General Cycling Discussion - cycling and weight loss

It perturbs me that cycling really doesn't result in weight loss for me. The times in my life when I weighed the most were ster when I completed four days of century rides each day (day 3 and 4 involved grueling hills) and yesterday, the day after I rode a century. I've done endurance sports (triathlon) for a long time, so I know that one's body becomes accustomed to the level of exercise that the body does. But I have to say that this bugs me. I don't get it. I would think that I would at least lose some water weight. I know that I eat more when I do these kinds of events. But still. Any one else experience this kind of thing?

Not me. I've lost 25 pounds since late April. Cycling and eating a little less.

It's all a matter of calories burned versus calories taken in. Cycling burns calories, same as any other exercise. But if you keep eating more of them than what you burn, then you won't be losing weight. To be of much value for this, cycling has to be fairly vigorous, because leisurely cycling actually burns fewer calories than walking. This is just my opinion, but many people tend to think of big rides like centuries, but it's really the steady, daily cycling that works for weight loss. It's better to cycle for an hour 5-6 days per week than it is to cycle 100 miles on the weekend. This way, unless you start overeating, you are bound to gradually lose weight if that's what your goal is. But it's not going to be instant. Much of what some people report as quick weight loss is just loss of water.

I have found that long rides are not conducive to me loosing weight. During said rides I am more focused on staying fed and hydrated.
Moderate length rides seem to do it more for me.
I have lost about 50 lbs in the past 4 years.
To loose the last 10-15 lbs I am adjusting my diet in Sept and Oct to be very healthy, riding a tad less, and throwing in strength training. Hopefully I finally get past the last lbs.

i'd assume you wouldn't lose squat doing that type of riding... low lvl 1-2 hour rides 3 days a week will drop the pounds pretty quick after about 6 weeks.

I dropped 20 pounds over the course of a year and gained it back in 1 month when i started my job and was on the road for that month...woops, eating out for all meals sucks.

i've lost 5 so far this season, which is about what i put on over the winter!

The first year and a half of getting back into ridling, I didn't lose any weight. I ragged about it to my wife, who laughed and said "you have to cut the food too". Boy, was she right on the money. I cut the food and have lost 80 pounds. bk

I lost twenty pounds when I made it a rule to ride at least 300 days a year. I also gave up all fried foods (which in Houston means that at some restaurants, I can only order water...everything else is fried).

But, for the last couple of years, I've been "stuck" at about 180 pounds, about 15 pounds more than my ideal weight. Losing those 15 pounds would mean eating less, and that is waay too radical of a step for me.

I gain weight in the summer, spring, fall when I ride alot. I loose about 5-10 pounds in the winter when I ride less. I'm just not hungry in the winter.

i am at 40+ lbs lost since i started riding (and changed how i eat, and occasionally do other exercise) ...

i would think, like the others have said, that a century ride ... isn't as 'hard' of a workout as one that is a shorter distance that you push yourself harder on ...

from what i am learning .... to get the ideal burn of calries (fat) ... you need to have your heart rate in the 70 to 80% range for an extended period of time ... (on most all my rides mine is staying around 156, but my rides are through wooded areas, with hills and such and i push myself as hard as i can through them, and do as many laps as i can till i just can't move anymore)

for a 250 lbs person that is 6'0 a one hour cycling ride 10mph burns off about 500 calories.

for a 250 lbs person that is 6'0 a one hour cycling ride 10mph burns off about 500 calories.

i would say there is a little more to it then that, but its pretty close ... the degree of incline or descent would have a big affect on the calories burned.

i would say there is a little more to it then that, but its pretty close ... the degree of incline or descent would have a big affect on the calories burned.Yeah, but assume that what goes up must come down, and that climbs and descents will have a tendency to average out.

Yeah, but assume that what goes up must come down, and that climbs and descents will have a tendency to average out.

true, hadn't thought about it that way... i always feel like every ride i am on has nothing but climbs ... guess i don't pay attention to the descents all that much haha

I've been increasing my mileage over the past few months, and I've lost about 10 pounds. But now I'm down to 150 and I don't want to lose any more! I'm actually a little worried about this because I'm naturally kinda skinny, and in college I was actually once all the way down to 125 pounds :( (I'm male, 5 feet 9 inches).

I gotta think I won't get near that weight, but I ought watch it.

You could be building muscle too. I think muscle weighs more then fat.

It does.

I've been increasing my mileage over the past few months, and I've lost about 10 pounds. But now I'm down to 150 and I don't want to lose any more! I'm actually a little worried about this because I'm naturally kinda skinny, and in college I was actually once all the way down to 125 pounds :( (I'm male, 5 feet 9 inches).

