Touring - loosing weight help please.

have any of you folk's lost weight through cycling. the reason i ask im going on a diet starting tomarrow (god help me),anyway as long as i've been cycling i dont think i've ever lost an ounce it proberly has helped keeping the weight off but this last year i have gotten very lazy on the bike.
but my plan for what it's worth is to loose 2 stone between now and march, at the moment im almost 13 stone way to heavy for me im only 5ft 6 in ,okay im in my 50's but the heart of a ninteen year old (joke).
anyway what im looking for is a good diet one that works /exercise a program that will tighten up all the loose flab only jokeing all my weight is on my belly sorry to say .
So folk's help out a fellow cyclists .
oh yeah for all the troller's out there if this thread offends your intelligence UP YOURS>

Ride more, eat smaller portions.

Eating fewer calories will do it. It typically takes about three thousand calories less in your diet to lose a pound, as I recall.

Eating foods that fill you up but don't have a lot of calories will help. Carrot sticks, vegetables, fruits, whole grains. Staying away from oils and fats helps -- they are very dense in calories.

Using lower-calorie substitutes can help -- salad dressings, toppings for potatoes, gravies and sauces, dairy products... all have high-calorie versions and low-calorie versions.

Meth.

Lost 50 pounds cycling. Here's my formula.

LOTS of exercise. I averaged 400-660/miles /month.

Stayed away from fast foods.

Very light lunch-no fried foods there.

No alcohol. Zero. Zilch.

Portion control was key- I'd eat a half a baked potato not a whole. Half a chicken breast, not a whole. Really turned up the fresh veggies and fruit. I was often (mildly) hungry, but would tell myself that there was another meal coming in just a few hours. Learn to live with mild hunger pangs- they do go away after a while and as the body gets used to smaller amounts it seems to get simpler.

The human brain is the big problem- if you could just shut it up everything would be easy.

10 wheels good advice im sure but easer said than done.niles h the big problem i have im a tea and coffee aholic and i snack whenever i have a cuppa which is pretty often,i love fruit and indeen veg .thank's guy's i will try and count the calories.

10 wheels good advice I'm sure but easer said than done.niles h the big problem i have I'm a tea and coffee aholic and i snack whenever i have a cuppa which is pretty often,i love fruit and indeen veg .thanks guy's i will try and count the calories.

Tea and coffee good according to my doctor drink the heck out of them. I do.
Eating less of the same is much easier then a Whole New Diet, which won't last long.

Stay in touch..

I've lost thirty plus pounds and I never changed what I ate.

bobframe sounds good that's a lot of miles per month thank's10wheels i was about to ask should i cut back on the tea/coffee thank god i don't dont think i could make it if i had to give them up.bob from waco how did you manage that one .

When I was young I could loose 1 lb a day doing a 20 mile HARD ride every day but now that I am 59 yrs old I am having a hard time loosing weight.

Don't eat or drink caffeine in coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate or anything else caffeine makes you hungry.

Don't eat sugar it makes you hungry.

Don't buy food with more that 3% total fat. Eat fish and chicken and nothing fried.

Eat all the vegatables you can eat.

Eat a lot of carbs.

If I do an easy ride 20 miles, 10 mph, 2 hr ride every day and watch what I eat I can loose 5 lbs a month. The hardest part for me is watching what I eat. I had no soft drinks for over a year and no coffee or tea for about 2 months, no cookies or donuts for about 3 months last week, but 2 weeks ago I drank 2 cokes, started drinking coffee again, ate a box of cookies, chips, fries, etc. I gained about 3 lbs in a week. It is slow to loose but easy to gain it back.

Reprogram your brain to eat less. Eat slow give you stomach a chance to catch up with your mouth. Put about 1/2 the food on your plate as you usually do. When the plate is clean just set there and wait or get up and go doing something else. If you feel hungry in 30 minutes then eat a few bits more. Learn to eat less.

