Training & Nutrition - Trying to Lose some weight.

Ok i want to lose about 10 - 15 pounds. Right now im five foot ten and 185 pounds, yah not the best weight and also im only in grade ten, right now im trying to bike indoors on a trainer for about 30 minutes a day, and improving what i eat, i was wondering if there was anything else i could to to improve my weight.

Thanks,
Parker Edwards

Ride more .... or exercise in some other way more. The recommended amount of exercise to lose weight is 60-90 minutes a day.

Not enough info to give you much help...improve what you eat- what does that mean? You may either have to work out more, eat less calories, or both.

Watch what you eat. More bulky less calorie-dense foods. And 3-hour rides does wonders for burning off the fat..

Ok i want to lose about 10 - 15 pounds. Right now im five foot ten and 185 pounds, yah not the best weight and also im only in grade ten, right now im trying to bike indoors on a trainer for about 30 minutes a day, and improving what i eat, i was wondering if there was anything else i could to to improve my weight.

Thanks,
Parker Edwards

I think longer rides less often is better than shorter rides more often. If you ride for 30 minutes, it takes 5-10 minutes to get your metabolism up and running - that gives you 20 minute of good workout. But if you ride for 60 minutes, you'll get 50 minutes of a good workout.

At your age you can likely make some good progress if you clean up your diet. What changes are you thinking of making?

Ride more .... or exercise in some other way more. The recommended amount of exercise to lose weight is 60-90 minutes a day.
For real?? Uh oh heh. When it got frigid out, I stayed in the house for maybe a week and gained about 2 lbs. Ive been playing basketball outside for maybe 30-45 min, and biking for a good hour. Perhaps Ill increase the time:D

For real?? Uh oh heh. When it got frigid out, I stayed in the house for maybe a week and gained about 2 lbs. Ive been playing basketball outside for maybe 30-45 min, and biking for a good hour. Perhaps Ill increase the time:D

Yes ... for real!

http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/recommendations.htm
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Engage in regular physical activity and reduce sedentary activities to promote health, psychological well-being, and a healthy body weight.
--- To reduce the risk of chronic disease in adulthood: Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, above usual activity, at work or home on most days of the week.
For most people, greater health benefits can be obtained by engaging in physical activity of more vigorous intensity or longer duration.
--- To help manage body weight and prevent gradual, unhealthy body weight gain in adulthood: Engage in approximately 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity on most days of the week while not exceeding caloric intake requirements.
--- To sustain weight loss in adulthood: Participate in at least 60 to 90 minutes of daily moderate-intensity physical activity while not exceeding caloric intake requirements. Some people may need to consult with a healthcare provider before participating in this level of activity.
Achieve physical fitness by including cardiovascular conditioning, stretching exercises for flexibility, and resistance exercises or calisthenics for muscle strength and endurance.

And also:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060722-01273200-bc-britain-excercise.xml

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/01/13/americans_urged_to_exercise_hour_daily_alter_diet/

And a bunch of other sites.

___

( Calories in < Calories out ) == ( Weight Loss )

Count calories, however you do it.

Until you get good at doing this, your weight will go up and down like a roller coaster. Weight management is an effort in knowing how much you're using versus how much you're consuming. This takes practice on both counting the calories you eat as well as using some metric for gauging the calories you expend.

From practical experience with teaching weight loss to my Marines who.. well... need to lose it, 1 hour, 3-4 days per week of cardio exercise has been much better than 30 minutes per day 5 days per week. I don't have scientific evidence to back it up, but I've got a handful of folks I've helped to lose weight to say it worked. For all I know, there were other factors outside of the exercise duration that did the trick.

I've also found in my personal experience that committing to longer duration, intensity-specific exercise requires me to watch my diet more closely because I know my performance will suffer if I eat poorly.

Finally...

Portion size is key. Only eat until the hunger goes away. When your body gets hungry later... if it gets hungry later... drink water, eat fruit. No more second-helpings of anything on a regular basis. That's what did the trick for me in my most recent drop of 15 lbs. (October to December)

I have found that it is harder for me to eat right and exercise enough during the winter/school year because i dont have enough free time to exercise and because i can;t ride my bike outside, when i ride my bike inside my butt get sore but not when im bikeing out side so i think it would be easy to lose wait during the summer.

