Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Is there anyone here who DOESN'T ride to lose weight?

... aside from me, that is? Once again I've run into someone who assumes I, and almost everyone posting to the Clyde/Athena Forum, is riding to lose weight. I wonder if there's anyone here who rides for any other reason.

I ride for exercise and eat for energy.

... aside from me, that is? Once again I've run into someone who assumes I, and almost everyone posting to the Clyde/Athena Forum, is riding to lose weight. I wonder if there's anyone here who rides for any other reason.

Incidentally I stunned the guy by telling him I'd lost 125 pounds before I learned to ride a bike. So the bulk of my bulk went away without cycling.

I ride for fun, exercise and to lower my insulin usage.

Neil, I've loved bicycle riding from the time I was a kid. I've ridden through times of athletically fit, to Clyde status (diet :( ) and then to not quite athletically fit, but a sub Clyde. Exercise is just the diet's partner to weight loss.

Brad

Well, I will eventually once I reach my weight goal. :)
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Neil, like you, I lost 90 lbs. before I ever took the first ride. I ride for the personal challenge and for the sense of peace that I have when I'm scooting down a road somewhere. It's not particularly easy, at least for me, to ride mile after mile day after day like we do. I got into this to re-hab from my second back surgery as I've posted elsewhere here before. It hurt. A LOT. But I pushed through and kept going. After a while, an addiction was born. But it's still hard and I think that's why I love it.

Losing weight is a product of my dietary changes this year, but it's not why I ride. I rode my entire 2010 long distance season at 235 - 240 pounds and didn't really waver from that range even though I was putting in close to 200 miles/week at my peak, and even rode back to back weekends of 300k's one month.

Right now, I'm just riding for fun. While I like that I've found a physical activity that I enjoy doing, I'm not doing it enough to lose weight, nor have I changed my diet like I would need to if I was trying to lose weight.

While I intend to change my lifestyle to lose weight and ride more as exercise, that's not where I'm at right now. But riding is fun no matter what, and we go for a ride on most weekends.

I don't! That doesn't mean I couldn't lose a few pounds though.

"Is there anyone here who DOESN'T ride to lose weight?"
Why,
ya wanna go git some PIZZA!???!!!

I started riding again last year to drop weight, but fell in love with riding again. Now, I ride because I love it. Road or mtb, if I don't ride at least 5 days a week I start missing it.

I am riding to save money, reduce carbon foot print, feel better, have more energy. Wieght loss is not on the list. Recently, even though my waist is still getting smaller, my wieght has increased. I commute 12 miles each way to/from work.

I don't! That doesn't mean I couldn't lose a few pounds though.

I ride because I love riding -- the exercise, the weather, the bikes & maintenance, the views, the travel, the blood/sweat & tears. I'm not fast, but that's not important to me.

Weight is an entirely different issue and related to bicycling only coincidentally.

I ride because I really love the experience of riding. It is a a lot of fun, for me at least.
It sure helps with my cardio fitness and such and without question it burns off the excess calories.

I also very much like the idea that I can ride a bike to do shopping and many other routine tasks that at one time I would have jumped into a car to do.


For me there is no question that it helped in getting my weight into the healthy area. But in no way is my riding primarily driven by weight loss.

i started riding again for a number of reasons. to "get in shape" was first and foremost, and that is to imply that weight loss is part of it. i also loved riding bikes, and challenging myself personally... the "challenging" aspect of it has been missing from my life for many years now, i simply have not done anything challenging at all. having said that, i haven't set any goals with this, so it's more of internal/personal challenge to just improve continually while i improve my "shape/stamina".

I've wondered that myself because I definitely don't ride to lose weight. My 250 pounds is not a dilemma to be resolved, but the deliberate years of hard work in the gym (former football player now health player).

I started riding because I wanted another form of cardio to do other than walking. It wasn't until searching online that I found out that I could actually ride a normal bike @ 400+lbs.
I guess for me it started as way for me to loose weight but then I found out how much fun riding a bike was when I was younger and then I didn't really think of it as a sole means of me losing weight. I now ride because its fun and me loosing weight is the side effect!

Why,
ya wanna go git some PIZZA!???!!!

No thanks.

I ride because I like riding and when I get home I do my best to make sure I get all my calories back :)
I ride 30 miles a day 5 times and BBQ on 3 :)

I ride to maintain my weight loss and cuz I'm too cheap to drive my car.

Mixed answer - I rode to lose weight, but I lost weight so I could ride. Take that however you like.

