Follow these eight really simple rules to shed a quarter of a kilogram a week from your body and 30 seconds from your climb.
- By Selene Yeager
Cyclists shave grams off their bikes as though they’re preparing to launch them to Mars. The irony is, many of these lean rocket ships are piloted by hefty drivers. Cyclists will spend a thousand bucks to shave 25 grams. Meanwhile, they have kilograms to lose.Why? Because of the misconception that it’s less painful to shed dough from your wallet than your waistline, says Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre. “Weight-loss doesn’t have to be complicated,” she says. “You just have to commit to small changes.”
Here are eight ways to lose at least 250 grams a week. At that rate, you’ll shave 30 seconds off a 5-kilometre climb in a month or less.
At The Table:
* Skip three bites. “Eat two or three fewer bites at every meal than you normally would, and you’ll automatically save up to a couple hundred kilojoules a day,” says Bonci.
* Restock, don’t stockpile. You want to replace the glycogen you burn during a ride, but you don’t want to create a huge energy surplus. “For weight-loss, it’s critically important that you don’t gorge yourself after a ride,” says Bonci. If you sucked down Gu and Powerade during your ride, you’ll have less glycogen to replace.
* Play up protein. Though cyclists shouldn’t jump on the all-protein-all-the-time craze, it is important to have protein with every meal, says Bonci. “Protein foods are more filling and they take more time to chew, so your body has time to register that it’s full, and you eat less than if you were shovelling fistfuls of bread. It also helps build lean muscle and boosts metabolism, so you burn more kilojoules.”
* Strive for five. “Slight hunger pangs mean your body is doing what it needs to do to lose weight,” says Bonci. On a scale of one to 10, with one being hungry and 10 being stuffed, you want to be at five.
* Eat in the a.m. Skipping breakfast leads to depleted glycogen stores, low energy levels and the likelihood of burning precious muscle tissue during a hard workout. Eat a well-balanced meal to stoke your metabolism and have energy to burn.
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