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Things I didn't think were compatible with cycling...

(27 posts)
  • Started 2 years ago by Baldcyclist
  • Latest reply from gembo

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  1. Baldcyclist
    Member

    20/4 intermittent fasting with very limited carb intake (not going as far as full keto).

    Once you get over the morning hunger after arround 3 weeks, I was astounded to discover you could burn 1000 calories riding a bike fasted and still not be hungry until lunch time.

    I always thought carbs were required for fuel, but apparantly your body does a great job of providing the fuel from fat, even for medium/high intensity excersise.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    By following this diet, you would fast or eat very little for 20 hours per day, followed by a 4-hour overeating window in the evening.

    During the eating window, fasters are encouraged to consume up to 90% of their daily caloric intake or until they are completely full. There aren’t any guidelines around the types of food you can consume during the 4-hour period, however, it is encouraged you consume nutrient-dense whole foods where possible.

    Doesn’t sound like fun…

    Posted 2 years ago #
  3. neddie
    Member

    That's sounds terrible.

    Eating in the evening is meant to be the worst time to eat, because you tend to slump on the sofa afterwards and the body doesn't metabolise the food you've just eaten.

    I thought it had been shown that diets never succeed in the long term. The only way is to eat in a sustainable manner in the first place (i.e. not cycles of diet / no diet) and accept that it is extremely hard not to put on small amounts of weight over time, as the body is programmed to do that...?

    Posted 2 years ago #
  4. neddie
    Member

    I reckon if you just go with:

    3 square meals a day, no seconds.
    No snacking in between.
    No alcohol.
    Minimal sugar.
    No sitting down for more than half an hour.

    That should be pretty sustainable.

    Also, people's perception of portion sizes is wildly off.

    You should eat no more than a small matchbox size of cheese / dairy per day

    You should eat no more than a pack of playing cards of meat per day

    The rest of it should be fruit and veg. (probably not too much bread / pasta / potatoes, either)

    Posted 2 years ago #
  5. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "3 square meals a day, no seconds.
    No snacking in between.
    No alcohol.
    Minimal sugar"

    That's essentially a 16/8 intenmittent fast.

    20/4 just takes it a stage further by removing breakfast. It's not calorie restriction, so not a diet - you do it forever.

    2 meals a day, no snacks. Water/tea/coffee as much as you want. (lunch at 1, main meal at 5)

    Large main meal consisting of a moderate portion of meat, and piles of leafy salad or veg - no root veg. Limited fruit also, as it's full of sugar. No bread, pasta, potatoes etc

    Main benefit is to reduce the ammount of insulin you produce, most people (probably including me) are fat because they are insulin resistant. As a society we consume 75% less fat than we did in the 70s, but obesity has increased exponentially. Also removing breakfast in the morning gives you a spike of growth hormone arround 10 am which is great for repairing cells/damaged muscles from excersise etc.

    The practical benefit, is that you are never really hungry, and never bloated etcx as you never overeat or overconsume carbs. No 3pm slump.

    My surprise though was the lack of bonk when you ride a bike for more than an hour with no calorie intake. :)

    Posted 2 years ago #
  6. Yodhrin
    Member

    See the issue I have with that is the everything.

    No root veg? No fruit? Little or no bread, potatoes, pasta? I'd rather just eat a bullet and get it over with :P

    Posted 2 years ago #
  7. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "I'd rather just eat a bullet and get it over with :P"

    :D

    Yes, I'm not strict every day, I will occasionally eat some pasta, or allow myself 2 potatoes with my main meal.

    Also consume 2 bottles of craft beer every 2nd Saturday (this is normal for me, not a reduction).

    Posted 2 years ago #
  8. nobrakes
    Member

    I tried keto a few years ago. My blood sugar has a tendency to crash sometimes to very low levels although all manner of testing has found nothing. I once found myself in an ambulance with a blood sugar level so low I should have been in a coma. Anyhow, I digress… I thought Keto might work to get rid of these crashes. I managed a few weeks, got through the keto flu symptoms etc and slowly started to feel worse. Eventually woke up one night and felt like I was dying. Had a hot chocolate and almost immediately felt right as rain.

