Street Trials on a Vintage Ladies Bike

Long Duration training vs HIIT

A couple of weeks ago I had a light bulb moment and realised if I can maintain my weight (like I've been doing for the last 4-5 months) or even slowly put it on, then I can just as easily slowly lose it as well. All it takes is a slight but consistent reduction in calories every day.

While "meal splitting" has been somewhat successful for me, it hasn't turned out to be the break-though I'd hoped for. When it comes to food intake I know I'm on the right track with what I'm eating, but when it comes to reducing the quantity I just can't seem to do it on a consistent basis.

What I can do though is increase the amount of exercise I do to achieve a calorie deficit. Now, I've been feeling crap in the gym so I've been skipping a lot of workouts. That was getting me down quite a bit but then I figured why flog a dead horse when I can put my focus into something that I am enjoying lately - mountain biking. I figured I'm only a couple of hundred calories per day short of what I need to lose weight, so adding about 30 mins to my daily ride should just about do the trick and I shouldn't worry so much about weight training. However, if I can add a few walk/jogs in the afternoons and pop in the odd weight routine when the mood strikes me that'll be a bonus. Even if I don't though, I should start seeing a 1/2 - 1 kg weight loss per week, which should be just about pure fat too. (Which is one advantage in "burning it off" rather than under-eating).

And, it's started to work. I've seen my average speeds steadily dropping and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting back to my old self.

Then this landed in my inbox, which basically says that lots of aerobic work is a terrible way to lose body fat and we should focus instead on intervals and strength training.

On the one hand I know that the best success I've had to date has been a routine of 30 min intervals on the road bike in the mornings followed by 30 mins of weight training at nights 4 times per week so I know intervals work, but I also burned out after a couple of months and couldn't continue the pace.

On the other hand I also know that Mountain biking is intervals anyway. The riding is short bursts of anaerobic activity followed by somewhat of a rest (I say "somewhat" because downhills involve less leg work but still plenty of upper body to stay on the track).

So the truth I think lies somewhere in between and a balance of some intervals, some strength training and some solid state exercise is the way to go. I know what I've started doing is working for me, and when I talk about "longer duration" I'm really only increasing my 30-40 min rides to 60-70 mins and I'm still doing plenty of interval work amongst it anyway.

Now I just need to stay out of the cookie jar and start adding some jog/walks and weight training in there once my interest returns, which I expect should happen quite naturally as my fitness continues to improve. As a matter of fact I can feel an urge building already...

The Bat Cave

Bbanger took us out on an epic ride on Saturday to the other side of Samford to "the bat cave" (a former railway tunnel now closed to trains and home to a colony of bats being monitored by the University of Queensland) and then back home via House Mountain.

Bunya Bat Cave House Mt from Darb Ryan on Vimeo.

This time I only hit 81 kmh on Burns Road (you'll see me fly past around the 36 sec mark) but then there were a lot more people around me and I didn't want to be a dick and throw rocks up at someone or look like a douche if/when I crash and create a mushroom cloud big enough to be seen from space (thanks Wingadelic). On the other hand, my climbing is seriously sucking lately so I probably should show I'm good for something from time to time...

83kmh on Dirt

Here's some helmet cam footage Darb took a little while ago on one of Bbanger's epic Saturday Arvo rides.

Ironbark and Samford Pony Trails from Darb Ryan on Vimeo.

Around the 3.30 mark I go around him and later found out my speedo had hit 83kmh there.

Meal Splitting

Well, my plateau issues continue so I decided to pull the pin on Weight Watchers and give Tom Venuto's "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" program a go. So far I'm very excited with what I've been reading and I'm confident once I start to implement his principles I'll get past this dreadful sticking point and finally take it all the way home.

It seems I've been in a classic "starvation mode" all along and my metabolism has slowed so that now I'm not losing weight any more on the same (meagre) calories and if I eat more I start to gain, but if I eat less I don't have the energy to exercise so I still gain (or at least don't lose it). Damned if I do and damned if I don't...

The trick is to ramp my metabolism up by eating more. Not so much that I put on fat but also not so little that I lose the energy to work out and/or lose lean body mass. That sounds like it could be tricky but with some careful planning it's entirely possible (and probably the only correct way to lose weight fat anyway).

Tom, like may other fitness experts, recommends 5 or 6 small meals per day and each meal should contain a balance of carbs, proteins and fats somewhere around 50-55% carbs, 30% protein and 15-20% fat. Oddly when I punch my numbers into Calorie King it shows I'm a bit high on the fat and protein and not getting enough carbs. The fat comes as no surprise (getting fat intake below 20% is easier said than done) but I'd been expecting my carbs would be too high and I wasn't getting enough protein... Well, slap me with a slice of wholegrain (hold the ham & mayo)!

One method he recommends to change 3 meals into 6 is to just split your meals in two and eat half now and the other half 2-3 hours later. You're never full this way but you're never empty either so insulin levels are more stable, and you're always assured that the next meal is only an hour or two away so a bit of hunger is easy to tolerate.

I've found the meal splitting idea an awesome break-through for me. Splitting my lunch so that I have half around midday and the other half around 3 means I'm not looking for an afternoon snack. Splitting dinner means my belly isn't too full after dinner so I feel up to hitting the gym rather than slumping in front of the TV, and then later on I eat the other half when I'd normally be looking for a snack (read: having a nocturnal eating frenzy). All in all it means not only am I taking in less calories but I'm also getting into the gym regularly again so I'm burning a bit more as well as preserving and maybe even increasing my lean body mass a little too.

Has it made a difference on the tape or scales? Not yet but I need to be patient for my metabolism to get normal again and to also make the final break away from sugar/junk food. I'm confident though.

There's no such thing as failure

Only results.

And the results aren't good so I need to rethink things.

Yes, I've been through the silly season and like most people have put on a little weight, and like most people I've also made resolutions and so far haven't seen many through.

I decided I needed a new evening routine to break the habit of nocturnal cravings so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and start a whole new plan for the gym in the evenings after dinner. Week one I came down with a cold and now in week 2 we have a heat wave and hitting the garage in >30C just isn't going to happen. D'oh!

Upping my breakfast and lunch portions hasn't worked as well as I'd hoped either, and now I'm thinking I may have been better off with what I was doing before. At least then I had a few more calories to play with when I did eat a bit more than planned of an evening.

I have been thinking about goals though and have some that are actually inspiring me -

• To conquer night time cravings (short term goal - one month)
  
• To run for 30 mins non stop (mid term goal - 3 - 4 months)
  
• To bench press 100 kg for 6 reps (mid term goal - 3 - 4 months)
• To get a waist measurement of 94 cm or less (long term - within a year)

The waist measurement is interesting. I've heard a lot of other weight watchers echo my own sentiments that the upper BMI limit just didn't seem realistic. Because I have so much muscle I've never been certain what my goal weight should be so it's been difficult to set a target in that regard. Well, a 94cm waist measurement is a realistic target. If I look at exceptions to the BMI chart, people who are technically overweight or obese but are actually quite fit like bodybuilders and rugby players, their waist measurements are still below 94cm. In other words you can be heavy and fit but your waist will still always be small.

Running and weight lifting are kind of odd goals for me because I'm not actually doing either at the moment. I am walking in the afternoons more as a de-stress and to get me away from food sources until dinner time and I was planning to do weights of an evening but circumstances have been against me in that regard so far. I am quite excited about these goals though so these things will change. I expect the walking will start to be interspersed with some wind sprints, leading eventually to longer and longer running times, and eventually I will make it back into the gym. It will happen!

The nocturnal cravings? Well, I will try going back to my old, smaller breakfast and lunch portion sizes and see if things are actually worse of an evening. Hopefully the end result will mean less overall calories for the day even if I do slip up a bit from time to time. I think the main problem there though is one of habit, my body is used to getting junky foods around that time, so breaking my routine is going to be the answer and I do hope that I will be able to substitute the gym for TV watching and then hit the sack a bit earlier than I have been to get more sleep which should in turn benefit the other aspects.

Success will be mine...

10 tips to prevent diet fail

I came across a couple of interesting articles entitled "10 Things You May Not Know About Your Weight" and "10 Weight Loss Myths That May Ruin Your Diet". Well worth a read but I thought I'd add my own 1o points about losing weight that I've found beneficial or at least worth knowing.

