Zwift for Weight Loss: The Supplement Conundrum

Is there a ‘magic pill’ for weight loss? Please say no. There are hundreds of claims, hundred of sales offers, and hundred of test results.  We must ask, how was the test carried out? Who paid for the test?

Let’s Talk About Studies

One test was paid for by a company that sells a certain kind of fruit. What did their test reveal? Their fruit prevents cancer. When this test was conducted properly, the results showed no such benefit. It is easy to take a group and select the healthier ones to test the product on. Then, compare them to the other group. This is one way to lead the results. Don’t trust every test, especially any quoted in a sales ad.

A proper scientific test should have a placebo group. A randomized controlled trial is A study design that randomly assigns participants into an experimental group or a control group.  Double blind means the testers don’t know which group is which. Certain criteria must be followed. Did participants exercise 60 minutes a day or did the participants merely say they exercised? Having a participant simply check a box ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is not accurate enough. The other problem is when a test lasts just a few weeks or up to three months. This isn’t long enough to gauge a loss that is gradual over one year. Yet, they are often pushed to get fast results.

My favorite example of positioning such a study is one that revealed salt is bad for you. Many quoted it and said, “Salt is bad for you. There’s proof.” Was it true? Were there health problems? Yes. Were they caused by salt with reliable results? No. Here’s why: the group eating salt were people who ate a high salt diet consisting of hot dogs, pizza, potato chips, bacon,etc. They should have selected healthy individuals who lived on a healthy diet with high salt content to prove their point. They only proved that salty junk food is unhealthy.

Two views often exist side by side. To illustrate: an athlete sees his workout shirt has dried salt deposits. (Is it actually sodium chloride?) He immediately proclaims, “Look how much salt I’ve lost. I should replace it.” A different athlete reacts, “Look how much salt I’ve lost. I must be eating too much. I better cut down my salt intake.” Doctors who examine a controlled study will disagree as well.

I had some points on chromium picolinate based on one doctor, but I changed my mind after doing more research. Dr. Jeukendrup agrees with a study of studies that show little to no effect on fat loss. Still, it was averaged at 1 pound of fat lost over the groups not taking chromium. That could add up to four pounds a year (Onakpoya at Oxford). Some who touted chromium are now rather silent on the matter. Chromium supplements of any amount should be discussed with a doctor, especially if you are diabetic. My interpretation of chromium in brief: high sugar diets will cause fat gain and chromium loss. Cutting out sugar will lead an active person toward weight loss. Chromium may help those individuals. Ask your doctor.

Getting the right nutrients might require only a change in diet. But, that is not always possible. While the body generally maintains the level of sodium chloride, potassium levels can get low. Should you run out and buy potassium then? If so, what kind and how much should one take? First, always calculate how much is actually needed. Second, how much are you getting?  Add the amount in your diet plus the amount in your one-a-day vitamin pill. What is the difference?

Example: Potassium

• Recommended amount: 4700 mg (MNA)
• Dietary level (average): 2000-2500 mg
• Vitamin One-a-Day level: 0
• Natural sources: Potato 900 mg, Banana 450, Kiwi (2) 430 , Spinach 420, Sweet Potato 540, Sport drink 37, Milk 382 (Ask me what I drink.)
• Regular table salt: zero
• Lite salt (Potassium Chloride) 1/4 teaspoon 600 mg

Supplement Dangers: Potassium

“Dangerous heart rhythm problems and even cardiac arrest” is possible in some cases. Use only with the guidance of a medical doctor. May have fatal effects with certain health conditions and/or medications. Extreme care is needed with diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, and various medications “such as spironolactone.” Quote from Deepak Bhatt, MD Harvard Heart Letter June 2016. 

Vitamin D

There’s good news respecting vitamin D3. More than one study shows what applies to almost all supplements. Vitamin D does not cause weight loss. Vitamin D deficiency may impair fat loss, especially in the stomach or belly area. What can we base this on? One study shows women lowered their fat with vitamin D. Another showed vitamin D lowered the amount of body fat. Keep in mind this vital point: the test subjects were given a healthy diet and exercised. The supplemented amount brought their vitamin D levels to where they should be.

Specifically, these studies used D3 oil gel caps. (not dry tablets). Natural vitamin D comes from sunlight. If you are outdoors with exposed skin you may get enough, and it’s free. It is unlikely for many of us to get enough exposure especially in the winter. What about the vitamin D in my one-a-day vitamin pill, in my milk, and in my breakfast cereal? All I can suggest is that it is probably not the right type. How much money are corporations going to spend for this vitamin to be added to their product? Further, will D3 prove to be the next Chromium, touted one day and forgotten when the wind shifts to another supplement?

Recommendations from those test results are to take a high dosage for 90 days to overcome a deficiency, then supplement according to daily recommended levels. 4,000 iu was used as the highest level in testing. Don’t go higher. By at least 10,000 iu, there is a strong toxicity danger. More is not better.