Eat whatever, just limit your intake to 2000 cals/day. Start each day with a good low fat breakfast. Ride an hour a day for physical and mental health. You'll lose all the weight you want.

Wish I would do that.

antokelly:

400 miles per month= 100 miles/week. If avg speed is 12 mph then it takes ~ 8 hours per week. A week has 168 hrs./week...surely we can claim 8 of them as "our own" ???

I know, easier to say than do. But most of us are world class excuse makers (if excuse making was an Olympic sport, I would Gold medal in it), but the reality is that the time is usually there for us if we really want it. There goes that damn brain again...getting in the way.

crash to much i dont take caffeine i drink decaf tea/coffee im used to the taste now as you said it's hard to shift when you get older and to be honest it's the weight that is is putting me off getting on the bike, the climb's are so much harder these days. two years ago i was 11 stone my fitness was fantastic but after a few bad trips on the bike i've kinda lost intrest ,so now im cycling on my own much prefair it that way to be honest.some people have been wrecking my head this past couple years (cycling wise) so i've decided it's time i started to look after no 1,i want for myself to get back where i was two years ago i know it wont be easy but i'll give it a go .thanks for all the replys folks i appreciate one and all.

Tea and coffee are fine, just watch what you put in them. If you're loading them up with cream and sugar, lay off.

Your bike motor needs fuel.
Mine runs on caffine and sugar.
I ride 1400 miles a month.

Quit eating while you're still hungry. I think the problem many of us fall into is that we keep eating until there's no more food on the table, or until we are fully satisfied. Give up on the idea of being fully satisfied. Don't take seconds--ever!

Quit eating while you're still hungry. I think the problem many of us fall into is that we keep eating until there's no more food on the table, or until we are fully satisfied. Give up on the idea of being fully satisfied. Don't take seconds--ever!

I think this is a really good bit of advice. Or said a little differently, if we would slow down and assess how we feel as we are eating, then we'd have a chance a stopping when our stomachs first register "no longer hungry"...as opposed to eating until the body says "if you put one more gram of that Krispy Kreme donut in your mouth, I'm going to projectile vomit"....we'd have a chance.

I know that I keeping eating beyond the point at which my stomach says "no longer hungry" because I love the food so much- not because I feel hungry. Must.....stop....this....damn....brain......

I eat a truly huge salad for lunch every weekday, like a gallon of greens, w/ other veggies jammed in (to the tupperware) for color/texture. Definitely helps me get ahead on weight in the summer, or at least catch up to where I was the previous summer. Season for salad stuff is just about finally over for me. Last year I put ~15# on over the winter. This year I caught back up but now I'm back to figuring out a new winter's worth of lunches...

Riding more is always good. I didn't start really losing weight until I added lunchtime rides to my bike commute. Haven't had time for that for a couple years though.

I definetly lost weight touring, need to do well over 50 miles a day, depending on terrain. 80-100 average. I put it back on however.

I have since lost weight by:

- Eating healthier food. Veggies intake increased. Find something to hate like salt, and then look at food labels, you won't be able to eat anything in the stores if you go on a low salt diet. It's like exercise, eating good food is also good for you, but it also builds up your reserve. If you exercise really hard you don't want to ruin it all by gorging on food. Same thing with eating well. It is an effort at first, so you don't want to waste it.

- Cut out all butter, other fats, high starch foods like white bread.

- Don't eat any fattening foods that you don't like, so if you were looking forward to that slice of apple pie, but it turns out it is pecan which you don't much care for, don't just eat it because it is sweat. Only break the diet for stuff you really care about. After you eat that nice thing, don't ruin the fun by scolding yourself, but pay attention to whether it was worth it. There are some foods that taste good for an instant but the overall cycle of eating them is not pleasant, so use that if it is part of your routine.

-Cut out all alcohol.

Basically that is what I did when I got diagnosed with high blood pressure. Lost a lot of weight without really trying. Am not particularly tempted to fall back into old habits. However it took a scare to get me to do it.

