Training & Nutrition - How much training is enough to get lean fast

Hi

I've started cycling recently
I'm also body building and pushing big weights.

I need to know how much cycling is enough?
Or perhaps I need to do more to see results.
This is what I started a week ago.

I wake up at 6am.
I drink some mineral water and by 6.10am I am on my bike.
I do 10 miles in a very hilly town 6 mornings a week
The work rate is normally intense with the exception of this
morning when I stopped to chat with two very attractive female
runners. Couldn't resist that one though.

I return home from my ride & I then have egg whites for breakfast
with 1/2 a yolk.

Here is the rest of my schedule for Monday to Friday:

07:30 Egg Whites
08:00 I commute to work in the City of London.

10:00 I eat Oatmeal with soya milk
10:30 Multivitamin supplements

11:30 Rich Protein Meal, with vegetables

14:30 Chicken / Steak + lots of water

18:00 Chicken / Steak + lots of water

21:00 Chicken / Steak + lots of water

21:30 6 Egg Whites

23:30 Sleep

Saturday and Sunday back to normal eating and carb up.
Heavy Gym work.

Do I need to double my bike training to 100+ miles per week to
see more rapid fat loss or is 60 miles enough?

First off you need to complie more info and figure out what you are trying to gain. Start with your caloric intake, how much steak/chicken? It sounds like you are trying to cram in a lot of protein and lift weights to bulk on the muscle not loose weight. Secondly you dont see lots of big(muscle) cyclists with the exception of legs. It also looks like you are hitting the sac with a full stomach(21:00-21:30 and bed at 23:00). If you are trying to lose weight then up your riding cut your calories and it will drop, talk to a dietician about an eating plan.

Also your body will not absorb any more protein than necessary to repair muscle-damage from workouts. So any excess protein over about 100gm per day is just getting flushed down the toilet; you can't force protein onto your muscles. Muscles will only grow in proportion to the stress that's been done, so the harder you work out, the more muscle you build. However, that does nothing for the fat-content on your body, you need real aerobic workouts for that.



Do I need to double my bike training to 100+ miles per week to
see more rapid fat loss or is 60 miles enough?Uh.. I did 154 miles yesterday. You want to look at doing at least 200 miles per week for any serious fat loss. Ride 3-4 hours per day on the weekend at a steady brisk pace that you can hold the entire time. Weight-loss comes down to a balance of calories-in vs. calories-out and the more you can burn per hour, the more you fat you lose. Since most semi-trained people can burn off at most 600-900 calories/hr, you need to ride about 2-3 hours/day during the week and 3-4 hours per day on the weekends to lose about 1-2 lbs/week. That's really the maximum rate that's safe in terms of not tearing apart good muscle to use as energy.

Uh.. I did 154 miles yesterday. You want to look at doing at least 200 miles per week for any serious fat loss. Ride 3-4 hours per day on the weekend at a steady brisk pace that you can hold the entire time. Weight-loss comes down to a balance of calories-in vs. calories-out and the more you can burn per hour, the more you fat you lose. Since most semi-trained people can burn off at most 600-900 calories/hr, you need to ride about 2-3 hours/day during the week and 3-4 hours per day on the weekends to lose about 1-2 lbs/week. That's really the maximum rate that's safe in terms of not tearing apart good muscle to use as energy.


Exactly right ... 60 miles a week is hardly anything. 60 miles is a nice distance for a casual Sunday ride. If you want to lose weight, you've got to do way more than that. 10 miles a day is a good start, and would be a good ride for your recovery days, but you will want to do a lot more than that on the other days. With 10 miles, you're barely burning 300 calories.

I agree with everyone else. I lifted seriously before I started cycling so I might be able to help a little more since I've got that background.

1) We need more info as to how much you're eating
2) Need more info as to your other workouts
3) If you want a good to serious cardio workout 10 miles is nowhere near enough. I would say 50 miles and up is more reasonable. I also understand work/time won't permit this...
But! Depending on your lifting schedule you might be able to swap time. Many lifters way over lift, or don't allow for muscle growth after a lift. If you can do say a very hard lift on Sunday (bi's, tri's, chest, ?), Mon=Rest, 100 miles betweenTues/Wed, hard lift (shoulders, back, core, ?)Thurs, 100+ miles Fri/Sat, you would get lean and buff pretty quickly. Obviously alot depends on your diet as well. Consecutive cardio days really help to get the metabolism cranking.

I'm not sure what all of you are talking about. If you change your calorie intake and or output by 3500 calories a week, you should lose 1 lb a week. That assumes your weight was stable before. That is 500 calories a day. Riding 10 miles at a 15 mph pace should burn about 500 calories, depending on your weight.
As long as you are not cutting down on other activites or eating more, the weight should start coming off soon.
50 miles a day is overboard unless you are trying to become a professional or training for some specific event. Studies have indicated that 1 hour of vigorous exercise a day is ideal for cardiovascular health.

I'm not sure what all of you are talking about. If you change your calorie intake and or output by 3500 calories a week, you should lose 1 lb a week. That assumes your weight was stable before. That is 500 calories a day. Riding 10 miles at a 15 mph pace should burn about 500 calories, depending on your weight.
As long as you are not cutting down on other activites or eating more, the weight should start coming off soon.
50 miles a day is overboard unless you are trying to become a professional or training for some specific event. Studies have indicated that 1 hour of vigorous exercise a day is ideal for cardiovascular health.

Are you asking for answers? or looking just to validate whay you already decided? 10 miles a day is about a third of my daily cycle commute, and I don't even count that towards my weekly training milage only recovery. I think your estimate of burning 500Cal for 10 miles at 15mph might be a little optimistic.

