Being totally aware of the dangers that currently face me, I’ve already taken the first step in ensuring I stay on track. I know I have a long, hard winter ahead of me. I have to look closely at nutrition, training, lifestyle habits and sleeping patterns, among other things. There’s no better time than the present, and the first thing on the list is nutrition.
Up to now, I’ve garnered success purely by moderating my intake and putting in lots of miles on the bike. This has obviously served me well, but recently it has become clear that this slap dash method is no longer working. It’s fair to say that pro cyclists are anal about what they eat, and whilst I’ll never be a pro cyclist, if I am going to take my cycling seriously then I need to take nutrition seriously too.
In basic terms, if you burn more energy than you consume, you’ll lose weight.
The complex issue here is to maintain enough energy to continue cycling at a competent level AND lose weight. During exercise, the body first uses glycogen as energy through a process called glycogenolysis. Glycogen is a complex carbohydrate, which is created by the body through the intake of carbohydrates. This is why a low carb diet is NO GOOD if you wish to do endurance sport whilst dieting. Once the body has used up it’s glycogen stores, it looks for a secondary source of energy. Using a process called lipolysis, it burns fat stores. This means wise choices must be made when choosing food according to calories.
Foods with a high glycemic index are a bad choice, as the energy is released quickly and a surge of insulin is released into the body which usually leads to a low shortly afterwards. Foods with a low glycemic index are better, and they release their energy into the body more slowly, therefore offering steady, consistent fueling over the day. So consuming 2000kcals a day based on a diet of simple carbohydrates will not keep me fueled through the periods between meals and on long rides. This means avoiding refined and processed foods and some other foods such as white bread, white potato, white pasta, corn based cereals and foods high in refined sugar and glucose. It does mean basing a diet around low GI foods such as fruit and veg, grain based breads and cereal, beans / legumes / pulses, brown pasta and also foods with less carbs in such as white meat and fish.
So, as of today I am calorie counting with a vengeance, although I don’t as yet know how many calories I need. I suspect the average male should consume 2500 calories a day.
I’ll be looking closely at my training routine in the next couple of weeks too, to try and work out a regime for over the Winter.
UPDATE: According to fuelsport.co.uk, my Daily Calorie requirement is 2144…
James,
Have a look at Fuelsport.co.uk. Under “tools” there are sections to work out roughly how many calories you need, GI foods, protein, etc. I’m full of useful information….sometimes!!
Elaine
Good on you! You have definitely taken on board a lot of good advice and have clearly understood the challenge ahead of you. Once you are used to the complex carbs you will actually prefer them and wonder what you ever saw in white, tasteless pastas and breads etc.
I have looked on several different sites and, being a bloke, you may need as many as 2600 cals a day when not exercising but up to 3000 with moderate exercise. The problem is that if you don’t put enough in you will actually find that you don’t lose weight! Your body can get so good at conserving energy.
Good luck with the juggling. It’s only by keeping a close record of your intake, excercise levels and correlate it with weight loss that you will know what is right for you.
Good on you and goodbye to burger and chips
I guess the 2000 calories is for a fairly sedentary routine. I have seen it written that cycling burns 600 calories an hour. I personally think it is important that you don’t feel hungry all the time otherwise I certainly wouldn’t be able to keep up with the diet. Don’t like the D word anyway. it is a lifestyle and you have to be comfortable with it.