I think the moral to this thread is that although some people have successfully lost weight through exercise alone, many (including me) also need dietary changes to lose weight. If I don't change what and how I eat, I think I could ride my bike all day every day and not lose any weight.

Antokelly,

All the advice above is good, but you won't lose weight unless the regimen fits you.

Carry a little notebook arround with you and enter the type and quantity of everything you eat all day - without making any changes in your diet. Then start riding your bike more and eat the same way you did before you increased your exercising. Do not eat any more.

While maintaining the higher level of exercise, start understanding what it is you are eating. Using an online nutrition calculator, evaluate your diet and see if there are changes you can make that would improve your nutrition while increasing the satisfaction you get from meals. Make changes slowly and casually. Do not starve yourself. Look at the process as changing your lifestyle to become more healthy, not to per se lose weight.

yes your wright john nelson i need to exercise and change my eating one won't work without the other.i basically need to stop eating crap in between meals .funny how the brain works this really should be a feel good factor especally if it works back to fitness and nice slim body ,but all i can think about is all the crap food im going to miss eating..Anyway folks thanks for the help i'll give it a good go see how i get on .cheers.

to summarize: CALORIES -> cut them down or burn them up

You have to stop thinking of it as a diet, and more of a chosen lifestyle. Ideally, you want to modify your eating habits for life, otherwise you're just caught in the cycle.

Don't eat sugar it makes you hungry.

It's also very easy for the body to turn sugar into stored fat; another reason to avoid it.


Eat a lot of carbs.

I disagree! For most people, the body seems to be very efficient at turning excess carbs into stored fat. Protein and fat, on the other hand, have a much more difficult time ending up as stored body fat. At least that's what I've found. For me, a 40-30-30 balance of carbs-fat-protein seems to work pretty well when I'm trying to lose weight and retain muscle. In addition, I've found that fat and protein help me feel full longer, and reduce post-meal cravings.

I've lost 30 pounds this summer. I ride around 100-120 miles/week: 1 hour/15 mile sprints during lunch 3-4 times a week, and 1-2 longer (2-4 hour/30-60 mile) rides on weekends. I've reduced my calorie intake overall, and shifted away from my previous carb-heavy diet.

dont eat just because your bored. did wonders for me.

If you are in good shape working out hard won't do much for losing weight, it might even make it worse because it makes you so hungry. I'd keep the workouts light.

I find that cutting out the breads, pasta, cookies, potato chips, doritos, etc. will do the trick. Stick to the basics like meats, fish, vegetables, eat dinner without bread. Make stuff like eggplant/chicken for lunch. If you can eat fish 3 times per week the weight is gonna go. I like chocolate when I get a craving. Make sure you have something sweet or risk insanity.

good advice folk's ,well the weather here in ireland is very dull but im going to headout for a 6 mile walk with the dog that will keep me away from all the junk food. Talk later.

According to some research done back in 2005, it was discovered that people who want to maintain their weight and a decent fitness level should do 60 minutes of exercise a day, and people who want to lose weight should do 90 minutes of exercise a day.

Now ... before anyone gasps in horror about that as they have in other subforums here on BF ... this is a cycling forum, right? A forum where people ride bicycles? Of all forums on the internet, ours should look at that 60-90 minutes a day recommendation and say, "Oh yeah, no problem".

Also the recommendation is for moderate exercise, not flat out sprints or intervals every day ... and it allows for exercise to be at different times of the day and in different forms.

So ... you might ride your bicycle for an hour, and walk for 30 minutes. Or you might spend 15 minutes of your day climbing stairs at work, and 30 minutes lifting weights while watching TV, and 45 minutes on the trainer. Or some other combination of exercise. But the key is to aim for 90 minutes of exercise each and every day.

90 minutes a day equals 630 minutes a week, or 10.5 hours of exercise a week. Sometimes I might take a day off ... but then the next day I'll do double the amount so that I'm exercising a minimum of 10.5 hours a week. From my experience, if I do not exercise a minimum of 10.5 hours a week, I will either maintain my weight or gain weight. I seem to need lots of exercise.