You first need to accept that if you want to get lean 'fast' you won't put on muscle mass simultaneously, you may even lose some mass, heavy lifting will only lead to overtraining (under-recuperating, really) so you need to decide where your priority lies - do you want to bulk up or cut up? if you want to get lean and cut up then you need to work towards that specific goal, approach the weights as a way means of trying to not lose mass, and be patient because losing body fat in a healthy way takes time.

I'm not sure what all of you are talking about. If you change your calorie intake and or output by 3500 calories a week, you should lose 1 lb a week. That assumes your weight was stable before. That is 500 calories a day. Riding 10 miles at a 15 mph pace should burn about 500 calories, depending on your weight.
As long as you are not cutting down on other activites or eating more, the weight should start coming off soon.
50 miles a day is overboard unless you are trying to become a professional or training for some specific event. Studies have indicated that 1 hour of vigorous exercise a day is ideal for cardiovascular health.
This is still assuming that total calorie-intake is 500 less than calories-burnt. Not sure what the portion-sizes of those meals are, but I bet they add up to more than 2000 calories/day...

By "pushing big weights" do you mean you are using max weight with a few reps. to 'tear down' your muscles so they'll build back bigger?

Using less weight and more reps. is the usual recommendation for cyclists looking to keep fit and maintain muscle mass.

Cycling is great for losing weight as an aerobic exercise but it's no miracle worker. Ride as much as can and keep a good steady pace. You want your heart rate to be ~65-75% of your max. heart rate for best results.

Do a search on metabolism. DannoXYZ has posted some great info. that's useful.

2 lbs. a week weight loss is the most you should be going for. You want to lose the fat, keep the muscle. Any of these diet fad products that says otherwise is not healthy and short term at best.

You gotta ride longer. Over the last two weeks I've been able to feel my body switch from aenerobic to aerobic when I'm running. At around 15 minutes into the run I start feeling real good. It's like a switch! I go from tired legs to hardly feeling it at all. All this time my HR remains the same. People talk about listening to your body but I never really knew what it was until recently. I haven't had many long bike rides yet, maybe one day I'll get on a flat and try.

You are losing weight if you do 60 miles a week and eat right, but it's not fast, and therefor probably the reason for you posting here. As others have recommended, increase your weekly distance. If you can't find the time to do 2 hours a day (which I think is excessive), try adding some HIIT in your routine and by all means watch what you eat.

Good Luck!

Well, doing anything FAST is usually counter productive. It takes quite a few miles of riding to burn a lb of fat about 70 miles for a guy and that is assuming he is burning 100% fat and not increasing his intake with his increase in exercise.

So if you want to lose 30 lbs, all you have to do is ride 2,100 miles and not eat. Not very likely is it (assuming that you could even survive such a stunt)?

A good way to lose weight is to curb your intake, eat more healthy foods (things like vegetables, fish, chicken breasts, complex carbs, high fiber) and increase your aerobic exercise.

That being said, a person's capacity for aerobic exercise is pretty amazing. As other people have noted, 60 miles per week is not much. A normal person, assuming they have the motivation and the time, could easily do 60 miles per day every day of the week.

I would suggest that you lose the notion of doing things "fast". Many people can lose weight with some sort of extreme program. With the weight lost, they relax, live "normally" and before you know it, they have gained all the lost weight back and more. The better thing to do is to take a more moderate approach that has a lifestyle change that you can follow for the long term. It is better to be the proper weight for the rest of your life than lean for a couple of months.

regards,

Pat

Aw come on... isn't there some sort of pill I can take that'll give instant results?

Yes anabolic steroids and hydrocut(water loss/dehydration pills). weight lifters are so HEALTHY :D

Aw come on... isn't there some sort of pill I can take that'll give instant results?


No, but there is a fat vaccine you could take...

http://health.howstuffworks.com/fat-vaccine.htm

Are you asking for answers? or looking just to validate whay you already decided? 10 miles a day is about a third of my daily cycle commute, and I don't even count that towards my weekly training milage only recovery. I think your estimate of burning 500Cal for 10 miles at 15mph might be a little optimistic.

You first need to accept that if you want to get lean 'fast' you won't put on muscle mass simultaneously, you may even lose some mass, heavy lifting will only lead to overtraining (under-recuperating, really) so you need to decide where your priority lies - do you want to bulk up or cut up? if you want to get lean and cut up then you need to work towards that specific goal, approach the weights as a way means of trying to not lose mass, and be patient because losing body fat in a healthy way takes time.
I'm not the one asking the questions. I have already lost 35 pounds since January. The first 25 pounds was done while riding about 50 to 75 miles a week. I am now doing 125 to 150 miles a week, but not to lose weight.
The calorie calculator I use says 1 hr of cycling at 15 mph burns 800 calories in 190 lb. person. It would be optimistic if he weighed 150 lbs. but I seriously doubt that is the case.

Well, if you are serious about bodybuilding and getting as lean as possible you should concentrate on the amount of time and not the milage you are doing.

All the bodybuilders I have trained and know do a MINIMUM of 1hr cardio upon waking in the morning and 1hr of cardio 1 or 2 hours before going to sleep at night and do not eat after the evening cardio(depends on how well you can fall asleep). If they are trying to bulk then they may have some easilyt digestible protien after the evening workout. Your cardio should not be very intense, not raising your HR to high. If there are alot of hills on you ride it will be hard to keep the HR down but it is doable.


MSF:beer: