It's fine but ultimately calories matter.

Don't eat crap, don't drink beers, don't take silly supplements (FRF), eat real food, careful with oils/nuts/nut butters.

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Merge Multisport Founder & Head Coach
USAT Level 2 - Short & Long Course
Ironman Certified
Brevard, NC

Did you do the core diet nutrition plan?

Before you go on a diet. I'd recommmend two things. Get a digital food scale and sign up for my fitness pal. For a week just write down everything you eat and drink. I'd be willing to bet that there are an 'easy' to purge group of foods. Counting calories is a pain in the ass but it works.

Personally I shoot for 2300 cal a day. I'm 34 m 200lb and train 8-10 hrs a week. When i consistently hit my calorie goals i drop weight.

Diets are difficult especially if you are going against the grain of your family.

Good luck.

Yup. They like to play around with timing of grains to help balance blood sugar, better utilize fat.

Honestly, it over complicates things

Given someone who was formerly overweight (both of us), I've found that just focusing on better eating habits/routines has been far more beneficial than manipulation of macronutrients.

Ive also found that focus hard on fueling before/during/after sessions has been great for helping develop better eating habits.

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Merge Multisport Founder & Head Coach
USAT Level 2 - Short & Long Course
Ironman Certified
Brevard, NC

Thanks.....I need to get back on track with what you and others have said, but am reading the book that Jesse put out and sometimes someone else providing structure helps me.

I understand what you mean about someone providing the structure for you...but it doesn't teach you to do it for yourself. You don't want someone having to keep you on track for the rest of your life, do you?

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Merge Multisport Founder & Head Coach
USAT Level 2 - Short & Long Course
Ironman Certified
Brevard, NC

Nope....but I can just continue to copy their process....if it works...but it sounds like it is nothing earth shattering of a "diet"

I'm a bit over the top with all this, but last year I was a FOP triathlete at 155ish#. I thought I was fit. I got on the myfitnesspal bandwagon over the winter. I quit tri to cycle only and am down to probably 4% BF and 142ish#. I've never been this fit. I've never felt so good. I'm going to turn 40 in November and have been a life long endurance athlete. I wish I knew 15 years ago what I know now!

Almost everyone has a ton of crap they can cut from their diets. But can you or do you want to do that? You must be consistent. You probably need to log and maybe measure everything you eat at least to start.

I got lucky. I picked a target (2300) and hit it right away and steadily lost about 1/2# per week. I have been at it since the first of the year. I've done some very intense training while losing weight. I've done some 20 hour / 400 mile weeks. I haven't been sick or missed a single day of training. I've lost almost 15# and my FTP is up if anything.

You simply have to be consistent. Period. It's all about calories IMO. The better you eat the more you crave good food. I can eat raw veggies by the fist full and enjoy it! I still have days where I just let loose and over eat by a ton and eat crap. But 5-6 days per week I'm absolutely dialed. My opinion on diets....if it has a name you probably shouldn't do it.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

Agree with this totally

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Merge Multisport Founder & Head Coach
USAT Level 2 - Short & Long Course
Ironman Certified
Brevard, NC

Just a few examples of foods I've mostly cut for the OP and everyone else.

Almost all dairy. I still eat greek yogurt a lot. Probably about 1.5 cups / day. But I cut milk almost completely. I used to have 3 glasses of milk / day. That's 300 calories that I can better utilize elsewhere.

I try to lower sugar in everything. That puts more quality calories in my pocket to use other ways.

Snacks....these REALLY add up.

I eat a lot of fat. My general macro break down is under 50% carbs, 20% protein, 30% fat. So it just happens to be almost exactly the recommended daily % per myfitnesspal. That's not on purpose.

I eat lots of coconut oil. Lots of peanut butter. Lots of fruit and veggies. Lots of energy bars (cause I love them). I just eat a lot of nutrient dense food. And feel great doing it. But that big greasy burger or pizza or ice cream now and then still happens. I'm not professional. But I try to eat like one...most of the time :)

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

maybe not exactly what your looking for but over the year, i see nutrition as extremely simple and every time i sit down with athlete.... they know most of the time what to cut to start losing weight. ultimatly, you need to keep it very simple.... make change that wont be necessarly easy, and it s ok to be ''hungry'' once in awhile!

here s humoristic post that resume a VERY simple and effective strategy to lose weight

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1192183



These are the rules i received from desert dude to get ready for ironman azizona. He is very hard on is athletes and when you are accepted to train at the Laveen high performance training center.....you need to step it up..... so for anyone that need to shave off a few pounds for the coming season, stick to this...it really works!!!!

i went from 149lbs(ironman hawaii) to 137 lbs (now)

By Desert Dude strict rules for eating while at the LHPTC. They are as follows:

1. No eating after 7:30 unless coming back from a late evening workout over 30min. If under 30min you may have 1 gel and a piece of fruit or 1 energy bar.