I've gained weight over the past few months what with my international move, DVT, being hospitalized, etc. ... but now I'm back on the bicycle and I've already lost 3 kg. I'm on my way down!!

You have to stop thinking of it as a diet, and more of a chosen lifestyle. Ideally, you want to modify your eating habits for life, otherwise you're just caught in the cycle.

+1.

Eat regular meals, at the same time every day. You can eat as much as you want, at your meals, but do not eat between meals.

Personally I think cycling is overrated as a weight loss 'tool.' In my case, I went from 400 pounds to 275 before I learned to ride a bike. (In fact, learning to ride was a motivation for learning to ride, since I was unaware 400 pound guys could sit on a bike without breaking it.)

Once I began to learn to ride, I dropped from 275 to 242 over five months. However, that was with maintaining a very strict diet and continuing a lifting/hiking routine of exercise. As I tapered off the lifting and riding became my 'primary' exercise, my weight began to climb. The biggest reason is that cycling gives me an enormous appetite. I'm never as hungry as I am after riding, and I find it hard to keep my eating in check.

well machka im well past the 90minute just been for a good walk and finished off by doing a good hour of stretching and weight lifting,so far no crap food .i don't really eat to much when im cycling just enough to keep the dreaded bonk away,it's when im relaxing watching tv or on this computer where the problem starts snacking all the time,but so far today im doing great lets hope i can stick at it god knows i really need to shed a couple stone anyway thanks everyone.cheersantokelly

- count calories. track absolutely everything you eat, down to the last bite. this will make you aware of how much you are eating that you aren't even noticing.
- there is a nutrition forum here
- repeat: "Hunger is the feeling fat makes as it leaves my body"
- don't eat in front of the computer / tv / book. attend to your eating.
- when you finish your meal, you are done. clean up, brush your teeth. if you find yourself in the kitchen again, step away.


good luck!

According to some research done back in 2005, it was discovered that people who want to maintain their weight and a decent fitness level should do 60 minutes of exercise a day, and people who want to lose weight should do 90 minutes of exercise a day.

I hadn't thought about it before but that 'extra' 30 min (+) does correspond w/ the time I was taking those lunchtime rides beyond my hour's commute, which is when I was really losing weight.

Have to look for a reference to that so I can show my wife.

have any of you folk's lost weight through cycling. the reason i ask im going on a diet starting tomarrow (god help me),anyway as long as i've been cycling i dont think i've ever lost an ounce it proberly has helped keeping the weight off but this last year i have gotten very lazy on the bike.
but my plan for what it's worth is to loose 2 stone between now and march, at the moment im almost 13 stone way to heavy for me im only 5ft 6 in ,okay im in my 50's but the heart of a ninteen year old (joke).
anyway what im looking for is a good diet one that works /exercise a program that will tighten up all the loose flab only jokeing all my weight is on my belly sorry to say .
So folk's help out a fellow cyclists .
oh yeah for all the troller's out there if this thread offends your intelligence UP YOURS>

Weight loss is dead simple, it can be expresses as a mathematical formula:

CI - CO = WC

CI is calories in, this is what you stuff into your face, the problem most overweight people have is that food becomes a comfort, a friend, so they eat when they are happy, they eat when they are sad. You need a change of attitude to food is fuel, some fuels are better then others. You want the highest vitamin and mineral content (nutritional value) per calorie. This means that some foods like soda, refined sugars and a lot of the packaged foods will have zero or near zero nutritional value. Some dead simple rules, if it comes with a nature provided package and is grown within 100km (60 miles) of home, it's probably good for you. If it comes in a box and is made in a factory far far away, probably not. Product of ... is no indication of where it started it's journey. Take for example fish sticks, caught in Russian waters, processed in China, then put frozen into a box in Canada makes it a Product of Canada simply because the chick putting them in the box is making $8.50/hr.

