Having already written about weight and cycling – and concluded that it’s relevant but not worth getting obsessed with – I continue to be (a bit) obsessed with it.
After starting the year at about 70kg, I got down to 66.6 last week. I do it by just trying to be sensible with my eating – not by diet. Last year I tried the 5:2 diet and it worked well. For me it was better to have just two days of thinking about what I ate, calorie-counting all the time would drive me crazy.
After a while I discovered that I’d absorbed enough information about food and nutrition that I didn’t need to do the diet any more and could control weight simply by being sensible. Generally that means eating little that has been very processed, eating more slowly, eating smaller portions and eating more fruit and vegetables. For a few years I’ve only drunk alcohol on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and I think that helps. I’ll drink during the week if there’s a specific social event – the weekend-only drinking is a guideline, not a religion!
That works pretty well – but I still put weight on at times. Last Friday we had neighbours over for supper and that meant leftovers on Saturday. On Sunday we went to friends for lunch and so Monday morning I was 68.3kg. After 2 days back on sensible eating I was down to 66.2 this morning. I guess that’s a reasonable weight for someone 5′ 10″ (177.8cm) but for cycling up big hills in the summer I try to get closer to 64kg (just over 10 stone in imperial). It is said that specialist climbers on Le Tour weigh about 2 pounds per inch of height, so I just about get to that target and in the last couple of years it’s served me well.
One of the key things is that weight will always be up and down and that weigh-ins every day are a sure way to drive yourself mad. I’ll try to keep reminding myself not to get obsessed!
(an Old Man in Lycra) 