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| Before and after |
In May 2023 I looked in the bathroom mirror to see a big-bellied, unfit looking stranger in there. I weighed about 2 stone (30lbs/13kg) more than normal. With my cyclist wife's help over the next 2-3 months I got rid of the belly, got my stomach muscles back, toned up and felt much better. It was much more straightforward than I thought and showed me that transforming your body is not just for Hollywood actors, it's simply the dedicated application of the correct knowhow.
You will need :
1 - the right method
2 - the right motivation
1 - the right method
2 - the right motivation
and you'll find losing the weight and toning up your body is actually easier and quicker than you think.
You don't need:
to go to the gym or buy expensive exercise gimmicks or eat weird diets.
1 - The Method
- My wife is a former National Champion cyclist on the same team as the young Chris Hoy. She knows about diet, exercise and nutrition so a lot of this bike-based method is thanks to her.
- My wife is a former National Champion cyclist on the same team as the young Chris Hoy. She knows about diet, exercise and nutrition so a lot of this bike-based method is thanks to her.
- Basically, it is "eat less, exercise more" - it's not rocket science. But how to do that exactly?
- You lose the fat and the belly by doing fat burning exercise at the right time of day and the right intensity by keeping your heart rate in the "fat burning zone". In layman's terms that means breaking a sweat but not getting too out of breath.
- You lose the fat and the belly by doing fat burning exercise at the right time of day and the right intensity by keeping your heart rate in the "fat burning zone". In layman's terms that means breaking a sweat but not getting too out of breath.
- Start by doing it a couple of days a week, building up more as time and work allows. More on that below. Resting up and getting good sleep is important too to let your body recover/rebuild.
Kit I used:
- a heart rate (HR) monitor (£30) - mine is a Garmin Vivosmart 4 watch
- an old bike with smooth road tyres (free-£200). Knobbly mountain bike tyres won't work well on bike rollers.
- a set of bike rollers (£40 on eBay, £200 new) so you can exercise any time, any weather at home
- bike shorts, padded (stops any potential chaffing). I also found clipped-in bike shoes helped make pedalling smoother as you can pull up as well as pushing down. Or old-style toe clips.
- set of bathroom scales and a mirror - to measure progress
- a Nutribullet-like smoothie maker. Recipe below.
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| Messy garage, old bike, rollers, smooth tyres |
Diet - keeping it simple, cut back on the fatty foods. For me that was less (or no) beer, cheese, baguettes, crisps, cakes, etc. Fat is still needed but we want less of it in general especially the saturated type. Drink more to stop hunger pangs. For me it was water or cups of tea.
Evening meal - this is your treat so eat whatever you like but maybe a bit less than before.
Typical day:
Breakfast - coffee or tea only, or a few nuts. Anytime before lunch, I did a 30 min roller session. This is the optimum time for burning body fat when you have slept and not eaten for a few hours. Your body is using up the stored fat and not your last meal. Increase to 45 mins if and when you can. Doing it indoors means you are dripping with sweat after about 10 mins which is a good measure of its effectiveness. I did it mostly sitting up in the saddle holding onto the garage shelves with a flannel handy to mop up the sweat! The old school cyclists went for morning bike rides called "fat burning rides." So if the weather was good, instead I'd do a 2-hour or 20 mile bike ride, keeping it steady and my heart rate more or less in that fat burning zone. You can't keep it there all the time on a ride, you'll go into the higher heart rate zones, but you still get the benefit.
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Lunch - milk-based fruit smoothie (very tasty) made with porridge oats, milk, frozen or fresh blueberry, raspberry and strawberry, natural yoghurt. Or, instead of the smoothie, have nutty muesli (Dorset Cereals Gloriously Nutty Muesli) with extra raisins, natural yoghurt and milk. Rest up. I'd have a post exercise snooze in the hammock.
Evening - treat yourself, have what you like for evening meal but maybe smaller portions and healthier options and not too late. I'd eat the family meal at about 6-7pm. I'd sometimes do another 30-40 min session on the rollers if I'd not been out for a bike ride, while watching the football.
Snacks - handful of nuts and raisins. Most importantly all this is naturally low in fat. Avoid snacks before bedtime as your body won't use the energy up.
Sleep - this is important. Get plenty of sleep and rest to maximise your exercising effectiveness. Your body needs recovery time to rebuild properly.
