Today we’ll look at the problems with eating too much or too little, as well as eating the right food…

is it normal to be totally starving after a ride? I was so hungry after a 2 hour intense training ride of the spinner that I felt really light headed and bad. I had to stop and get a piece of pizza.

I need to eat more I guess not sure what types of food. Is there a diet plan you have/reccomend so I won’t bonk anymore?????

Thanks,
Starving Steven

Hi Starving,

First off, it’s definitely not unusual to be starving after a long, intense ride. You could easily burn 2,000+ calories on a ride like that, so your body is going to tell you it needs food to replenish what it just lost. (It’s also not unusual to want to throw up after a long, intense ride, depending on the circumstances…)

The trick is to eat the right amount of the right foods before, during, and after riding so that you don’t get to the point where you’re starving. You might be eating too little, you might not be getting enough fat and protein, or it could deal with a rapid insulin response to carbs. Or maybe something else.

The light-headedness does make it sound like you’re running low on blood sugar during the ride. Either that or you’re pushing yourself insanely hard in a hot, indoor environment with stale air.

The best thing I can do is point you toward a few links that might help you figure out the right plan for your needs:

First, check my articles:

“What to Eat During a Ride or Race” and “What to Eat Pre- and Post-Ride”

Those articles give you ideas of what to eat before, during, and after a ride.

Next, if you want more ideas of good foods to eat as part of your daily diet, here are a few ideas:

Dr. Mercola’s Nutrition Plan
This sugar-free meal planning resource might not be perfect for cyclists, but it’s useful and free. Check it out for some ideas of wholesome meals.

How to Lose 20 lb Fat in 30 Days
I like reading articles from Tim Ferriss, and this is no exception. You might not be looking to drop 20 lb, but there are a few ideas for meals consisting of mainly meat/protein and vegetables.

The Pre-Race Meal
This article comes from Hammer Nutrition, so it will be biased toward their products, but the meat of the article is about meal type and timing. It’s very thorough (not to mention, correct.)

Healthiest Meals on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What Meals to Eat and Why
If you’re still having trouble, you might want to buy a book full of healthy meal ideas. This is a great book from one of my favorite authors, Dr. Jonny Bowden.

Shape Up!: The 8-week Program To Transform Your Body, Your Health, And Your Life
Another book from Jonny Bowden, this one might not be that useful to you, but it does cover some basics about getting the right food in your diet.

Keep working at it and eventually you’ll nail down your nutrition strategy!

Today we are looking at possible health issues caused by processed foods, including diet drinks that contain artificial ingredients such as aspartame.

i was looking at your website and it is VERY , VERY , INTRESTING ! i drink a lot of diet drinks but after what i was reading dont think i want to anymore. i also have chronic bladder infections is it cuz of the diet drinks ? i cook only with OLIVE OIL , EAT ONLY WHOLE GRAINS , no rice no pasta and NO RED MEAT since childhood . i eat chicken , turkey , alots of fish and greens. but my down fall is JUNK FOOD…….. NATURAL POPCORN , FRITO CHIPS , POTATOE CHIPS AHHHHHHH……….and you please answer about the things i have wrote when you have just a tiny chance?

Thanks,
Dieting Diane

Hi Diane,

It’s the ever-popular “processed foods” debate. The thing with processed foods, including diet drinks, it the number of artificial substances they contain or are subjected to in the factory. There’s a lot of weird stuff out there, and most of it hasn’t been around long enough to have been studied for long-term side effects.

We can’t say for sure which problems are going to be attributed to which chemical ingredients, but I highly prefer to ingest pure, natural foods, instead of something that was mixed, bleached, boiled, or concocted in a laboratory.

So I don’t know if the aspartame from diet drinks could cause a bladder infection, but it could very well make it hard for your body to fight off the infection.

You could think of the aspartame as a second infection in your body. Now, instead of your body fighting off the bladder infection, your body has to fight off the bladder infection and deal with this other chemical contaminant (e.g. aspartame.) Two against one is not a fair fight!

For further reading, you may want to check out the bladder infection page at the Natural Cures website, plus this article with an in-depth analysis of diet drinks and their problems.

Although I do recommend ditching the diet drinks completely, you’re on track with what I would recommend for a good diet. Keep eating a diet rich in natural foods with lots of greens, and go ahead and indulge every once in a while. Sometimes the stress of restricting those foods is worse for you than eating them, as long as it’s done in moderation.

I mean, even with a perfect diet, you’re bound to run into some sort of health problem eventually. So why not treat yourself sometimes?

Don’t we all strive for six pack abs?

What kind of diet would i need if i want 6 pack abs?
NOTE: i’m 15 years old

Sincerely,
Flabby Freddy

Judging by your question Freddy, I’d say you’re much closer to having a six pack than the average person. Typically I hear, “what exercise will give me a six pack?” Unfortunately the answer is “none of them.”

