richwagmn said:
Things that have helped me:
* Don't eat until you're hungry. Really.
* Drink a tasty beverage during the day (I like ice tea). Often people eat when they're thirsty.
* Snacking is a real killer for me. Again, having something to drink seems to help me not snack.
* Avoid the super high calorie items. Peanut butter things like that are super high calorie.
* If you are gonna snack, keep something like veggies around.
Finally, just enjoy riding again. If you keep riding and just eat sensibly,the weight will come off.
I completely disagree with not eating until you're hungry. Eating small amounts throughout the day prevent you from feeling hungry. If you get to the point of feeling hungry you will, more often than not, overeat.
Your body takes about 15 minutes to realize that you've eaten something...you can pack away a lot of food for 15 minutes before your body gets the idea it's being fed. With that in mind eating slower (smaller bites perhaps) means your body will get the 'being fed' message when less has been consumed.
I do agree strongly on the drinking/thirst point. Sipping water throughout the day will keep hunger at bay also.
Typically I drink water through the day (sometimes green tea or similar) and have a snack, fruit of veggie, every 1hr 30mins or so.
My basic plan on a work day looks like this:
4:45am - Get up and have a banana
5:30am - Gym for 1 hour
7:00am - Breakfast (oatmeal based with some protein)
8:40am - Snack
10:20am - Snack
12:00pm - Lunch (~500 calories, mix of protein and complex carbs)
1:30pm - Snack
3:00pm - Snack
4:30pm - Piece of fruit
5:00pm - 15 mile ride (something like that...45 mins)
6:15pm - Dinner (~600 calories or so, similar make up to lunch)
Later...glass of red wine
The total for the day will be in the 2000-2500 calorie range. I'm 6'-0" and 175.
This is just my plan that works for me, everyone is different...experiment and log your info.