Muscle-building - in my head I was trying to shrink the beer belly from the outside while building the six-pack and chest/arm muscles from the inside. Once the fat had gone, revealed would be the toned Adonis-like body! I just did sit-ups and push-ups. Sit-ups can be a bit hard on the body so I now do planks instead. I started with 15 push-ups and sit-ups, increasing to 50 or more per day in 2 or 3 quick sessions. I'd do them after a biking session so I was already warmed up. They only take a few minutes. The cycling took care of the leg muscles. I did some stretching too.
Intensity - Don't go mad at it from day 1. Build up gradually and let your body get used to it.
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| View from the saddle, watching the football - 30 min session at max 130 heart rate |
2 - The Motivation
Just look in the mirror. That's you with the fat belly. You can start seeing the difference in a few weeks with the right amount of food and exercise. Your belly will soon feel hard and toned.
Just look in the mirror. That's you with the fat belly. You can start seeing the difference in a few weeks with the right amount of food and exercise. Your belly will soon feel hard and toned.
Build the exercise sessions into your daily life while doing things you'd normally do. While using the bike rollers, I watched football games, YouTube videos and films. The time was not entirely dedicated to doing the exercise, I was doing interesting stuff at the same time. You have to turn the volume up or wear headphones as the rollers are a bit noisy. Cycle to work if you can or part way to work. When I worked in Derby I put the bike in the car, drove to just outside the city and cycled in along the river Derwent for the last few miles. A very pleasant ride and it beat queuing in the Derby traffic. In my new job I've also had to switch my "fat burning" time of the day from morning to evening as I'm working during the day. I'll now have a very light lunch, low on carbs, and cycle back home after work.
Rest days - are very important part of your exercise regime as they give your body time to recover and build fresh muscle.
Eating what you like - I didn't want to get too precious about the diet and biking allows you to burn plenty of calories so who cares if you splurge on a couple of M&S egg custards or Bakewell tart?
Measuring results - the bathroom scales and mirror are all you need.
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Smoothie recipe
- drop a good handful of porridge oats in the Nutribullet - blend to a fine powder
- add cup of milk. Skimmed, or a mix of skimmed/almond milk, etc.
- handful each of frozen blueberries/raspberries or fresh strawberries incl. stalks
- 3 spoons of natural yoghurt (I used Yeo Valley)
- half a banana
- maybe a spoon of peanut butter
Blend. If too thick when you first do it, add more milk or some ice cubes. It is cool and very tasty. I liked it after a bike ride/roller session for lunch, lying in the hammock in the sunny garden, cooling down and resting up.
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Helps you maximise your fat burning. These days a watch-based heart rate (HR) monitor works just fine. You no longer need a chest strap one. I had a slimline Garmin Vivosmart 4 which can display your HR or transmits it to your bike computer.
To calculate your HR "fat burning zone":
- Calculate your maximum heart rate. Subtract your age from 220. For example, for me, a 53 year-old's maximum heart rate is 220 minus 53 = 167 beats per minute (bpm).
- To enter the fat-burning zone, you want your heart rate to be between 60-75% of maximum heart rate so my fat-burning zone is 100-125 bpm.
After an exercise session, I'd do some gentle stretching to dissipate lactic acid and stop your muscles from aching the next day. Touch your toes, stretch your calves and upper legs. Stretch your arms above your head and stretch to both sides.
What next? Keeping it off...
June 2024 update - I went from a flabby 12 stone 7lbs in May 2023 to a toned 10 stone 5bs in August 2023. Keeping the weight off involves a lot less work and less sessions on the rollers. If you stick to a healthier, less fatty diet with the odd bike ride thrown in, it pretty much stays off. Even after getting back on the beer and cakes over Christmas, it takes weeks before you see any difference and it's easier to get back to your fitter state. I had to back right off exercising anyway in February 2024 as I needed an inguinal (groin) hernia operation. Having the weight off and being fitter increased the chances of the operation being successful and so far it is going ok. I did put some weight/flab back on and lose muscle tone during my period of forced inactivity so as I write this I'm doing a lower intensity version of this method to gradually get the smaller 2024 belly off again.
The Science Bit
My layman's method is vey similar to that described in these two articles which go into a bit more "sciencey" detail. If you are interested in how it works and what body systems are involved (carbs, glycogen, etc.) have a read...
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