twobikes

There are some good German sites on cycling with articles on fitness and losing weight, like www.fitforfun.de. The articles at this site are not available in English, but you could get the general idea by feeding the text into an on-line translator. Search the site for “Fahrrad” (bicycle) or “Fett” (fat). The results give articles related to fitness and weight loss through bicycling.

A recent find was at this link. It is similar to other things in this forum related to maximum fat burning during longer rides and at an optimum heart rate of about 70 percent of maximum. The author suggests finding maximum heart rate by first taking your resting rate and noting it. Then ride as hard as you can for 30 minutes in an open, low traffic area. During the last minutes of the ride take several pulse readings and average them. This will serve as your maximum heart rate.

Calculating 70 percent of you MHR gets a little more invovled and worked out to about 80 percent of my MHR as I had understood the process. Here is the author's formula: MHR minus resting pulse multiplied by 0.70 and add back the resting pulse. A suggested time for riding was not given, but I would expect 30 to 60 minutes would do. First increase the number of times per week you ride, then increase the duration of the rides, and finally increase the intensity of the workout.

In another article in this series, the authors say results are better when they do not automatically reach for an energy bar on a ride. Weight loss will be faster. Just before a ride drink a mug of black coffee--no sugar, no cream. The caffiene stimulates fat burning. Eat nothing, otherwise the blood sugar rises and fat burning slows.

Another German site with articles in English is at: https://www.cycling-insider.com/ A registration is required. A quick search as a guest turned up articles and posts in German, not English.

Scummer

The cycling insider website seems to be a t-mobile cycling team sponsored website.

The fitforfun website seems to have information about all kind of sports and healthy living.
And a little fact I didn't know. The website states that Germany has more cycles than cars. 66 million cycles compared to 53 million cars. Which makes sense, since cars are fairly expensive to maintain and run in Germany. Insurance and taxes (you pay tax by the size of your engine, more displacement means more taxes and insurance premium goes by horsepower and style of car)

And.. manohman.. the picture of those 2 beach volley ball women. *sizzle*

twobikes

www.fitforfun.de is connected to the German Sports University in Cologne. The FitforFun web site covers all sorts of topics related to fitness. Somehow their magazine always seem to include some articles about fitness and sex, too. I ran across their magazine while waiting for an overseas flight at JFK Airport. The cover article was "Fettkiller Fahrrad" (Fatkiller Bicycle) That led me to information on the German Sports University, and a 128 page booklet they did on Cycling and Health. You can download it in German or English. The "Fettkiller Fahrrad" article says a rider is not interested in fatty foods after a long bike ride, but sweets. Then the challenge becomes choosing fruit over chocolate. I am still working on that one. But, I am 18 pounds lighter today than the day I bought the magazine a little over a year ago. I know that is not a weight loss speed record, but it is progress.

While Germany has more bikes that cars, more Germans ride in cars than on bikes. That is a problem the Sports University in Cologne is attempting to address and fix.

Yes, the one site is sponsored by T-Mobile and focusses on their race team. I have not explored it much, but there might be a link to something else interesting.