OK, the winter is ending, now I want to burn fat.

[cmcenroe]

Hello,

Here is my story: After being overweight since I was pretty young (3rd or 4th grade) I decided that I was going to lose it. Last summer I enrolled in a boot camp class at school and lost a good amount of weight (down from 215 to 170) over the course of about 5 or 6 months. I took up cycling in august and have been riding since then. I bought one of those silly tanita scales and started monitering bodyfat. After winter I am up a few pounds. At 6 feet tall and 170 pounds I am not exactly fat, but I am not skinny. Now when I say that, I don't mean that I would like to be skinny, but I still have a belly that I would like to lose. My body fat scale says I am right about 16-17%, circumference says roughly 15% and I would like to move down somewhere around 10-12%. I don't really want to lose muscle as I am also trying to get faster on my bike (possibly to race :) ). What is the best way for me to lose this extra fat on a limited time schedule? (I am a physics student with my work cut out for me, so no "get out and ride 200 miles per week) I do have some time to ride, and when I ride I always climb to maximize my efforts. I don't watch my diet as closely as I did when i first started, but I stay away from junk food most of the time, try to eat fish as much as possible, yada yada ya, but I would like sound diet advice also.

Thank you!

Colin

[mx_599]

as a student, one thing that works best for me is to study while working out. have you done this?? two pieces of cardio equipment that generally work well with reading are the recumbant bike and the elliptical machines.

give it a try, combined with an efficient 20 min of weight lifting and you're not sacrificing too much precious time....believe me , i know

[cmcenroe]

My main problem is access to equipment. Since I am at a junior college and live at home (for now, but that is another post) it always becomes a production if I need to get up to school and work out in the gym. Furthermore (nail in the coffin) you have to register for units to use the gym, which I didn't do, so I wont be allowed to use it. Its kind of a bummer, but hey, its a junior college (which has actually been great). I am a physics major too, so my work is almost all problem solving oriented which means I need to get the pad and paper and calculator and the works :)

[pacemaker]

Based on you previouss success, it sounds like you already know what to do to lose that xtra ~10# or so. You stated you don't follow your diet like you used to; that may be all it takes to turn things around. I agree with mx599; since time is important you may want to squeeze in some other forms of exercise including wt training. I was a pretty good athlete in my 20's (2:32 marathon, 55 min/40K TT) but the one thing I wish I had done more was weights. Since your cycling is limited by time, focus on the quality of each workout. Don't just go out to ride, have a purpose for each ride, ie climbing, TT, speed work, endurance. You'd be surprised at how fast you can get on as little as 100-150 miles per week if you focus on what your doing.

[NoRacer]

Continue to watch your calorie intake and keep riding. You'll maximize your weight loss over the shortest amount of time by increasing the number of rides you do at Lactate Threshold (LT), a.k.a., Anaerobic Threshold (AT), Lactate Turnpoint.

To find your LT, do the 2 x 20 test shown as a Sticky in this forum:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=43102

You do not need a heart rate monitor to do this test. You just need to find the highest intensity ride that you can handle for 20 minutes and be able to repeat it after a short rest.

When you do this test, try to remember how it feels (the intensity) to reach your "threshold". Once you've learned how it feels, do 40 minute rides right at or just under your LT intensity.

[kuan]

Well spring break is coming up. You can do your daily centuries then. :)

Take the stairs, walk around the block to class, take tennis as an elective, get some rollerblades for basic transportation.

[rule]

If you haven't taken a look at Chris Carmichael's Food For Fitness book, next time that you are by the book store you should. It has got a ton of really good information about how to do exactly what you trying to do. It got me exactly to the point that you are targeting, and gave me plenty of muscle and fitness gain at the same time. Plus, now I know how to eat to support my training, not sabotage it. And I know how to keep from putting the weight back on as well.

Definitely worth a look. Good luck and let us know how it is going. ;)

[cmcenroe]

I will check out that book. I am also registered on fitday, so I am going to start keeping track of what I am eating.

Surprise number one: At 6' tall and 20 years old my BMR (yes yes yes, only by approximation) and plain old being awake burns a good amount of calories per day. Why do people say that we should only eat 2000 calories each day? If I want to create a 500 calorie deficit each day, it seems that I need to consume 2500 calories, not 2000 or 1500. What is the deal with this?

Thanks,

Colin