We all know the energy balance equation: Calories In vs Calories Out. ie Eat more than you use and you gain weight, eat less than you use and you lose weight. Seems simple enough, but if it's so simple why do so many struggle with weight loss?

Because it isn't so simple. There are a myriad of factors that influence whether or not a diet will be successful or not. I should add here that when a diet "fails", it isn't the diet that's failing. Rather it's the dieter's failure to stick to it that's the problem. That could be the diet's failure if it's too restrictive but more often than not it's other factors in the dieter's life that need addressing.

Here's my 10 tips for why a diet could be failing:

1. Not recording food intake. A diet can fail due to eating too much but it can also fail due to eating too little. Undereating causes the famine response, making it increasingly harder to control hunger and cravings. The trick is to aim for a moderate calorie deficit of say 500 calories a day which should lead to a weight loss of .5 - 1 kg per week, and without experiencing excessive hunger. The only way to achieve that without going too far over or under is to write down everything that goes down the hole.
Remember, the slower the weight loss the more likely it is to stay off permanently. Also, it's a percentage game. The more fat you have to lose, the bigger the losses will be (especially at the beginning) and vice versa. The less fat you have to lose, the slower it will come off.

2. Poor nutrition. If your body isn't getting the vitamins, minerals and energy you need it'll keep prompting you to eat more until it gets them. Stick to real meats, veges and fruit that you might find on a farm and less food that comes out of packets with lots of numbers in the ingredients list.

3. Sugar. Sugary and fatty foods are addictive. The more you have the more you want, and there is a withdrawal process to go through when you stop them. If you're a chocoholic (ie can't go a day without it) you need to take your addiction as seriously as any other chemical addiction and treat it accordingly.
Sugar also doesn't trip our "full" signal like other foods do. Excessive hunger while losing weight is often caused by too much sugar and/or simple carbohydrates.
Artificial sweeteners aren't the answer either. There is evidence to suggest that our bodies react to these the same as a sugar hit, only we don't get the calories and our bodies react to that by releasing "hunger hormones".

4. Inadequate sleep. If you're tired your body will trigger hormones that make you feel hungry.

5. Chronic Stress & Depression. These two often go hand in hand. Constant stress and depression causes our bodies to release "hunger hormones". Jon Gabriel theorises that our evolved bodies can only respond to this kind of stress as either famine or cold and the best way to make sure we don't die under these conditions is to slow down our metabolic rates and prompt us to eat as much as we can find.
If you're in this category you need to find a way to cope better or change your life.

6. Self Sabotage. Everyone has a concept of self whether we're aware of it or not. If we see ourselves as successful, or nothing special, or complete failures we'll subconsciously work to fit that image. We tend to only do what we believe is possible. If we think we're doomed to be fat then we more than likely will be.

7. Poor hydration. Much of our cravings and feelings of hunger may actually be thirst in disguise. Makes sense, a lot of our primitive foods had a much higher water content than much of our modern diet. Next time you feel stupidly hungry or can't shake a craving, try a glass (or 3) of water first.

8. Exercising to "burn calories". Attempting to exercise to burn calories doesn't add up. Our bodies have become too efficient at that game. It's a losing battle. It's far easier not to eat the cookie than to try to exercise it off. However, what exercise does do is increase our muscle size or strength/density, and/or our cardio fitness which in turn increases our metabolic rates as well as reductions in stress levels, all of which make a big difference when it comes to losing weight fat.
Some women worry about ending up looking like Arnold in a bikini but that's only possible if you take lots of steroids, have the right genes (read freaks of nature) and spend 10 hours a day in the gym. Same goes for most men. Most of us on a good weight training program (ie heavy stuff that makes you grunt) will only end up nicely toned & buff rather than freaky.

9. The "All or nothing" attitude. If you blow the diet it's easy to beat yourself up and give up for the rest of the week. Diets needn't be so rigid and should be more about doing "just enough" to get the job done rather than trying to achieve some sort of "perfect" diet nirvana. Hey, this is the real world. Stuff happens. If you blow it just move on and get back on plan straight away.

10. Going it alone. Dieting is hard. You're going to get hungry and sometimes it's going to truly suck. Join a group or at least buddy up. A problem shared is a problem halved.