2. Dinner is all you can eat, as long as it fits on the coffee saucer the first time. There are no refills in this all you can eat establishment.

3. Hungry at night? Tough - you should have eaten more throughout the day. Have a glass of water instead of whining. Whiners pay rent irregardless if they trained that day or not.

4. eat something within 20 min of completing all workouts.

5. Insure you are taking in adequate calories during your day

6. Eat a bigger breakfast or lunch if you feel you need more food

7. Make sure you are fueling properly when in your training sessions.

8. Still hungry? Pay rent for whining


Send all complaints to the administator of the facility to the address below:

Gabi K9
3546 Who Cares Dr.
Stop Whining, AZ 85552

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram

+1

Myfitnesspal (or any similar app) that helps you count calories is the way to go. It teaches you about portion control, and how much you really should be eating on a regular basis. I used a similar app (LoseIt!) to shed a bunch of weight and liked how it promoted healthy eating habits going forward in terms of portion etc. instead of following a diet which will cause you to gain it all back as soon as you go off it.

This- and know how much you burn.

Easy. Calories in<Calories out.

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Let food be thy medicine...

best advice ive seen....

Any day now Slowman is going to tell us how to lose 10 pounds in a day. It is what we all voted for.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

Every "what do I eat to lose weight" thread I've ever seen, since Al Gore invented the Internet, has been largely full of foolishness. Until this thread. Is remarkable. I can't hardly believe it. Where's all the talk re. special diets and supplements that obviously violate the laws of thermodynamics? Or the well-thought-out attacks on the laws of thermodynamics that boil down to "well, I don't know about that, but I know what I know"?

I am totally serious. This is weight loss diet total awesomeness. <salute>

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

My only advice besides using a calorie-counting app still doesn't approach any of the BS that is peddled out there, and most of it comes from ST:

1) Don't drink calories
2) Don't eat after 6 pm
3) Don't eat during a workout that is less than 2 hours
4) HTFU

ETA: don't eat after 6 is early for most people, I get up at 4am for work and I'm in bed by 8. If you go to bed later than that, you can scale it accordingly obviously.

lol

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

This all sounds really ideal and is something I believe in too. What I am wondering is what does a typical day look like for you? Do you have 3 main meals with snacks in between? I assume you still fuel prior to larger workouts? What do your typical primary meals look like?

On the 1st of March this year I weighed192 lbs. This morning I am 167lbs. My target is 154lbs.

For me too it is all about the calorie count. With the help of aerobike on ST I worked out I needed to eat about 1500 cal/day plus exercise calories to lose weight quite rapidly. The total works out about 1800/day including workout calories.

To make things easier for myself I broke that down into three meals of 500 cal plus 300 calories of snacks. I'm a creature of habit so I weighed out and calculated 2 breakfasts that were 500 cal and I just eat one of those in the morning. I have 2/3 lunches that are 500 cal and I just eat one of those at lunch. I have 2 snacks that are 100 cal each that I eat during the day. Then in the evening I eat with the family and just have to guesstimate 600 cal. If I'm working a late shift I take a 600 cal dinner with me to work. In the last few months I have felt hungry on a regular basis. Sometimes my 'snack' is a gel half way through my run. I can assure you there isn't a drop of gel left in that pack when I'm done! ;-) Once in a while when I get fed up of being hungry I have a big meal and a dessert and make sure I feel nice and full. The next day I'm back on the money.

So another vote for 'its all about the calorie count'. If you need any more convincing then look up ST's Rob Gray and find his weight loss diet of ice cream, cake and beer.

My best guess as to why folks struggle to lose weight is they can't be bothered to weigh out food and accurately calculate the calorie content because it's a bit of a pain in the ass. And nobody likes to feel hungry because, well, it's just not nice. If you can master both of those things you shouldn't have any problem losing weight.

