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cycling can be a great way to achieve
and maintain a healthy weight so in this
video amongst other things
we thought we share with you the best
way to mix good nutritional practices
around your cycling if you're looking to
use cycling to shed a few pounds or just
to perform at optimal race weight we
hope you can find some of these tips
useful not only to lose weight but also
to learn how to use cycling as part of a
healthy and balanced lifestyle let's get
into it
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so you've decided to lose some weight or
when should you look to do this well
you'll have far more flexibility if you
look to organize in around lower intense
periods of training such as bass
training or if you are casually like
myself for these days then any time will
suit really but during high-intensity
and heavy volume training and raise
periods for example you're fueling and
recovery demands are too high to
maintain a calorie deficit whilst
maintaining fitness if your goal is
achieving optimal raceway don't wait
until a few weeks before your peak race
goal or just assume that the weights
will fall off through training the
majority of us will need action through
a detailed plan regardless of whether
you're an endurance athlete or a
recreational cyclists losing weight
involves paying a lot of attention if
not more attention to nutrition as an
exercise competitive cyclist looking for
gains in performance should be focus in
their soul exercise habits on
performance development first and
foremost training to burn extra calories
can quickly lead to overtraining and
under fueling and it definitely does not
help your fat loss or weight loss goals
and it does not help improve performance
fat loss takes time
water Oz happens overnight if you want
to lose weight and improve your cycling
performance then you want to focus on
fat loss which means stay impatient at
the same time it doesn't mean you should
be over ambitious in your calorie
deficit goals so you should aim for
roughly 300 it's a 500 calorie deficit
per day if you want to have a healthy
fat loss routine which is achievable
during lower intense periods of training
such as bass training which we will talk
about later
starving yourself each day in a high
calorie deficit isn't going to help
anything it's actually going to hinder
your performance and your weight loss
goals it's going to have negative
effects such as a weakened immune system
depression slow metabolism nutrient
deficiencies and high fatigue so you
want to make sure that any efforts to
achieve your optimal weight
carried out in a controlled and gradual
manner and you stay healthy throughout
while under fueling is the fastest route
to overtraining over fooling won't work
on weight loss either the perfect
balance takes action and attention to
detail
now it's worth highlighting but no
number on the scales its complete
picture of your own health the way you
treat your body and mind are sometimes
better indicators of your general health
and well-being muscle is much denser
than fat one liter of muscle weighs
approximately one point zero six
kilograms while one liter of fat weighs
not point nine kilograms an easier way
to think of it is that if you have an
equal volume of muscle and fat well the
fat is going to weigh 80% of what the
muscle does so as two people may weigh
the same their body compositions could
be completely different it's not just as
easy as looking at the scales and losing
weight or looking at the scales and
seeing no difference in weight despite
our continued efforts to improve your
cycling performance you need to maintain
or increase your muscle mass whilst
keeping your fat percentage in a healthy
range if you're frustrated that you
aren't losing weight well it may be
worth getting the help of a sports
nutritionist to help you measure your
body fat you may just be losing fat and
gaining muscle which isn't a bad thing
at all so don't treat absence of weight
loss as a negative the amount of
essential fat differs between men and
women and it is typically around two to
five percent in men and 10 to 13 percent
in women a healthy range of body fat in
men is typically defined as eight to
nineteen percent while the healthy range
for women is twenty-one to thirty three
percent which is dependent on age as
shown in this table from the American
Council of fitness low body fat is hard
to maintain over a sustained period of
time and there are no recognized health
benefits to having a body fat under 8%
an attitude there's quite a lot of
negative effects with low body fat in
women
linked to fertility and reproductive
issues and also there's links to
decreased performance and immune
function heart problems and also low
energy levels body fat is integral to
keeping your entire body in check so I
think the key point to note is that
whilst we see super skinny riders on our
screens a key event throughout the year
like the Tour de France for instance
well these riders they're not
maintaining their lowest weight for the
whole year they're kind of timing this
low race weight for only maybe two or
three points throughout the season and
often for only two weeks at a time at
the end of a Grand Tour for instance and
also they're using professionals to
really manage this weight loss and
maintain the race weight in the right
way so I think what I'm trying to say is
not to emulate them and you're riding
throughout the whole year or kind of
look at it as a holy grail of how you
should look on the bike because well
these are profession was pushing their
bodies to the absolute limits you'll get
the most out of your cycling and general
health if you look to maintain a healthy
body fat percentage not a Tour de France
winning a body fat percentage that has
been timed to perfection into the week
leading up to the Grand Tour
set yourself goals and mark your
progress now that doesn't necessarily
have to be a weight orientated goal it
could be as simple as setting a time on
a climb near you and trying to beat it
week after week or it could be it trying
to be a set course near your house I
think the point is don't get too hung up
on the weight I think think about trying
to create a healthier lifestyle and a
better cycling performance keeping tabs
on your progress can help you stay on
track for a sustained period of time
remember the lost art of keeping a diary
in one of my previous videos well can be
really useful for keeping tabs on your
progress either way you want to make
healthy changes but it gonna make you
feel happier both physically and
mentally so smooth considering what you
actually want to achieve at by losing
