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It can be as challenging to get a couple of kilos off the body of a high level athlete as it can be to get twenty plus kilos off a non athlete. This is for the simple reason that the specificity of training, fitness and metabolic efficiently is so much greater in a highly trained person and hence any dietary or training modification made with the goal of fat loss, needs to be precise.
Basically, the seemingly complex nature of fat loss can be attributed to the fact that the body likes to be in a metabolically stable or ‘homeostatic’ state. This means that once your body has become used to your current training load and food intake patterns, it becomes ‘set’ in this way. As a result of this stabilizing tendency, to continually prevent weight gain or to actively lose body fat we need to actually improve the body’s ability to burn fat, at different levels of fitness.
Highly trained people often eat relatively large volumes; but they may not be greatly stressing their body in terms of training load and they may also be spending their time away from training in a relatively inactive way, which can also see the weight gradually creep on. Relax though; a few simple home truths about the logistics of fat loss should get you back on track in no time.

How Committed Are You To Achieving Your Goal?

Individual’s definitions of commitment differ widely. For some, a routine trip to the gym three times a week represents the ultimate level of commitment. For others, commitment means nothing less than training at the highest level every day for an hour and a half.
The truth is that neither of these examples is relevant to anyone but the person setting it. The level of commitment required for fat loss will differ considerably between individuals as each of us has a different body type, genetic background, level of fitness and long-term sporting goals.
For some cyclists, this may mean extra weight training to develop more metabolically active muscle tissue to improve fat burning potential, whilst for others, an extra session or two on the bike with heart rate monitoring may be adequate.
If you are serious about losing some body fat for good, be prepared to do whatever it takes for you to achieve your goals as an individual.

What Do You Really Eat?

It sounds so simple, but try writing down all the extras that slip in during the day and you may well have the answer as to why you are not losing body fat!
Individuals with high training loads, and hunger levels to match are often used to eating what ever they feel like, whenever they feel like it. Slices of cakes at work for office celebrations, the office biscuit tin, lollies at night, picking before dinner and energy dense snack foods such as 97% fat free muesli bars, rice crackers and sugar loaded drinks such as fruit juice and soft drink are the most common culprits that prevent fat loss.
Write down everything you go to put into your mouth for just one or two days and you will see how easy it is to identify the extras and get rid of them.

Are Your Nutrients Balanced?

The less weight you have to lose, the more precise the balance needs to be in terms of the quantities of protein, carbohydrate and fat you are eating. A simple thing such as having too much carbohydrate in the morning or too little fat can prevent fat loss.
The best way to identify your nutrient balance is to have nutrient analysis completed by a professional. Generally speaking a good balance for fat loss is approximately 40% energy form carbohydrate, ~30% from protein and ~30% from good fats. This regime will ensure that your variety of foods is not overly restrictive but is more sustainable than strict regimes such as Atkins (which is ~10% carbohydrate, ~50% fat, ~30-40% protein.)
Completely cutting our carbohydrate rich foods such as bread, rice and pasta, when you are training can actually reduce your metabolic functioning as your body is forced to break down muscle tissue to use as energy. This is not such a good idea long term.
A better option is to eat a balance of carbohydrates and proteins during the day, recover after all sessions using a high glycaemic index carbohydrate foods such as 100% orange juice, and then lightening your food intake at night, sticking to meat and vegetables.
Finally; make sure that you are having three to four serves of good quality fat found in olive oil, nuts, avocado and oily fish each day. This will ensure you have adequate fat to maintain optimal metabolic function and help to prevent reduced immune functioning while you are losing body fat.

Achieving Carbohydrate and Protein Balance

Here is a short list of foods and drinks that will help you achieve a balance of carbohydrate and protein:
Wrap breads with chicken breast or tuna
Yogurt and fruit
Nut based snack bars
Reduced fat cheese and crackers
Liquid meal replacement drinks
Skim milk coffees and smoothies
Sushi
Protein bars
Protein shakes on skim milk

At What Time Do You Eat?

The ability to burn fat depends on what different fuels the body has available to it. Within a mixed meal of carbohydrate, protein and fat, the body will always utilise the carbohydrate and proteins before it will the fat. This is merely an evolutionary adaptation for humans to store extra fat for times of famine. What this means in terms of fat loss, is that even if you eat a very low fat, nutritionally balanced diet, if you eat the bulk of your calories in the second half of the day you are unlikely to burn body fat simply because the body will spend its time digesting the carbohydrate and protein contents of your food and is unlikely to get to fat stores before you eat again the next day.
For this reason, a key step in fat loss is to shift your food intake forward, Aim for a carbohydrate protein breakfast, morning tea and lunch and then taper off the carbs sticking to meat and vegetables for dinner.
Naturally, rewarding yourself with chocolates, biscuits or lollies late at night for all your hard work during the day is not a good idea as it is fuelling you up at night and likely to be preventing fat stores being broken down.

Do You Do The Right Type Of Exercise?

Even though you may already be committing much time to sessions on the bike, remember that in most cases, your body will be very used to this type of training. To be an efficient fat burner, you need to have your heart rate elevated for a significant period of time, with no breaks. This may not be happening if you have already adapted to your training sessions on the bike. This may mean that you need to add in a couple of hard sessions on the treadmill, rower or exercise bike, and perhaps add in a couple free weights sessions to really get your heart rate up, and your body working at a higher intensity to increase metabolic functioning.

Have You Had Your Hormones Checked?

Medically there are not many conditions that directly impact on weight status but insulin resistance is one of them. Insulin resistance is a state in which the body is having trouble processing the carbohydrates found in foods as the hormone secreted by the body to break these foods down, insulin, is not working properly. Symptoms of insulin resistance include an inability to lose body fat despite following a strict diet and exercise program, skin pigmentation, fatigue, bloating and a family history of infertility or Type 2 diabetes. Talk to your local GP if you have any of these symptoms and are having a significant amount of trouble losing body fat.


Susie Burrell is a specialist sports dietitian with an honours degree in psychology. Susie is the specialist obesity dietitian at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and is also currently the consultant sports dietitian to a number of elite sporting teams including the St George Illawarra Dragons, Parramatta Eels, Illawarra Hawks Basketball. Sydney University Sport and Randwick Rugby Club.To subscribe to her weekly updates, see www.susieburrell.com.au.

Susie’s Truths About Fat Loss

After working primarily in fat loss with athletes, children, teenagers and adults for the past seven years, these are ten things I know to be true:
1) Fat loss is hard work. There is no easy way to lose weight.
2) You can get 10, maybe 20 kilograms off with food restriction alone but you can get 20 + kilograms off and keep it off if you do resistance training.
3) The right exercise is just as important as the right diet.
4) Low carbohydrate diets only work for as long as you can keep doing them.
5) It is extremely hard to shift weight after someone has been on a constant diet for years and years.
6) You either want to lose weight or you don’t—there is nothing in between. If you are not 100% committed, don’t even bother trying.
7) How a person looks after their body tends to be a marker of how they look after their life.
8) Body builders know just as much about losing body fat as any scientifically trained professional.
9) Research may give us an idea about what works in practice, but it is the clinicians, the people who see hundreds of paying clients who know the most about fat loss in real life.
10) Every single person will need a different diet and exercise prescription
 

“Published in Bicycling Australia magazine
www.bicyclingaustralia.com