What are your thoughts on how to control cycling training load to aid in losing weight?
I don’t have a lot to lose, but I’d like to drop about 7-10 lbs or 3-5 kg that has stubbornly not want to come off.
What I’m finding seems to be helpful:
Try to level load the training. Daily 45 minute sessions seem to work better for me that long rides followed by recovery days.
Easier intensity (Coggan Z2/Z3) seems to keep hunger from going up too much.
The short rides and moderate intensity also has the added benefit of not requiring special fueling, just eat the normal diet with a slight cut back to achieve a manageable calorie deficit.
I don’t really care about performance that much so this is more in an effort to maintain fitness and general health.
Many others when talking cycling + weight loss are trying to do it while building which seems like it would be quite hard.
For me personally it seems easy to loose weight when I start cycling 10+ hours a week. I think given your constraints (time, dietary,….) the specific workouts you do won’t likely make a significant difference although to your point harder workouts could drive more appetite then the calories it burns but this would seem very hard to determine with enough accuracy to matter.
As the standard advice goes it’s most likely more about diet then exercise. Until I was about 23 or so I always wanted to gain weight and then once I did basically all of my adult life I always wanted to weight less So I have read it all and tried it all. I believe in the theory of having more muscle mass makes weight loss easier via having a higher base metabolism. So strength training might do more than cycling, especially per hour/minute spent.
I can say I am starting to get a lot more motivated right now (finally towards the end of summer), I am on a clear weight loss trend which I am happy about but you would hate my strategy
Yeah the problem seems to be once you get fat once, or attain a new “set point.” Your body works hard to stay there or higher. I had some really hot girl friend in my mid-20s that smoked and ate absolute junk food. I got on her diet and reduced exercise a lot and gained weight then. After she was gone I stayed more reasonable but I saw that any break in mountain climbing, rock climbing, cycling, running, surfing or whatever… I would gravitate back… Now it seems gaining weight is very easy.
Anyway, you can guess I am not one for moderation So I am eating OMAD (one meal a day) for the last 3 weeks. I did this before for a year. I really love this. It feels good to me, other than the hunger some times can be strong but maintainable. If I do a good job really getting full then the hunger is rather easy to handle, very mild. I especially love how much time it saves over 3+ meals a day. I do believe too many meals/snacks is part of the modern day pattern of eating too much. Even 3 with no snacks seems pretty reasonable for maintenance. Ideally with 12+ hours a day of not eating.
There’s a guy I met through work that lost a lot of weight on OMAD. It is very popular in low carb circles.
I lost 35 lbs on low carb in 2021 and maintained through end of 2024. I left low carb late 2025, have gained about 10-12 lbs and am learning how to do this on a mixed diet.
I’m working on about 2000 cals now against a daily estimated burn of 2300. We’ll see if it works.
Yes, I think for the right mindset person counting calories can work. Not for me. I am eating whatever I want for now. Mostly on the healthier side. OMAD fits me, and works well.
This was very bad winter+spring as I said. Down 14 lbs is is good, but -25 gets me to high school (extra optimal). But I think whr waist/height is better to monitor as I hope I am gaining muscle too.
IMHO, the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than you burn, with one caveat: if you eat below your recommended BMR, you could still gain weight due to increased muscle. Use the FitnessPal ass to control your calories
I used to be a pretty hard core OMAD-for more than a year. I also spent years on low carb/keto. I felt amazing and would go hiking for hours. I also believe this is part of my current downfall. I felt amazing because I was living on adrenaline, cortisol, and glucagon. (Stress hormones). Long term I believe this can burn you down. Eventually the body stops responding. Eventually your thyroid slows your metabolism down, your libido disappears, your sleep gets disrupted. Eventually the stress hormones cause your blood sugar to paradoxically rise despite fasting, your HbA1c gets to prediabetic levels and you become incredibly inefficient at burning carbs. You gain weight despite doing everything right. Your legs get sore just from going out on a longer zone 2 ride because you don’t have the fuel to fuel your ride and recover afterwards. You’re burning lean mass because your either don’t have enough carb stores or you’ve become so inefficient at burning them.
Just my N=1 I suppose. If it works for you, that’s great. We all respond differently.
