Area Man uses this ONE WEIRD TRICK to lose 10 pounds in two weeks & DOCTORS HATE HIM
... but I've actually used it for maybe 5-6 seasons, once a season, to drop 10. It has been consistently effective.
I've kept it mostly as a personal hack that has worked for me, but I'm going to put it out there out of (1) curiosity to see if anyone will take it up, and will experience the same outcomes, and (2) a recognition that in these crazy times, an OCD tightly-wound approach might be a interesting juxtaposition against the uncontrollability of, well, so many other things in the world today. (Then again, it might be one more stressor.)
OP was a well-known coach and RD (who shouldn't be too hard to guess) from a tri website that is not about fasttwiching. His plan, which I have followed as described above, in his words, cut from his post:
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dropped 7 lbs (170-163lbs @ 6'4") over the last 2 weeks by making the following changes:
* Got my training back up to a consistent 2hrs a day at low heart rates (125-150)
* Breakfast: Nuts, grains (puffed wheat & rice) and raisins (1/2 cup of each)
Lunch: 3 cups of lettuce, 20 baby carrots, 1 tomato, 1 chicken breast.
Dinner: 6-8oz of meat, 1 potato, 20 baby carrots
Snacks: 6 pieces of fruit each day.
Approx 2200 cals/day (250g CHO, 120g Protein, 70g Fat, 30g Fiber)
Obviously, this diet is tailored to my BMR, my activity level & my idiosyncracies (some would say tendencies toward OCD :-)
but the principles are clear: Lots of water content & fiber (salads), no refined sugar, frequent small meals etc, all the stuff the good STers have mentioned already.
One quick warning. If you've let yourself go with the sugars a little, the first few days are going to be hell. I was pretty nauseous. But your body should manage to regulate your blood sugar within the first week.
It ain't easy but if it were, there'd be no fun in that. Everyone would be sporting a six-pack. You have to earn it
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My experiences:
-followed to the letter, this works.
-timed right, it is a good drop that I've been able to roll into a more gradual drop once the real mileage comes. it hasn't resulted in boomerang gains once the two weeks are up.
-'Potato' does not mean "potato larded down with Pesto, parmesan and cooked in oil." 'Baby carrots' does not mean "honey glazed."
-This works well during Ae training, but is a challenge during periods with a lot of intensity. Like, well, the OS. I have bonked DEEP or at least compromised the quality of some sessions when I have combined the two.
-The timing of the Fruit helps a LOT in fueling and recovering.
-oddly, it only seems to work once per season. I try to choose my window wisely.
-if you check out the original discussion, you'll see reactions calling this 'irresponsible," and I could definitely expect nutrition professionals would have a lot to say on this. The OP's response to this:
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Here is the way I look at it. Most general RD's/nutritionists will recommend a maximal caloric reduction of 500-1000 cals/day. However, most of their clients are not athletes.
In the context of a sedentary individual, if we make sure that they have their standard 0.8-1.2g/kg of protein per day and sufficient CHO to cover their daily CHO expenditure. Let's say 1000 calories/day for a relatively untrained sedentary individual, it doesn't leave a lot of room for cutting calories. Just to maintain a healthy daily function, this individual will need close to 1300 calories/day. So, if they're eating the typical 2000 or so each day, it would be irresponsible to cut it by more than 700.
Take the (relatively) well-trained athlete on the other hand. First of all, they burn less CHO at rest. So, maybe for a decent endurance athlete, they get down to 500 kcalories per day CHO basal energy expenditure. They can also get to the point that they are contributing 250-300kcal/hr from fat stores. So, for a 2 hr base ride of 1200kcal, they only need to replenish 600kcal to keep their CHO stores steady. Adding it up, we have
500 kcal CHO (basal)
600 kcal CHO (training)
1100 kcal CHO (TOTAL)
Plus a slightly higher protein intake of 1.2-1.8 g/kg = about 400kcal
Means they need to replace approximately 1500 kcal/day.
Even with a fairly low BMR (for an athlete) of 1700kcal/day plus their training (1200+kcal/day) plus any incidental activity (let's low ball it at 600kcal), it becomes obivious that there is a lot more 'wiggle room' there to play around with.
Of a daily expenditure of 3500kcal, only 1100 must be replaced, leading to a potential deficit of 2400kcal/day & a fat loss of 4+ lbs per week.
This is why, for athletes (at least to some extent) the rules don't apply.
Please keep in mind, however that the numbers I have given (while representative of only a moderately trained athlete) are arbitrary and if you haven't had your BMR or RQ tested, that you should err on the side of over-nutrition rather than under-nutrition.
Hope this helps.
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interested to hear if anyone will give this a try. (I'm seeing this season as a great chance to 'Give things a try' at little cost to an A-Race).
Comments
@Dave Tallo
okay, all my races have now been cancelled, so I am starting my Outseason tomorrow and will give this general idea a good go.