That’s because “muscles are made in the gym, abs are made in the kitchen.” I’m not sure who said that first, but it’s mostly true. You still need to exercise to burn off fat, but if there is a remaining layer of fat on your belly because you eat too much, you’ll never see your abs.

You can build super strong abs, but that means virtually nothing if the goal is to see your ripped abs. That exercise/diet disconnect really shouldn’t surprise anyone though. Haven’t we all seen the skinny guys with ripped abs that never go to the gym and always eat junk food? They’re just built to be naturally skinny.

The bad news for them is that they could be extremely unhealthy (lacking in nutrients, high cholesterol, etc.) but not really see it. For someone like me (and possibly you,) we have to eat very healthy and exercise a lot to see any definition in our abs. So when we have nice abs, there’s a good chance we’re in very good health!

Anyway, let’s move on to the question about your diet. There’s no exact, “one size fits all” diet for getting six pack abs, but there are some guidelines to follow. (They’re essentially the same guidelines for anyone that wants to reduce body fat, because that’s what you have to do here.)

To start out, cut out junk food and empty calories. If you eat or drink anything like soda, milkshakes, cake, ice cream, cookies, snack crackers, potato chips, white bread, sugary cereal, etc., you need to totally remove it from your diet. Really any processed foods – cut them out of your diet!

I do like to indulge in the occasional doughnut, but if you want six pack abs, you have to make sacrifices! (I didn’t say this would be fun or easy!)

At the same time, ramp up your fruit and vegetable intake. Forget the food pyramid – those recommendations are outdated and meant for average, sedentary people. If you want to be healthy and muscular, I recommend 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day!

To round out your diet, stick with natural, whole foods. This could be steel cut oats, eggs, 100% whole wheat bread, wild salmon, venison, nuts, legumes, etc. Just make sure you are eating as natural as possible.

But of course, you have to limit your caloric intake. The exact amount will depend on your specific needs, such as your body type, body weight, exercise volume, and workout intensity, so I can’t be any more specific.

Just make sure you eat a variety of foods so you get a well-balanced diet with plenty of carbs, fat, and protein. Good news: If you’re eating healthy, nutrient-dense foods like I mentioned above, you should be able to eat quite a bit of food without consuming too many calories.

Once you get all this straightened out, the next step is to dive into the more detailed stuff like thermogenic foods, intermittent fasting, and drying out. You still need to get the basics down first, but this is interesting stuff to explore and add in to your routine.

To summarize, you need to work hard and make sacrifices. But that is why most people don’t have six pack abs!

In a desperate attempt to slim down for a big bike race in July (and get six pack abs in the process,) I was actually willing to buy and use diet pills. Normally I wouldn’t give any sort of diet pill a second glance, but this was different… this was an all-natural fat loss pill designed for bodybuilders who need to lose that extra bit of fat to look their best for competition.

It’s called Lean Out, and it’s a “fat transport system” from Beverly International.

So it’s not actually a “diet pill” per say. It’s more of a supplement that will preserve your muscle tissue and help you burn more fat for energy. While that is ideal for bodybuilders who need to be super cut and lean, it also sounds pretty damn good for a cyclist trying to slim down.

Heck, anyone that’s trying to slim down probably wants to lose fat instead of muscle. In most cases, when you ramp up your training and restrict calories, your body will end up burning muscle tissue for fuel. Even if you have some extra belly fat, your muscle is fair game.

So after hearing about Lean Out (thanks to the free fat loss bootcamp in Cyclo-Club,) I knew it was just what I needed to lose body fat without sacrificing my hard-earned muscle. Best of all, it was priced at about $30 for a 30-day supply – you won’t find a deal like that on any ‘infomercial miracle diet pills.’

Lean Out – How it Works

Let’s face it. Losing weight is a simple formula. But losing fat, that’s extremely hard!

So… aside from genetics, you’ll need a healthy diet and intense exercise, plus some serious supplements, to really shed body fat (without losing muscle at the same time.)

Beverly’s Lean Out formula is a big help. It’s primarily composed of lipotropics, which have the ability to dissolve and metabolize fats. In essence, they emulsify stored fats and dump them into the blood stream to make them more available for your body to use as an energy source.

Lean Out also contains L-Carnitine, the amino acid that transports those newly available fatty acids to the mitochondria in your body. In biology, we always referred to the mitochondria as the “power house” of the cell because that’s where your energy comes from! They suck up fat and incinerate it, producing energy for you in the process.

All the while, this and other ingredients are protecting your lean muscle tissue. It almost sounds too good to be true!

There are a few other ingredients, too. I’ll let Beverly explain them directly:

L-Carnitine (600 mg): Maximizes the retention of muscle tissue while dieting. Essential to convert stored fat into energy.

Methionine (1000 mg): Speeds fat and cholesterol utilization, mobilizes fat from the liver to be released and used as energy.

