A thread for people that struggle to hold onto weight...

[Jon in Sweden]

Greek/Turkish yoghurt - 10% fat.500g 535 with stewed apple/jam/sugar 100?

500ml tropical juice 255.

Porridge - 125g oats 454, 450ml full fat milk 288, 20g sugar 80

Cornflakes . 125g.473 600ml full fat milk 384. 20g sugar. 80

500g fruit yoghurt 415

50g sweets 178

Dinner: 250g pork roast 618, 300g mixed veg 150, 800g potatoes 600, 40g butter 298. 500ml beer 217.

400g or so of homemade stewed apple 216

So that's a total of 5341 kcals.

In 2009 I cycled a total of 6011 miles at 11.5mph, and walked another 996 at 4.3mph, and went from 82kg to 70kg on 1147303kcals, which is an average of 3143/day for a comparable(?) level of exercise.
The calorific value of bodyfat is 7800kcal/kg, so to maintain my weight I would have needed another 12x7800= 93600kcal, or 3399kcal/day.

Taking my mean weight as 76kg, and correcting for the difference between my weight and yours, 3399x104/76 = 4651kcal/day.

On my 20day summer tour that year I was averaging 44miles and 4300kcal/day.

If that menu above is typical (is it?) I think it ought to be enough unless you're cycling much faster perhaps.

(PS: If you have no appetite after exercise, and have trouble forcing food down when you don't feel hungry, that's a symptom of overtraining.)

Oooh, now you're talking my language. I love a bit of statistical analysis, especially when it comes down to diet. I think you're mostly spot on, except the values for the yoghurts are a bit low. A couple hundred extra calories there (according to the containers they are sold in).

My average speed on the bike is about 18mph, unless I'm gravel biking or mountain biking, in which case it drops to about 16mph and 14mph respectively.

I have a lot (for a cyclist) of muscle mass that is metabolically active, but not necessarily needed for cycling. So when I was competing as a cyclist as a kid (14-15 years old) I was about 6ft 4-5" and 65-67kg. By the time I stopped growing (6ft 8") I wasn't doing so much cycling, but I was competing in Taekwondo but I was still only 77kg. I'm about 105kg now, with all but about 6-7kg of that additional muscle. So that's an extra 21kg of metabolically active muscle, so I'm maybe burning at extra 400kcal at rest just for that. Then the addition of light weights training increases the metabolic demand further.

But I'm fascinated how and why peoples metabolic rates are so different. I'd describe myself as wiry but strong. I sold some machinery in the UK to a chap who is almost the same height as me (he would have been 6ft 6") but was much broader. Interestingly, he was wearing 2-3 more layers than me whenever I met him. He'd happily work in a jumper in summer (in tree surgery) whereas I've operated chainsaws in a forestry setting in a t-shirt in minus 10.

What causes such radically different base line metabolisms? My only shuts down to that level if I'm properly physically inactive for over a month. If I do any exercise, manual labour or such like, my calorie need soars, my base temperature increases and I need to eat like a horse.

This is a topic that has always interested me, and it's been intriguing to see how the introduction of a broad exercise base (cycling, weights, swimming) has affected my metabolism.

[David2504]

I am very tall and burn an awful lot of calories. I struggle to hold onto weight if I'm cycling a lot, and with the effort of moving house (internationally) and a now much more active lifestyle, I've lost about 5-6kg over the last 2-3 months. Down from 110kg, to about 104kg

You might be surprised by the findings of a scientific study reported in the press in the the link below

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/0 ... nt-matter/

[Jdsk]

"Higher than predicted resting energy expenditure and lower physical activity in healthy underweight Chinese adults":
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 3122001942
(Probably paywalled)

Jonathan

PS: And a nice piece of nominative determinism.

[David2504]

I am very tall and burn an awful lot of calories. I struggle to hold onto weight if I'm cycling a lot, and with the effort of moving house (internationally) and a now much more active lifestyle, I've lost about 5-6kg over the last 2-3 months. Down from 110kg, to about 104kg.

I know how to eat well, and how to pack calories in, but the sheer calorie burn cycling 200km a week..... Swimming every day (only 10-15 minutes, but the water is starting to cool now, resulting in more calories burned) and cycling the kids to and from school. I also spent about 3hrs down dismantling a neighbours tree and processing the firewood.

As an example, this is what I've eaten today.

Greek/Turkish yoghurt - 10% fat. 500g with stewed apple/jam/sugar for first breakfast

500ml tropical juice during my 50km morning ride.