Here’s what bothers me in advertising. This is a quote from a vitamin D ad where I will not mention the company. “Shed pounds fast”,” No foods are off-limit”. “Fat-melting” and “You’ll lose weight quickly.” This ad worries me.

Consider using a supplement that will meet your requirements. Daily amount total is around 600 iu (Institute of Medicine 400-800). Studies show overweight individuals may require 1000-2400 iu. (1000 iu = 25 mcg) IOM Summary. A doctor can run a blood test. Just because you are D deficient does not guarantee that vitamin D supplements will cause weight loss. The jury is still out. Time will tell if the current studies are tried and true.

Dr. Soares says, “Overall, there is consistent evidence that calcium and vitamin D increase whole body fat oxidation.” But added that there are not defined levels of the vitamin administered and the resulting change. So, it does work, as he sees it. But, it’s unclear how much benefit it brings. (I say, for 10 dollars it seems good to try. For 50 dollars, I want solid proof.)

Dr. Pathak finds little evidence in eleven studies. However, he reports that none of the testers imposed a calorie restriction, nor was there any exercise protocol. One additional study did show a decrease in fat mass for women. Again, it does not state the full parameters. How much did exercise and diet come into play?

Caffeine and Green Tea

Caffeine seems to increase fat metabolism slightly. If it helps you ride harder for a longer time, then that’s an added benefit. If you need an excuse to drink coffee, this is it: Dr. Graham. For me, I just love to drink it. If you are going to drink caffeine, do so before exercise. Then, wait for it to kick in.

Green tea has health benefits that may include fat metabolism. Catechins in green tea and decaf green tea may account for greater benefits than the caffeine in coffee. One study had a weight loss of 5.5 pounds in a three months versus 3 pounds for the group without tea. Definitive proof? No. It seems to be a fairly cheap approach though. I prefer to buy a good quality of loose leaf tea.

“Fat oxidation rates, during a 30-min cycling at 60% VO2max, were significantly higher (17%) following GTE ingestion compared to placebo.” Dr. Jeukendrup concluded, “Green tea has the potential to increase fat metabolism at rest, also during exercise, and may help to lose body fat and body weight. As with caffeine, the effects appear to be relatively small.” Dr, Jeukendrup’s article.

Protein Powder

Whey Protein Concentrate is being haled as a weight loss aid. I much prefer egg white protein as it is very easy on my stomach. Does it reduce body fat in tests? It is difficult to say. Protein will benefit any weight training program. Is this protein in addition to a healthy diet? Is it a replacement for a meal protein like fried chicken or a cheeseburger? There’s so many variables from one study to another. It quickly gets confusing. Every ad has an agenda, “Buy our product.” Be careful with your health and your money. I take protein powder to get the right amount in my daily diet. The amount will differ from one person to another. It is based on muscle mass and the amount and type of daily exercise. I don’t think protein will ever prove to change your fat metabolism. It may help you to eliminate saturated fats from your diet. That in itself, is a big step in the right direction.

Conclusion

There’s no way to cheat the system of exercising and eating healthy. If you are regularly cycling and lifting weights, you should gradually lose weight. Hopefully, Zwift enhances your exercise and increases your health. If something works for you, please share it with us at ZwiftOff. Join us for our group workouts as well.

The Open Pro: Starting All Over Again

Editor’s note: Jordan Cheyne’s “The Open Pro” series details his experiences with high-level Zwift training as a rider in the pro Continental ranks. You can read his past posts here.

Taking a Break and Bouncing Back

If you want some insight into the physiology that allows a rider to compete in the pro peloton you could take a look at my first few training efforts after a 3 week off season break.  According to the textbooks I read in university a person is supposed to lose almost all acute aerobic adaptions during a rest period of 3 weeks or more. I wasn’t completely inactive in that time, doing some hiking, snowshoeing and even manual labor but certainly nothing you could call training. It was exactly what I needed after a 10-month racing season and always an integral step in my preparation for the next season’s rigors.

Still, I knew the first ride back would be rough and I was proven correct. I made some efforts on Box Hill and around the London city streets and I could barely hold 270w, down about 25-30% on my usual threshold here at altitude. An hour felt like a very long time. A few days later though, I came back and felt a little better, doing stretches at 290-300w up the Watopia climb. My riding continued to improve in rapid order.

After 2 weeks and maybe 20 hours of riding I was back to churning along at 320-340w at a tempo pace, which is fairly close to what I would aim for in season. Sharpening the blade at threshold and above will come later, but in a handful of sessions I was back to good form. In my experiences high-level aerobic athletes lose fitness just as fast or faster than the average age-grouper. The ability to bounce back quickly however reveals the advantages conferred by genetic luck and thousands of hours of epigenetic pressure in the form of past training.

New Opportunities, Same Old Hard Work

All of that is the Data Geek’s way of saying that my training for the 2018 season has begun in earnest even as the snow falls heavily here in Big White, British Columbia. It has been enjoyable and rewarding to get back to it and I have the motivation of proving myself on a new team next year, the Continental Pro team Elevate-KHS. After 2 formative years at Jelly Belly, I will have a lot of opportunities to take my results to the next level with Elevate I need to be ready to capture them.

