Anyone lost a lot of weight, and kept it off?

[Shrike]

Yes after years of reading the same arguments back and forth all over the internet, we still don’t have a plan for training and maintaining a high level of adaptation for both key energy systems. Should we be doing specifically X amount of time in zone low carb or X number of fasted rides per year for example. Or is simply reducing carbs gradually for all rides but not beyond a certain point, better.

I’ve done a lot of fasting since making this thread by the way. 2 weeks prolonged fast was my best and I could have kept going if I didn’t do something stupid and fall off the wagon. What I noticed is I was able to ride almost at threshold for around 40 mins after day 3 of a prolonged fast.

That fascinated me and wanted to dive deeper into how it was physically possible (especially while feeling euphoric) but ultimately it’s too problematic for a lot of reasons. And efforts above threshold are appalling. Muscles feel weak.

What I will say for low carb or fasting is that mentally it’s a different game. I felt amazing fasted. But not when cycling. It’s great for losing weight and a fun challenge but training on it is horrible.

I’m even scared off doing early morning fasted rides. I feel like it throws my hormones into a frenzy later in the day and appetite gets out of control. Shame because that’s actually kinda nice, getting up super early like 5am and doing a gentle ride to wake up and burn some fat.

[gurk700]

I keep things simple.
I fast only to train my body to burn fat and not need carbs all the time. I also don’t “diet on the bike”

- After only a few days of doing 14-16 hour fasting, I stop getting as hungry especially in the mornings.
- I lose weight (I’m 142lbs at 5’7 so it’s not like I lose 15 lbs in a month, obviously. But still experience a significant rate of loss for my weight)
- I always carb up for rides. per 1hr: 40-80gr depending on intensity. (more if you can handle it) I wouldn’t recommend dieting on the bike. Hard work of dieting should be done off the bike IMO.
- Long rides: Fast, eat a good nutritious meal and ride 2-3 hours later. Or take it very easy the first hour if you ride within an hour after you eat. Then use 40-80gram rule on the bike.
- Short intense rides: Fast, pop quick carbs before your ride (bloks, gels) then ride and use 40-80gram rule on the bike.

Above has been successful for me after years of trying different stuff and not losing weight or occasionally bonking etc.

[petromyzon]

I’ve done a lot of fasting since making this thread by the way. 2 weeks prolonged fast was my best and I could have kept going if I didn’t do something stupid and fall off the wagon. What I noticed is I was able to ride almost at threshold for around 40 mins after day 3 of a prolonged fast.

You fasted for 2 solid weeks whilst riding your bike? No calorie intake whatsoever? Does not seem sensible.

[Shrike]

No never done a 2 week fast while riding. Though you could do very light riding for sure if you were able to maintain electrolytes.

I’ve done a ton of fasts by now would take ages to go through all the experiences but I have experimented with riding after 3 days fasts (for me I feel like this is when I’m fully in ketosis). At this stage I still feel healthy, and not light headed etc.

I was doing alpe du zwift and seeing how hard I could ride during ketosis. Never made it to top but my best effort was stunning my standards I felt and opens up the possibility perhaps of fatal adaptation reaching a stage where it can sustain high power numbers.

Quit shortly after that and fasting isn’t a solution to everything either. It’s deeply problematic and I have a lot of good and bad experiences.

FWIW though, many prolonged fasters do regular workouts! But I think they were probably much more experienced than I was. I simply went through a fad for about a year of trying to see how far I could push things.

I’d love to do a month some time though. Honestly that would be a massive mental achievement for me.