CO is calories out. Go sell your car and throw out the TV, far far to many people in North America sit in front of the idiot box for hours on end, because TV watching is so boring and mind numbing, they eat for something to do, while glued to the couch wondering why their rear end is now wider then the rear end of an MCI J4500.... Because they are always sitting, either in the comfy cushions of the couch or the car, they never do any form of exercise.

If you actually need the car for something, an alternative is to set a guideline, any journey of less then 1 hour by foot, you walk, any journey over an hour walking, but less then 1 hour by bicycle, you bike. If it's more then 1 hour by bicycle, then take transit where available. There are exceptions, if you need to pass through an area that is excessively dangerous then maybe you switch modes.

WC is Weight change in Calories, 3500 calories is roughly 1lb, 7700 calories is roughly 1kg and 49,000 calories are 1 stone. Now lets go back to the formula:

Say you eat 2000 calories in one day, you burn 2000 calories just living, you bicycle and walk the equivalent of 1000 calories per day (which really isn't that much), so lets plug that in:

2000 - 3000 = -1000.

At that rate you will lose 2lbs per week, 1 stone takes 7 weeks, so 2 stone is about 14 weeks.

Lets bring this on-topic, a tour can mean a significant caloric burn, because your riding a lot each day, with a heavily loaded bike or trailer behind your bike, you burn more, it can be a lot more, the burn rate can be high enough, if the daily distance is long enough, that you can lose weight without trying.

BRILLIANT stuff.

i got a bike for weight loss and have shed 30lbs over like 5 months. I think mostly b/c it's a heavy as$ piece of **** MTB. I ride it hard, it's so heavy I can barely make it up hills, and I throw it on the ground when I'm done.
I think if i had a nice bike I wouldn't have lost so much weight.

I hadn't thought about it before but that 'extra' 30 min (+) does correspond w/ the time I was taking those lunchtime rides beyond my hour's commute, which is when I was really losing weight.

Have to look for a reference to that so I can show my wife.

Google: '90 minutes of exercise per day'.


When I was working I was getting about a 1-hour ride each evening, and then I added a 30 minute lunchtime walk. That made a difference!

The weight started coming off ... not fast. You've got to keep plugging away for months, but it does work.

I've been gradually increasing the amount of exercise I've been getting (while being careful with how much I eat) and I've dropped 3 kg since the beginning of September. This is the first week where I've been able to do 90 minutes a day, so hopefully it will start dropping off a little bit faster and more consistently than that.

There is a lot of info in all these posts and they seem to be good advice. My 2 cents as follows....

- Lifestyle not diet. If you treat this as diet it will end when you are satisfied with results and will likely start gaining again.

-Track calorie intake. If you don't know how many calories you are consuming I can almost guarantee you that you are consuming too many calories. This is a great website to track calorie intake as it allows you to track calories mostly from a user created database of foods http://sparkpeople.com/

- Cardio is a must; it goes without saying but keep in mind the earlier you exercise in your day the longer you keep your metabolism at a higher level and the more calories you burn. Spark people also has a cardio tracker.

- Strength training. Overlooked quite a bit but very effective seeing as muscles are calorie burning machines.

- Rest. Don't go go go all the time, you will get more hungry and be less likely to stick with a program; make one change at a time, then once you have that down add another.

- Protein. If you are deficient in protein your body will crave all kinds of crazy stuff, mostly carbs. Make sure you are getting enough protein especially if you are strength training.

IMO sparkpeople.com made the biggest difference in my recent bid to lose a few pounds. When I followed my plan strictly I lost roughly 4-5 lbs a week; keep in mind I was weight/strength training on top of cycling 50-70 miles a week Getting real with my self about how many calories I was consuming really did the trick, and I really don't think I was ever starving or felt that I needed to eat more. Give yourself a day to cheat but track it so you don't get out of control; I allow a myself a Ben & Jerry's sized container of ice cream each week as a dessert, and on my cheat day I can have one over the top meal ie pizza.