Will

You are at 4% BF? wow. Thats a really low % to be holding permanently. I'd be worried about going much below 10%. What is the climate like where you live?

That's the whole point. There is no earth shattering diet so stop looking for one!

Anything that says it's an earth shattering diet is a lie, and quite possibly a con. If you want to improve health and reduce weight there is no secret solution, but there is a well known one that works reliably. Eat higher quality food and eat less. The reason the world is full of stupid pseudo science "diets" is that this can be hard to do consistently and it's not exciting. But it works - IF YOU DO IT.
I'd suggest named "diets" are a serious cause of obesity in the developed world, not a solution to it. Instead of believing the simple truth that they are eating too much food, many people believe, either consciously or sub-consciously, the lie that they just haven't found the secret diet yet. It becomes an excuse and a fantasy. It distracts from the simple truth.

That's the real issue for me, feeling hungry. I just cant handle it, its all consuming. I guess some people just have this physiological response a bit stronger than others.

Are there foods that suppress the production of Ghrelin?

Correct. As in veins over entire body including abs. I absolutely agree it's not sustainable. Absolutely I'll add a few pounds after race season.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

Agree with this... I was 265lbs. in 2009 and I'm currently floating between 170-175lbs. Cleaned up my diet, eat less, mostly dairy free, stay away from sugar... it's not a diet for me but rather a lifestyle. I also exercise consistent and compete in triathlons.

My daughter went on Paleo about two years ago to help with her asthma and she's lost a good amount of weight... she's also doing less steroids/inhalers/etc. stuff to help with her asthma.

I'm not a super smart dietitian, but how much you eat and what you eat are important in many ways. Good luck with the weight loss!

I think cutting dairy is always a good start for most folk to maintain a calorie deficit.

I need to try the no eating after 8pm for me I think. Just push through the hunger/habit barrier for a few weeks of that.

Iv lost 4 stone over the past 20 months but still go 2 to go!! This is where the rubber meets the road!!

Creating a calorie deficit is not the hard part, IMO. You can have a calorie deficit eating doughnuts and ice cream if you want.

The difficult part is having a calorie deficit AND optimally fuelling training and racing AND getting all the necessary nutrients to be healthy.

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For most people its maintaining a calorie deficit that's the difficult part.

No one really likes to feel hungry unless they have physiological issues!!! Its not in our nature to be happy with hunger.

yeah that can take an adjustment- I think Matt Fitzgerald has written about re-learning the signs of true hunger and the ability to stop eating when full (like we all used to do as children).

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______________________________________________________________

So here's what I do. I generally modify the calories in this based on my activity level. However here are a few tidbits I've picked up in the last 6 months or so regarding how closely I need to eat to activity level.

1. It seems that my body stays on "high burn" even while tapering. Or especially after a hard workout. As in if I take a day off I can't just eat to my 2300 base very easily. I still need additional calories above it to feel decent even if zero workout. Same after a very hard or long session. Say the day after a 100 miler. Again I almost find myself over-eating those days just to feel decent. Otherwise I'm horribly hungry. I also always try to overeat if anything the day or 2 before a race. An A race you may want to stay even or over-eat slightly for a week. I'm no expert, but I can't imagine you'd want to fast going into a race. I also changed up my macros the few days before a race going from about 50% carbs to 60%+ a few days out. But again....this is all based on research and 6 months of really measuring. But it's been an extremely successful 6 months.

Everything below is based on a typical 2+ hour riding (cycling only) day. I'm averaging about 15+ hours / week so my average week day is in the 4000 calorie range. It does vary some, but this is going to be close. If needed I'll simply add in more. Generally on big days more carbs (oatmeal, energy bars / fruit....etc....and protein).

Keep in mind I weigh / measure everything. I kind of enjoy it. If I go out to eat or to a family gathering I'll try to jot things down and guess on amounts as close as I can. I don't bring a scale to a restaurant...but I could :)

Breakfast:
2-3 eggs cooked in 1/4 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup of whole oats in water with 1/4 cup raisens and lots of cinnamon
1 cup greek yogurt with 1 tbsp chia
I take fish oil capsules, d3, iron, mg, multi for vitamins
Roughly 800-1000 calories

Snack 9-10AM (YUM):
Smoothie - 2 cups frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries usually), 3 tbsp herseys cacoa, 1/2 serving Ironman protein powder, 1 tbsp coconut oil, 1 tbsp cream cheese. This is a 435 calorie smoothie that I will reduce in coconut / protein on real easy days.

