Road Cycling - Gaining weight while riding

Well not quite but I rode 2 hours today and drank 2 water bottles of sports drink. 200 calories. According to the experts I only burned 600 calories during the ride. I drank a couple post ride beers. I know, My bad. They had 280 calories.. Total calories burned 120. Hardly seems worth it. Just a thought.

And that's exactly why people keep posting over and over ... I ride and I ride but I can't seem to lose weight!

They aren't riding enough, and they are consuming too many calories.

Well not quite but I rode 2 hours today and drank 2 water bottles of sports drink. 200 calories. According to the experts I only burned 600 calories during the ride. I drank a couple post ride beers. I know, My bad. They had 280 calories.. Total calories burned 120. Hardly seems worth it. Just a thought.Ya want some donuts and pizza with that whine?

You got two free beers and a coupla chicken mcnuggets out of it, which you probably would have consumed anyway.

I've been dropping a pound a month. Doesn't sound like much but over 18 months that's alot.

Best part, other than enjoying the cycling, is that I can be more relaxed about what I eat. If you pay attention to improving you're riding, the calories will come (well, go).

Cycling = Fun + Guilt-free Donuts & Beer

Beer is always worth it. Just remember that. There's very few things in this world you can say that about.

You guys are right. I need to drop the sports drink. Doesn't seem right to be drinking calories while I ride. I will drink water and give the beer up also. I just heard you should drink something besides water while riding. I guess they mean if you want to keep your weight the same. LOL>

Well not quite but I rode 2 hours today and drank 2 water bottles of sports drink. 200 calories. According to the experts I only burned 600 calories during the ride. I drank a couple post ride beers. I know, My bad. They had 280 calories.. Total calories burned 120. Hardly seems worth it. Just a thought.


Sports Drinks??

Pure unadulterated marketing hype.

If you are on your bike on the road for 2 hours you need nothing more than plain water.

Anything more is throwing your money down the drain.

If you want to lose weight faster (or at all), consider adding strength training to your week and eating six small meals a day. You'll burn more calrories during strength training and add muscle mass, which will have you burning more calories when at rest as well. At the same time, you'll be consuming fewer calories, so you'll lose weight faster than you would by just riding.

Skip the sports drinks if they're high in sugar. Stick to water, and use sports drinks after you loose the weight you want.

Oh, and when you're riding, add some intervals. You'll see much faster results.

Now if I could only practice what i preach...

put some more miles on your bike piggy. 100 a week at least and with a good aerobic heart rate too... no slacking for piggies!

I am doing over 200/wk

put some more miles on your bike piggy. 100 a week at least and with a good aerobic heart rate too... no slacking for piggies!

oh the brutal honesty... I've found a place i can call home

If I ate properly, I'd weigh 157, be in better shape and not have good food to look forward to. As it is, I weigh 164 and eat pretty much whatever I want. And I'm certainly not in bad shape.

If I didn't cycle and ate what I do now, I'd be pushing 200.

55/Rad

You only burned 600 calories on a 2 hour ride? That seems a little off to me, esp. since you are a male. Was it just a casual pace kinda ride?

I could be wrong but I think that two hours of hard cycling is way more then 600 calories burned. I am not positive about that though. As for the sports drink, be careful about drinks with heavy sugar (they are all sugar but I think you want to avoid fructose). There are a lot of books specifically about training diets.

At 200 miles/wk you should definately be losing some weight.

I was thinking about this one and I am pretty sure that a 180 pound male burns 15 calories a minute at 16mph. That is 900 calories per hour or in your case 1800 total calories burned. I guess you should have another beer!!!

Yeah you get up into 100 miles a week you're going to lose weight. If I cut out the group rides I can keep my mileage down to 50-60 a week but add those rides in and it's way over 100. And I expect/hope to lose a lb a week, that's fast enough.

As for sports drinks, Powerade's got some sugar, some B vitamins, seems to be very refreshing on a hot day after a ride, so why not? Starbuck's has some peach iced tea that's like 80 calories a bottle, and the stuff tastes like a fresh peach! And I normally loathe flavored iced tea. That's not going to hurt you, fresh water is good too, but I don't see much harm in these drinks on a 30 or 40 mile ride with hills. V-8 is supposedly really good too, for recovery, so why not?