    I know low or no carb diets work for a lot of people but my body was having none of it. Also logistically it is hard to both shop and cook in a family when one family member is banned from half the aisles in the supermarket.

    The best advice I have tried when trying to get faster and fitter by losing weight/become more efficient is the advice in the book ‘Racing weight’.

    Basically, eat high quality food, eat a mix of all food groups, only eat when you are belly hungry and not head hungry. Has worked well for me. I think lots of cycling helps in general with sugar crashes. I seem to get a lot less than I used to.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  9. Dave
    Member

    Without realising it was a "thing", for quite a lot of years now I've got up, ridden to work, had nothing but coffee and then ridden home for all the food. Apart from not getting enough fruit, which I sometimes remedied out of guilt by bringing some in at the start of the week, I always found this to be fine. Didn't feel hungry etc.

    Of course now I'm working from home and around food constantly, I get up, have a snack before breakfast and keep on snacking until I collapse at about midnight :(

    Posted 2 years ago #
  10. chdot
    Admin

    “Basically, eat high quality food, eat a mix of all food groups, only eat when you are belly hungry and not head hungry“

    Yes, though not entirely clear about benefits/logistics of last bit.

    Generally have meals at much the same time every day.

    Sometimes with ‘snacks’ in between sometimes not.

    BUT, well aware that I’ve never had any weight/overeating problems, or any need/desire to be ‘athletically fit’.

    No doubt some of that is due to genetics and the ability to ignore pressures to have much interest in takeaways and sugary drinks.

    That said, when I was growing up (quite fast some times) there was lots of sugar in tea and on breakfast cereals, large glass bottles of ‘pop’ and fruit squashes - the diluting sort, probably more sugar than fruit, Mars Bars and other chocolate. Plus chippy chips many evenings in teenage years - it was where people hung out, but I was hungry enough to want/need!

    And a fair amount of cycling - long loops around the neighbourhood and some longer trips on occasion.

    After leaving home there were probably times I didn’t eat enough.

    There have been periods of drinking a fair amount most days, but no obvious beer belly.

    So lucky and, perhaps, cautious.

    I did read (and refer to) an early version of this -

    https://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp?Action=Book&ProductId=9780113229291

    Ultimately (in the spirit of CCE) “whatever works”.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  11. wingpig
    Member

    I can notice the effect of not having cycled at least five days a week carrying more stuff than I need for the last fifteen months in that I'm still the same size/weight I was last March, which was at the upper end of the stone-bracket I've been in since I was sixteen as I'd had about three months of not getting many lunch-walks in and only having time to do the shortest route to and from work most days. I've just about managed a reasonable walk or cycle three out of every four days for the past couple of weeks so shall attempt to keep that up. If I really have to I'll start jogging with some sort of degree of regularity.

    Sometimes with trying to do work whilst getting the children up/fed/dressed/out the door with their lunches etc. I miss breakfast but it's a rare day when it stays forgotten long enough for me to only realise when I spot the bowl on the table later on after I've moved up to the child-room-desk once I no longer need to be at the kitchen table to observe and encourage the achievement of readiness.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  12. Yodhrin
    Member

    @Baldcyclist Ehh, personally I'm not all that sold on keto/very low-carb diet - it has undeniable success as a theraputic treatment for diabetics and (as yet unproven)potential in that regard for some other illnesses, and it's certainly a way to get weight off quickly, but for regular plebs like myself? To my eye it looks hard to disentangle the data on keto from various other factors; how much is the low carb having an effect vs the impact of the more basic caloric restriction going along with it? How much is low carb having an impact once you factor in people going on such diets would usually have been eating shitty food before and now probably aren't? Etc etc.

    I've started doing the "2 meals a day - early lunch, early tea" caloric restriction thing and you're certainly correct that it doesn't make you feel lethargic like you'd expect from fasting, but I'm just continuing to eat pretty much what I like eating(sans most refined sugar), mostly because I suspect that if I tried forcing myself to stop eating the food I like I'd give up entirely(and I really do like tatties and nice bread :P).

    Posted 2 years ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

    “nice bread“

    Probably more important than most people appreciate.

    White flour/bread was originally for the refined people - who were most likely to have a good diet.

