Very weird diet...

[Xyzzy]

I've been reading the diet forum for a few days trying to figure out how best to diet for my needs...

I am a cyclist and keeping a very low body fat percentage is very importance... I am not looking to muscle build any... I just need to get leaner...

I started in Oct 03 at 280 pounds... I am at 169 right now... For the first 50 pounds I did a ketosis diet but I never had enough energy to do my long cardio workouts... I then switched to the typical cyclist diet which is high carb... I got down to 180 on that... Lately, I have been doing something like a cutting diet, but probably not optimal... It is weird that I came up with this diet without knowing what I was doing...

I eat 5x a day for about 2000 calories... If I don't eat enough carbs before a training session I bonk badly so I typically eat 200 to 250 calories per hour on the bike... I train about 19 hours a week at a relatively high intensity...

In the last month on this diet I have dropped 10 pounds of fat and I am down from 19% to 15%... My goal is to lose another 10-15 pounds which should drop me down to 10-12%...

I've tried in the past to get by with less carbs but my workouts suffer greatly...

A lot of the food I have listed is chosen because I can get it from Sam's Club... I eat at 0900, 1200, 1500, 1800 and 2100...

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated... I have tried to find a local person to help but I feel weird walking into a gym looking like I do... I'm not fat any more but I definitely don't have any muscle mass, except in my legs...

I am very happy with the body fat level of my legs and arms... All the remaining fat I have is in the abdominal area...

I currently don't do anything other than cycling... I ride so much and so hard that most of the other time I am too smoked to do anything else...

I cannot take anything like Ephedra... I kicked the caffeine habit as well so all my fluid intake is water or Gatorade when I am on the bike... I drink about a gallon of water a day...

I currently take fish oil 3x a day, calcium 2x a day, vitamin C, a multivitamin and glucosamine pills for my knees...

I believe I have some sort of insulin problem because losing weight for me is a monumental effort... My metabolism is just too efficient or something... When I do eat normal food my blood sugar levels go through the roof and then a few hours later I crash badly...

I am 35 and male if that matters... Cardiovascularly, I am very fit... My resting heart rate has dropped from 65 to 35-40... All of my rides are 3 hours or longer... In fact, this year alone I have ridden 49 centuries (100 mile rides or longer)...

Following a restrictive diet is getting easier for me over time... I did have a tendency a few months ago to binge eat which I attribute to blood sugar swings from the high carb diet...

Factoring in my regular meals and the food I eat while riding I have averaged 3000 calories a day for the last month... I think with some careful work I can prune that back a bit, but like I mentioned earlier, if I cross the line I lose a lot of energy...

6/19
36.5" waist
7.5" wrist
180#
34.2# body fat
145.8# lean body mass
19% body fat

7/25
34.5" waist
7.5" wrist
169#
25.4# body fat
143.6# lean body mass
15% body fat

Any help is appreciated... Like I mentioned, I cannot afford to put on any bulk... I just need to keep what I have and lose 10-15 pounds and I will be right where I need to be... The last 10 pounds has made a dramatic difference in my cycling...

 

[Xyzzy]

Last week's workouts and calorie counts... This is a typical week...

07-18 / 77.6 / 3132 /  3:30
07-19 / 77.4 / 3121 /  3:45
07-20 / 76.4 / 2637 / rest
07-21 / 76.8 / 2811 /  3:15
07-22 / 76.8 / 2336 / rest
07-23 / 77.4 / 3986 /  6:15
07-24 / 77.2 / 2711 /  2:15

        77.1 / 2962 / 19:00

The first field is the date, then my weight in kilograms, then the number of calories I ate that day and finally the duration of my workout...

Any food ate beyond the 2000 calories a day is primarily power gels and Gatorade, eaten while on the bike...

Here is the last month in summary form...

06/20-06/26 81.5 18h57m36s 2984
06/27-07/03 80.3 23h02m06s 2997
07/04-07/10 79.1 17h13m37s 2951
07/11-07/17 77.8 17h13m47s 2922
07/18-07/24 77.1 19h00m00s 2962