Lunch:
2 slices Aldi Seedtastic organic bread, 2-3 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp coconut oil, cinnamon. YUM!! 1/2-1 cup greek yogurt or similar, 1/8 cup almonds or pistacios, 1/2 cup blueberries if I have them, 2 cups mixed raw veggies (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower / etc). Roughly 600 calorie lunches.

Snack: Cliff bar, Chocolate brownie...almost every day. I've been trying RX bars. Love them. My team is sponsored by Amrita. I love them and use them as well. I've always been a sucker for those chocolate brownie cliffs though! About 250 calories.

Before dinner snack: 4-5 cups spinach, parmesan cheese, cilantro avacado dressing. Not many calories here, but it gets me to dinner and the spinach is good for you.

Dinner: This varies widely. I always try to have lots of veggies (2 cups+ again) and or fruit. Last night I had that and a brat and a burger (no buns). Then quinoa as well. I try to do quinoa a couple times a week, and healthy fish a couple times / week. Red meat 1-2 times. Chicken 1-2 times. Generally that's all with dinner.

After dinner snack: If I still need calories I'll try to go with oats and raisens. If I still need protein I'll go with greek yogurt generally.

On-ride nutrition. I use almost exclusively Skratch. We are sponsored by scratch. The Skratch guys are crazy scientist type...I like that. The drink is also the easiest and smoothest I've ever had. My go to food is now rice cakes. I make them myself from the Team Sky recipe and follow that except I double the sugar.

Any other questions let me know.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

The big problem with eating doughnuts and ice cream is not just that they're short on nutrition. It's that fatty, sugary foods make it very hard not to overeat. There are specific fat/sugar ratios that supress our "full" signal and just make us crave more. Ice cream, cheesecakes and probably most doughnuts fall onto this category. In lab tests I believe they've fed the optimum ratio to rats and they just eat themselves to death.

I've found it hard to reduce my food intake any time I've tried to re-establish a trend of weight loss. It has sometimes taken me a few false starts over a few weeks or even months but once I get going it becomes easier. Just treat it like a habit change not a transient diet. Don't give up just because you don't see the weight disappear at first. It will work.

I actually think it's a lot easier to reduce intake if you eat better quality, less processed food and make it enjoyable but in smaller portions. Don't punish yourself but avoid low quality food.

I think it's very hard for everyone at first. Once you get started it becomes easier to continue until it's not difficult at all. At least in my experience. One huge trap is to think there's such thing as failure. If you give in and eat something you'd decided you wouldn't or you put on weight despite having started to try losing it, don't make a fresh start! It should be a continuum. Just try a bit harder but don't think "Well this has been a failure so far. I'll start trying again tomorrow but I may as well stuff my face tonight!". I suggest you look at it as trying to change habits, NOT trying to change weight. The weight will look after itself once you've got the habits under control. But weight fluctuates and it's really, really, easy to get demotivated when it goes the wrong way, even though it may be no more than a short term blip. If you've changed your habits, it WILL swing back the other way again.

Exactly this. In. every. way.

The hunger is transient---and seems to be proportional to the rate of change of calorie balance. In other words, when I go from neutral to a 1000 calorie deficit, I get really hungry for a couple days. But, if I ramp down from 0 to -1000 over a week or so...at the end of the week when I'm at 1000 calorie deficit I don't have the same hunger pangs. Once you habituate on a deficit level, the hunger will subside.



Again. completely agree. its the main reason I don't like "cheat days". it just resets my old habits, and "sets me back" by 1-2 days. I prefer to setup a habit, and stick with the habit <period>. But, sh*t happens---the only thing to do, is just pick up where you left off and keep-on-truckin'.

For qualification: I went from 205 lbs / 27%bf (October 2015) to 155 lbs /16 %bf (June 2016) by maintaining a 866 cal/day deficit. 12 months later: I'm 151 / 11%bf (give or take a bowl of ice-cream :-).

Friel's Paleo Diet for Athletes is pretty sound (besides the title.... seeing how he ends up not recommending paleo diet). It's very much in line with the Core Diet, the former preceding the latter.