Ok i have changed my excercising from 30 minutes of biking, to 40 minutes of biking, 50 sit ups, and then 10 minutes of running. i have also started to drink more water and a 0 calorie pop.

Ride 10-14 hours a week 3 weeks out of a month (1 "easy" week of 6-8 hours for recovery), eat sensibly and stay properly hydrated. Don't follow those fad diets, and eat at regular intervals....3 meals and 2-3 small snacks per day should be adequate.

If you are realllllllly serious, you can go one step further and see a dietitian about seeing what your RMR (resting metabolic rate) is, and what your body requires for calories per day, and then determine what you need to ingest along with exercise per day. There are also charts that can be found on the internet that will give you an approximation.

I would recommend that you take a nutrition class in high school. Might as well learn it while it's free, and while you're young enough to get full advantage rom it.

Question for Parker Edwards and other high school students: Does your school's PE program include info on exercising as part of a healthy lifestyle? Do you learn about walking, running, cycling, and other activities that you can do for your entire life? Or do you just learn about team sports? Just wondering.....

Question for Parker Edwards and other high school students: Does your school's PE program include info on exercising as part of a healthy lifestyle? Do you learn about walking, running, cycling, and other activities that you can do for your entire life? Or do you just learn about team sports? Just wondering.....

I've been out of high school for less than 3 years, so I don't think much has changed since then. We didn't really cover walking, running or cycling much, if at all. I mean, we did plenty of walking and sometimes had to run, but it was the usual team sports stuff most of the time. We had a cardio room that had a bunch of exercise bikes and similar machines, we weren't really told anything beyond, keep going for 15 minutes, that's it. Ha, I remember during the first semester of my sophomore year, we just sat in the auditorium when the weather was bad because they had problems with the gym floors in our brand spankin' new sports complex, oops, I mean high school. :rolleyes:

Question for Parker Edwards and other high school students: Does your school's PE program include info on exercising as part of a healthy lifestyle? Do you learn about walking, running, cycling, and other activities that you can do for your entire life? Or do you just learn about team sports? Just wondering.....


At my school the PE class was called healthy active living but we mostly did team sports and other things like that be we do have a 2 week period in the course that is in a classroom and is about wealth living and some nutrition, and then we have a 2 week period in the schools weight room. A there is a food and nutriton coarse at my school.

PS. i started to weigh myself in the morning inside of night so that it is my true weight and it is 182 pounds.

Ok i want to lose about 10 - 15 pounds. Right now im five foot ten and 185 pounds, yah not the best weight and also im only in grade ten, right now im trying to bike indoors on a trainer for about 30 minutes a day, and improving what i eat, i was wondering if there was anything else i could to to improve my weight.

Thanks,
Parker Edwards

One word: discipline

You seem to be on the right track. Especially with the variety of exercise and increasing your water intake (at least 64 oz/day--more as activity-level dictates).

Some things to keep in mind:

Constantly change up your exercise routine (don't let it become routine). The idea is to keep shocking your body.
No food 2 hrs before bedtime
Limit sugar intake and avoid HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Think of HFCS as poison.
Eat more meals but keep portions small (helps to increase metabolism). And try to stick to whole foods and grains.
Plenty of H20

I have found that it is harder for me to eat right and exercise enough during the winter/school year because i dont have enough free time to exercise and because i can;t ride my bike outside, when i ride my bike inside my butt get sore but not when im bikeing out side so i think it would be easy to lose wait during the summer.

Ok i have changed my excercising from 30 minutes of biking, to 40 minutes of biking, 50 sit ups, and then 10 minutes of running. i have also started to drink more water and a 0 calorie pop.

Why can't you ride your bicycle outside?

Also, that 60-90 minutes of exercise doesn't mean that you have to create a block of time in your schedule that is 60-90 minutes long and do all your exercise at one time. I read it that a person should do 30-60 minutes at one time (or the full 90 minutes if your schedule allows), and then be as active as possible the rest of the day.

Park your car as far away from the school as possible so that you get a walk in. When I was in college last semester, I had a brisk 10 minute walk (carrying a heavy backpack) from where I parked my car to the college, so that was 20 minutes a day. Or walk to school if it is close enough.

Walk to get groceries or do your other shopping or to meet friends at the mall or wherever ... or again, park in the furthest corner of the store parking lot.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

If you're tempted to sink down onto the sofa to watch TV in the evening, make sure you've got some weights sitting there and do some bicep curls. During the commericals get up, walk around the house, do some push-ups.

