Gavatron wrote:One of the best pieces of advice I have received regarding nutrition and especially weight loss when cycling is this: Fat burns in a carbohydrate flame. Got it from this book that I would heartily recommend: Base Building For Cyclists by Thomas Chapple published by Velo Press. Basically to burn fat you need to be riding in the right heart rate zone and feeding the body right when you're doing so. For after-exercise protein drinks (within 30 minutes for best effect) try Horleys Pro-Fit protein shakes. I get them from my local Pak N Save - cheap and I hope effective.

Gavaton is right about the rate heart It should be at least 65% for burning body fat 80% plus for cardio. You will be burning calories at 80% do not worry about the 65%. Go to a gym or health shop for the protein as the supermarket do not have a elite range of products and you pay for what you get. Isolates are much more refined then Concentrate. Horleys profit is good but not what I would recommend for you as once again the sugar content is to high.

Crashchan wrote:Isolates are much more refined then consecrates.

Yeah but it makes God angry when you take non-consecrated dietary supplements.

Avoid pies at all cost, they certainly did me in. That and Coke. Teach me to chase the almighty dollar and the sake of all else including my own health. Full of crap (i worked in a Bakery in a past life and part of the job was making mince pies, grab a pail of cold mince, story goes that a disgruntled worker once quit a left a nice wee turd sitting on top of the mince and the owner just scooped it off and kept on using the mince), trans fatty acids and other really good stuff.

There are some really good books on Sports Nutrition. Anything from Jeni Pearce or Louise Burke will be good. If you want to perform on the bike it would pay to focus on diet. If you want to excel on the bike I would highly recommend working with a Registered Dietitian. Sports and Exercise NZ have a list of Sports RDs in all areas. Track one down.

happybaboon wrote:

Crashchan wrote:Isolates are much more refined then consecrates.

Yeah but it makes God angry when you take non-consecrated dietary supplements.

Very funny Are you playing GOD? Concentrate , isolate.

Crashchan wrote:Very funny

Yeah I'm sorry I just couldn't let that one go

Go for protein powder (Horleys crossfire) over the RTD protein drink if you get a tub It's $2.30 per serve with milk that cheaper then your pies

happybaboon wrote:

84millsy wrote: blue lips before because of the lack of blood sugars.

Dude if your lips are going blue during excercise then you might have bigger problems than just low blood sugar..!

Had been surviving on rabbit food for a couple days prior. Went out straight after coming back from the ride and ate 2 mac attack meals and felt fine. Never going to let it happen again though!

blood colour (hence lip colour) is related to O2 levels not Sugar as far as I know, or it was freezing cold and it was just the body keeping blood volume internal.

Arthur Lydiard was an advocate for doing the long slow stuff with only water. I lost 8kg quite easily by doing that. although 3 hours was tops before getting the fatigues for me. It's frowned upon now because of the effect on recovery etc. But for weight loss just an electrolyte drink is great. You can buy electrolyte additives at health shops.

I believe the body will adapt to it's conditions.
If you feed it CHO drinks during training, it will become used to these as a fuel source and not utilise fat so much, but your training and recovery will be better.
If you drink water only, your body will adapt to the lack of ingested fuel and draw on fat reserves more. Good for weight loss...you wouldn't want to do this in an intense training program tho, it's really only for low intensity stuff.

Ultimately it's not what you're drinking during the rides, it's the whole diet package.
sticking a Big ben in the microwave at 9pm won't help the gut.

You gotta set a goal to lose the weight otherwise it just stays as a random dream.

Cut the pies, beer, pastries and cheeses, eat well...give yourself a hammering for 2 months to lose the weight then get you can relax the strict diet, have a pie now and again and maintain weight.
No point doing it half-pie

cruiser wrote:I believe the body will adapt to it's conditions. If you feed it CHO drinks during training, it will become used to these as a fuel source and not utilise fat so much, but your training and recovery will be better. If you drink water only, your body will adapt to the lack of ingested fuel and draw on fat reserves more.

There is a contrary view. In his book Base Building For Cyclists Thomas Chapple says: Carbohydrates must be replaced before, during and after high-intensity or long-duration cycling activities. The depletion of carbohydrate stores is the main cause of fatigue related to longer, harder efforts, and it can also lead to the breakdown of proteins in the body. It is important to maintain carbohydrate stores in the body because they must be present in order for the body to be able to access and burn fat. When carbohydrates are broken down, they produce by-products that facilitate the use of fat for fuel. "Fat burns in a carbohydrate flame" - in other words, the body uses carbohydrates to burn fat.

If your goal is weight loss, as opposed to performance, the equation is quite simple - energy out > energy in. Within reason - no need to starve yourself. Of course, the quality of the energy can make a substantial difference to results so follow all the basic rules and see what is happening in a few weeks time.

A few things that will help:

Base line measures - get on the scales for sure, but don't worry too much about that number, especially in the early stages. Other great measures are chest, waist, hips, middle of the bicep and middle of the thigh. And don't forget the easiest measure - how your clothes fit.
Clear purpose - what is the meaningful purpose behind your desire to lose weight. Dig deep. The more meaningful the better. Write it down. Look at it every day.
Don't keep your 'vice' foods in the house. Keep healthy alternatives instead. Find a substitute for pies - I'm partial to the occasional samosa and some are very low in fat.
Make one small change every week. Eg, blue milk to yellow, white bread to multigrain.
Read and learn. I really enjoy the magazine Healthy Food Guide - some great recipes in there. Treat your family to something new and healthy that you make for them.

Because you want to ride you'll also want to make sure you have enough energy for that so the timing of your eating will be important - for energy during and recovery. Carbs with a little bit of protein during for rides over 1:30 (otherwise water should be fine for you), and remember within 30-40 minutes to get some quality protein in with more carbs - this will kick start the recovery process when your body is most open to it, and prevent your body from thinking you are trying to starve it and going in to famine mode (basically storing fat).

All about the pie pie tbh

I am losing weight and riding lots at the moment. To aid the weight loss I have recently been looking into (and trying) the impact of low weight caloric dense food. I have now replaced my workday lunch with a One Square Meal. 1/3 of your daily needs in pretty much everything and all for 185gms, and less than $5 per day for lunch is all good.

The trick for me has been to eat them slowly with water.

For weight loss while riding the biggest impact I have had is in keeping the rides slower, heart rate in the 50-60% range only, and not many hills. Unfortunately this does not suit with my riding plans at the moment, but I am still losing weight.

Three things....

1. See a Dietitian and get the right advice first off, not from a training book or magazine.
2. Get a perm. May not help you lose weight but then no one will go out with you so no high calorie restaurant meals.
3. Tell me where you get those Pie, Pies with the Gravy topping, that looks f**king awesome.

Gutted no pies Im meant to be training for my first try but i cant give up the pies how ever i now have a protain shake for arvo snack and Ive lost 7 kg in 2 months . Old habits die hard