Weight / Fat loss

Lost 3.5kg in 2 days.

I had put on 4 over xmas though so no biggie.

Mince pies are down in price now. New Year nightmare!

I won't miss alcohol for a bit, but crisps are evil and shall not enter the house for a while.

Cos by next week I'll be eying up the offers at Spar again knowing myself :)

Manomasa tortillas are like crack, opened a bag today, all gone, just crisp dust all over my face.

Spar mince pies are by far, the nicest!

Trying to up my indoor trainer riding as I seem to have lost all motivation to go outside on the bike at the moment.
From a weight loss point of view, is it better to be fueling on the bike indoors (gel/proper food) and to keep pushing harder or am I better off not eating on the bike and just running myself ragged/ taking my time?

I would say to not fuel based on my understanding. You want to fuel your workout with fuel on your body - fat where possible. There was an interesting piece I saw last week (Not certain about the science behind it - edit citation : https://www.gssiweb.org/sports-science-exchange/article/sse-118-carbohydrate-mouth-rinse-performance-effects-and-mechanisms) that even rinsing with a carbo drink improved performance. So if you want to push harder (for an hours training) you can trick your body by rinsing with a sugar water and spit it out if you want to invrease output without taking in calories, like a super important Swift race...
For me - winter training - 3 hour distance (zone 2) outdoor ride without breakfast makes the fat melt away.
I have been injured since mid sept (disc) and a combo of inactivity and my medicine (and self medicine by alcohol and food) has meant that I have gone from 74 to just over 80 kgs and I am slowly getting started with these rides. Will see if it works this winter as well.

80kg to 90kg. Baby and about a hundred christmas / nye parties. Time to go to 80 again.

I'm not a coach but... I use trainerroad and 1hr at low intensity (65-75% of ftp) burns pretty much the same number of calories as a series of 5 VO2 max intervals over a 1 hr workout.

However the low intensity one can be done fasted and more regularly so if weight loss was your only goal I would go for lower intensity fasted rides.

Haven't weighed myself at all over christmas and now I'm not sure I want too.

Climbing I'm really, really enjoying and that coupled with the gym seems to be keeping the weight down.

Depends on duration.

If you are doing less than say 60-90 minutes and you're recovered from previous efforts then you probably don't need to take on any fuel during. If you're doing repeat bouts or longer sessions then taking on fuel allows you to ride longer and/or harder and you end up using more calories than you take on anyway.

fuel your workout with fuel on your body - fat where possible

At what intensity?

I'd need to find a doc for the proper science but muscle glycogen and liver glycogen and I think blood glucose are all used in preference (and in greater amounts) to fat unless you're empty (say doing an unfed early morning workout after low-carb dinner). Doing this intentionally can have some benefits when it comes to improving your body's fat utilising shizzle but it's at the expense of your carb using shizzle so everything above plodding ultra pace is worse off.

Carb rinse does improve performance (mouth receptors detect carbs) but it's useful for things like football matches which last only ~90min, taking on fluids can cause gastric issues and they're already fueled for the match.

Best bet is doing a mix of sessions. Some easier ones fasted and the bulk should be properly fueled harder sessions.

Personally I prefer to do a 3hr ride faster with some energy drink (inc. electrolytes). My calorie deficit is higher even with the calories from the drink and I'm actually getting some training benefit, plus I'm less inclined to binge afterwards and I've done less damage to my muscles so I can do repeat bouts day after day.

For just weight loss, probably. But if you've got a limited amount of time you're best bet is to ride for that time as hard as you can. If taking on carbs allows you to ride it harder then do that.

Also you've not taken into account EPOC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_post-exercise_oxygen_consumption) with the VO2 max intervals workout.

I tend to favour interval type workouts due to training benefit:training time ratio, and as the workouts are generally first thing in the morning about 6am.
Piece of toast with jam and a double espresso pre workout (150 calories at most), water during, and eggs, ham/bacon on toast and a long coffee post workout.
If Garmin/Strava/Zwift are correct and I'm burning on average 6-700 calories during the workouts, I'll still be carrying a calorie deficit post lunch.

Agree. Turbos are not the place to do long, boring rides. You wanna get on, smash yourself and get off.

My only fasted rides are my easy 30-40min morning commute and I do my two gym sessions with no food on-board.

Ballooned up to 85kg over x-mas due to festivities and a cold stopping me running. Back to 82-ish, but hoping to use this as a springboard to get sub 80 for the first time in a long while.

Also coming to terms with the fact that quality of nutrition does actually play quite a large part in athletic performance. I'm trying to plan quite a busy fell running season so I think it'd do me right to start eating a bit better!

Is exercising in the 'fat-burn zone' legit or bollocks?

Over an hour on the turbo, maintaining an average HR in Z3/4/5 my work done will be 500/700/850 kJ respectively. Obviously I'm burning more calories with the greater effort, is there any truth in the suggestion that lower intensity will get rid of fat quicker? Am sceptical.

AIUI you'll burn roughly the same amount of fat in each of those zones, you'll just use more glycogen the higher the intensity.

The reason the lower intensities are better are because (a) it's easier, but (b) most importantly, by not depleting your glycogen stores as much you're less likely to over compensate with food afterwards.

Bollocks. Sure, there's an intensity where you will burn more fat than carbs but what's the point when you can use far more total calories by exercising harder? Unless you're barely able to walk, your best bang for buck is to ride as hard as you can in the time you have available.

Calories in vs. Calories out.
You use more calories during harder exercise and you use more afterwards.
If you overcompensate by eating more, you've failed to understand Calories in vs. Calories out.

over compensate with food afterwards

That worked really well for the two decades of people exercising in their 'fat burning zone' in gyms across the world. LOLz

https://www.self.com/story/the-myth-of-the-fat-burning-zone

best bang for buck is to ride as hard as you can in the time you have available.

This, but with caveats. If weightloss is a priority, lowering intensity so that you're able to do the most volume is probably the best. If you go out hell for leather, you'll probably struggle to get out the next day, so if lower intensity means you get out more that might be best.

Consistency is king etc.

If you rode 'too hard' one day, you ride easier the next days until you can ride hard again. It's still riding 'as hard as you can for each session' => it's using the most calories in the time available. This isn't about training to win races, where you're aware of and extending your limits, it's simply about using the most calories you can in the time available. Humans are pretty good at self-selected pacing to last x minutes or x hours.

Send cheques to:

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Ages ago, I once did 1h on a gym exercise bike at HR of 125-130 every day for a month.
Boring as shit. But as I used it as additional low impact exercise to complement martial art training in several evenings a week, it was additional calories burned with less toll on the body, and acted as recovery rides.

Having said that, probably going to do a low intensity 1h ride on the turbo tonight (though mainly because my muscles are absolutely battered from yesterday)

Thanks. Had read something similar recently which is what prompted me to see what people here thought.