Seeing The Difference

It has been just over four weeks since I first wrote about the changes I was making to my lifestyle and so I thought I would share how things have been going.

Weight and Diet

I started measuring my weight properly on the 19th of January when I was 101.5 kg. Since then I have done weekly weigh-ins on Sunday mornings and today I weighed myself and I was down to 94.5 kg.

There is still a long way to go but I have noticed the difference both in how I look in the mirror and in how my clothes fit. Last weekend I put on my jeans, did up my belt and moved to the next notch which was very satisfying!

Over the last few weeks I have successfully cut out the unhealthy snacks I used to eat. Out have gone the multi-packs and sharing bags of crisps, out have gone the sweets, out have gone the impromptu late-night sandwiches. I’ve been much more conscious about eating fruit, some raw carrots or a handful of nuts instead. I’ve not really had any cravings and a key element is definitely not having bad snacks in my house. When my daughter came home from university for a couple of days we had some in the house and when she left I quite deliberately threw the remaining bits and pieces out.

In terms of meals, I’ve been very conscious about cutting out ready-meals and trying to avoid ultra-processed foods as much as I can. I’ve not eaten very much meat in the last few weeks and when I have it has either been chicken or fish. I’ve not eaten bread and very few potatoes but I have substituted them with brown rice a few times.

I’m not going to deprive myself of everything. If I have a craving for a pizza or a fish finger sandwich then I’m not going to fight it too hard; I just need to make sure that they are treats and not regular meals.

Nor am I calorie-counting. I have had a few days where I have added them up to check that I am not too far off where I should be and fortunately I’ve been getting things pretty much right so far.

Exercise

All of my exercise so far has been indoor cycling on my Zwift Ride. Since getting it I’ve spent 11 and a half hours riding 277 km which have been spread across various types of activity.

Fitness Programme

I’m taking part in Zwift’s Back to Fitness training plan which consists of two training sessions per week for 12 weeks. It is based around my FTP level so each session requires an appropriate level of effort and the sessions are always a challenge but never too much.

It is also worth mentioning that Zwift allows you to do individual workouts. There have been a couple of times that I have wanted to do a more relaxed ride which focuses on my zone 2 heart rate so I have gone and picked an appropriate workout and have done them as one-off things rather than being part of a larger programme.

Group Ride

A couple of weeks ago a group of people from Ryan Condon’s Discord did a long group ride (over 120 km lasting more than six hours) and I went along for some of it thanks to a great Zwift feature called Rubber Banding. This essentially keeps a group of riders together by adjusting everyone’s speed so I was essentially being pulled along by the stronger riders in the group. I also dropped the Trainer Difficulty so that the hills were effectively treated as having zero gradient. Yes it was “cheating” and no, I don’t care. It was a hugely enjoyable way to spend some time with some lovely, friendly, supportive people and it was also sociable and fun and I ended up riding for 90 minutes, my longest ride so far.

Random Routes

Zwift allows you to pick routes and just ride them for your own fun and fitness. Routes are graded from 1 to 5 for effort and some routes are locked for higher level riders or for events.

I have enjoyed picking routes and just going for a ride and taking in the scenery. But I have to confess that there have also been some occasions when I’ve ended up in a race with a complete stranger who has no idea I was trying to match their pace and those gentle rides have turned into something far more energetic. As an added bonus, one of those also resulted in a small bump to my FTP from 150 to 152.

Races

For many people, the main attraction of Zwift is the races and events comprising multiple races. A month on I have yet to take part in one. But tomorrow the Zwift Games 2025 starts and I am really tempted to sign up and take part. Watch this space…

An Unscientific Comparison

My first ride on Zwift on 30 January was a loop of Volcano Circuit and I set a time of 8:10. During the overall ride my power output averaged 133 watts and my average cadence was 70 RPM. I didn’t have a heart rate monitor at that point.

The next day I did another loop but my time was 9:09. I think this was probably largely due to the pain I was in! During this ride my average power output was 117 watts and my average cadence was 74 RPM. My heart rate averaged 164 BPM.