I gotta think I won't get near that weight, but I ought watch it.

I hate you. I am 5'9" and have been trying to hit 150-155 for a few years. Currently stuck at 165ish. meh

I've lost 80 lbs since I started riding in June of 06. Take a look in the Clyde forum and lots of people are losing weight. It's all about burning more than you take in.

and once you are at a weight you want ... eat more each day to maintain that weight ... its a fine line between loose, maintain and gain ...

lose is what you do when the weight goes down; loose is what your clothes get when the weight goes down.

lose is what you do when the weight goes down; loose is what your clothes get when the weight goes down.

hah, so i went to school in louisiana .. and didn't pay attention in the grammer class .. come to think of it, i skipped most of it ...

hah, so i went to school in louisiana .. and didn't pay attention in the grammer class .. come to think of it, i skipped most of it ...Missed out on the spelling class, too, I see... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/deraltekluge/Avatars/whistling.gif

Missed out on the spelling class, too, I see... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v102/deraltekluge/Avatars/whistling.gif

naw, in that one i slept.

I've been increasing my mileage over the past few months, and I've lost about 10 pounds. But now I'm down to 150 and I don't want to lose any more! I'm actually a little worried about this because I'm naturally kinda skinny, and in college I was actually once all the way down to 125 pounds :( (I'm male, 5 feet 9 inches).

I gotta think I won't get near that weight, but I ought watch it.

Just pay attention to what you are eating after long rides. I have the same problem, but I've finally put enough muscle on that I've stabilized at 135 (I'm 5'8" and was down to 110lbs 3 years ago, almost none of it muscle. I think I was bones and fat mostly; needless to say, I was very unhealthy and unhappy). Cycling gives me enough of an appetite boost that I eat enough now.

Speaking of which, snack time...

I'm 43, am five foot ten, and weigh 142 pounds with my pockets full of rocks.

:D

I rode 16000 km last year and although my mileage was down this year due to injury I am now averaging 25 km a day and expect to ride about 10,000 km this year although I was gunning for 20,000 km.

I ride nearly every day and for me the battle is now making sure I get enough calories to keep the engine running smoothly... I eat like an NFL linebacker.

It's all a matter of calories burned versus calories taken in. Cycling burns calories, same as any other exercise. But if you keep eating more of them than what you burn, then you won't be losing weight. To be of much value for this, cycling has to be fairly vigorous, because leisurely cycling actually burns fewer calories than walking. This is just my opinion, but many people tend to think of big rides like centuries, but it's really the steady, daily cycling that works for weight loss. It's better to cycle for an hour 5-6 days per week than it is to cycle 100 miles on the weekend. This way, unless you start overeating, you are bound to gradually lose weight if that's what your goal is. But it's not going to be instant. Much of what some people report as quick weight loss is just loss of water.

I do ride on a regular basis. And this century contained some relatively vigorous cycling, especially for the first thirty miles. It rained for 75 of the 100 miles, so, frankly, I didn't sweat as much as usual. In fact, sometimes I was cold some of the time. Some of our bodies just metabolize our food intake at slower rates. This seems to have happened to me as I have gotten older. To lose weight I have to really cut back on food. And I can't do that when I am riding long distances. I must contain a good intake of food and drink to accomplish the goal.

everybody's metabolism slows down as they get older .. it also slows down even more when you do not consume the amount of calories a day that your body maintains just to get through the day. so cutting back a whole lot put's your body into a 'survival' mode so to speak to where it will not burn the fat stores as quickly as if it was used to getting 2500 calories a day or more ...

your metabolism is also affected by how often you eat each day, it will be slighly higher if you are eating 5 to 6 times a day as compared to only eating 2 times a day.

no matter what type of exercise you are doing, if you figure your daily calorie needs ... just for your body .. and then the calorie needs for the activity you will be doing that day ... and then eat 500 less then what you need .. you will loose weight ...

I hate you. I am 5'9" and have been trying to hit 150-155 for a few years. Currently stuck at 165ish. meh

Don't hate me. I'm not a lean and taut 150 lbs. I'm just sorta skinny and gross.

jeeze you guys are skinny!!

I'm 5'5" and 188 lbs. and I'm only 10 lb from a washboard tummy.

What are you guys, made of titanium?
Carbon Fiber?

CE

(I really MUST be made of steel)
((hope it doesn't rain))

I'm sure I just have much less muscle mass than you.

Don't hate me. I'm not a lean and taut 150 lbs. I'm just sorta skinny and gross.

lol

Sounds like you and me need a bit of strength training.
I have decent muscular legs but my torso and arms look like crap.

lol

Sounds like you and me need a bit of strength training.
I have decent muscular legs but my torso and arms look like crap.

I cannot stand going to the gym (so boring!) but I was getting worried about upper-body strength. I took a part time job at a pet food store for the summer. Chucking 30 pound bags of dog food around for 8 hours will really tone you up quick! (The other job that did that was in a fabric store - you'd be surprised how much lifting that entailed).

I suggest finding a backyard project that involves a lot of digging and/or stacking rocks. My neighbour is building a retaining wall and is using 8 TONS of stone, all of which he will stack by hand!

That or take up climbing - my sister and her husband are into that. (I'm scared of heights. But their arms and shoulders are AMAZING).

everybody's metabolism slows down as they get older .. it also slows down even more when you do not consume the amount of calories a day that your body maintains just to get through the day. so cutting back a whole lot put's your body into a 'survival' mode so to speak to where it will not burn the fat stores as quickly as if it was used to getting 2500 calories a day or more ...

your metabolism is also affected by how often you eat each day, it will be slighly higher if you are eating 5 to 6 times a day as compared to only eating 2 times a day.

This is very true, and all the more so if you are trying to lose fat and build muscle at the same time. You have to eat MORE than you think, spaced out into small meals so your blood sugar levels stay stable. Then you can exercise and your body does not go into "OMGWTFBBQ!" survival mode - it sets about using the extra calories to build muscle to meet the new demands. More muscle mass means a higher metabolic rate, and THEN the fat starts to burn off.

I cannot stand going to the gym (so boring!) but I was getting worried about upper-body strength. I took a part time job at a pet food store for the summer. Chucking 30 pound bags of dog food around for 8 hours will really tone you up quick! (The other job that did that was in a fabric store - you'd be surprised how much lifting that entailed).

I suggest finding a backyard project that involves a lot of digging and/or stacking rocks. My neighbour is building a retaining wall and is using 8 TONS of stone, all of which he will stack by hand!

That or take up climbing - my sister and her husband are into that. (I'm scared of heights. But their arms and shoulders are AMAZING).


I do not care for heights much. Riding up mt evans gave me a bit of vertigo with the drop offs. I focused on the street instead.
My wife and son will kill me if I took a second job. :p

I share your dislike with the gym and I have a spare room downstairs that is unused. I may see if I can get a few items like a bench press, dumb bells, etc and do it at home.
My only issue is that I would like a leg press but can't think of how I can do that on the cheap.

One could also get a job installing fences. :p

I find that I loose weight pushing hard on smaller rides (20 miles or less).
On a longer century or brevet I stay exactly the same weight or even gain a pound or two in water weight!

I attribute this to the fact that I fuel significantly less for the shorter rides and take in less calories. I fuel significantly more for the rides 100 miles or greater.

Water retention is typically higher for a day or so while my body is recovering from the longer rides also.

also it can take your body a day or two to recover from a longer ride, and the weight to level back out.

IMy only issue is that I would like a leg press but can't think of how I can do that on the cheap.

Watch you local for sale adds you would be supprised how cheap you can pick up a quality weight bench. There are a lot of them out there being used as clothes racks.

Another good thing to think about are bands and stability balls. My trainer can come up with all sorts of things to make me do with them.

thos stability balls are a pain! .. but they do give a good workout... i do all my crunches on one now ...

I lost 20 lbs (I'm 130 now) due to occasional bike riding. I don't even go that far or that often.

I've been fully car free for about a year and half. I had a big loss from a peak of 450+ to 400 after the first six months, after which the loss has slowed considerably. Part of it was rebuilding muscles, but I've found a large part of the whole plateau problem is a combination of eating excess carbs in reaction to the greater exercise AND timing my eating poorly. To lose weight I was eating almost nothing at breakfast, having a small lunch and then a big dinner. I've switched to getting up earlier lately and eating a larger breakfast with less starchy carbs. 3 eggs, oatmeal and a can of spinach are my usual day starter. Lunch is usually plant-based and I have a dinner of limited size. That forces my system to use its calories and I get less hungry during the day. So far it's allowed me to bust another plateau and we'll see if it gets me back down to normalcy.

In the mean time, though, the exercise has not been wasted. Heart rate and BP both improved considerably and came down out of the danger zone even as my weight remained high. I think the notion that you have to lose weight before exercise is a dangerous one.

