ackfugue wrote:
I'm sure this question has been asked a million and one times, but I am
desperate.

Between my childhood, into my teens and into my 20s, I was at an ideal
weight. I'm 6 feet tall. I used to be all of about 145 lbs in my
early teens, then worked up to about 155 and to 160. I was always
active, always outdoors, always playing sports. I won 3 physical
fitness awards from elem. school into middle school. In high school, I
was in track & field. My friends and I played football in the street
practically everyday. I got into biking in my late teens, but not
seriously, just for exercise. In my 20s, my activity was going out to
the nightclubs and dancing 2 or 3 times a week, for 6 hours a night.

Then, I entered my 30s and things went down hill from there. My jobs
pretty much made me sedentary like so many other Americans, and I could
no longer just eat whatever I wanted to and get away with it. I guess
you could say, what people told me finally came true: my matobilism
finally caught up up me and ran on past me.

I saw so many of my friends turn to cycling to lose the weight. Some
of them surpassed me in weight by MANY lbs. As soon as they began
cycling, they became virtual tooth-picks! I couldn't believe me eyes.
I still can't. "What is your secret?" "What diet are you on?" ...
"Nothing, I just started bicycling."

So, then I started doing the same, and as hard as I ride, and as far as
I ride, it has done NOTHING to change my weight, and I am getting,
frankly, quite depressed. No pain, no gain? Well, I have done the
pain and showed little gain, except a fatter ass. I'm going out, riding
at least 200 miles a week with no results. Sure, my legs feel like
wrought iron underneath the layer of fat that encases it all. My
stomach keeps sneaking a little more outwardly pudge everytime I look
in the mirror. I weigh myself everyday looking for results and find
none.

I rode 100 miles this past Saturday, and when I got home, I lost about
4 or 5 lbs. I was just shy over 190. Then, I weigh myself today, and
I am just under 200. What the HECK is going on?? I'm wondering if
most of that is water gain. I mean, I felt like I couldn't get enough
to drink the past few days, and with all the liquid I am drinking,
you'd think I would be ****ing like Niagara Falls. Nope.. Just a
tinkle here and a tinkle there. So, my body must be absorbing it like
a sponge and storing it all up.

And I am finding it hard to believe that my friends (not really CLOSE
friends) are doing NOTHING aside from cycling. They must be dieting,
also. But as much as I tell myself that I will not eat a tall
cheeseburger and fries after a hard ride, it just doesn't happen. The
bad side always wins. It is SOOO hard when my body is hanging on by a
thread after a long ride in the saddle.

The odd thing is, with all the cycling I have been doing lately I can't
sit down and eat a large meal. What I used to pack away before, I can
no longer do. Value meals, etc. Whatever - I eat about half of it and
I throw the rest away because I feel full. But, even though I am
eating half the portion that I used to, I am NOT losing weight.

At this point, I don't know what to do. I'll keep on cycling because I
love doing it. I just want to know: Is water gain a real issue, and
does it affect how my body breaks down solids? Is there a "biker's
diet" that I can follow that will help me lose the weight and yet feel
as full as if I bit into a steak & cheese sub or a slice of pizza? I
need a sensible solution.

I keep reading how complex carbs are important for athleticism, but
where do I draw the line? How many complex carbs are too much? Maybe
I am just eating the wrong kinds of carbs after a day in the saddle. I
pretty much feel like I am gaining back everything I burn off in a
matter of one or two days, and more!

HELP!

I had a similar situation. I balooned up to about 270 of flab in my
inactive period, but have no come down to a stable much more muscular
220. Here is my "recipie" for weight loss:

Diet changes, starting out with very minor changes. If your weight has
been going up slowly for many years, your calorie surplus isn't very
big. A few hundred calories at most. This means there are only small
changes needed to make the surplus a deficit. So there are really only
30 seconds per day where you are eating "wrong". Find those 30 seconds.
For me it was fruit-flavored sweetened yogurt, which I used to eat a
fair amount of. I gradually switched to plain yogurt instead, and that
was all it took. Once the weight started coming off it became easier to
incorporate other healthful diet changes as well. I've settled on a
high-protein "zone-like" diet that has served me well.

As for riding, all riding will burn fat. Hard riding will also burn
more carbos too, with the harder you ride, the more carbos. After a
hard ride, your body wants to replenish the carbos and you feel hungry.
So you eat, and it is hard to make sure you only eat enough carbos to
replenish what you just burned, and often you eat more making it hard
to loose weight. So I focus on long steady rides at 70-75% of max heart
rate. This burns less fat than riding hard, but it really burns less
carbos. This means I can go on a 3 hour fat buring ride (water only)
and be no more hungry when I am finished than if I spent those 3 hours
in front of a computer. This allows me to keep a more consistent diet
where there are no big fluctuations of calories each day wether I ride
or not.

So the short version:
High protein diet
modify one high calorie meal per day to be less calories but just as
satisfying
as long as possible steady (not necessarily slow) distance rides

More upper body muscle mass helps consume calories in the long run too.
So some weight training or other whole-body sport may help too. In the
winter I XC ski and this has made for some upper body development which
if nothing else helps round out the package.

Good luck!

Joseph