Training & Nutrition - starting a new program

I want to thank everyone for all the information they put in this forum. I think I would have spent $5000 on books just to get the same answers. I am going to start a new program today, I normaly ride 17 miles a day and dont pay much attention to my heart rate at all. When I get home I am panting and my legs are on fire, thinking I'm doing good, all of you guy's have shown me how wrong I am. I have bought a HRM and today, I will be riding for about 2-3 hrs and trying to keep my heart rate at 65-71%. I think it will be hard as I'm used to "going for it" but I'm going to give it a try as I really want to loose some weight and become a better cyclist. Any more advice would be great :)

If you want to lose weight I suggest riding longer distances.

Last year I started the summer by riding ~20 miles a day. The weight wouldn't budge, so I increased my mileage to 25 with a couple of short hills and started to lose. By October I was riding 5-6 days a week, 35-40 miles a day, with lots of hills and had dropped 20 pounds. I managed to keep the weight off during the winter months (first time ever!!) and am still losing. I've already dropped 5 pounds since the spring training/riding season started.

Try building up to longer distances. It worked for me.

I too have an HRM and use it to monitor my progress. Record your ride information in a training log to keep track of how you are doing and where you need to make changes.

I want to thank everyone for all the information they put in this forum. I think I would have spent $5000 on books just to get the same answers. I am going to start a new program today, I normaly ride 17 miles a day and dont pay much attention to my heart rate at all. When I get home I am panting and my legs are on fire, thinking I'm doing good, all of you guy's have shown me how wrong I am. I have bought a HRM and today, I will be riding for about 2-3 hrs and trying to keep my heart rate at 65-71%. I think it will be hard as I'm used to "going for it" but I'm going to give it a try as I really want to loose some weight and become a better cyclist. Any more advice would be great :)
I have not read what info that has been provided to you but I can tell you this... You will lose weight by riding or any other type of cardio and keeping your heart rate in your target zone for more than 20 minutes. I don't know your age but geting your heart rate closer to the 70% is better. That being said, if you can incorporate some weight training into your program, you will benefit twofold from that. 1. obviously you will become stronger and gain muscle mass 2. By increasing your muscle mass you will increase your metobolic rate thus your your body will be burning calories while you are at rest. Just remember, Cardio you can do everyday...but with weights you want to have a 24/48 hrs of rest between working the same body parts..I don't think the distance is as important as the lenght of time you keep your heart rate in your target zone...Just my 2 cents.... Good luck and keep ridin!

Increase your distance, and throw in hills. Reduce your calories, and push yourself. You'll improve and drop weight. PIck up a copy of "The cyclist's training Bible" by Joe Friel.

Thanks everone, just got back from a 2hr ride, it was hard staying in the 70% range and I had to drop my cadence to 70-80 (its normaly 95-103) After 2 hrs I had only rode 27 miles which is odd because I can ride 17 mile in just under 1 hr but I had to slow down alot to stop myself going over. I did not go over 85% so I was happy about that. Here's the numbers, tell me what you think:-

age - 38
Height - 5' 9"
Weight - 198
Dist - 27 miles
Time - 2hrs,03 mins
ave hr - 137
in zone - 2hrs,01 min
cal - 1628

Thanks everone, just got back from a 2hr ride, it was hard staying in the 70% range and I had to drop my cadence to 70-80 (its normaly 95-103) After 2 hrs I had only rode 27 miles which is odd because I can ride 17 mile in just under 1 hr but I had to slow down alot to stop myself going over. I did not go over 85% so I was happy about that. Here's the numbers, tell me what you think:-

age - 38
Height - 5' 9"
Weight - 198
Dist - 27 miles
Time - 2hrs,03 mins
ave hr - 137
in zone - 2hrs,01 min
cal - 1628

All this worrying about staying in the 85% range is going to slow you down a bit. I am older than you, a lot older in fact at 57, I have to work hard to keep up with the 25year old I ride with. What I can suggest to you is that you take a ride that is going to be comfortable, and push just a little bit harder. If you want the cadence higher, then go higher, If you want to go faster then go faster. More importantly, if you want to go slower, then go slower.
To keep with these youngsters I ride with, I do a good warm up, then go at 90% for most of the ride,, it will go up to near, or above 100% on the hills, but then on the recovery from hills will go as low as75%.

Everyone is different, My heart rate is higher than most on a ride, one of my friends rarely gets above 70% uphills. He's not slow, and he can go all day at his pace, but he cannot get to 90% without tireing too much.
Find the level you are comfortable with and do not worry about %'s. We are all different.

cal - 1628
That's great. Just don't clean out the refrigerator when you get home from a ride.

Along with recording the numbers from each ride, you might want to keep a log of what you eat during the day to determine how many calories you are consuming.

If you're using a formula or a HRM that estimates calorie expenditure, the number you get is likely quite a bit high. It's better to count how many calories you eat and make a note of how hungry you are.

It might not be such a good idea focusing on weight lost as well...concentrate on results...just stick with it man....you can dooooo it!

Thanks everyone, when it stops raining here I'll be back out (starting to feel like bloody Liverpool here)

Thanks everyone, when it stops raining here I'll be back out (starting to feel like bloody Liverpool here)

Come back. The North of England is having a heatwave. That is if the winds ever allow you to get out and feel the temperature.