Since embracing a carb rich diet again, most all of these things have reversed. Thyroid function has come back online, T and libido are back, HbA1c is dropping, legs stopped getting sore when I did longer rides, and while sleep has been difficult, it has been slowly improving over the course of this year.
I strangely came across these guys in a short video clip about stevia and have since embraced a lot of their advice and guidance into my eating habits. Given that we are all here because we enjoy endurance exercise, and with the high carb revolution fueling today’s endurance athletes, I think this approach fits.
I personally did not experience symptoms similar to yours on low carb, but I’ve heard others who have. I’m glad to hear you’re doing better.
I left low carb because I’m one of people who has a hyper response to LDL cholesterol when carbs are low and fat is high. I’m somewhat skeptical of the traditional lipid interpretation and can see how the lipid energy model explains what I experienced, but I wasn’t using the diet for therapeutic reasons so it made sense for me to stop the diet to reduce a traditional cardiovascular risk factor.
When I reduced fat and added carbs my LDL-C dropped almost in half! The side effect is I gained weight. I’m on a journey to lose the ~ 10 lbs.
You seem to be merging your OMAD and keto (low carb) experience into a single theory, can’t tell which is which regarding your experience.
I think for many/most keto or low carb can be unhealthy. I used to be a fan, but not any more. I was a Fung believer but realized that is selective science. For me and they way I would do it seems very unhealthy even if was good for weight loss. Some doctors that were keto guys are saying watch your blood markers, it can be dangerous.
My energy levels were also high on low carb. I do know a couple friends that have done 5+ years of “low-ish” carb and had great results. One is a solid ultra cyclist that can do 180w for 12 hours+ and he is very recreational. I think the more important factor is reduced processed food which usually means reduced processed carbs and sugars. Successful low carb people I know have move to more balanced diet but avoid processed carbs and higher protein/fat but not super low carb, more health carbs.
So I am not sure if you were doing both low carb and OMAD at the same time but obviously fasting has many different flavors. Even if that is just 12 hours a day at night. I do believe most people likely need 12+ and as we get fatter likely a bit longer. Whether that is 2 hours a day or 8 hours a day for optimal eating duration is likely very personal. But I do think as my usual argument is most people need to find what works for them and that is sustainable. Science seems to say once you are used to longer periods of not eating their is a slight cortisol elevation but less so than exercise.
My problem is always inconsistency or my latest good idea …
Here is AI simplified summary of that video. I do agree with you and that video that stress is something people don’t pay close enough attention too and too much can be a real killer and like you feel part of what caused your problems.
Ep. 86 — Response to Rob Wolf on the bioenergetic view (Part 1)
Rob’s claim: Once you’re fat/keto adapted, blood sugar is rock stable, so low-carb isn’t a stressful state.
Their reply: Stable isn’t the same as healthy — it depends on how it’s held stable.
On low-carb, flat glucose comes from continuously making glucose (gluconeogenesis), which requires chronically elevated glucagon.
Normally glucagon is used briefly between meals; here it runs all the time.
Making glucose from protein/fat wastes ~33% of the energy it yields — inefficiency the body reads as a stress signal.
Glucagon counts as a stress hormone: it spikes in trauma, burns, sepsis, surgery, etc., not just low blood sugar.
Parallel to type 2 diabetes, which they frame as chronically high glucagon (glucagon-receptor knockout mice don’t get diabetic). Low-carb mimics some of this — high fasting glucose, high free fatty acids — but is reversible.
Consequence: glucagon blocks T4→T3 conversion, so labs look normal while T3 drops and rT3 rises — hypothyroid symptoms with “fine” bloodwork.
Also: “carbs aren’t essential” only means you don’t have to eat them; the body builds them at real cost, which suggests they matter.
Running on glucagon leaves you one step into the stress cascade, so cortisol/adrenaline kick in faster under any added demand.
Part 2 will cover: long-term cortisol, stress tolerance, why obesity isn’t energy excess, and evolutionary biology.
So I have read it all and tried it all. I believe in the theory of having more muscle mass makes weight loss easier via having a higher base metabolism. So strength training might do more than cycling, especially per hour/minute spent.