How Many Calories Do You Eat? (Weight Loss)

With respect to cycling and losing weight, we can classify our calories to 1) calories consumed on the bike, 2) calories consumed off the bike and 3)calories burned while on the bike.

If you are an active cyclist who is counting calories and trying to lose weight, my question is how many calories do you eat per day and do you count your bike calories as part of the total?

I ask this question to see if there is a better method for what I am doing. I am sincerely interested to learn what others do, particularly because it takes a lot of diligence to eat nutritionally so as to replace the nutrients the body burns while cycling. I want to avoid diseases brought on in my senior years due to not eating enough nutrients because of my cycling.

I have to look at my weekly average, not my daily average, because of the days when exceptional amounts of calories are burned. I have total calories consumed (including bike food), less calories burned on the bike, and that leaves Net Calories Consumed. It is this weekly average that I keep around 1200. I use a HRM to estimate calories burned because it is more accurate than any chart.

I am wondering if the 1200 should be lower. The reason is on my longer rides I may burn 2500 calories or more and it can be difficult to eat enough to get the weekly average to hover around 1200.

I should say I am losing inches, but the scale doesn’t move much. I suspect I’ve burned out the fat around the organs, which is critically important to long-term health, and I believe I’ve burned the fat out that marbles the muscles, and so I am left with surface fat. The doctor says I reversed my hypertension and insulin insensitivity.

Please tell me what you are doing and if you are having any success, and maybe we call all learn from each other and adapt our own procedures for how we calculate our calories.

Darcy

Interesting. I've never thought about calories in terms of net consumption, and until last week I would have had no idea what my net consumption was. But I've been tracking my food and exercise on Sparkpeople for the past week so now I can figure this out.

I've been eating about 1650 calories per day during the work week, and Sparkpeople says I'm burning about 750 calories on my daily bike commute (I don't have any other way to estimate this), so that makes my net calorie consumption about 900 calories per day. Yesterday I ate about 2550 calories and Sparkpeople says I burned 2300 calories on my 40 mile bike ride, so my net was obviously lower.

I've only done this for a week, so I can't really say how it will work for weight loss, because as you know the first week is not really indicative of how things will go. But I've been happy with my progress on the scale this week.

I'll keep tracking this and see how it goes.

To lose 30 pounds several years ago I kept my calories around 1800 a day, regardless of how much exercise I was doing.

For exercise I was doing an hour class in the morning -spin, aerobics or weight lifting. Two or three afternoons a week I was swimming a mile.

V.

To lose weight I was eating about 1800 calories. My exercised varied, my calories did not.

There are two types of abdominal fat, the stuff on the inside of the abdominal muscles (bad, bad, bad) and the stuff outside (still not great but not as harmful as the sub-abdominal fat) . You've probably burned up the bad bad bad fat and thats good good good.
When you lose weight its usually in the reverse order that it's gained. When a person begins to gain weight the first thing they probably notice is their waistline.

Keep in mind you are building muscle as well. A single fat cell is much larger than that of a muscle cell.
Another way of putting this-
You have two boxes of the same size. You can put 125 muscle cells in a box but you can only put 25 fat cells in the same size box. Both boxes weigh the same.
This is why I tell people not to focus so much on the scale.

If you really want to get involved with numbers to determine workout intensity and caloric needs you'll need to determine your basal metabolic rate and start using a HR monitor.

Take a look at this site or do a search with key words "cycling nutrition".

Maybe I overthink everything. :)

Before I started cycling again last year, when I was merely walking 5 miles a day, I kept my calories to around 1500 a day with a ceiling of 1800.

But with the cycling, as my fitness level continues to increase, which is the muscle density referred to in this thread, my ability to cycle for longer distances increases, and thus my cardio time increases and my calories burned increases.

Yes, I want to lose the excess body fat. However, at the same time two other things are important to me, and that is my long-term health and my desire to be able to recover from my rides quickly and get on the bike again the next day. Therefore, every day, I eat to nourish my body, to help my muscles recover and repair, and to restore nutrients I lost during cycling. For example, I don't want to be cycling for a lot of years and the doctor says, well you have osteoporosis because you didn't replace the calcium you burned when you were cycling.

So the whole calorie thing gets confusing. I need to eat enough calories to replenish what I burn and to recover and repair - and still burn body fat - yet exactly how many calories is that? I've read a lot of books on cycling, and Zen gave a link to a good site in her reply, but there still isn't a real forumla I can grasp that I know I can adhere too, a formula that will adapt to my diet as my distances increase. In other words, I used to be a person who ate too much, and I now worry that I may not be eating enough for sustained long-term health, which is a complete reversal for me and quite ironic.

I should add I rarely weigh myself anymore, at the end of each three-month period is all, and when I do, the body weight hasn't gone down a significant amount, just some. I do use the tape measure and I continue to shrink, so I know my body composition continues to change for the better. And last week I had to spend most of a day cleaning my closet and ruthlessly taking out all the clothing that was too big for me, which is something I seem to need to do about twice a year now.

Darcy

Darcy,

You might want to try this website:

www.nutritiondata.com


When I started cycling I was losing weight like crazy (and certainly didn't need or want to!). I started using this website and realized I was really underestimating my calories in and also didn't realize how much extra I needed to eat to replace what I was burning on the bike. Weight loss has stopped and I am gradually gaining. I was afraid I was going to have to stop cycling until I started gaining weight, but that wasn't the case.

Anyway, first thing I used was the "calories burned" tool. http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned
I can plug in all my info, including how much activity I do in a day, and find out how much I need to consume to support that. I also use the pantry to find out calories/nutrients in the foods I consume. http://www.nutritiondata.com/user/re...turnto=/pantry I do a lot of my own cooking and I'm able to enter my recipes and find out the nutrient/calorie breakdowns. I really tend to overestimate how many calories are in stuff, thinking I'm eating way more than I am. My husband would say, "Are you sure you are eating enough now that you are exercising so much more?" and I would say, "I'm eating a ton! I don't understand why I'm losing weight!" Well, turns out I may have been eating a ton volume-wise, but not calorie/nutrient dense foods.

Anyway, hope it helps you as well.

I try to keep a calorie log (I use Fitday.com) in order to keep around 1500-1700 calories per day. I find when I don't keep track for a few days - I start eating around 2000 and for my short middle aged no metabalism body - that causes me to gain weight. I try to keep around this amount regardless of exercise.

I hired a good friend of mine who is a Ph.D. and licensed dietician to help me plan diets for my husband and myself; I told her our weekly ride schedule (a 40 minute crit once a week, a 20 minute (or less) TT once every other week, a long (40-70 miles) ride once a week, and recovery rides (20-25 miles, low heart rate) the rest of the week.

Her response? As Americans, we generally get enough protein in our diet, and have been convinced that carbs are 'bad'. She helped us work out a weekly meal plan that meet our separate caloric needs, while also giving us enough energy to do the rides that we do.

The short answer? It varies from person to person. I would HIGHLY suggest finding a licensed nutritionist (if you've got a local university, call them, if not, talk to your family doctor for a recommendation). It is a small investment for a very great payoff.

We've been on the 'new diet' for about a week, and while the pounds aren't flying off, we aren't dying on race days, or on our long rides.

I don't think there is a 'universal' diet - I really think that meeting with someone (even if it is only once) to help figure out caloric needs and diet is well worth it.

Just my $0.02.

I am not a big girl but I have been working at losing fat and gaining muscle and have lost 22 lbs in the past year. During that time I ate between 1200-1500 calories a day. The closer to 1500 I get, the less likely I am to lose. They stress not to go under 1200 because your body thinks you're starving and hangs on to the fat. No idea if this is true or not.

I ride 100-200 km a week, most rides about 1.5 hours long. I do not eat anything on these rides - I just drink water. On 3 hour rides, I will eat one small snack (100-200 calories max). So - there are no "bike calories" for me. Some days, like today, I burn more than I consume - I try not to use that as an excuse to pig out for dinner that day. :rolleyes:

If you are bigger than me, you can probably eat more calories than I do and still lose weight. I wouldn't be eating less than 1200 if I were you...

