after a long ride/run/swim, or an intense brick, and after every weight lifting session i take a scoop (20-30 grams) of whey protein in skim milk or water. it helps repair damaged muscles and also helps build lean muscle. the next morning you wont be quite as tender either, and you can train that much harder and burn even more calories. i dont have much experience with other supps. hope this helped at least a little.

Eating less is definitely not the answer. Fat cells cannot be starved - muscle cells can (fat cells are not metbolically active; muscle cells are). Strategies derived from the "Calories in - Calories out" paradigm offer acute solutions to a chronic issue and do not work.

You need to eat in a way that feeds your muscle cells, but not your fat cells and exercise in ways that
1. burn fat and 2. Raise your resting metabolic rate.

Eat concentrated carbohydrates (bread, cereal, pasta, rice corn, potatoes, sugar) only after workouts, when they will go into your muscle cells as glycogen for tomorrow's workout. At other times these foods are very likely to end up in your fat cells.

Do most of your aerobic training at a very easy intensiy - almost every athlete I've tested (over 7,000) goes too hard for basic endurance training. Training slightly too hard your body to burn more sugar and less fat.

Strength training has tremendous acute and chronic benefits. Human Growth Hormone is released after a short, intense strength training session and dramatically increases fat metabolism for a few hours. Muscle growth increases resting metabolic rate chronically.

More at LeanForaLifetime.com

Hope this helps, Ken

I lost about 30 pounds in my first year of training for tris. My strategy was 3-fold:
1. burn calories - inevitable through the daily training to reach and maintain fitness level.
2. eat smarter - get rid of "garbage" calories. Cut out sodas, simple sugars, fatty fried foods, processed foods, bleached white flour and white rice and favor whole grains, whole wheat, and brown rice. Eat leaner meats.
3. eat less - I just simply put less food on my plate. I ate enough to not feel hungry but not so much that I felt stuffed. I ate slowly and to the point where I reached a "comfortable" point where I could eat more but stopped. After a while, you become accustomed to smaller portions.

Ya know there are so many different opinions on this subject and yet none of these answers may be for you. What has always worked for me is a balanced died, and lots of intence cardio. Now ken sounds really smart and all, and not that it is bad advice, but when ever I have tried to over strategize my died nothing really happens for me. But Deepbluex and I have a similar strategy. For me the key is to just listen to my stomach and eat what is needed to fill that gap. And I try not to do it with junk. As far as exercise goes for me last week I did 25 miles of running 100 miles of cycling and squeezed in weights in there somewhere and I am continuing to try and increase that. I also believe like Cholopolitan that cross training is very crucial. If you notice I think everybody has given some really good information now you just have to try it all (including reading the books) and see what works best for you and build your own fitness and diet strategy. Good luck, I hope I did more then just confuse you.