1. Achieving Your Cycling Goals by Achieving Your Target Weight
David Cole
January 12, 2015

2. Why is this funny?
It speaks to the complex relationship we have with food, which can be both emotionally and physiologically dysfunctional.
Now, What do you do if you have a dysfunctional relationship? One might attend counseling, so as to
better understand yourself
better understand where you want to be
better understand what you want out of relationship
Better understand how to proceed
It’s that end game – that “where you want to be, and how to get there” – that I want to talk about tonight. I’ll be focusing on your target weight, but you’ll also have to consider your own personal relationship with food.

3. This presentation should…
Help you identify your ideal, target weight
Help you become more aware of the diet choices you make
Equip you to make diet exchanges to lose weight while not depriving yourself
Give you practical tips that can help you take control of your own weight and fitness destiny

4. RESOURCES RoadBikeRider.com Bicycling.com Various online sites
Consumer Reports
Fat Chance
Full Catastrophe Living
My own personal experience

5. Nine Assertions We live in a toxic food environment
Different calories are different!
The body is a complex system and seeks equilibrium
Your current diet and exercise regimen is perfectly suited to your current weight
It is difficult to lose weight by exercise alone
Most diets are deprivation diets, and you can only deprive yourself for so long
Good food makes you feel good; bad food makes you feel bad
Crowding out bad food with good food can make you healthier without making you hungry
Goals are important - to say “No” to something, you need to be saying a bigger “Yes” to something else (~Steven Covey)

6. A few key points from Fat Chance
Consumption of sugar and refined carbs triggers increased release of insulin
Insulin regulates how resulting glucose is processed:
used for energy (when insulin levels are low)
saved as fat (when insulin levels are high)
Fat cells release leptin which triggers reduction in insulin
Two states: “Not hungry, burn energy Hungry, store energy
But, high insulin levels over time can block leptin signal, yielding "brain starvation"
Such leptin resistance leaves insulin levels unchecked,
thus increasing appetite and reducing activity, resulting in weight gain and energy loss
Moreover, stress can trigger increases in cortisol and insulin, with similar results
We live in a toxic environment
processed and fast foods are predominantly sugar and refined carbs
daily life is increasingly more stressful
Therefore, to become more healthy (and perhaps lose weight)
Eat foods that maintain the insulin/leptin balance
Manage chronic stress
It’s hard to summarize an entire book on one slide, but…
It’s critical that you understand what sugar and refined cards can do to your system…
And understand that for the obese, they are as much a victim as a perpetrator
In the end, the book reinforces (with scientific rigor) the message that we should be avoiding processed foods and eating nutritious foods
Transition: we talked about the endgame – the “where you want to be.” Let’s explore that further…

7. X ? X The extremes Focus on target weight and health
How you feel and how you perform will be its own reward
Improved appearance just an extra benefit
Transition: So, if you want to focus on your target weight, how do determine what that is?

8. What is your ideal cycling weight?
Men
106 pounds for first 5 feet of height
6 pounds for each additional inch
5’10” man’s target: ~166 pounds
Women
100 pounds for first 5 feet of height
5 pounds for each additional inch
5’6” woman’s target: ~130 pounds
Then
Adjust +/- 10% based on wrist size

9. Or, set target as % body fat
Measure your current body fat percentage
Lifetime Fitness happy to help
Calculate lean body mass
Current weight minus pounds of body fat
Set goal for body fat
Men: 10 to 25%
Women: 18 to 30 %
Calculate your resulting target weight

10. InBody measurements at LifeTime
Free 14-day passes available! See David after the meeting

11. RBR’s 12 weight loss strategies
Be patient, lose weight gradually
Eat a nutrient-dense but low-energy-dense diet
Eat carbohydrates that are primarily low glycemic
Eat well before, during, and after rides, but resume a calorie-deficient diet the rest of the time
Don’t pig-out after a ride

12. RBR’s 12 weight loss strategies…
Eat smaller meals more frequently
Don’t eat after 7:00 pm
Use cycling to help burn more calories
Pick up the pace on your rides
Ride more often
Keep a food diary*
Build some muscle to preserve lean mass and increase metabolism
Keeping a food diary:
hard to do, but worthwhile even if only for a couple weeks
Critical to understanding your caloric input, and where it might be adjusted
Also gives insight into your relationship with food
Transition: If you want to keep a food diary, there are some tools that can help…

13. also, SparkPeople.com and app
Apps that can help
Lose It!
MyFitnessPal
Transition: let me share with you what’s worked for me…
also, SparkPeople.com and app

14. What worked for me – diet
Snacked on fruit, nuts, and yogurt
Avoided sugar, bad fat, and fried potatoes (except for Tyler’s garlic fries – too awesome!)
Replaced soft drinks* with iced tea
Used water or diluted Gatorade on short rides
Carried Fig Newtons as snacks
Took my lunch to work w/ homemade bread
Enjoyed chocolate and peanut butter in modest amounts
Enjoyed good beer and good bourbon in modest amounts
Even though diet soft drinks have few if any calories, it appears the artificial sweeteners fool the body with the same glycemic response.

15. What worked for me – exercise
Commuted to work 1-2 times per week
Hard rides on Wednesday nights
Long rides on weekend
Kayaked on many weekends
Core strength workout 2-3 times per week

16. Observations – core strength
Stability ball workout very effective
Only 30 minutes
Significantly tightens abdominal muscles
Makes you feel lean and tight
Can feel extra gut strength on the bike
Better enables detecting fullness

17. Observations – mindful eating
Learned to recognize being truly hungry versus just wanting to eat
If truly hungry, I ate
If not, hot tea helped, or small snack
Conditioned myself that being slightly hungry at night was desired state
Savored* calorie-worthy foods
Savoring food…
The first meditation exercise in Full Catastrophe Living is eating a raisin
very, slowly, very deliberately, and with all senses
most reported that it was the best raisin they’ve ever tasted
Breaking habits can be very hard. Breaking routines can be helpful, such as eating deserts using your non-dominant hand.
See:

18. Levels of diet Holiday/ Vacation Aware Gluttonous Unaware Deliberate
Dieting
Fasting

19. Recommendations Lose It!
Find staples that you enjoy and that meet your nutrition goals
Be very wary of sugar, bad fat, and refined carbs
Keep a food diary, at least for a while, to make you aware of what you eat
Use social media and smartphone apps to your advantage

20. Recommendations… Enjoy good food*, and feel better for doing so
For exercise, find a variety of things you enjoy doing, and do them
Develop core strength
Use services of coach or nutritionist if you’re stuck
Set a goal that challenges yourself, and use that for motivation
“Enjoying good food” means changing your relationship with food so that it serves you, and helps you get to where you want to be

21. Questions?

22. Thank You!

23. Eat not to Dulness. Drink not to Elevation.
- from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, one of thirteen moral virtues
The thirteen moral virtues listed by Benjamin Franklin in his Autobiography: 1. Temperance. Eat not to Dulness. Drink not to Elevation. 2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation. 3. Order. Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time. 4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality. Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing. 6. Industry. Lose no Time. Be always employ'd in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions. 7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice. Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty. 9. Moderation. Avoid Extreams. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve Cleanliness. Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Cloaths or Habitation Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable Chastity. Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. Also... The Morning Question, What Good shall I do this Day? The Evening Question, What Good have I done to day?

25. 10 extra pounds equates to 2-3 extra minutes climbing Bynum Ridge
Every extra pound you carry above your ideal weight makes you 15 to 20 seconds slower for each mile of a climb Bicycling Magazine
10 extra pounds equates to 2-3 extra minutes climbing Bynum Ridge