Purchased winning in the kitchen meal plan plus 18 weeks sweet spot training. I am 5’9” 185lb , and a 14 year cyclist. I know it’s not supposed to be a weight loss plan, but I’ve lost 6 lb this week already. My energy is very low. Should I be supplementing for my rides or is my body just going through the adaptation of getting all the sugar (monster energy drinks) and other junk out of my system? Thank you for your help.
-FasCat Athlete (submitted via email)
Just doing a little math here, 6 lb in 7 days would be equivalent to a deficit of 21,000 calories, which leads me to think something else may be going on. But first let me explain why I say that…
With an average of 7 hours per week on the basic version of the 18 weeks of sweet spot, a male will burn roughly 5000-6000 calories per week or about 700 per day. Your BMR (basal metabolic rate) at 5’9" is ~1750 calories, add in your exercise and light daily activities and your daily energy expenditure is around 2800 calories (or 19,600 calories per week). Thus, why I say losing 6 lb or 21,000 calories in a week is not likely.
With that said, you could VERY likely be experiencing symptoms of sugar and caffeine withdrawal if you typically consumed a lot of those before jumping into the meal plan. You could also be in too much of a calorie deficit if you are not fueling your rides, not measuring your foods properly, skipping any of the meals, or have a very physically active job. If that were the case, you could possibly lose up to 2 lb per week on this plan… which is more than I would suggest for an athlete looking to be able to continue to ride well, stay focused and nail their hard workouts.
The goal with the intro plan is to get you accustomed to eating less processed foods, not to lose weight. So my suggestion is that you are losing more than 1 lb a week and are feeling sluggish, increase the amount of carbs you have at each meal (say from 1 cups to 1.5 cups of oats), have a extra handful of trail mix during the day or some dried fruit and throw in extra healthy fats like avocados, walnuts, extra virgin olive oil, etc to your meals. I suggest having some coffee or black tea too to get in some caffeine so your body doesn’t go completely crazy. With a ton of sugar (about 10 teaspoons) and lots of caffeine, Monster energy drinks are addictive and tough to quit. Taking those out of your diet alone is a HUGE step in the right directions, so kudos on doing that! 
Be on the lookout too for our advanced winning in the kitchen meal plans. The next one to be released will be the weight loss plan which will take into account your weight, gender and activity level to ensure you are getting enough food and at the right times to ensure you can #FtFP, recover, feel energized and still lose weight 
Also, regarding fueling your on the bike nutrition. If you look in the Welcome to the FasCat Document on day one of the intro meal plan, there are guidelines for planning on the bike nutrition. With the basic 18 weeks of SS, you likely do not need to fuel your weekday rides as they are generally <75 minutes. However if it is hot outside you could benefit from some electrolytes in your bottle and possibly even ~10-25g (40-100 calories) of carbs on days when you are doing intervals.
I have found that many athletes who train early in the morning and either ride fasted or eat very little, feel better with a little bit of carbs in their system as it helps to delay the body from tapping into glycogen stores too soon.
It is also important to not that the time of day that you weigh yourself can make a big difference. For example if you weighed yourself first thing in the morning one day and then after a long hard ride in the heat where you did not drink enough (say 3+ hours) you could expect to see a loss of anywhere from 1-6 lb. So if that is the case, try to weigh yourself at a similar time every day to get a good basis for comparison.