A question about weight

[Reesha]

Haha I have known some to stop and have a pint during a ride. I think during our ride there's a strict "after ride" alcohol policy I love beer, but any amount of alcohol the day before a ride really hits me hard.

[indysteel]

I lost weight on a tour that I did in 2007 for precisely the reason that Crankin mentioned. I had trouble eating lunch and didn't compensate enough with mid-ride snacks and at other meals. I loved how I looked when I got back (I got down to my lowest weight since 1996), but I also felt kind of puny, presumably because some of what I lost was muscle mass. So, that's my caution to you. Losing 10 pounds of fat sounds great; losing 10 pounds of muscle not so much. Plus, even with fat loss, it means that you aren't fully refueling your body. Doing that for a few days of riding doesn't sound so bad, but I wonder about the toll that it would take over the course of a cross country tour. I'm hoping that some of the ladies who do ultradistance events will chime in here with their perspective.

[Reesha]

Well our ride director basically told us that we will never really be able to eat enough, most due to stomach capacity and no one on the ride is really going to be eating a pile of junk every day. It's possible I'm worried about nothing.

I am bringing copious amounts of gu brew and accelerade as well as recoverite, and hopefully we'll be able to get a good amount of protein after. Lunch is usually unlimited PB + J. I guess this will be a grand 'experiment'. I won't be trying anything new really, but it will be interesting to see.

[Crankin]

Just wondering what they do for people like me who can't eat peanut butter?

I always bring my own soy nut butter sandwiches on the few charity things I do. Good thing I did on my one and only century. The only food was pbj and bananas.

[Reesha]

They are very accommodating! They have also promised almond butter, and I suspect that if someone was allergic to ground/tree nuts they would have an alternative for them too.

I'm glad they have almond butter on the trip, but I'm not a fan of almond butter + jelly sandwiches lol. I prefer almond butter with bananas or raw honey but I'm not sure we'll have those at lunch stops!

[Tri Girl]

I haven't read all the comments, but I'm going to answer.

For me, I think you get to a certain level and your body gets comfortable at the amount of training and it takes SO much more to drop any pounds.

I'm 5'3", 157 lbs (overweight by 10 lbs for a healthy me- my doc will wrongly say I need to lose 25- which I cannot maintain without starving myself).
Anyway- I've done 2 Ironman triathlons. I am currently training for a 3rd. I can't possibly train any more than I do. I eat a plant-based diet, so I don't eat junk. I have to eat to fuel. It's hard to over-eat on plants.
I can't lose this 10 lbs to save my life. I need to. I'm still chubby in my thighs and my middle. I do strength training, cardio, yoga, and yet the pounds just don't fall away. I think that when you get to a certain level, it's really hard to do more to challenge your body.
When I first started working out and doing Weight Watchers, I dropped 30 lbs in 3 months. I was running for the first time and it just melted away. It's just not as easy now. I'm also 40, so age probably has something to do with it, too. It was much easier losing weight at 30 (and I know it only gets more difficult with age).

Just my thoughts on what I observe from me.

[Giulianna23]

I started commuting to work a few days ago and I also get extremely hungry during the morning after my ride and in the evening when I get home ...way more than ussual..so I don't know If thats going to affect my weight. I am not really into a strict diet but I do try to snack on healthy stuff and eat healthy. Maybe every other day I eat things I shouldnt but hey I am human ...

[Reesha]

Giulianna, I keep greek yogurt, bananas and honey at work for after my 11 mile commute to work. Is there a fridge anywhere you can do this? Alternatively you could wrap up an egg, ham, and cheese sammy in foil and take it with you. I've done that before too. Both always tide me over til lunch.

[Reesha]

I haven't read all the comments, but I'm going to answer.

For me, I think you get to a certain level and your body gets comfortable at the amount of training and it takes SO much more to drop any pounds.

I'm 5'3", 157 lbs (overweight by 10 lbs for a healthy me- my doc will wrongly say I need to lose 25- which I cannot maintain without starving myself).
Anyway- I've done 2 Ironman triathlons. I am currently training for a 3rd. I can't possibly train any more than I do. I eat a plant-based diet, so I don't eat junk. I have to eat to fuel. It's hard to over-eat on plants.
I can't lose this 10 lbs to save my life. I need to. I'm still chubby in my thighs and my middle. I do strength training, cardio, yoga, and yet the pounds just don't fall away. I think that when you get to a certain level, it's really hard to do more to challenge your body.
When I first started working out and doing Weight Watchers, I dropped 30 lbs in 3 months. I was running for the first time and it just melted away. It's just not as easy now. I'm also 40, so age probably has something to do with it, too. It was much easier losing weight at 30 (and I know it only gets more difficult with age).

Just my thoughts on what I observe from me.

I would definitely agree with this. I need to strongly modify my diet to get results (like going very low carb-- heck I even did raw vegan for a while)... and that works, but it's not sustainable for my training volume. We'll see how we do this summer!

[lovelygamer]

I started commuting to work a few days ago and I also get extremely hungry during the morning after my ride and in the evening when I get home ...way more than ussual..so I don't know If thats going to affect my weight. I am not really into a strict diet but I do try to snack on healthy stuff and eat healthy. Maybe every other day I eat things I shouldnt but hey I am human ...

I second what Reesha said. Keep those healthy foods around because when you first start commuting-gosh the hunger is INSANE. I just got over that hump in the last two weeks. I'd say for the first three weeks I ate everything in sight and was constantly starving. I've adjusted back down and learned to keep healthy foods around me at all times. The worst thing you can do is be unexpectedly hungry and only have a vending machine nearby.

[Giulianna23]

Giulianna, I keep greek yogurt, bananas and honey at work for after my 11 mile commute to work. Is there a fridge anywhere you can do this? Alternatively you could wrap up an egg, ham, and cheese sammy in foil and take it with you. I've done that before too. Both always tide me over til lunch.

I second what Reesha said. Keep those healthy foods around because when you first start commuting-gosh the hunger is INSANE. I just got over that hump in the last two weeks. I'd say for the first three weeks I ate everything in sight and was constantly starving. I've adjusted back down and learned to keep healthy foods around me at all times. The worst thing you can do is be unexpectedly hungry and only have a vending machine nearby.

Thanks for your input..and yes we do have a refrigerator at work and I went to the grocery store nexto door and bought some multigrain bars , some fruit and baby carrots , yogurt and jell-o to snack on in between meals.

[Reesha]

Personally a higher protein content helps keep me satiated between meals. Greek yogurt with 8+ g of protein is good. Two eggs is really good. Man those will keep you full for hours! (I learned that the hard way on an 85 mile ride-- wasn't hungry for four full hours even though I was riding hard)

[chatnoire]

They are very accommodating! They have also promised almond butter, and I suspect that if someone was allergic to ground/tree nuts they would have an alternative for them too.

I'm glad they have almond butter on the trip, but I'm not a fan of almond butter + jelly sandwiches lol. I prefer almond butter with bananas or raw honey but I'm not sure we'll have those at lunch stops!

I am allergic to peanuts, and I've never been able to stomach the other butters, like almond, cashew, sunflower seed, etc. Something about it being too similar to peanut butter puts my instincts on high alert and I can't eat them.

I eat cashews and almonds straight though.

This conversation is great, because it's something I've been obsessively worrying about. I've dropped 14 pounds so far this season, with calorie counting, riding, cardio on off days, and now I'm picking up weights for strength and resistance training - but I don't want to be big and bulky, just strong and lean, and not fat. I'm *technically* just fine, but I still feel bigger than I want to be, you know? But I want to 1) avoid over eating post ride and 2) properly recover post ride for muscle building for performance (but not bulk).

I've been thinking I should get a trainer for a couple sessions, despite not racing or anything yet. I'd like to get to a point that I could say "yes, here is my fitness baseline, and now I can push myself to much more productivity for racing" (or endurance, or whatever).

I do notice that I'm not as ravenous post ride as I was at the start of the season. I've been eating things like fish and veggies, not so much with the white carbs (except for sushi today! NOM!) and cutting down on the beer and salty foods. Still - I'd like to feel strong and raring to go each time I get on my bike, and I don't always feel like that...partly because I am uncertain about the food in/energy out equation, and partly because I forget, early on the ride, that I love the feeling of riding.

[azfiddle]

I lost a lot of weight when I first started riding and was tracking faithfully on weight watchers. I would sometimes have an after-ride mocha but would not eat pastries, ice cream etc. I was only riding about 15-25 miles most of the time and didn't need to refuel too much on the rides.

Now I ride further and like Mimi said, am often really hungry even on days I don't ride. It's a balancing act. I eat extra if I know I'm going to ride a long way on consecutive days, and I'm still really hungry on the next day.

So I can't seem to get rid of 5 lbs that crept back on, but I'm not actually gaining weight back even though I'm not quite as careful about tracking.

[Crankin]

Chatnoire, I am just like you; in my head I start thinking I'm reacting to walnut or almond butter, so I stopped eating it! I *do* use soy nut butter, but only a certain brand, called Simple Foods. It's made locally here in MA, but you can order it on line. It's made my life a lot easier when I have to take a sandwich on a ride. And, it tastes good. I eat a lot of nuts, though, and they really have helped me maintain my weight loss.
I also lost a lot of weight when I started riding. I had been thin, at the same weight for many years, when I started gaining and getting burned out on the exercise I was doing previously about 2 years before I started riding. I wasn't huge, but about 15-20 pounds heavier than I am now. It was not boding well for the future. I've been able to maintain this for 10+ years, but it's only been recently that I've gotten below my "set point" and I seem to have reset my body by changing my eating habits a bit. For me, it's all about upping the protein and limiting the carbs, especially white flour products. I won't say I never eat it, but, it's pretty limited.