I do longer rides of 30-50 miles on the weekends but so far I haven't found a really good way to fuel. If I eat very much before I feel sickly and sluggish, so I like to go on an empty tank. But then I eat too much afterwards.

A year of hilly 6-mile each way cyclocommuting took me from 255 to 225, which is what I weighed in HS.

Three months of being a poorly paid floor supervisor in a production environment got me to 215, which was a passing weight in late middle-school.

One week of all-expenses-paid meals while on company training threw my metabolism/eating habits back to the stone age and it only took a month and a half to regain those last 10lbs.

But since I moved to a nicer area and the bike is back out!

The Lesson: poverty is a catalyst for any amount of constant activity to induce weight loss.

I will be riding about 2,987k this month ,746.8k per week.until it get cold

also it can take your body a day or two to recover from a longer ride, and the weight to level back out.

This indeed is what happened to me. I think the amount of food and fluids that are necessary to complete a century or other long rides means that some people gain water weight. The weight did come down. Sometimes I weight the least on days after days I don't exercise. I just had hernia surgery yesterday, and so I'll get the chance to see what happens when you don't exercise. I hope not for long.

If you are not loosing weight, you must be sabotaging your own program somehow. Too much sugar on the drinks or eating too much... there has to be something.

I've lost 67 pounds since March and still loosing.

When I ride a century or longer my goal is to stay the same in weight. If I loose too much weight it usually means I was dehydrated. Like others have said the weight seems to come off a couple days later and I am at a slightly lower weight or the same as when I started.
Long rides just don't seem to help weight loss. IMHO

Short fast rides on an empty stomach do a better job for me.

jeeze you guys are skinny!!

I'm 5'5" and 188 lbs. and I'm only 10 lb from a washboard tummy.

What are you guys, made of titanium?
Carbon Fiber?

CE

(I really MUST be made of steel)
((hope it doesn't rain))

I am made of poo.

It perturbs me that cycling really doesn't result in weight loss for me. The times in my life when I weighed the most were ster when I completed four days of century rides each day (day 3 and 4 involved grueling hills) and yesterday, the day after I rode a century. I've done endurance sports (triathlon) for a long time, so I know that one's body becomes accustomed to the level of exercise that the body does. But I have to say that this bugs me. I don't get it. I would think that I would at least lose some water weight. I know that I eat more when I do these kinds of events. But still. Any one else experience this kind of thing?

You are confusing weight loss with being in shape. When I was in the best shape of my life I was also the HEAVIEST I have been. My body fat % was probably sub 10 and according to height/weight charts I was over weight at 5'10" and about 190lbs which is insane. Muscle weighs more than fat....

If you are not loosing weight, you must be sabotaging your own program somehow. Too much sugar on the drinks or eating too much... there has to be something.

I've lost 67 pounds since March and still loosing.

I wish life were as dependable as you say. I drink mostly water, almost never drinks with sugar. I am very nutrition conscious. The day of the ride I ate lots of fruit, a garden burger and cottage cheese, pancakes and waffles in the morning, and a gyros in the evening. Oh yes, I did have a small ice cream cone from McDonalds at night. My body is very used to high levels of exercise. And it seems to me unless you up the amount of exercise (mileage or speed), the body tends to adjust. It adapts to the amount of exercise that you do.

I wish life were as dependable as you say. I drink mostly water, almost never drinks with sugar. I am very nutrition conscious. The day of the ride I ate lots of fruit, a garden burger and cottage cheese, pancakes and waffles in the morning, and a gyros in the evening. Oh yes, I did have a small ice cream cone from McDonalds at night. My body is very used to high levels of exercise. And it seems to me unless you up the amount of exercise (mileage or speed), the body tends to adjust. It adapts to the amount of exercise that you do.

just skimming over that... sounds like a fair amount more of carbs then protein ...

I wish life were as dependable as you say. I drink mostly water, almost never drinks with sugar. I am very nutrition conscious. The day of the ride I ate lots of fruit, a garden burger and cottage cheese, pancakes and waffles in the morning, and a gyros in the evening. Oh yes, I did have a small ice cream cone from McDonalds at night. My body is very used to high levels of exercise. And it seems to me unless you up the amount of exercise (mileage or speed), the body tends to adjust. It adapts to the amount of exercise that you do.

That is why you need to throw a few curve balls at it. Change up your riding intensity, try different forms of exercise, kill yourself with intervals, go swim, etc.

My body does the same thing so I mix things up and it seems to work well. However, calorie counting combined with exercising seems to work best for me.