Very northern hemisphere attitude there.
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I donāt think SYSTM is for weight loss and neither does it need to be developed for weight loss.
There is plenty of information about how to lose weight and eat healthily out there in the wild. I donāt think we need more here. In fact, I bet most people on here already know how to lose weight and what to eat.
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A possible plan Would be a combination between polarised and sober trainingā¦
5 wo/Week
(4 sober, before breakfast max 50min and max 65%ftp. 1 Wo with a TSS of >100 within 70minā¦)
When you say only 4/5 sober do you meanā¦?
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Cmon! Who is sober before breakfast 4 times a week!? 
Edit: I thought it was a typo but itās a thing
Btw, welcome to the forums @HeroQuest!
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Update to the thread that I thought might be valuable in understanding what Iām suggesting. I just received a newsletter from Abi Carver, where sheās taking about a podcast she just heard and possibly adding some stuff to her yoga routines, (any new ones may just be in her website not in Sufferfest), but she says:
āI recently listened to this great podcast (about 5 times through!) with neuroscientist Andrew Huberman and Dr Andy Galpin: How To Build Strength, Muscle Size And Endurance.ā
Link.)
āTo summarise, Dr Andy Galpin believes that strength training significantly benefits endurance performance and he wasnāt so convinced that endurance training negatively impacts strength gains, as had previously been thought to be the case. However, he did add that this was only true if the endurance efforts were not excessively long and/or the athlete was not putting themselves into a calorie deficit by stacking endurance training on top of strength and conditioning.ā
Iām adding this into the thread because it makes perfect sense and may explain why I had success shedding dozens of pounds cycling and going to the gym back to back. For example, my regular routine used to be something like this, (weather and work permitting):
Sunday: As big a ride as my wife would allow, usually 50+ mile group or solo rides, sometimes crit racing.
Monday: 1+ hours at gym for stretching, free body and resistance training.
Tuesday: 1+ hours at gym for stretching, free body and resistance training.
Wednesday: 20 to 35+ mile group or solo ride.
Thursday: 1+ hours at gym for stretching, free body and resistance training.
Friday: 1+ hours at gym for stretching, free body and resistance training.
Saturday: 1+ hours of outdoor fun ride, recovery ride or an occasional 50+ mile endurance ride.
Perhaps I was experiencing a workout regimen with a steady caloric deficit, that may not have been making me a stellar bike rider, but was contributing to overall weight loss.
Interesting, did you track your calories? I lose almost no calories when Iām at the gym (tracked on HRM) even when Iām throwing really heavy metal around. The exception is KB work but even that is super low cal burn compared to on the bike. I struggle to burn 200cal an hour in the gym and easily do over 600 an hour on the bike. The benefit for calorie deficit from the resistance training as I understand it, is the after burnā¦i.e. the muscles continue to metabolise more post a gym workout.
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This is correct.
Hi Lisa,
No I never really paid much attention to calories eaten or burned, with the exception of getting excited when my Fitbit would show that I reached my 2900 caloric burn for the day, or when it would crush it on big rides where burning 2500 to 4000 calories wasnāt unusual. In so far as tracking calories eaten, the only thing I did there was to be mindful of the nutritional value of the calories I was consuming. In other words, if I ate a foot long tuna sub at lunch with 1500 calories, that was okay because it was just tuna, while grain bread, lettuce, low fat mayo, and a bunch of veggies. Much better than having a couple slices of pizza or hot dogs that may be equal in calories, but primarily fat and salt.
I also tried to eat according to my workouts. So, if I was going to the gym where I might only burn 250 to 500 calories in an hour, but not need a ton of energy to accomplish it, then I would eat lighter that day. If I was planning a ride after work or on a weekend, where much of my time would be in zone 3 to 5 then I would eat more and more often.
Calorie counting and diets I canāt stand.