Low calorie foods that may help you: Galeo's Miso Dijonaise Dressing, tofu scrambles instead of eggs (throw in garlic, tumeric, onions, spices), Hummus and veggies, Tempeh , high protein breads instead of wheat, lentils, thick hearty soups fill you up very easily and if made at home typically can be made very low calorie.

Good Luck!!!

cheers dave p i'll check out that site larer,so far so good im training a bit more and eating far less diden't realize how much junk i was eating.

The formula for weight loss is very simple: calories in minus calories out.

Your body burns a certain number of calories per day through metabolic processes simply maintaining body temperature and operating involuntary muscles, such as your heart and lungs. Some people seem to burn more calories than others simply through base metabolism. We all know people who don't seem especially active at exercise, eat anything they want, and never gain weight. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.

You can lose weight without ever getting out of your Lazy Boy recliner if you are willing and able to restrict your calories enough. No sane person is willing to do it that way, so that's where the exercise comes into play. Michael Phelps was eating 6500 calories/day while he was training for the Olympics without gaining any weight. The formula is the formula: calories in minus calories out.

You've seen at least 25 people here offer at least 25 pieces of advice on how to lose weight. My advice is to find a system that works for you over the long term.

Take the long view of weight loss. You didn't get fat in 30 days. You're not going to get skinny in 30 days, either. At least not in a way that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Make changes in your diet and exercise program that you are willing to adopt for life. When the inevitable day comes where you cave in to cravings and eat like convicted death row inmate, put it behind you and continue the diet and exercise program as if it never occurred. In the big picture, occasional failures are not weight loss killers as long as they are truly occasional and the background program of reasonable eating and good exercise is continued.

At 50 years old, I've lost about 90 lbs. since the first of the year. I eat pretty much the same foods I always have with some modifications I can live with for life (lots of simple substitutions, such as mustard for mayo on sandwiches, leave off the cheese and add extra pickles and tomato, etc.). I eat much less than I did before, but I'm still eating about 1500 to 1800 calories/day.

Most importantly to me, I committed to at least one hour of cardio exercise per day at 80% of my maximum heart rate, seven days a week, no exceptions. I exercise with a heart rate monitor to gauge the level of exertion. It also allows me to utilize different modes of exercise as needed while maintaining an 80% heart rate cardio workout. My strong first preference is to ride my bike outside. When I can't do that, I get on my treadmill, elliptical trainer, or rowing machine for an hour.

In the beginning, I could reach 80% of my max heart rate quite easily. After 10 months of daily training, I have to work quite vigorously to maintain the target heart rate. My heart rate recovery time is much, much faster. My resting heart rate has dropped from the mid-70s to the low 50s.

I still weigh 225 lbs. and I have a ways more to go, but I'm no longer focused on a particular goal, just the process. The rate of weight loss has slowed considerably, but it's still going the the right direction. I feel great and if it takes another year to lose the next 25 lbs., so be it.

http://www.velonews.com/article/97615/can-t-seem-to-lose-those-last-few-pounds-despite-riding-a

This is a good starting place for the way you think about food. No need to obsess, just consider what it is you are putting into your body.

Do SOMETHING everyday. Whether it's a ride, a 2-hour walk, a stroll through town or a museum, get on your feet and be active everyday. Canceling your TV's cable service is a good start.

And with regards to eating fat: learn about it. Find out which sources are good (nuts, avocados, olive oil) and which are bad (all fast food) and eat them all you want. Humans are meant to be active, which requires endurance, and the best way for an endurance athlete to fuel is through good, healthy fats.

Decide to change your life, and the way you think about what you eat and how you treat your body. Diets are what Americans latch onto because we generally want things to be quick and easy with amazing results. That doesn't happen. Be patient, learn about your body, push it to new limits, and treat it well with a healthy, balanced way of eating. Also, drinking a gallon of water a day will do wonders for you.