It’s early April! All the snow has melted and the day-time high is finding itself close to 10 degrees. New life begins again as the dawn of the bike season nears. If you weren’t disciplined this winter and let your weight creep up a little too much, here are my recommendation for you to get to race weight fast by eliminating some of that body fat!
- Eat to lose weight. Correct eating patterns that are increasing fat gain. A lack of exercise is only a small part of excessive off season weight gain. Poor eating is the real issue. Consider adopting or returning to a more efficient way of eating and change some of your habitual eating practices to provide your body with the fuel it needs to perform and look its best.
- Set a goal. We can safely lose between 1-2 pound of fat per week. That means you have enough time to be 10 to 20 pounds lighter for the first week of June if you neglected your diet over the winter. But you need to start now! Write out your goal.
- Set a time frame. Regard your fat loss as a two to three month all out effort that will press your body to adapt and find a more efficient state. The improved cardiovascular and performance benefits are secondary to your goal of burning fat. Beside your fat loss goal, right the end date of your war on fat.
- Start to train at a higher intensity TODAY. I recommend this for three very important reasons: 1) you need to change your behavior TODAY to start getting different results TODAY, 2) training at a higher intensity is the best way to burn energy to create a caloric deficit and 3) you ride at a high intensity when you are racing so start training with a high intensity.
- Figure out how you’ll maintain your goal weight. Avoid the same thing happening next year by adjusting how you eat. Consider adopting the newstasis.com weight management approach to change some of your habitual eating practices and provide your body with the fuel it needs to perform and look its best.