I'm 18 years old and I'm 5"11 and weigh 120 lbs.
When I started cycling a little over a month ago i weighed 5 lbs less than i do now.
I ride for the cardio vascular exercise as well as the endorphins I get from cycling.

... aside from me, that is? Once again I've run into someone who assumes I, and almost everyone posting to the Clyde/Athena Forum, is riding to lose weight. I wonder if there's anyone here who rides for any other reason.

I started riding just as a way of getting around faster. Then as I rode further and faster I started to notice my clothes were loose so I started to weigh myself.

Now I think in terms of losing weight but still ride primarily because I enjoy it.

I started riding to get around faster than i did on my skateboard and to save money I'd be blowing on gasoline. I eventually started riding around with a bunch of friends on my downtime because of they got into the whole fixie craze. I lost about 30 pounds doing this. people keep telling me how skinny i got but i'm still really overweight. Now I am looking at getting a decent performance road bike and actually eating right to see if I can get in shape.

Incidentally I stunned the guy by telling him I'd lost 125 pounds before I learned to ride a bike. So the bulk of my bulk went away without cycling.

I lost 70 of my 92 pounds before biking as well.

Even if I didn't lose weight biking, I would still do it. But weight loss is just one of the many great benefits of biking.

I've always ridden because I love riding. The fact that it assists in the weight loss is just gravy, if you'll pardon the expression.

I eat freakin' salads, no junk food, 6' 235 pounds, and rode 640 miles in May and June, and haven't lost a pound. Eh, I ride for the adventure and fresh air anyway. So cool to never start my truck except to go to work (and would commute, except would have to ride back on dangerous roads at midnight).

I ride, because I like to ride. I find it centers me and my thinking.
I solve the worlds problems while riding my bike.

Weight loss is just one of the by-products of riding.

Although getting lighter does help me to go faster on my bike.

Thinking a little more, I think I do it to be different. I can be car free so I am.
I can afford a car, and all the $$$ that go along with having one.
LOL!!! I just bought 2 custom frames and a rolhoff hub!!!!

I would rather ride my bike and see the shock of people faces when I tell them I don't have a car.
It makes me smile to know that I can do something that most people can't/won't do.

Mixed answer - I rode to lose weight, but I lost weight so I could ride. Take that however you like.

But that's not ALL you did to lose weight. In other words, the bike, or trike in your case, wasn't the 'magic pill.'

What gets me is when alleged cyclists say it. I mean, I'm a bike tourist. I ride around taking photos. The camera isn't that heavy.

Losing weight is a product of my dietary changes this year, but it's not why I ride. I rode my entire 2010 long distance season at 235 - 240 pounds and didn't really waver from that range even though I was putting in close to 200 miles/week at my peak, and even rode back to back weekends of 300k's one month.

I had people like you in mind.

What gets me is when alleged cyclists say it. I mean, I'm a bike tourist. I ride around taking photos. The camera isn't that heavy.

Aren't there different type of tourist?

Because one rides somewhere and spends the night and rides back, does that make him a tourist?
Or if one rides around a great old city/place taking pics, does that make him less of a tourist?

I think the guy who rides around the world is a tourist.
Other than that, I think one can be called a tourist in many different ways.

I HATE to camp out. Does that make me less of a tourist!
I have ridden across the country on a bike, and did not camp one night!

Besides your own weight, What does weight have to do with anything?

Aren't there different type of tourist?

Because one rides somewhere and spends the night and rides back, does that make him a tourist?
Or if one rides around a great old city/place taking pics, does that make him less of a tourist?

I think the guy who rides around the world is a tourist.
Other than that, I think one can be called a tourist in many different ways.

I HATE to camp out. Does that make me less of a tourist!
I have ridden across the country on a bike, and did not camp one night!

Besides your own weight, What does weight have to do with anything?

I don't understand. I was making an observation that I'm not doing a kind of riding people generally undertake for the purpose of ''getting in shape."

I know plenty of people who ride to Eat and drink....

I'd say that I started riding with the goal of losing weight and as a better way to get to work and back (my commute is a mere 1.4 miles so that's not exactly great for the car). That being said since Then it has become more than that and is something that I really enjoy. If I was simply riding to lose weight then I would stop when I get to where I want to be weight wise, I have no intentions of doing that. I'd really like to get into touring and more long distance riding once I get in better shape.

Truth be told.......