weight before you begin
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there are many fad diets out there and
technical sounding nutrition plans let's
be honest we'll leave you more confused
than anything what is this now only
cornflakes shouldn't have milk with your
cornflakes just corn flakes on their own
dry corn flakes the corn flake diet I
mean what is the world coming to in my
opinion the best approach is to eat a
balanced healthy diet with management of
total food consumed in line with that
300 to 500 calorie deficit per day as we
described earlier and here are a few
bits of key advice which will really
help you achieve this load up on
vegetables by filling half your plate
with veggies at most meals fruit is also
a great component of any healthy eating
regime and it's worth getting familiar
with the current food pyramid because
well you want to be looking to get fruit
vegetables and salad as your primary
food source and most meals GCN's a
plant-based cite kiss recipe book is a
great resource I'm not saying you need
to be vegan but this book has loads of
recipes and ideas in ways you can
incorporate more fruit and vegetables
into your diet in an interesting and
creative way I use it in tandem with
other recipe books because I do still
eat meat but it is nice to have one or
two vegetarian or vegan meals throughout
the week what about you Connor do you
still eat me
yeah do you still eat meat man on but I
wouldn't say it's sort of the main
aspect of my diet actually I kind of eat
meat maybe every three days and the
majority of the time I'm more kind of
focus on fruit and vegetables and salad
next up eliminate all sugary sodas
including diet sodas liquid calories can
quickly add up without filling you up
next up you want to eliminate all sugary
snacks junk food crisps chips lovely
sweets yeah this step alone though is
enough for many of us to begin losing
weight gradually away
[Applause]
athletes her eating a whole food
nutrient dense diet need to start their
weight loss journey with portion control
unfortunately even the best foods can be
over eaten try to maintain a protein
intake as normal despite having a lower
calorie intake
this means upping the proportion of
protein in your daily diet to 25 to 30
percent of your daily calorie intake
focus on lean protein sources such as
meat fish eggs tofu beans and pulses
maintaining protein intake will maintain
a lean body mass and focus weight loss
on fat loss try to limit random grazing
and instead focus on mealtimes identify
the points when you really pack in those
unnecessary calories and take measures
to curtail this if like me you like to
eat whole portion of porridge when
you're relaxing in your hammock well try
to replace this with maybe a portion of
natural yogurt instead take a look at
how training can complement a good
nutrition and if all this seems like
gobbledygook don't worry just get out
there and provide fuel for your training
sessions before during and after don't
look at these times as places where you
can skimp on your nutrition so that
means getting adequate meal in before
your trainer get carbohydrates into
whilst you're training and when you're
finished training get a protein rich
recovery minute skimp on these errors
and you'll probably not get the benefits
of the session that you're hoping for
and you'll probably also suffer from a
dramatically increased appetite at other
times of the day making it harder to
stay on track fuel effectively train
effectively another tip lower your
carbohydrate intake a little on breast
days and recovery days these are days
when you can get away with training on a
little less carbs than you're used to
and doing so will have little impact on
your fitness
rubriz the day before a recovery day
it's a light low carbohydrate meal for
dinner and see how you get on make sure
you're getting enough sleep aim for
about eight hours per night
I remember that sleep deprivation can
inhibit fat loss to recovery is all part
of training to think about when you eat
your meals try and plan them around your
training instead of sticking to the
usual meal schedule for example when you
get back from a ride you do you have a
protein shake and then how a few hours
wait until lunch or dinner why not plan
your meals straight after your training
and use it as a pro so ride recovery you
got to tuck into this now add in a
glycogen depleted training session it's
your weekly routine try riding for 30 to
60 minutes before breakfast but then
make sure you do get your usual
breakfast after you finish the session
now there is evidence that training like
this in a fasted state can help boost
fat loss and aid your fat burning
efforts but it isn't for everyone it
wasn't for me I hated it and I never
really used it too much in my training
routines
might work for you but if it doesn't
don't sweat it
mix your sessions up and try and work
your body in a different way this could
mean doing different sort of efforts or
if you simply mean riding a different
way to work up a different Hill
high-intensity efforts aren't a magic
bullet but for many of us who are time
constrained we just simply don't have
the time to ride five or six hours every
single day so if you do find yourself a
limited on time try adding in some more
intense efforts into your training lines
a good one I always used to do it was 30
seconds sprinting in the seat 30 seconds
easy repeated four times and add in more
reps as you gain fitness
there's plenty more shorter intense
workouts on the gcn channel if you want
to dive into those in more detail
incorporate some tempo efforts into your
training using the Arabic system at the
top end of its capacity you'll
more bang for your buck petite at the
Arabic system faster you could do this
on a social ride but getting your
buddies to do a couple of blocks of
through and off rotating on the front
this is a great way to up the pace and
get some achievable goals out to the
right so I hope this video has helped
you to understand how to lose weight in
a healthy and sustainable way just
remember if things aren't working just
back off and reassess and remember to
consider your physical as well as your
mental health weight is a small part of
a vast array of elements that are all
linked to your cycling performance I
really do need to emphasize really do do
not get too bogged down about losing
weight as a cyclist is all about being
able to enjoy cycling as part of a
healthy lifestyle we'd love to know what
you thought of this videos and if you
have any questions please leave them in
the comments below thanks for watching
thank you for watching everyone
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