I donāt diet but I am very mindful of what I eat and have a pathological fear of under eating knowing what that did to me before. So I do track what I eat a couple of days a week to check Iām in the right ball park, but it is not to maintain a ādietā
I was on a nice trajectory in 2018 to get under 180 and stay there as well as get more ripped. Then life happened and we bought a new home, and I jacked up my ankle and foot through the course of the move, then work got really busy for a year, so I skipped or cut short my workouts and started eating later in the eveningā¦ Bam just like that I put 20 lbs on. Then COVID happened and I couldnāt go to the gym. I started working from home and my daily calorie burn went down in general. Then I started Sufferfest and have been doing that for over a year, but not lost any weight, actually Iāve gained so Iām at about 217 now. All that work and Iām facing the challenge of trying to lose weight again ughā¦ Iāve got to try and build a plan, itās too bad SYSTM doesnāt have plans the user can build, (or a built in weight loss plan).
With the nice weather itās nice to take a ride outside and I already figured out a hack so I can bring SYSTM outdoors, but Iām not sure how to pick a training plan in SYSTM based on what I want to do.
Gotta work on it this week. If I figure something out Iāll report back.
The problem is fueling to get fitter and losing weight is hard. Very hard. Even top notch sports physiologists like Stacy Sims say do one, then the other. Iām doing that now and it is HARD. And SLOW. AND I have to be absolutely religious about how I train and how I fuel and thatās very much customised for me by a sports physiologist and I pay big bucks for the privilege. Doing it on my own before, I saw results at first, but gave mysrlf RED-s and trust me, you donāt wabt to go down that rabbit hole
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+1. What @DameLisa said. Dropped a ton of weight when I first came back to the bike, got back to performance levels andā¦
Feel like I need to drop another 5kg, but finding the balance is hard and slow (so. very. slow). Working with a nutritionist now on my end to try and dial things in, but I too find I have to be a zealot in sticking to plan to see any headway in weight loss (granted thereās continual improvement in strength, power outputs, and BF%, but again, itās trying to do both at once).
Would that it were as simple as KCal in vs. out.
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Yeah I almost DOUBLED my calories to start losing weight. Being female is totally messed. But that said, power on the bike is increasing. I need to test power again, but honestly going just by feel, and measuring how I manage riding with the boys, itās close to back where it was. I dial in my daily protein target like a zealot and eat mega clean. Thatās about it really. But if I get the protein target wrong just one day, it takes weeks to get back where I was. Meh.
Happy with the power sitting as is now, just dropping body fat slowly now. I seem to plateau on the one then the other. Weeks where Iām not dropping weight, the on bike performance is excellent.
Also, a fat loss ātraining planā would literally just be tons of riding just above endurance and be boring as hell and if I was riding that, my VO2 and sprint power would die a death. And my sprint is where it is at. Just ask the boys I ride with mwahahahahahaha
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It sounds like probably most of your are at a much more advanced level than I am. Plus I didnāt renew my racing license so Iām not planning on any races this year. Iām just wanting to lose a minimum of 25 lbs and get back close to where I was a few years ago. It took 3 years to get out of shape, so Iām not looking for miracles, just a way to have a workout schedule and calendar to follow and duplicate what I did before.
The problem Iām having, and maybe those of you more familiar with the SYSTM software can help, is that I finished my last plan a couple of weeks ago and Iām wanting a new training plan to follow, but thereās only 4 cycling plans to choose from and Iām inclined to choose the āGeneral Fitnessā, and pick the āAll Purposeā with strength and yoga, but thatās the same thing Iāve done at least a couple of times with no weight loss. I see ābuilding blocksā but not sure if thatās what I need either.
I would like to open up SYSTM and see my workouts on the calendar, so theyāre easy to follow and so SYSTM tracks them, except I canāt figure out a way to create my own plan, choosing the workouts, days, adding gym style workouts, etc.
Anybody know enough about the software and calendar to help out? Once I build the plan for weight loss itās easy to do, it just takes discipline. I would be happy to share it once itās built but I donāt know if thereās a way to do that either.
IKR? Plus meeting those daily protein targets is just @#$% hard!
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Yep. I battle to fit them in. Am very sneaky in my use of Whey Protein Isolate. Plus a serve of that is more g of protein that 100% whey. I also add in collagen for an extra 10g per serve! 
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Youāre better than me. I have yet to find a whey-base that I can stand more than once or twice.
The amateur racing club Iām in has a couple hundred members I suppose and thereās plenty of women who can kick my butt at certain things. Nothing like drafting/hanging on for dear life behind a fit woman cyclist 
Keep up the good work what sort of cycling and or events do you do?