2009-2014 I rode a bicycle everywhere. I put in over 100k miles back then. For 2 years of that, I worked 33 miles away from home based on the safest bike routes. I did that 5-6 days a week spending at least 3-4 hours on a bike per day. I went from 350 lbs to under 190 lbs and was quite lean. I’m not your stereotypical cyclist. I’m 6’ 1" with a larger than average build, like 34/44 in waist/jacket. So 190 was pretty low for me. I’m at 220 now but I don’t ride nearly as much or care to eat ultra lean or count calories.

The exercise isn’t actually how I lost the weight. Exercise never has that effect. I felt great as a side effect. At that kind of exercise level, my calories requirements were somewhat affected. The human body adapts to almost anything and can normalize to around the same calories, but I became quite sensitive to what I ate. The stomach largely shuts down during intense sustained aerobic activity. Anything I ate needed to be absorbed and processed when I was off the bike. It resulted in bad eating habits making me sick a lot. I just got sick so much that eating the wrong stuff was repulsive to me. I still don’t eat much of anything processed or prepackaged. I don’t drink anything but water black coffee and a single beer. Everything in the isles of a typical grocery store is basically garbage except some granolas with fortified vitamins and iron. Milk and dairy in the USA is absolute garbage too. My main starch is brown rice. I also use cooking techniques for most of my flavors and avoid prepackaged sauces. It can be challenging. Almost everything in American grocery stores is garbage, as is the food in most restaurants. Fast food made me the sickest. Like even a coffee drink and salads at McDonald’s made me sick. That is the last thing I ever ate from a McDonald’s like 15+ years ago, and it made me so sick for a few days of riding that I still remember every detail.

Ultimately, weight is just a matter of what you put in your mouth. Your digestive regularity is important. You need to control that with natural fiber and not supplements. Basically only eat foods that look like they grew as much as possible (almost all). The other major hurtle is simple but a challenge. Meals are one of the dumbest of human inventions. Only eat when you are actually hungry, and have the self discipline to stop yourself after a few bites of anything. Wait 15 minutes and then see how you feel. Eat a bite or two more if you are in debilitating pain that prevents you from slithering on the floor to scantily function. Seriously, eating too much is normalized in present culture to a stupid degree. When you eat, your body absorbs a ton of calories. That is converted to blood glucose. This does a few cycles around the track and anything that remains becomes fat. The more processed the food is and the more sugar it contains, the faster this cycle will happen and the more your body will absorb quickly. Natural high fiber foods take longer to absorb and slow this cycle down. Then they also do not turn into concrete at later stages stopping you up. Real athletes at elite levels do not eat meals like the rest of us. They nibble all day on the minimum calories they need and chose foods with nutrients density. I worked with a 4 time Olympic cyclist. Talking with them and observing taught me this.