Porridge - 125g oats, 450ml full fat milk, 20g sugar

Cornflakes (not an ideal lunch, but it was a busy day). 125g. 600ml full fat milk. 20g sugar.

500g fruit yoghurt

50g sweets (a rare treat, prior to starting my neighbours tree)

Dinner: 250g pork roast, 300g mixed veg, 800g potatoes, 40g butter. 500ml beer.

I'll have 400g or so of homemade stewed apple before bed.

And I'm struggling to maintain weight on a diet like this!

What kind of tricks do you guys have to avoid unwanted weight loss?

[peetee]

I remember people telling me when I was younger that it all changes in your 30s and into your 40s (I'm now 38) but that hasn't happened for me!

I too was very thin in my youth. 60 kg and 6’0” tall as a teenager and in to my 20’s when I was most active on a bike. My diet wasn’t great but I did consume a lot of carbs with pasta, rice or potatoes forming the main portion of every meal and to the detriment of fruit and vegetables. I suffered very badly from hunger knock when exercising and put this down to lack of fat stores. The complication for me was major surgery as an infant involving the removal of a large section of intestine. Experience has shown me that for every 1000 calories I consume about a third is actually absorbed or made usefully available! Frustratingly any advice I tried to obtain from the NHS was returned in the form of comments such as “why are you complaining? 80% of the population wish they were your size!”
Of more relevance to your quote is the fact that i was much later than most in putting on weight. It didn’t happen til my mid-forties and that coincided with start of a drastic reduction in exercise. If that hadn’t happened I wonder what I would weigh now.
I am approaching my late fifties and have been back in motion for three years. I weigh 76kg now and like to get out of breath often when I ride but I am struggling to loose any weight.
Which ‘me’ would I prefer to be? Hmmm, difficult one. I really miss being competitive on hills. Being rake-thin was a huge impediment to my self-esteem. Being a successful hill-climber helped me overcome that but I still struggled in other social environments. I was fit, but I wasn’t healthy. Any bug would knock the stuffing out of me and I caught a lot of what was going round. Now on the bike my extra weight is very obvious and I struggle on hills and gaining muscle-mass to compensate is beyond my resolve so far. I rarely get bugs but I have made significant changes to my diet which may have helped the old hunger knock problem which has all but disappeared now. So definitely some benefits from the extra weight.
So in conclusion yes, you’re late leaving the party but hey, don’t rush to close that door behind you.

[Jon in Sweden]

I remember people telling me when I was younger that it all changes in your 30s and into your 40s (I'm now 38) but that hasn't happened for me!

I too was very thin in my youth. 60 kg and 6’0” tall as a teenager and in to my 20’s when I was most active on a bike. My diet wasn’t great but I did consume a lot of carbs with pasta, rice or potatoes forming the main portion of every meal and to the detriment of fruit and vegetables. I suffered very badly from hunger knock when exercising and put this down to lack of fat stores. The complication for me was major surgery as an infant involving the removal of a large section of intestine. Experience has shown me that for every 1000 calories I consume about a third is actually absorbed or made usefully available! Frustratingly any advice I tried to obtain from the NHS was returned in the form of comments such as “why are you complaining? 80% of the population wish they were your size!”
Of more relevance to your quote is the fact that i was much later than most in putting on weight. It didn’t happen til my mid-forties and that coincided with start of a drastic reduction in exercise. If that hadn’t happened I wonder what I would weigh now.
I am approaching my late fifties and have been back in motion for three years. I weigh 76kg now and like to get out of breath often when I ride but I am struggling to loose any weight.
Which ‘me’ would I prefer to be? Hmmm, difficult one. I really miss being competitive on hills. Being rake-thin was a huge impediment to my self-esteem. Being a successful hill-climber helped me overcome that but I still struggled in other social environments. I was fit, but I wasn’t healthy. Any bug would knock the stuffing out of me and I caught a lot of what was going round. Now on the bike my extra weight is very obvious and I struggle on hills and gaining muscle-mass to compensate is beyond my resolve so far. I rarely get bugs but I have made significant changes to my diet which may have helped the old hunger knock problem which has all but disappeared now. So definitely some benefits from the extra weight.
So in conclusion yes, you’re late leaving the party but hey, don’t rush to close that door behind you.

Thank you for sharing your very interesting experiences. I hope that your childhood surgery wasn't too much of an impediment to cycle enjoyment.

