How To Lose 20 lbs In 5 months And Still Eat Chocolate Every Day To Gain Fitness

Actually you could lose 18 kilos in 8 months! You will find many web sites that give you a wealth of food information. This now gives you a strategy. After racing at Elite level in the UK, the US and Italy, when I retired from competition my weight then gradually increased over 20 years, from 78 to 103 kilos.

Even when I trained up to 300 km per week, for special tours, my weight hardly dropped. After various diets, I felt lousy and my weight soon crept back. Sounds familiar? Of course it does - no matter how hard and regularly you train, you must understand how your body deals with different foods at different times. Otherwise the weight just remains.

You must follow your metabolism and work with it - not against it. This doesn't need a Ph.D. in Nutrition. Nor deep scientific knowledge. Just discipline. As a serious cyclist, you make a commitment to a disciplined training regime. You value your health and fitness. You want to imagine that you are Elite rider every time you ride your bike. So why not follow the same discipline with controlling your weight? And what a difference climbing hills! It's amazing. Unshed those kilos and you fly up those tough climbs. You recover quicker at the top. You feel so much better that you could go back down and climb that hill again! Seriously. When you lose that weight you will think how ill-disciplined you were, to leave it so long, before taking action to lose it. And it's not about fads. It's about balance, moderation and getting into good habits. Habits so good that you can treat yourself regularly - even to the extent of a big bar of chocolate any afternoon! Provided, of course, that you are following all the other rules carefully, like no other carbs after 6pm.

So we have put together 20 golden rules for an active sports person to lose 10 kilos in 5 months - or about an imperial pound in weight every week. These reflect many different pieces of information, advice and learning, over thirty years of fighting excess weight. The key is to keep to all the rules, all the time. Then you'll feel great. Rarely hungry. And fly up the hills as if they did not exist! So here are the golden rules to lose 10 kilos, without ever having to feel hungry. Read and follow them carefully. Don't break them.

1. Rarely touch any alcohol - a maximum five units each week and never after 6pm

2. Enjoy a good breakfast based on lots of fresh fruit

3. Eliminate completely all very high saturated fat content foods like cheese and crisps

4. No caffeine after 3pm, tea or coffee.

5. When possible, drink a half litre of water every half hour

6. Do not consume carbs or fats after 6pm.

7. Maximise green vegetables when you can.

8. Limit red meat to once per week

9. Maximize fish in your diet, but always grilled or baked - never fried

10. Keep to five fist sizes of food per day, plus permitted snacks if you need them

11. Never become so hungry that you consume larger than one fist size

12. If you feel hungry, snack on nuts, salad or raw vegetables like carrots - not fruit as this will raise your blood sugar too quickly. Then you'll feel hungry again within an hour

13. When eating, focus on enjoying the nourishment as slowly as possible. Focus on the taste, not another activity or you'll finish too fast. Then you'll find it hard to remember enjoying much taste or nourishment

14. Watch your overall calorie intake to the prescribed levels

15. Avoid soft drinks with high sugar levels

16. Train or race after high intake of good carbs over one hour before

17. Eat or drink 500 calories of good carbs and drink 500ml of fruit drinks or water, every hour during longer training rides

18. Sometimes miss your supper after evening training

19. Keep a Food Diary and measure your weight loss just once every week, preferably on Monday mornings

20. Treat yourself often, but stay within daily calorie limits - and don't break any of the rules above. So chocolate is allowed - the more organic and natural the better - watch those 'E-numbers'!