That's not going to hurt you, fresh water is good too, but I don't see much harm in these drinks on a 30 or 40 mile ride with hills.


Yeah stick with FRESH water... no salt water. Salt water bad.

Man you guys make me feel better. I read that cycling only burns 300 calories an hour. I am only averaing 16 miles and hour though. I live in WV and these hills make it hard to average more than that for me. I guess whoever said that you only burn 300 calories and hour didn't know what they were talking about. I will give up the sports drink. Now the beer. You will have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

A 165 pound person, riding at around 15-16 mph, will burn approx. 750 calories an hour... (www.caloriesperhour.com).

I think you are burning a lot more calories than you think. Nonetheless - making the beer slightly less occasional could have a significant long-run effect.

Sports Drinks??

Pure unadulterated marketing hype.

If you are on your bike on the road for 2 hours you need nothing more than plain water.

Anything more is throwing your money down the drain.
I disagree. During rides here in the summer I sweat like a pig. When I tried ridding with just water my legs were starting to cramp up. Drinking water and gatorage helped. The hills around here take a lot out of me.

How accurate are those calorie counters on heart rate monitors? My cateye HB-100 is showing I burned 2k+ calories on my 30 mile ride. :eek:

If you need sports drinks stick to propel, or buy the gatorade powder, and water it down atleast 50%, ( you can also just make store bought gatorade 50/50 water, I think a 75%water/25%gatorade is probably better but won't taste too great. The v8 is good for recovery and dehydration, but its extremely high in sodium so I wouldn't make it a habit. Also 280 calories in beer, is worse then 200 calories in most other things, the beer sets off some metabolic activity in you're body that helps store fat (all alcohol will). But I do think at 2hrs, you should be fine to have a couple of beers every once in a while and lose weight. hmmm..studying for the mcat might be helping a bit

from what i understand gatoraide and spots drinks help only when you are really exerting yourself. for me group rides = 2 gatoraides and every other solo ride i do i take one gatoraide and one water mostly only drinking the water

If I ate properly, I'd weigh 157, be in better shape and not have good food to look forward to. As it is, I weigh 164 and eat pretty much whatever I want. And I'm certainly not in bad shape.

If I didn't cycle and ate what I do now, I'd be pushing 200.

55/Rad

Heck I beat the hell out of 200 years ago! I am now 206lbs, down from 296 a few years ago. I hope to keep dropping. If I don't lose anymore weight at least I can take solace that I am not gaining any. My diet is quite healthy now and for a guy who is 6'1" and who used to be almost 300lbs, I will take this. Now, having said that, I am busting my butt to get down to 180-185lbs, and I am using cycling as my modus operandi.

Helps that I love it.

Brian

ok people sports drinks work to replace and stabilize the sodium-potassium pump in your cells... This is pivotal for ATP transport(Adenosine(sp) tri Phosphate) and energy production. A blanket statement on the efficacy of sports drinks is misleading.. It works if you sweat a lot... It may not have a huge effect if you dont sweat a lot and ride for an hour... It will definitely work for longer rides.. You can maybe create yur own drink with salt (Sodium Cholride) and some source of potassium (I have heard that Bananas are a good source).

You can get "lite" salt off the shelf at any drug store, half and half sodium chloride and potassium chloride, the periodic table is our friend :-)

Cmon Ben...LOSE...LOSE...not LOOSE!!!!!

I'm not sure what you're doing wrong but I only ride 50-70 miles per week and the weight just keeps coming off. I really don't even eat all that healthy either. In fact I'm thinking about how I can stabilize my weight as all my clothes are starting to really not fit. I would suggest trying to eat more sensibly and maybe riding more.

Think on the Glycemic level. As in high, medium and low glycemic. If you want to lose weight go low to medium gycemic (i.e. not Gatoraid). If you can maintain a good habit of eating foods low glycemic and continue riding like you are, you will shed more weight than coked-up super model.