I suppose I have some body image issues associated with being too thin. Until I started weight training in my late teens, I was painfully thin. It made for good cycle performance, but not much else.

I've had a life of various sports and I'm not back where I started. But also, my work (forestry, sawmilling, timber industry in general) requires that I am reasonably strong. If I dedicated myself to cycling fully and lost 15kg or so (which I could very easily do), I'd be a lot faster on the bike, but it would be at the expense of my versatility as a human being. I think being able to chuck around my daughters when we play in the lake. I like that If needs be I can pick up heavy things.

That extra mass is probably the main reason I burn so many calories on a daily basis, but it's something I'm willing to pay for (both metaphorically and literally!).

I very much relate to people saying that I should be grateful that I don't gain weight easily! But for 15 year old me, with a BMI of about 18 and body image issues, that wasn't especially helpful.

[Vorpal]

But I'm fascinated how and why peoples metabolic rates are so different. I'd describe myself as wiry but strong. I sold some machinery in the UK to a chap who is almost the same height as me (he would have been 6ft 6") but was much broader. Interestingly, he was wearing 2-3 more layers than me whenever I met him. He'd happily work in a jumper in summer (in tree surgery) whereas I've operated chainsaws in a forestry setting in a t-shirt in minus 10.

What causes such radically different base line metabolisms? My only shuts down to that level if I'm properly physically inactive for over a month. If I do any exercise, manual labour or such like, my calorie need soars, my base temperature increases and I need to eat like a horse.

This is a topic that has always interested me, and it's been intriguing to see how the introduction of a broad exercise base (cycling, weights, swimming) has affected my metabolism.

There are quite a few articles about this sort of thing that are accessible to non experts, though there is also lots of misinformation & half truths. Most of it is orieted toward weight loss, rather than weight gain.

One of the things that you may not have considered is that thin people use more calories keeping warm, and something simple, like wearing more or warmer clothes might reduce your resting calorie consumption. The weight loss might not be entirely down to a more active lifestyle.

The TL, DR version is that it is a combination of size, weight, muscle mass, fat, genetics, sex, hormones, environment, and some mechanisms that aren't yet understood.

This article is oriented on metabolism boosters for weight loss, but the human metabolism system is explained pretty well, including where/when we burn the most calories:
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/18/11685254/ ... eight-loss

That said, most people, whether gaining or losing weight, reach a sort of plateau, or new normal after a few months, and I think that your weight loss is unlikely to continue for much longer.

[Jon in Sweden]

But I'm fascinated how and why peoples metabolic rates are so different. I'd describe myself as wiry but strong. I sold some machinery in the UK to a chap who is almost the same height as me (he would have been 6ft 6") but was much broader. Interestingly, he was wearing 2-3 more layers than me whenever I met him. He'd happily work in a jumper in summer (in tree surgery) whereas I've operated chainsaws in a forestry setting in a t-shirt in minus 10.

What causes such radically different base line metabolisms? My only shuts down to that level if I'm properly physically inactive for over a month. If I do any exercise, manual labour or such like, my calorie need soars, my base temperature increases and I need to eat like a horse.

This is a topic that has always interested me, and it's been intriguing to see how the introduction of a broad exercise base (cycling, weights, swimming) has affected my metabolism.

There are quite a few articles about this sort of thing that are accessible to non experts, though there is also lots of misinformation & half truths. Most of it is orieted toward weight loss, rather than weight gain.

One of the things that you may not have considered is that thin people use more calories keeping warm, and something simple, like wearing more or warmer clothes might reduce your resting calorie consumption. The weight loss might not be entirely down to a more active lifestyle.

The TL, DR version is that it is a combination of size, weight, muscle mass, fat, genetics, sex, hormones, environment, and some mechanisms that aren't yet understood.

This article is oriented on metabolism boosters for weight loss, but the human metabolism system is explained pretty well, including where/when we burn the most calories:
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/18/11685254/ ... eight-loss

That said, most people, whether gaining or losing weight, reach a sort of plateau, or new normal after a few months, and I think that your weight loss is unlikely to continue for much longer.

The issue is that I get so warm so quickly. I just run really hot most of the time. If I wear more clothes, I feel like I'm boiling up.

It doesn't help that I had epilepsy from the ages of 8-14 and heat/drowsiness was one of the main triggers. I'd much sooner be too cold than too hot.

It's a slightly unusual problem to have though, as 99% of the diet industry seems to be geared towards weight loss, rather than weight gain (albeit there is a substantial amount of literature within the strength training/bodybuilding industry).