Choline (1000 mg): A special emulsifying nutrient that helps to break down cholesterol and prevents it from sticking to artery walls with Inositol to utilize fats.

Inositol (1000 mg): Aids in fat transportation, metabolism, and redistribution of fat in the body.

Chromium Picolinate (200 mcg): Aids sugar metabolism, improves blood lipid profile, helps fat burning and muscle gains. Moderates insulin release and keeps blood sugar levels stable.

CoQ 10 (10 mg): Helps convert fats and sugar to energy in the cell, while protecting the heart.

Betaine HCl (100 mg) B-12 (100 mcg) and Biotin (450 mcg). Vital factors in converting fat to energy.

Lean Out also acts as an appetite suppressant, although I’m not sure which ingredient is responsible for that. I think it’s a combination of everything.

Lean Out – My Test

After testing out some intense weight lifting this past winter in the Susquehanna Experiment, I had a little more upper body muscle, so I wanted to drop some fat to make sure I was still light enough to climb well on my bike. (I had bulked up from 158 to about 167 lb, and I could definitely feel the extra weight on the climbs!)

I started taking Lean Out according to the instructions on the bottle, which was basically 4 pills per day – one with each meal and one before a workout. I was going with one after my three largest meals, and one before my hardest workout. So the bottle would last me 30 days.

At first, I wasn’t too sure how to adapt my diet. I always keep a fairly healthy diet, but I was doing some weight training and lots of cycling, so obviously I was still getting plenty of sugar and carbs while riding. Should I have been eating more protein and fat? Who knows.

But I was exercising quite a bit and eating fairly normally (which was a lot, but definitely not overeating.)

Well I did that for about 10 days. I went from 165 to 166 and was looking fatter than usual. What great diet pills…

So I reevaluated my approach and did more research, leading me to these instructions from Beverly International. I saw some people did 4 pills, then 8 pills, then 12 pills daily. (Double or triple what I was doing!)

So I decided to bump things up to 6-8 pills per day. When I did that, I definitely noticed the “appetite suppressant” starting to kick in. While 4 pills per day did nothing whatsoever to suppress my appetite, 6-8 made me avoid eating!

So I got through about five days with the 6-8 pills per day, plus my normal workouts, but with less food. Let’s say normally I’d have four meals per day plus snacks. I switched to two meals per day plus snacks. Finally, I was able to drop down to 164 and then 163.

It wasn’t all good though… the lack of food sapped ALL my energy. My second day at 163 I got on my bike… and rode about 10 minutes in my granny gear. Afterwards I just went home and passed out.

I was eating less, but what about all my fat? Why wasn’t I getting any energy from it? (It’s not like I was starving myself. My extra low calorie days were still probably 2500 calories!)

That was the big downfall. So I ended up making sure I ate enough, and I always ate strategically to fuel my workouts. I was still low on energy, but I made it through my Lean Out test. (Which ending up being approximately 25 days.)

Lean Out – Final Results

In the end, I did see some results from my Lean Out test. Below is the “before” picture from June 2 along with the “after” picture on July 2.

If you look real close, you can see just a little bit more definition in my upper abs in the “After” shot.

I went from 165 to 163, giving me a net loss of 2 lb. That’s not amazing, but there’s a good chance that entire 2 lb was body fat!

Although it gets interesting… I first went from 165 back to 167, and then down to 163. So that was a little odd. But crazier still, in the days following my Lean Out use, I went to 161 for a few days then 159 lb. A delayed reaction, perhaps? Or just the buildup of Lean Out still in my body?

Whatever it was, I did have positive results, and I think this Lean Out stuff is pretty cool! (Even if my weight crept back up to 162 the next day…)

Although I was able to cut from 166 to 161 in May before my triathlon, without any pills like these, I don’t think much of that lost weight was body fat. And I gained it back shortly afterwards, anyway. So the Lean Out seems to be the way to go to lose fat.

Where to Buy Lean Out

I bought mine online at Supplements to Go. I got two 120ct bottles for $45 + shipping, which ended up even cheaper than ordering through Amazon.com.

Even with the cheapest shipping option (USPS,) they shipped my order within two hours and I got it in three days. (Ordered Wednesday, arrived Saturday.) I’m very happy with them.

(Although Amazon.com is still good to watch for a deal.)

My final verdict is…

Based on my overall experience, I would highly recommend this to all athletes or anyone trying to lose body fat (either to improve your health or to look good.) If you’re exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet, you should see some results from this.

You’ll have to test it to see what works for you though. I gained weight at first, but then I figured out a better dose for me, and it started to work. Just make sure you’re eating enough – I still don’t think my fat stores were utilized for energy that well, since I almost bonked a few times. (I guess I’m just used to eating a lot!)

In the end, I dropped quite a bit of weight, starting at 165 in June and hitting 159 lb on July 3. I hadn’t been that light since last November!

Official website: www.BeverlyInternational.com (or see the Lean Out page.)

Buy online: www.Amazon.com

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