I will post my weight and percentage of body fat according to my scales in the morning.
I plan on two weeks initially but may continue a little longer depending on progress.
i will give updates of twice a week with details of what I have eaten and how many calories I have burned with the OS.
really interested to read this Peter. I'll be firing it up again in the next few days (I need to rebalance our fridge and restock the basics) but it seems like the right time.
Okay.
Starting point is 65.9 kgs @ 18.0% body fat, according to my scales.
I will post again in 4 days with the details of what I ate and drank, as well as my training details.
* Breakfast: Nuts, grains (puffed wheat & rice) and raisins (1/2 cup of each)
Lunch: 3 cups of lettuce, 20 baby carrots, 1 tomato, 1 chicken breast.
Dinner: 6-8oz of meat, 1 potato, 20 baby carrots
Snacks: 6 pieces of fruit each day. Approx 2200 cals/day (250g CHO, 120g Protein, 70g Fat, 30g Fiber
@Dave Tallo As an endurance athlete are you getting at least 1.8 gm/kg bw protein? Protecting muscle mass should be high priority. Contributing to your 7 pound loss is most likely from lowered glycogen stores, ie water loss.
Since our bodies are in energy flux , I don't believe in calorie counting. The calorie algorithm is often used in clinical settings to support patients in a wasting state, burn victims or in-house eating disorder patients. I have not seen one study that can apply an accurate calorie algorithms to an endurance athlete. Bodybuilders even struggle with it. All those calculators on Apps are just moving targets.
We know the law of thermodynamics needs to be in place to lose weight. My point is; your daily resting metabolic rate is not static.
High intensity days will need more carbs. Low HR days can get away with less fueling. But the baseline number for protein can stay fairly constant. As volume of training goes up so should calories from carbs and fats.
It is hard being hungry when trying to lose weight. Protein and fiber helps without calorie dense foods from fats. The low carb/high fat movement has destroyed lots of athletes despite what Dave Scott says! 🤔
We have to keep this in context. A 10 hour training week vs a 18-22 hour training week. Men vs women. Overweight athlete vs lean athlete. Master athlete vs a younger athlete. IM training vs Olympic. Ulta vs road marathon.
My last point. I once worked with a road cyclist that was supposed to be the lead out. He was trying to lose weight. He was stubborn. He cut calories so much that he bonked one too many times in races and was kicked off his team. Now I know Coach P won't kick you off the Team 😄 but be careful.
wonder what he would say for a plant based athlete? @Sheila Leard how, if at all, do you coach plant based 50+ female athletes?
@Brenda Ross I don't know what Dave Scott would say about Vegans. I like to clear up the confusion on the term 'plant base'. It can mean many things to different diet approaches. I'm assuming you are referencing Vegan.
I'm working with 60 yo female Vegan endurance athlete who has had multiple fractures in the last 5 yrs. Her dexa scans show osteoporosis and osteopenia. This year her doctors convinced her to go on bisphosphonates. This is really a bandaid at this point if it even works. Her goals for this year are to protect muscle loss with more diversity in strength routine, increase protein form 1 gm/kg to at least 1.6gm/kg, add a Vit D-K2-Biotin supplement. In 4 months retest.
To answer your question, this is just one example of keeping nutrition in context of a vegan, post-menopause , endurance female athlete.
Update
I have to start again as I realized during the week that my scales varied by as much as 700 gms when weighing myself several times in a row.
My new scales say I am 65.2 kgs and 18.0% body fat.
I will check in a weeks time.
Interesting thread.
I have gone through many variations in what has worked for "FAT LOSS" (not weight loss) in my life.... When in my 20s [135-150#] I would just cut ETOH/Junk snacking and drop fat instantly - struggled to gain Any muscle mass.
In my 30-40s [165-175#] found that with 3-4 body building type WKOs per week and minimal cardio I dropped body fat " (<10%) accidentally while gaining muscle by strictly eating every 3-4 hours VS. gained fat with 2-3 Big meals /day[with less total kCal]. **Ballooned up to 210 during 2 years of PA school (no WKO) ...but dropped rather quickly with training to 180 @ 12%BF ~14 yr ago when in Iraq.
In 50s have tried paleo /pseudo keto various times- non sustainable and no fatloss of note. Have done various Intermittent fasting with only WKO power/recovery loss - No fatloss -even gain noted.
Recent bloodwork OK with "low-normal" Free Test only thing that stood out -to me.
Am on a Short coarse program and haven't had much opportunity for LONG EZ training (long rides 2-3 hrs only). STUCK at 185-190 x over 2 years despite doing 2x IM last year and the various diet manipulations.
PLAN now has been lots more veggies ...still avoid crap and portion control.....but no special diets for now 165# ideal id love 175# ....If I find the switch Ill let ya know.