    Became aspirational for the rest (along with white sugar).

    Then came Chorleywood which was about money not health.

    Wholemeal had a revival - similar to Real Ale.

    Now there’s the fashion for sourdough.

    No idea if any claims of nutritional/health benefits have any validity. Likely to be eaten by those who want/can afford better.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  14. gembo
    Member

    The Queen has never eaten Chorleywood bread.

    I used to like watching the RHM factory down near the Clyde at The Kelvin Hall. It had large machinery that used to vibrate. we called it the Shakey Bakery.

    I am a huge fan of the breakfast. Specifically slow release oats with cows milk.

    This can keep me going til noon.

    Also coffee.

    Mrs Garto though, has cut out nearly all carbs which appear not to agree with her anymore.also gave up alcohol for lent but has not really taken it up again. so I am having to drink for two.

    Horses for courses. (Ha ha)

    Gone are the days of course of Rab Ha The Glasgow Glutton. Are they?

    Posted 2 years ago #
  15. chdot
    Admin

    “so I am having to drink for two”

    Can’t you get the children to help?

    Posted 2 years ago #
  16. CocoShepherd
    Member

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/jul/02/is-sugar-the-worlds-most-popular-drug-podcast

    Is sugar the world’s most popular drug?

    Some pretty worrying facts and stats in there.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  17. Boff
    Member

    An old friend that I gym with recently tried an extreme keto diet: steak, eggs and "bone-broth" (que?) for six weeks with a multivitamin tablet to ward off scurvy. He lost a stone without any loss of progress in his weightlifting but his detailed descriptions of the diet's effects on dietary transit are not suitable for sensitive readers.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  18. gembo
    Member

    Nigel Lawson lost six stone in a week and a half by eating steak and drinking red wine only.

    Sugar, power and art. Tate (and Lyall) it is all slavery when you eat a bar of chocolate. And some paintings to salve the conscience,

    Had to buy decoy wine as the 23 year old was looking after the 16 year old. When we were done Bromley in south east London. The good stuff is in the garage awaiting a bit of a tasting with The Iwrats.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

    5.3m people waiting for hospital treatment in England, highest number since records began

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2021/jul/08/uk-covid-news-travel-test-trace-boris-johnson-coronavirus-latest-updates

    Posted 2 years ago #
  20. MediumDave
    Member

    @Boff I have seen bone broth defined as "Stock made with a smug look on your face"

    To avoid further thread drift it appears that cycling is incompatible with a dog bite on the hand. Very annoying.

    (It's healing. But not fast enough!)

    Posted 2 years ago #
  21. gembo
    Member

    @medium Dave, Sake. I did not even know you had been bitten, sorry to hear that and also that it is slow to heal.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  22. MediumDave
    Member

    Thanks. The police are taking the incident seriously which is reassuring.

    Frustating the number of things I find I can't do, or can't do very well. Ability to carry out light duties (like typing) is starting to return, but anything requiring strength in the hand (e.g. pulling the brake lever of my cable rim brakes) is hopeless.

    It appears I have a reason to go hydraulic now. N+1... :)

    Posted 2 years ago #
  23. the canuck
    Member

    Turns out, slicing the top off your thumb also makes cycling tricky, as it's the bit you need to press the lever to gear up.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  24. gembo
    Member

    @the Canuck, that doesn’t sound great.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  25. crowriver
    Member

    @Baldcyclist, 20/4 sounds a bit edgy for my liking. As explained in the Covid thread, I'm trying 16:8 (16/8?) which is almost "normal" - basically having brunch instead of breakfast and lunch. I'm trying not to eat anything after 9pm, an attempt to harmonise with natural biorhythms or some such...

    Haven't tried a long bike ride on this diet, but can't see why it wouldn't work - a lot might depend on when I set off, and what I eat en route.

    Posted 2 years ago #
  26. CocoShepherd
    Member

    +1 for the 16/:*~×÷\8-ing. It definitely works if you *stick to it*

    Posted 2 years ago #
  27. gembo
    Member

    Spotted Ruggtomcat the Street Performer’s grandad cycling west out of the grass market with an entire circus tent and stage in his trailer.

    Posted 2 years ago #

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