I grew up logging miles and MILES cycling around Flordia as a 6, 7, 8 year old. When the Air Force sent us to England, I wore out/broke (the top tube) of my Raleigh riding it bunches and treating it like a mountain bike, ages 8, 9, 10.... then I hadda spend my time walking/exploring the English countryside. When we moved to Texas, my bike and I rode into town to look at the NEW and much talked about Ford Mustang. I covered LOTSA ground in Amarillo via bicycle, took up skating at the rink, as well as making my own skate board. Off to California..... and still MORE cycling. I rode ten miles to the fancy swimming pool in Rancho Cordova, explored the Air Force Base, and found myself replacing bald tires constantly. Old enough to work, but not too old to RIDE, I bought my first motorcycle and continued with the cycling. Moved a few times, had a few girlfriends, but all the while walked miles and miles throughout midtown Sacramento, bought a mountain bike and rode the horse trails, as well as riding it to Golds Gym when I thought at 131 pounds & 29 years old.... I was getting fat.

Fast forward to working in the prison system with NO TIME to ride, even sold the motorcycle. Eight years later I gave my mountain bike to the surgeon who rebuilt my ear canal.... and bought another motorcycle. Here it is now, over twenty-five years without a bicycle (plenty motorcycles though), and it was time to get myself something that had been a very BIG part of my life while growing up.

It just so happens however that I am now 'FAT' and in need of changing quite a few things about my mind-set and my life style. Over the last 28 years while working the worst possible hours in the least desirable environment, my beer making hobby, photography, handgun competition, motorcycles, etc..... were areas where I never met many women, stopped dating because my hours and days off made it difficult, and as a result have never been married.

I haven't been on any group rides (yet), but with any luck, and a serious reduction in my weight, and a change in my attitude from a bitter/cynical cop to a kid with bike again..... there might be hope for me. This riding through life solo for almost 57 years now (my parents were never home when I was growing up), is getting old..... and my cats don't have opposable thumbs. I hope to meet my complimentary half soon, and the bicycle is yet another venue through which to meet people, interact with my environment, and get outa shape...... (single women don't look at short men with a round shape; but I can do something about my shape!)

There ya go,
I bought a bicycle because I wanted to.
Got a problem wit dat?!?

I loved cycling as a young adult.

Last year, when faced with a growing list of car repairs, I decided to sell my car (wife still has a minivan) and buy a commuter bike.

I ride because it saves money. I ride because I enjoy it. I ride because I feel good about myself when I ride.

Losing weight is an afterthought.

I ride cuz I like to ride. If I want to lose weight I adjust my diet, not my riding.

Riding is a perfect match for my OCD.

... aside from me, that is? Once again I've run into someone who assumes I, and almost everyone posting to the Clyde/Athena Forum, is riding to lose weight. I wonder if there's anyone here who rides for any other reason.

I ride because I enjoy riding.

I'm a Clyde by the sub-forum definition's relation to weight. But losing weight is not why I ride - losing weight is a by-product of riding.

I ride to get out of the house & to occupy my time with a low-expense scheduled event each day now that I'm living on barely-above-poorhouse-wage-level military retirement pay.

I ride because it's fun to "play with" inertia.

I'm a clyde who has never really had what I consider a "weight" problem. I ride for lots of reasons, general health being one but certainly not to loose weight...

I ride for fun!:D

Like so many on this forum I ride for fun.

That said, at 65 ,and sightly handicapped, I still ride for fun but now it's a full on press to keep what's left of my health. Only really hot/cold weather keeps me indoors now.

Riding is a perfect match for my OCD.

Me too.


I ride for fun!:D

And this too, thankfully. At least most of the time.

I don't ride to lose weight. Riding makes me hungry. I think it makes it harder for me to lose weight. I eat 1200 calories a day to lose weight. I ride to strengthen my CV system. I ride to be stronger. I ride to make myself young, damn it. I started riding because my back hurt when I walked. Now I ride because I have to ride. Now I can walk but riding is much more fun.

I'm a commuter. I do it because it gets me where I want to go :D.

I put my bike away one December, joined a gym and spent the winter eating sensibly, working out, skiing and skating. When spring came I was about 30 pounds lighter, much stronger and fitter, and suddenly biking was way more fun. Things kind of snowballed from there. I dropped another 40 pounds and got stronger still. Now I ride to keep the weight off and maintain my health and fitness level, but mostly for the sheer fun of it.

Here in the last year, I've sort of made a mental switch, to where I'm losing weight to ride instead of the other way around. Once you figure out you want to do something, and can't because you're too fat, that sort of changes how you look at things.