would be sustainable, 500 cal is hardass and will probably sap your energy levels too much to train effectively. If you use a tracking app like myfitnesspal then you can set up your basal metabolic rate and track your calories and macros. This is key. If you set your protein macros to 1 grm per your weight (target) in lbs then you can fill out the rest with fat and carbs as you like. The point is not just the body builder thing that you need a decent amount of protein for training but that it has a high saiety index. Protein will help you to manage the deficit better. The western diet is very carb heavy. There are various recommendations on the other macros and LCHF is having a moment (Froome and Bardet) but the key point here is to pay attention to what your body is telling you and identify trigger foods that either make you feel off or drive you to binge. Then pay particular attention to how you deploy them. The point is that if you track it for a while you can see where in your own preferred foods you can make the small changes that will work for you. I think that is the only way. Following some diet is not sustainable and you will just depress yourself eating stuff you don’t like. Then fall off the plan.
Oh and I’d only do this during base, never build, or Simulation and Race.
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Fuelling a 45 minute workout should not be that big a deal (as against fuelling a 2 hr workout).
No need to be too prescriptive, and it shouldn’t be too complicated:
- Don’t ride fasted.
- Have a small snack (or even a meal) within about 30 minutes of ending your workout - the body is more open to refuelling in this “window” and avoids feeling ravenous later. Just factor this into your overall calorie budget.
A lot of hardcore diet people would tell you to calculate your TDEE then subtract either 250 or 500 calories a day to create a deficiet. I think this makes sense along with eating foods that are part of the Endurance Diet (book by Matt Fitzgerald)
Agree with a lot of the points above, particularly about measuring and tracking your food.
There are certainly foods that many people will recommend to help you with your diet - but I don’t think there is something that will exactly match a ‘eat these 3 meals a day and you’re good’ partly because people are different and partly because portion control is as important as content control.
A few common things I think most people agree on are: Lots of protein is good (1-1.5 grams per KG). maintain a caloric deficit but fuel your workouts, eat healthy whole foods.
Some common foods that you see in cyclists diets are: greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, eggs, salads (with minimal dressing), white meat poultry, pork tenderloin, salmon/tuna, and rice.
You’ll need to figure out how much dietary monotony you can handle (I do great having the same lunch every day - beets, sous vide pork tenderloin, and sweet potatoes) and come up with the portions that work based on your cycling volume and general activity level.
Strongly recommend buying a food scale and tracking everything you consume for a few weeks. Note that most people don’t have to do this indefinitely (although I do) because they fairly quickly can see where their caloric surplus comes from and adjust accordingly
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