Evolution

I've been doing quite a bit of dietary analysis for the past few months. This was motivated by the following:

In college, I topped out at wholly sedentary, typically drunk, and close to 240lbs (and I don't even want to think about body composition numbers).

When I came to Madison, I started hanging out with a group of regular exercisers, which got me into that vein of hobbies--vastly healthier than some of my lifestyle choices in the days of yore. I started paying a little attention to my diet. And between walking to class 5 days a week and hitting the gym 3-4 times a week, I dropped down to 200 in no time.

Over the next few years, I got pretty into training. Triathlons, rock climbing, and then eventually bike racing. I got to the point last season where I was routinely logging 15-20 hours a week on the bike. And I had the flawed way of thinking that so many roadies have: I ride all the time. I can eat whatever I want.

I did some body composition testing last year--it had me at maybe 185lbs and ~16% body fat. Much better than my 2002 numbers. However, given the fact that I was spending probably 25% of my awake time on a bicycle, I thought it would stand to reason that I'd be leaner than that.

I ramped up the intensity of training (and the volume) and the weight stayed pegged. I had apparently found a balance at 182 lbs. Out of curiousity, I tracked my calories for a couple of weeks--I was averaging ~4000 a day and sometimes as many as 5000. And though most of them were healthy calories with a lot of protein and fiber, it still appeared to be too much. Train all the time, yet hover at 16% body fat.

I cut the calories gradually down to the 3000-3500 range and with it cut almost all refined carbs (sugars, high fructose corn syrup, any carbs that don't have a significant amount of fiber) from the diet. Along with the new diet changes, I also cut the Long Steady Distance from the routine and replaced it with weight training. My total training volume is down significantly from the spring.

Yet since mid summer, I'm down to 170lbs and ~10-12% body fat before I could bat an eye.

I'd read it a thousand times. And I even knew it to be true from my own experiences: You can't out train a bad diet. Or even a really bountiful good diet.

Why is it that we'll log all of our free time grinding out miles before just trading in the large pizza and pitcher for something healthier? The latter is certainly *easier* than the former. I guess it's that it's just less fun. What's a better night? Going on the group ride and then meeting up for drinks and pizza...or grinding out some intervals alone and eating scrambled eggs cooked with Pam? That and convenience, I suppose.

In any event, if i could go back and give myself some pointers five years ago, they'd go something like this:

1.) Fix the diet first
2.) Don't try to increase exercise to justify your calories
3.) Establish fitness/training goals.
4.) Learn to adapt your training to meet your goals (i.e., if your goal is to dominate 40k time trials, what good is doing yet another junk tempo 4 hour ride with the local wednesday night group?)
5.) Learn as much as you can through independent research and talking to others. But be careful whose advice you take. Some of it is pure gold (JBzero). Some of it won't advance things for you at all (most of your 19 year old cycling teammates who insist on 25 hour weeks on the "just ride a lot" training plan). Some of it may significantly hamper your efforts (your group ride that wants to go kinda hard for kinda long on every ride).
6.) Realize that you're not a pro and you aren't going to be a pro. Your training goals are for fitness, functional strength, and keeping your health for a long time. Train accordingly.

Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying that fixing my diet broke a long standing body composition/body weight plateau and it took no prisoners and wasted no time in doing so.