Stuff like that ... increasing your activity level throughout the day will increase the number of calories you are burning, and as long as you don't increase the amount you are eating, you should start to lose weight and become more fit.

One word: discipline

You seem to be on the right track. Especially with the variety of exercise and increasing your water intake (at least 64 oz/day--more as activity-level dictates).

Some things to keep in mind:

Constantly change up your exercise routine (don't let it become routine). The idea is to keep shocking your body.
No food 2 hrs before bedtime
Limit sugar intake and avoid HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Think of HFCS as poison.
Eat more meals but keep portions small (helps to increase metabolism). And try to stick to whole foods and grains.
Plenty of H20


+1+,

6. Try to eat 1.5-2 hrs before the ride.
7. 5 meals/day rather than 3, keeping in mind the portions should fit in the palm of your hand.
8. During sub 3 hour ride try to limit the sugar water (cytomax, gatoraid...) and stick with plain H2O.
9. Remember #7 post ride.
10. Give up soda.
11. Know your BMR. Then have an idea of cals in vs out.

I employed most of these and lost about 5lbs in a month. I was a built 185 in college, 175 for 10 years chasing the career and no cycling, 165 for the last three years riding 10-12 hours/week. Currently, at 160being 5'10", late 30's. 155 with no power loss is the goal...

As a general recommendation, after going to lunch with my kids at grade school, I was blown away at all the pre-packaged, processed crap 99% of the kids were eating. If this is you, try and stay away with anything that has a wrapper.

It's been mentioned already but intensity is a very important point. If weight loss is your aim you're much better off doing long easy rides than short high intensity ones. The amount of fat burned will increase only up to moderate intensities, beyond which your body will get the extra energy entirely from carbs. That's not to say theres any harm in higher intensities but it's not a good idea if it forces you to stop sooner.

It's been mentioned already but intensity is a very important point. If weight loss is your aim you're much better off doing long easy rides than short high intensity ones. The amount of fat burned will increase only up to moderate intensities, beyond which your body will get the extra energy entirely from carbs. That's not to say theres any harm in higher intensities but it's not a good idea if it forces you to stop sooner.This is a total myth... actual fat-calories burned per hour favors a brisk LSD intensity of 60-70% of MHR, even though fat% is highest at around 50-55%.

With limited time, you pretty much always want to ride as fast as the time allows. A 2-3 hour ride is best for losing fats as fatty-acid utilization goes up with time on the ride. And a 2-3 hour ride can be done at 60-70% pace easily for maximum total and fat-calories burnt.

A 50-55% ride is a short 30-60 minute recovery ride, doesn't burn much total calories or fats at all.

Actually you will get most of the advantage even at 50% MHR. I wasn't talking about ratios - above a certain point even your absolute energy production coming from fats will barely increase. See the graph here (http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/7252/883/1600/598673/exercise%20intensity.jpg) (FFA and tryglyceride are the fats, the other two groups are the carbs). In fact as can be seen, at high intensities the amount of fat burned will actually decrease.

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/7252/883/1600/598673/exercise%20intensity.jpg

You could argue that by increasing the intensity you'll burn more calories overall and thus lose weight quicker by having the carbs not turn into fat, but this can be accomplished instantly simply by changing your diet so you don't take in excess calories. If you do this then you won't be putting on weight regardless of exercise so only need concern yourself with the fat burning.

FFA and tryglyceride are the fats, the other two groups are the carbs

I was going to say you got that backwards, but you changed it from glucose to triglycerides between when I loaded the page and hit reply...

Yeah sorry I realized that on re-reading, but my point should still be evident :)

Plasma free fatty-acids is not the same as fatty-acid utilization inside the muscles. Similar to glucose-levels, FFA concentration in blood decreases as more and more is used up by the muscles. Here's some numbers:

50%-MHR = 300 cal/hr = 50/50 carb/fat burn ratio = 150 cal/hr of fats burned
70%-MHR = 550 cal/hr = 70/30 carb/fat burn ratio = 165 cal/hr of fats burned