For me, my strategy for some time has been to cook one big meal once a week (often once every two weeks, freezing most of it) consisting of baked vegetables (carrots, parsnips, red and yellow beets, brussel sprouts, onions, sometimes sweet potatoes, black beans, chick peas) all baked to a sweet crisp in olive oil. I cook local 100% grass fed ground beef or wild caught alaskan salmon separately, and then for lunches and dinners, I heat this mix up on the stove mixing in eggs, or the ground beef (or in the microwave at work). I reserve a rice & chicken or beef mix, the rice cooked in chicken broth and vegetable soups, for heavy training periods and keep my non-vegetable carbs down very low. I also have a breakfast mix of old fashioned rolled oats, chia seed, unsweetened coconut flakes, raisins and walnuts for breakfast in which I mix chopped apples and yogurt (the only dairy I eat, unless my gf wants cheese cooked into the stovetop reheated vegetable mix).

The prep time is ~6 hours, which includes shopping, once every two weeks. I can cook two weeks/14 days worth of food for two people (both lunches and dinners) for less than $140 (that includes the breakfast mix, meat, eggs & oil), so less than $3 per meal, and yeah, everything's organic & shit.

When at the store, I don't buy junk, so it's never in the house.

The purpose and resulting success maintaining low body fat even while in a phd program has been that I always have incredibly healthy food on hand & there's a pretty large price incentive. I'm never put in a position where going out to eat, ordering food or going to the store for not so healthy food is a more convenient option. And I think that is the key to success in this regard: having a strategy in place where the opportunity cost always favors eating healthy and in a way that adheres to your diet objectives and desires.

Counting Calories & the Scale: I do not count calories or weight myself. I just won't. the people I've seen do this have often developed eating disorders (dated some D1 female runners) and/or the control-orientation needed for a diet leaks unhealthily into other areas of the person's behavior and even personality; and my friends who've gone this route were pretty adamant and stubborn and even angry when I suggested that this may not be the best approach, but here's the thing: they aren't doing it any longer or at least have taken a long break from using those strategies of counting and weighing[one person still has an eating disorder, but so does her mother and sister, so it's a more complicated issue of life-control]. Those strategies aren't sustainable and they are not psychologically healthy. I'm 38 now and I've been close to the same weight since I was 17 (weight myself maybe once every three months just to gauge w/kg for cycling for when I need to procrastinate with meaningless calculations; more swimming has meant more weight due to muscle), but I do put on fat much more easily now. But, I stick to the above strategy of preparing healthy and delicious meals ahead of time and it allows me to be happy and it doesn't feel like a chore and it is sustainable.

Hacking Self regulation & Emotion Regulation: Seligman in Flourish discusses his own battles with weight loss, and he cites that diets have an 85% failure rate. Focusing on your previous and current character strengths and building on those is much more successful, and I think my above strategy capitalizes on that research-proven positive psych approach built upon recognizing that self-regulation is more obtainable when the person is actively and successfully resolving discrepancies between the person's current and desired/goal state. For me, my hierarchy of diet goals are to eat, for it to taste good, for the meal to be convenient, to feel full, for the meal to be healthy, to feel good about myself, and to look good (recognizing that I can miss a day of working out and think I look like shit, but then do a 30min run and think I suddenly look great - recognize perception is a distorted MF'r and to have a laugh about it). With each of those goals that I accomplish, I experience positive affect and that reduces future emotional, possible substrate-based and/or central governor based resources needed to successfully regulate my behavior and my emotions. This positive psych approach prevents, or at least stymies/negatively moderates, the emotional roller coaster that occurs when weighing/measuring due to goals not being met or the goal discrepancies being too disparate compared to your current state; e.g. measuring for each and every meal is not convenient and you are likely to not feel full because health foods that could be filling like baked vegetables take too long too cook, so the inconvenience drastically increases the discrepancy between your current and desired state, making the goal-achievement much more difficult and when you don't reach a goal, you experience negative affect and that begins a downward spiral of negative affect, poorer emotion regulation, leading to behavior that leads to further negative emotions.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Good advice!

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Professional Triathlete
Owner of Blake Becker Multisport Coaching LLC / Team BBMC
blakebeck@gmail.com
http://www.teambbmc.com