Thread: Biker's Diet
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Old July 11th 06, 04:44 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
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Default Biker's Diet


ackfugue wrote:

weight. I'm 6 feet tall. I used to be all of about 145 lbs in my
earl y teens, then worked up to about 155 and to 160. I was always
active


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 c ouldn'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.


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 f eel
as full as if I bit into a steak & cheese sub or a slice of pizza? I
need a sensible solution.



1. At 6ft, 190lbs, if you really are encased in layers of fat, then you
must have very little muscle. Some weight training would be in order,
perhaps via incorporating more hill climbing into your rides. I agree
you might be a littl e on the heavy side, but surely you are no Walter
Hudson.

2. Water cycles weight up and down as you get hydrated and dehydrated,
but, except in pathological cases, you don't get actual weight gain
with water as you would with say, too many cheeseburgers.

3. You are doing plenty of riding. Ride more because you enjoy it or to
get to and from destinations, not to lose weight. 200 miles a week is
plenty for weight loss.

4. It seems evident that you eat a terrible diet: cheeseburgers, fries,
steak and cheese subs, commercial American pizza: you are drowning in
calories and in trans fat, the deadliest and most fattening kind. It
should be illegal. A recent article in, was it Nature or Science or
elsewhere, reported research that for identical minimalist diets of
1600 daily calories, except one had, what was it, roughly 8% of the fat
as trans fat (don't remember exactly), resulted in that group gaining
loads of weight, most of it around the belly, the worst site. 1600
calories per day is roughly what a small sedentary person needs; one
Burger King Double Whopper with cheese and a large order of Freedom
Fries and you are already over it- and you haven't even had your Coke
yet. And worse, its loaded with trans fat.

So, the logical thing solution to your problem is to learn how to eat
healthily and to do so. That means no fast "food", as it is
euphemistically called. I don't know what books to recommend, apart
from anything by Jaques Pepin (e.g. "Fast Food My Way"), but you really
should learn about both nutrition and good eating. You may have to
re-educate your palate a little but it will not take long before you
begin to appreciate how crappy and tasteless the food you are eating
now is, and how great and healthy real food is.

Really, the best thing would be to take a cycling-cooking school
vacation in Italy for a few weeks. It can be done.
g

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