Time of exercise impacts that tremendously. This is an interesting article: AJCN - Lipid metabolism during endurance exercise - Horowitz & Klein (http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/72/2/558S?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT). You'll notice that as exercise time increases, fat-utilization increases. Note the 1st 30-minutes has little fat-burning while 60-minutes would burn off about 3x as much fat (get total by integrating area underneath curve):


http://www.ajcn.org/content/vol72/issue2/images/medium/011447A.gifhttp://www.ajcn.org/content/vol72/issue2/images/medium/011448A.gif

By the 3rd to 4th hour, your lipolysis-rate increases tremendously (adipose storage-tissue converted to fatty-acids and dumped into bloodstream for energy) over the 1st two hours. In fact, during that 1st hour, you're just warming up. The increased fatty-acid utilitization is caused by lowered blood-glucose, increased glucagon & cortisol.

But all that's more technical than necessary. You want to track total calories burnt and make sure that's less than what you ate that day, that's really the bottom-line in weight-loss. Doesn't matter if you burned mostly fats or glycogen during the ride, your body will reshuffle the resources during the next 24-hours during recovery and the excess calories burnt will result in weight loss. If you have limited time to ride, you want to burn off as many calories as possible. The added bonus with high-intensity exercise is it raises your metabolism for hours afterwards, something that doesn't occur with purely aerobic workouts.

So if you're eating 2000-calories/day and need 1800 to maintain steady-weight, doing a 1-hour 400-calorie ride will result in roughly a 1.7-lb/month weight-loss rate. Riding faster and burning off 600-calories on that same ride will result in a 3.5-lb/month loss-rate. You lose weight 100% faster by riding just 50% faster. :)

Just be sure that your post-workout recovery has sufficient calories in a 4:1 carb-protein ratio to prevent muscle-catabolism (converting muscle-protein into glycogen to rebuild energy stores).

Yeah sorry I realized that on re-reading, but my point should still be evident :)

I believe that your graphic actually supports Dannos point that the best intensity is around 60-70% rather than around 50%, or at least doesn't refute it. The graph only shows 25, 65, and 85, so all we can really see from it is that 65% burns many more triglycerides than at 25% and only slightly less FFA. We don't know where 50% falls in there but it would not be unreasonable to presume that 65% is at or near the peak since the FFA and triglycerides don't fall off significantly at 85%.

In any event, I think I would die of boredom if I did all my cycling at only 50%

Ok i want to lose about 10 - 15 pounds. Right now im five foot ten and 185 pounds, yah not the best weight and also im only in grade ten, right now im trying to bike indoors on a trainer for about 30 minutes a day, and improving what i eat, i was wondering if there was anything else i could to to improve my weight.Actually, what's your body-fat percentage? BMI (weight-to-height ratio) makes gross generalizations on people's build. If you're at 10-15% body-fat, you really have nothing to worry about; you're just stocky with lots of muscle. But if you're +25% body-fat, then I'd be more concerned with losing those 10-15 pounds.

Also at 15-16 years old, you're still growing, so be careful of your nutrition. You want to make sure you're getting enough food to provide all the essential nutrients. A lot of people lose weight on crash diets with big calorie deficits. But the problem with this is that you end up losing a lot of muscle along with the fat. You end up as a lighter twig of a person, but you still have a double-chin; body-fat is still roughly the same. However, you have chronic fatigue, lack of motivation, no libido, fitness indicators of Vo2-max, LT-HR, recovery-rate, power @ LT, etc. aren't that much improved over your previous heavier weight.

So the better solution is to not skimp on food too much, eat sensibly, and create the calorie-deficit by burning off lots during the workouts.

Eat less, exercise more. I find this to be the best way to lose weight.

I have maid some new changes to my "work-out" and diet Instead of just biking and some running and seatups, now I do 40 minutes of riding, 10 minutes of jogging, 150 crunches a day, (50, in the mourning, 50 when i work out, then 50 before bed) and also so weight lifting. In my diet i have changed from regular ice cream, to frozen yogurt (40 calories a bowl if i want a snack) in the mourning i have changed from regulatr Sunny D to light Sunny D, I know drink Coca-Cola C2 (half the calories of regular coke) or Sprit Zero (no calories or sugar), I know drink at least 5 bottles of water a day. Next i will probably try to switch from white bread to brown and whole wheat same and pasta, i will increase my workout once i feel like im in a bit better shape. Also I had a doctor's appointment for a checkout since he does one every five years and he said that im was only 10-15 pounds over weight so that made me feel better.