Okay, got derailed last week. This was started by my wife on her birthday. She held a gun at my head and forced me to eat burger, fries and beers. No really she did LOL. I lost a fair bit of motivation as a result.
This post describes the methodology, and my eating plan for each week. If you are not interested in these details just skip to the next post that deals with the weekly results and some analysis.
By way of background, a few years ago I filled in a food diary for a month. An exercise nutritionist, guided by what I like to eat, devised my food eating plan to cover all my macro needs, as well as to allow a small weight loss (around a pound a week).
My approach is to recognise the points that @Sheila Leard makes up-thread about muscle loss etc. But also to recognise, subject to Sheila's points, that a bigger energy deficit means a bigger daily/weekly weight loss.
Breakfast is 30 gms of steel cut oats, teaspoon honey and low fat milk.
Lunch is 2 slices of toast, spread with avocado, plus thin slice of cheese (50 gms of cheese). Plus salad of lettuce, carrot, sprouts , tomato, beetroot, cucumber, a few olives, etc.
Dinner is 150 gms of meat (beef, or lamb, or fish, or 200 gms of chick peas), greens including broccoli, green beans, brussel sprouts, and cabbage. Plus carbohydrate (400 gms of potato, or half a cup of rice, or 120 gms of pasta etc dry uncooked weight). To finish I have 90 gms of fruit yogurt.
That food list is supposed to result in a weekly weight loss of 300-400 gms a week.
Now add in training. For morning sessions of an hour or more, I have 2 slices of jam toast before the workout, and my breakfast straight after the workout as my recovery meal. The only session I don't do in the morning is a swim stroke correction session on a Tuesday night. In this case, I have dinner before the session, and 250 mls of choc milk after as my recovery meal.
I am in the Out-season at the moment, so the long bike/medium run on Sundays need fueling. When the long runs get to 80-90 min length, they will also need fueling. Apart from those sessions, I am not fueling the others. That said, I have gets with me just in case I need them.
In my case, there are two other constraints on the size of my energy deficit (apart from the one Sheila mentions). These are feeling hungry (like really hungry) and feeling lightheaded and weak. The other constraint is that if I am being too aggressive in my energy deficit, I have very broken sleep (as in feeling really sleepy but wake more often than every hour). Either of these situations are unsustainable. But it is very easy to fix, just eat something!
So with the OS volume of work I need to eat more than my food plan dictates.
Right now at Easter, there are hot cross buns, and Easter pastries around making it hard to make good choices. Today, I swapped my recovery meal after my bike and had a hot cross bun. Likewise I am having very small serves of a pastry in place of some carbohydrate. We will find out on Monday how successful I have been.
My plan is to use this week to establish a bit of a baseline, and then next week I will (hopefully) provide some preliminary data to answer @Dave Tallo original question.
Okay, start of week 2, down to 64.0 kg from 65.2. Which is just over 2.5 pounds.
How do I feel? Quite tired actually, and am ready for bed at 8:30. But quite broken sleep although I almost had 9 hours in bed.
Also feeling hungry and tired during the day.
That said, I have eaten hot cross buns, Easter pastries, and even some chocolate.
On the exercise front, yesterday I did a 2 hour ride with IF=0.87 that increased WKO4's estimate of my FTP by 8 watts that burned 930 kJoules. Also a 45 min brick afterwards. So I have enough energy to do the Out Season workouts.
I could probably widen the daily energy deficit, but not by that much (certainly not by 500 calories which would be an additional pound a week).
So this is probably the most I could safely loose in a week.
This week I will dial the deficit up to around 800 calories per day and see if I feel up to seeing if I can train with a bigger deficit the following week without the distraction of Easter.
BTW, a little bit of context. I usually race around 68 kgs, so I am quite light for me. Also 1.2 kgs is over 1.8% of my weight. If I weighed 80 kgs, the same proportion would be 1.5 kgs.
Also, the last time I was this weight I was in high school before I finished growing. I started university 147-150 pounds.
Our of curiosity, what are you fueling with when you're on the bike? I have
found I can be successful with a caloric deficit across my day but not
while also reducing the nutrition I need while exercising. Curious to hear
your experience.
@Coach Patrick Hi Coach. Yes it is interesting. Sunday's bike at the moment is wu, then 15 mins Z4, then most of the rest of 2 hours Z3. So quite a challenging wko. But as I noted up-thread, I very much over-achieved last week.
So I have my steel cut oats, honey and low fat milk for breakfast. Then head out about 30 mins later. I eat a Cliff Bar (250 calories), and 1 bottle Infinit (200 calories). I take another bottle of water and some gels but I have found I don't need them at the moment. I have a gel before the 45 min Brick. I burned 935 kJoules (or calories) on the bike that day. Oh, and BTW, I am pretty sure my Powertap reads at least 10% low, meaning the burn would be at least 10% higher.
Maybe I can do this because it is only week 4 of the Outseason (Run Focused)?