I'm 37yo. Have always been a big guy. In 7th grade I was 6' and 220lbs. Coming out of HS I was 6'2" 280lbs.
I was very active despite my size.
A few years ago I was as much as 350lbs. I'm 6'3". People have always said I wear my weight well. But I don't like it.
I started cycling again about 5 years ago. Not nearly often enough or long enough.
Got severely bitten by the mountain biking bug about 4 years ago. Used to MTB every day between ages 15-20.
Started riding a bit more and started feeling much stronger and healthy.
Dropped down to about 320lbs, but seemed to have hit a plateau.
I was getting much stronger on the bike, and felt much better.
Got married last may and weighed myself after the honeymoon and I was up to 330lbs.
Rode a lot through the summer and dropped down to 310lbs, where I hit a major plateau.
Could not break the 310 mark.
Around xmas, I built up a road bike.
Started riding quite a bit.
So far I have logged about 1000 miles since jan 1st and have done about 50,000 feet of climbing. Living at the base of a 4000' mountain helps with that.
Started eating a little more sensible.
1 serving of oatmeal with fresh fruit for breakfast.
I make a sandwich for work, using the suggested serving sizes for meat and 1 slice of cheese. Also bring 2 pieces of fruit with me.
For dinner I eat no more than what will fill a medium sized plate.
If I have dessert it is usually a small bowl of cereal.
I'm not really counting calories, more concentrating on serving sizes.
I like to drink beer, so I have laid off the heavy beers and substituted them with 110cal light beer.
Since xmas, I have dropped about 20lbs and am down to about 290lbs.
In February I completed my longest ride to date. 65.6 miles metric century.
Completed in 4 hours and 6 minutes.
Avg speed was about 16mph.
I was taking it easy.
It was fairly flat with only 2000' of elevation gain.
Very windy for a long 20 mile section. We were battling 20-25mph headwind for 20 miles.
On my average rides I maintain 18-19mph avg if it is fairly flat.
Climbed up a mounatin last week and had an avg of 14mph over a 30 mile ride, with 2500' of gain in about 6 miles of that.
I'm steadily losing weight. About 1lbs a week.
It takes discipline to make such a lifestyle change.
To be totally honest, at least half the time I am forcing myself onto the bike, because I would rather be lazy and sit on the couch.
Thats where the discipline comes in.
Once I'm out, I'm loving it....but it is hard to motivate sometimes.
I do rides before work, and also after work. Sometimes short loops of 10-15 miles at a hard pace.
My usual weekend rides are about 28-35 miles.
Sometimes when I'm out and the conditions are less than great, it is hard to keep going.
If it's cold or rainy, I keep wanting to turn back....but I keep telling myself every couple miles to go just a little further. Then I keep that up for about 10-15 miles and turn around......= )