Let’s say your best-laid plans for a faster, lighter you have hit a wall. “Why am I not edging closer to racing weight?” you might lament.
“What am I doing wrong?” Well, you might not be doing anything wrong. You might just need a little patience, plus a dollop of reality.
“It sounds simple, but losing weight is all about creating an energy deficit,” says Dr Adam Collins, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Surrey. “It’s about fewer calories in and more calories out.”
Of course, we know it’s not that easy in practice. Weight loss isn’t an exact science but, roughly, a pound of fat contains around 3,500 calories.
“I know from my watch that I burn 500 calories an hour on most rides,” you might conclude. “I’ll just pop out for seven hours and I’ll lose a pound of fat.”
Of course, there are gaps there. This approach, beyond burying your immune system and leaving you a moody mess, doesn’t account for factors such as general feeding, on-the-bike fuelling and intensity of exercise.
Still, there’s good news when it comes to that latter point, which can often become a zonal sea of confusion…
Fat-burning intensities
At rest, and at low intensities of exercise, we burn predominantly fat for fuel. As intensity increases, the body’s increasingly reliant on carbohydrates to fuel the working muscles.
It’s why all of us have a FatMax zone, which is the optimum fat-burning intensity.
This is generally accepted as around 70-75% of maximum heart rate for trained athletes and 60-65% max HR for less-fit athletes.
“Your muscle becomes adapted to exercise because it’s under metabolic stress and running out of fuel,” says Collins. “It adapts by increasing blood supply, the number of [energy-producing] mitochondria, and improving the ability to break down fat and glucose more efficiently.”
This metabolic stress happens with low-intensity, long-endurance exercise, but it’s not the be-all and end-all when it comes to fat.
“It can also happen through higher-intensity exercise,” says Collins. “This might not initially oxidise high levels of fat; instead, you’ll be burning through carbohydrate and creatine phosphate.
“But that energy crisis you’ve created needs to be paid back. How you do that is switching to more aerobic systems during the recovery.”
This is otherwise known as the afterburn effect, or EPOC. “That stands for excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption,” says Collins.
“Your oxygen uptake is higher because it facilitates fat burning. As you recover from a hard set, you continue to mobilise fats to replenish the short-term energy you burnt through.”
It’s why we have good news – that, in theory, all sessions will burn fat, albeit you don’t want to overload with high-intensity work because you’ll end up ill or injured.
Glycogen-depleted, or fasted training, is another proven session to amplify fat burning, although again it needs to be ticked off sparingly because it’s tough on your immune system.
“It’s also not required by women because they’re naturally better fat burners than men,” Collins explains.
Less is more
So, you have a physical plan to burn through fat, but what about calorie intake?
Well, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says people who lose weight gradually and steadily (around 1-2lb a week) are not only more likely to keep the weight off, but also that the weight lost is more fat than water loss compared to rapid losers of weight.
That means cutting down your energy intake by even a couple of hundred calories a day could be more effective than going large.
“Say a cyclist’s basal metabolic rate [calories burnt at rest] is 2,000 calories a day and they eat just 1,000 calories a day,” says Collins.
“The body responds by liberating its body fat and glycogen stores to create energy to meet that shortfall. Once you start shrinking adipocytes and removing fat, you’re becoming healthier. That’s the good.”
“The problem is you have drivers of appetite regulation that are quite powerful,” adds Collins.
“Immediately after an active phase of dieting, you can easily recoil back, especially if you’ve lost a lot of weight in a short timeframe, as these drivers are even more powerful.
“It’s hard because the Westernised world is obesogenic – we have access to food that’s highly palatable and relatively cheap.”
That’s where motivation comes in. Of course, this is an individual thing. You might want to cut those last few pounds to crack the top 20% at Etape du Tour, or you might want to lose a stone for health purposes.
Either way, maintenance of motivation comes in many forms. Making your goal real helps. This might be sticking a note on your kitchen door or going public on social media.
A daily, weekly and monthly plan provides direction and structure, and gives you milestones en route to your goal.
It must be tailored to you and your life – for example, training on Zwift in your lunch hour and splitting the sessions in half to be more time efficient.
Last but not least, banish negativity. Replace energy-sapping thoughts of, ‘It’s raining and my shoes will get muddy’, with positive affirmations, images of sunshine or your personal mantra.
Close your eyes and picture yourself as being strong, confident and at race weight.
Yes, it sounds trite but, ultimately, you’re only as powerful as your mind. Stay focused but prepare for the odd blip and you’ll be leaner, fitter and faster in no time. Well, soon anyway…