Read:
"Low Glycemic Index foods may confer an advantage when eaten before prolonged strenuous exercise by providing a slow-release source of glucose to the blood without the accompanying insulin surge.
Low Glycemic Index foods may prolong endurance during strenuous exercise after being eaten, helping to avoid high sugar and insulin. LGI foods yield lower levels of plasma lactate before and during exercise, and maintain plasma glucose and free fatty acids at higher levels during critical periods of exercise.
Low Glycemic Index Foods may positively affect maximal performance following sustained exercise by maintaining a higher plasma glucose level (measured at the end of 2 hours of strenuous exercise) as compared to high glycemic foods.
Low Glycemic Index foods support higher plasma FFA concentrations and more stable glycemic and insulin response. This is good because lower plasma FFA concentrations increase or enhance muscle breakdown. Additionally, having a more stable glycemic response and insulin response leads to less carbohydrate oxidation. Stable blood glucose levels reduce insulin spikes so muscle growth will continue and fat will not be stored!"

It's not just about the calories you burn while riding. Your metabolism will speed up for the 24 hours following a 1 hour ride. Also the mussel you build will burn calories 24/7.

A 165 pound person, riding at around 15-16 mph, will burn approx. 750 calories an hour... (www.caloriesperhour.com).

I think you are burning a lot more calories than you think. Nonetheless - making the beer slightly less occasional could have a significant long-run effect.

Thanks for that link, that calculator is cool.

Yep, I gained weight when I started to ride. That is a good thing though. For the past few years I've been stuck around 150 at 6'1. It may just be a coincidence, but in the 2 months after I started to ride I gained about 25#. It's now been about 5 months since then and I've been able to maintain that same weight, between 170-175.

I get comments all the time about how much better I look that I've put on some weight.

Sports Drinks??

Pure unadulterated marketing hype.

If you are on your bike on the road for 2 hours you need nothing more than plain water.

Anything more is throwing your money down the drain.

I disagree, at least in Tennessee. When my gloves and bike shorts turn white with salt it means I'm using electrolites.

For 2 hr rides in 85 degree's or higher I'll drink 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of sport drink. I'll mix it up as far as how much of each. I might take 2 drinks of one then one of the other or vise-versa. Usually If I'm getting ready to climb a big hill or just completed a big hill, I'll take a couple of good pulls on the sports drink to help with recovery. Then I'll hit the water after that.

I'f I'm longer than 2hrs, I'll carry 2 extra bottles usually 1 of each and keep alternating the same as before.

Now when it cools off here a bit, it will probably be just water. And I'll carry a GU in case I bonk or need an extra bit of pickup.

I rode RAGBRAI the last week of July, eating constantly the most carefully considered nutritional choices available (pie, beer, Margaritas, breakfast burritos, pork chops, - you know, standard training table stuff). Two weeks later, I'm still 6 lbs lighter than before the ride.

Man you guys make me feel better. I read that cycling only burns 300 calories an hour. I am only averaing 16 miles and hour though. I live in WV and these hills make it hard to average more than that for me. I guess whoever said that you only burn 300 calories and hour didn't know what they were talking about. I will give up the sports drink. Now the beer. You will have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

Are there a lot of hills? Could it be you're building muscle? Rather than the scale it can be better to measure your *weight* using your mirror and your clothes.

... the periodic table is our friend :-)

Except when the Hg gets in the fishies. :eek:

I prefer my energy/NaCl/nutrients in the form of food, but Cytomax seems to help for 30-40 mile rides. Any ride over 2hrs and 15 mins., then I need food too.

Part of the reason I hopped on the bike again was to lose 10-15 lbs, but once that happens, I'll hopefully be able to eat and drink anything I want and my weight will remain steady.

I agree....use the sports drink if you sweat... I used to do water years back and found that I recovered but did so with a headache and more tiring. When I bike or are at the gym, I sweat....sweat means a whole lot more is leaving you body then just plain water...

It seems that many on this forum are under the impression that unless you do that century ride, sports drinks are worthless. I know better...I listen to my body and do what my body needs and I found if I ride for an hour in hot weather, then sports drink it is!

Well not quite but I rode 2 hours today and drank 2 water bottles of sports drink. 200 calories. According to the experts I only burned 600 calories during the ride. I drank a couple post ride beers. I know, My bad. They had 280 calories.. Total calories burned 120. Hardly seems worth it. Just a thought.

You need to switch your post ride drink to tequila. Not as many calories, better tasting.