Even with that fire lit under me, I don’t know how many trainer miles I could gut through without the aid of Zwift. Every year it gets a bit harder to clip in for 2-4 hours at a time indoors but the ever-evolving world of Zwift makes it easier to clear the hurdle.

My training usually starts with a good dose of Strength Endurance intervals, which feature low cadence efforts at high torque in the zone 3-4 effort range. They require that you keep your core solid and fully activated through the pedal stroke to keep the force coming and not get bogged down. Mentally and physically, it is a lot easier to key in on those elements going uphill on Watopia with my Kurt Kinetic Smart Control producing realistic resistance. The inertia is right, the mental stimulus is right and the results are better.

The same goes for performing early season mainstay high cadence form intervals on flats or down hills. The lower inertia forces you to stay on top of the gear and the feedback on screen, down to the avatar’s rapidly spinning legs, really helps me stay in tune with the effort.

Using Zwift Racing for Base Training

Finally, a lot of what you lose after an extended lay off from racing is the ability to subtly change pace throughout an effort and do so smoothly. That ability is a mix of cadence, neuromuscular response and lactate tolerance that is easy to miss riding steady state indoors or even on evenly paced solo training rides. Doing 1-3 Zwift races a week seems to be a good remedy for this stagnation.

It is not so much the big anaerobic efforts to follow attacks and hang with the pack up hills, but rather the constantly changing power demands of rolling along in the pack. I prefer the flatter races for this because I can avoid unnecessary full out efforts and get a good aerobic ride with lots of oscillation between 150 and 400w and the occasional sprint effort. I am not out to win (and I usually couldn’t anyway) but rather to get some time in across the different power zones without busting out strict intervals. Sometimes I still see red and make an ill fated dash for glory but mostly its fun, low stress and well-balanced training.

Heading South and Riding Some Real Miles

That’s it for now and that’s it for me on Zwift for a little while at least. My wife and I are headed south to Tucson for some warm weather miles and a nice vacation from winter. I have a lot of good cycling memories set in Tucson, dating back to my very first training camp as a Junior in 2009. I can’t wait to get back to cranking through the desert and going for broke in the Shootout group ride. It will be a nice reward after a lot of virtual hard yards cranked out on Zwift these past months, even if nobody gives me a fancy KOM jersey after my intervals on Mt. Lemmon.

CVR World Cup Training Helps Cyclists Get in Race-ready Shape

Cycligent Physical Esports, in conjunction with Hunter Allen and Peaks Coaching Group, have just launched CVR World Cup Training. The program’s goal is to help any cyclist get in better physical shape, even race-ready, in only 8 weeks.

The program fills a much-needed niche between two common training strategies which fall on opposite ends of the cost and effectiveness spectrums:

• Solution 1: Create and manage your own training program (free, but many riders see limited results because the lack the knowledge to develop an effective program)
• Solution 2: Hire a personal coach (expensive, but you get a custom-tailored program with regular personal checkups).

About the CVR Training Program

Any cyclist, no matter what their current fitness level, can sign up for the 8-week training program for $79. Each training is tailored for the cyclist according to their current cycling fitness level by legendary cycling coach Hunter Allen and his Peaks Coaching Group.

Training can be done outside, or inside through Zwift’s virtual cycling platform. At the end of 8 weeks, the cyclist is guaranteed to ride with more energy, increase their strength and power for short, anaerobic efforts, and extend endurance and stamina for long rides.

CVR World Cup Training includes:

• An 8 week training plan administered by live coaches who lead rides and answer your questions
• Workouts for Zwift or any fit file device (Garmin, etc)

Of course, training participants (and all Zwifters) have access to two other offerings from CVR: over $100,000 in prizes for the CVR World Cup Winter 2018 Season, and the opportunity to race in the CVR World Cup races (league begins January 2nd, 2018).

Training Camp Competition

CVR World Cup Training has an additional competitive component that makes the training extra attractive to cyclists who want to compete: all program participants will be ranked by how well you train (not how strong you are) within different power bands. Your ranking, and how it is computed, is shown to you at all times.

At the end of the season CVR will have a power band selection show where a power band is randomly selected. The top ten men and women from that power band will be invited to the CVR World Cup Training Camp (a four day, all expenses paid*, in-real-life training camp). Six men and women will be selected from the camp to race in the CVR World Cup race on March 25th, 2018 in Los Angeles where every competitor wins a minimum of $1,000.

* Food, lodging, world-class coaching and up to $1,000 in travel expenses

Webinar for Details

Want more info? Check out the 15 minute webinar with Hunter Allen >

About Cycligent Physical Esports

Cycligent Physical Esports is an event-based organization. Their high-impact, professional cycling events are being held in various locations all over the world. Cycligent Physical Esport’s goal is to propel the virtual cycling, esports movement, by creating top talent, as well as helping both amateur and professional cyclists improve their riding skills, in and out of the arena. Learn more at cvrworldcup.com.