Hey Darcy-
My first thought when I saw your initial post that you were eating an average of 1200 calories a day was that it was no where near enough, and that might explain why the scale hasn't moved at all, though you are loosing inches.

I started working out a lot this year, and was being really good about what I ate, and while I was more toned I wasn't loosing any weight... the scale seemed stuck at 148.... at 5'3", while not horrible, I knew that my body should want to be lower. I thought I needed to cut my calories even more... did that after christmas... was eating about 1400/day while working out ~5-6 days a week (spin classes, bodypump, and riding outdoors when the weather permitted), but again, no weight loss....hmmmm... got me thinking, maybe I am eating too little to sustain the activity level and my body is in "starvation mode". I did a test and upped my calories to ~ 1600-1700/day and what do you know, the weight started coming off. I have lost 10 lbs in the past 3 months without even trying, and it is still coming off. In addition to the weight I have dropped 1-2 sizes in my clothes and NONE of my pants fit anymore!

Here is a great website that my roommate showed me, that will actually explain the different calorie needs calculators and will give your maintence level, fat loss level, and extreme fat loss (the rock bottom of calories you should eat a day before the body will go into starvation). It also takes into account your sex, age, height, and activity level. http://www.freedieting.com/tools/cal...alculator.htm#

You are obviously doing something right with the increase in your fitness and health levels, but I would suggest trying to up your calories for a couple of weeks and see what happens. If you stay the same I vote for some the others suggestions that you talk to your Dr, and maybe try to see a nutritionist.

Good luck!
Ellen

Is there a sports nutritionist in your area? Maybe a couple of conseling sessions would help find a method that works for you.
check out www.nancyclarkrd
Fellow trainers rave about her.

I think the idea of seeing a nutritionist is a good one.

I do use a nutrition software program to evaluate my calories and nutrition. I actually had a nutrition class as a science requirement in college, way back a long time ago, but the knowledge stuck with me. I am really attentive to my nutrition, which in part is why I opened this discussion, to see what others are doing with their calories everyday. For everyone who provided links, thank you, because those links are very useful, not to just me, but to everyone who is reading this discussion.

When I gave the number of 1200, that is my average net calories consumed, not my total calories consumed. It isn't a specific daily number, but my average when I calculate in my rest days off the bike. For example, today I ate 1780 calories, and I burned 1105 calories on a 30-mile ride, leaving me a net of 675 calories. I ate approximately 20% protein, 20% fat and 60% carbs. The food calories include my bike calories. I will get low blood sugar if I don't consume carbs on my rides, and since I bike solo, it would be very dangerous for me to bonk and be disoriented when I am out by myself.

Dr. Liz, what does one of your average daily food diaries look like as provided by your dietician?

Darcy

Darcy, thanks for starting this thread. I've been looking for reasons as to why I haven't been losing weight even though I've starting riding again. I've been riding for the last 2 months and the scale hasn't moved - in fact I've gaind 3 pounds.

I'm rationalizing that it is muscle weight since I have always had a lot of muscle mass.

To those of you who have added items here, thanks. I think I'll go to some of the links mentioned here and see what is going on. I may also go back and get a body fat test.

I'll be checking back here. Thanks.

I am really puzzled by the math of the whole calories in, calories out thing, especially since this thread was started months ago. I rode my bike a LOT in August - mostly medium to high intensity rides. 930km, 38+ hours of riding. A conservative estimate of calories burned would be around 25,000 during the month. If 3500 calories equals 1 lb, then that is about 7 lbs worth right? During that month I ate "normally." I probably consumed about 1800-2000 calories a day averaged over time. Although I was not trying to lose weight during August, it boggles my mind that my weight stayed exactly the same the entire month. I did not gain or lose an ounce. If I had not done all the riding, I would have gained 7lb in one month! And clearly I cannot "eat normally" (ie not counting calories) when I am not working out as much as I did when I was on vacation. Now that I'm back at work and can't exercise as often, I will have to go back to counting calories so I don't gain weight. That frustrates me because my hope was that once I reached my goal weight, I could go back to enjoying food in life and maintain my weight thru exercise... :(