Yesterday, on 1 March, I rode two laps again and set a PB of 7:44.1 on the first lap and 7:37.3 on the second one. My power output averaged 153 watts and my average cadence was 85 RPM. My average heart rate was 150 BPM. I also increased my FTP from 152 to 153.

So in four weeks I am cycling with more power, faster cadence and a lower heart rate. This is all to be expected when you are exercising to get fitter but sitting down and comparing the figures is very encouraging.

Cycling-Related Updates

Padded Bib Shorts

My old cycling shorts were not great and after the 90 minute group ride I knew I really needed to do something about replacing them.

Buying cycling shorts seems to be a bit of a minefield because different styles and shapes of padding work better for some people than for others. Add weight loss into it and I didn’t want to spend a huge amount on them so I pretty much blindly ended up buying a pair of Giordana bib shorts which I found discounted on Decathlon’s web site in a very fetching red colour!

They are definitely better than my old shorts and bib shorts are a step up from normal shorts because the shoulder straps help hold them in place. However the padding doesn’t quite go back as far as I would like although I think that might be partly due to my size (I bought the 2XL size and they fit somewhat snugly so hopefully they will see me through the loss of a few more kilograms before I need to buy a smaller size).

Clipless Pedals

At the moment I’m cycling in trainers on Zwift’s standard platform pedals. This works but I also want to try clipless because I do find that my feet shift around a lot and do sometimes feel that the Zwift Ride is ‘free-pedalling’ when my cadence gets high and the requires watts is low (as can happen in the fitness routines).

So far I’ve bought some Shimano PD-RS500 SPD-SL pedals and some Shimano SM-SH11 SPD-SL Yellow cleats so I now need to go and buy some clipless shoes which I want to do in-store rather than on-line to make sure that the fit properly. I’ll post about this and the outcome in a future post.

Zwift Ride Replacement

My original Zwift Ride made a slightly disconcerting grinding sound when I pedalled. Zwift agreed and decided that the easiest solution was for them to replace it.

Without any fuss or drama they shipped me a replacement and a returns label. I swapped the bike over, put the old one in the box the replacement came in and FedEx came and took it back to them.

The whole process was very simple and stress-free and Zwift’s support team were fantastic to deal with and I am hugely impressed by them.

The new frame is still a bit noisy but not enough for me to worry about and I am confident that if there is another problem it will be sorted out quickly and easily.

Full marks for Zwift customer support which is a lovely thing to be able to write.

General Well-Being

In general I’m physically and mentally feeling better than I did at the start of 2025. I ache less in the mornings and if I do ache it is generally because of a harder workout the previous day.

I am feeling more flexible and generally not as old as I did. I’m enjoying eating better foods, enjoying seeing gradual weight loss and looking forward to getting, rather than squeezing, into clothes.

I do think that I need to add some strength training to the mix now and I am also keen to try yoga or Pilates to increase my flexibility further.

My Final Thoughts

In four weeks I have gone from being completely sedentary to doing around three hours of solid exercise a week and, contrary to my doubts and worries I had before I started, it has been both easy to do and enjoyable. The toughest part was definitely the mental hurdle of just getting started. Overcoming the fears of trying something new which was also something I’d almost become conditioned to be against was a big step but in retrospect incredibly trivial to do.

However I will also say that picking indoor cycling in the privacy of my own home helped eliminate the social anxiety of starting this journey in public. I’m looking forward to starting my Couch to 5k training but I’m also nervous about walking and jogging outside, even if the rational part of my brain tells me that nobody else really cares and people I know who I bump into will be supportive rather than derogatory.

I know that this is going to be a long, on-going, journey and that there may be times when I loose motivation but I really hope that by adding some jogging into the mix and also some outdoor cycling when the weather is better I will have enough variety of activities to keep me engaged until it all really does become an ingrained part of my lifestyle.

52 is definitely not too late to start this sort of journey and whether it helps me live a longer, healthier life or not, I’m feeling better about myself physically and mentally right now. This has all been a positive process with no real down-sides apart from the cost of it all. But more about that another time.