Diet advice

[FishFluff]

Posting in here as it's fairly cycle specific.

I’ve decided that I need to make some changes to my diet recently and I need advice. I’m currently trying to lose a bit of weight and would love to get my body fat percentage down to about 10%. I’m currently 77kg, 178cm and 18% body fat (according to my probably unreliable Withings scales).

In terms of exercise I ride about 150 miles a week, usually split into 3 rides plus a few days where I do a short (2 mile) commute. I also go climbing/bouldering 3 times a week.

I’ve managed to get my weight down from 82kg pre-Xmas, but my body fat percentage is stubbornly hovering around the 18-19% mark. What kind of macros should I be aiming for? The cycling I do tends to be 2 fairly relaxed rides (about 15mph) and one slightly faster one (about 18mph average). Do I need to up the intensity of these rides?

 

[FishFluff]

I generally try to end the day in a deficit of about 500 calories, but honestly it could be more or less than that as I've no idea how accurate the calorie calculations on Strava are and god only knows how much climbing uses. I do track everything though, even if it's only keeping count in my head.

Will give upping the intensity of my rides a try as, to be honest, none of the rides I currently do (all club rides) are much of a struggle now that I'm much fitter. Time to give the 22mph chain gang a try! Not sure I can really fit any extra rides in though as I only have 1 rest day as it is. Could always get up super early and do a long ride before work on the days that I go climbing...

 

[FishFluff]

When you say 1 rest day, do you mean from cycling? As your first post only mentioned three days where you ride currently.

Ride 3 days, bouldering 3 days and then a day of no exercise other than walking a couple of miles to work. Definitely don't want to give up any bouldering sessions as that's effectively my strength training. Keeps everything nice and in proportion!

I think I've got the quantity of calories right as I'm losing weight at a nice steady pace, it's the quality I suck at. When I get in from a ride I'll just eat whatever I can see in front of me in the fridge!

 

[FishFluff]

Cheers, that all sounds like good advice. I think next week I'm going to try and have some quality recovery meals ready made in the fridge so that I can just heat stuff up quickly. No more loading up on post ride pizza!