dougclyde

DSMrob (and everyone else!) I noticed that some of you in this thread have talked about a "diet'. Please use that word to mean your food intake. What I mean is if you keep trying "diets", like the Hollywood thing or the Adkins thing or the 3Beans-a Day thing or whatever the hell the latest trend is you will languish in failure and get discouraged.

Change your DIET....dont "diet"!

I started riding on my Trek FX 7.5 over 2 years ago as a 6'3" 260 pounder who couldn't go 2 miles and walked his bike the last half mile home for a month. Now as of this morning I am a 211 pounder who stays out on my Cervelo race bike for 4 hour training rides on Sundays along with my weekday training and who just passed 3000 miles year-to-date.


Rob, and Jarrett, and Ursa....you can all do it!!! Just ride to feel good and push yourselves a little bit...enough to sweat more than you are and burn your legs....the feeling is astounding and will make you want to eat 2 pizzas when you're done.....but then you'll think about negating that good feeling you just gave yourself and you'll change things... you'll eat better, and drink better, and soon you'll notice yourself changing, and all the time feeling better and better. It is progressive and takes time, but you'll very quickly understand how much this simple machine can change your life!!!
Don't let anyone discourage you!

Just get out there. And ride. And feel it!

Watchdog

I agree with other posters, the relationship with the LBS is more important than the brand. Especially for a new cyclist who may not be comfortable doing their own maintenance. I also agree, that you should get wheels with a higher spoke count. Not sure what you budget is, but you could always but a second set of wheels.

DSMRob

Sorry to bump an old tread like this but since I started it I figured it was ok. Well where to start? I rode the quick for a while and never really got into it like I thought I would so I ended up getting a Terra Trike Rover (tadpole type of recumbent bike). It worked wonders for the comfort aspect and with the riding and complete change of diet I have now lost 65lbs. Now I had set a goal of a new road bike once I got down under 280 but with all the new clothes I need to buy I have decided to let the Cannondale Quick have another shot and I am having a lot more fun on it. The Terra Trike will still get its use on Sunday's as my wife now rides with me on hers but M-Sa it's all Cannondale until the end of the season and I'll grab a road bike on sale.
Anyway I really just wanted to give a small update and thank everyone who post here everyday. While I haven't posted in a long time I read up on everything every few days (just felt like a trader on a Rover) and you have helped me on this journey.

Null66

Sorry about double post!

But this is well worth a double post!
Maybe a TRIPLE POST...


Not only did you go out a do it!
You went all N+1!
Your wife is too! I really love riding with my SO, Mary...

And looking forward for more!

This is really GREAT!

ChrisZog

Since this post got bumped, I saw this quote and loved it. Reminds me of a Good Eats episode where Alton Brown mentions the root word for diet being dieta which translated to something like "lifestyle" not depriving yourself of nutrition.

I've been using MyFitnessPal religiosuly for the past couple of weeks and have found out that the calorie amount it is giving me is a crap ton. Especially on riding days (which went from 1-2/week before we started using the app to 3-6/week now depending on how busy work is) it feels like I can basically eat as much as I want. It is sort of empowering to know that I can have some ice cream at the end of the day and keep on my 2 lb/week goal. I've made changes in the past and for the most part they've only lead to temporary or small fixes. I gave up pop while the wife and I dabbled with juice fasting or just juicing (2 juices and 2 meals rather than fasting). It dropped me from my starting weight of about 371 to 300-305 but we stopped eventually and I rebounded to about 350 over the next years. The good part is I never started drinking pop again so I don't have to worry about those hundreds of calories of sugar anymore.

Focusing on the attitude of it is a lifestyle change rather than "I can't have XXX. I need to have YYY." just feels better. App has me on 2150 net calories per day. I burn about 1200/hour at moderate riding and probably do about 1 hour of light riding and 3-8 hours of moderate riding per week right now. Being an accounting student my attitude is that 2150 is my budget for the day and I earn a bonus when I throw my gear on and head outside. It basically changed my perspective and has me losing again for the first time in 2 years and sure as heck feels better than the juicing did. And my favorite side effect is that I have acchilles tendonitis in my left ankle. It seems to be helping with that too. Maybe next fall I'll be ready to add some hiking in addition to the riding. And maybe one day even try running with the wife. We started biking because she loved to run but even 1 mile was enough to make the acchilles hurt for days afterwards.

Judi

I don't know if MFP does it the same way as Spark People, but I found that letting my exercise tracker adjust the amount of calories I ate didn't help with weight loss...I use Spark People and they really overestimate the calories burned on a bike ride. I've had to go back to not having it adjust my calories based on exercise, after 3 months of not losing any weight. I actually gained back about 5lbs...still down 175 from my heaviest weight but I'm not at the point where I can eat more when I exercise more, apparently.

jjjjjjay

What a great thread! I thought this was the place for me...

DSMRob both of those bikes seem better than the one I used to get more into biking last year; you can't go wrong. Which one looks more fun? The Cannondale Quicks seem like a really nifty flat bar bike, and I would love to try one.

Anyway, welcome to the world of cycling.

Null66

1200/hr is way overestimate. My Garmin w/o heart strap would give similar estimates. Add the heart strap and much, much lower.

People with power meters can get failrly accurate calorie estimates. I think that shows something like 300/hr for people who can really generate some energy. Like double-triple the watts I can over a reasonable period.

Strava gives a kiloJoules estimate based upon bike and rider weight ad terrain. Converted to Calories remember to divide by 1000 for dietary calories....

https://www.strava.com/activities/270455948

My 23.64 mile, 863 ft climb consumed about 180 calories. I'm admittedly rather slow. Now I run wide armored tires and am more upright then most so maybe a few more...

I'm sure people with power meters can get you better idea, but people with power meters are likely in better shape and can burn more energy per hour.

p.s.
I'm 6 foot, 240lbs. My bicycle is 35.5 lbs.

I think the activity calorie estimates are for motivational purposes...

btcowboy

[QUOTE=bbeasley;15842449

Ride for fitness
Eat for weight loss
Sleep for strength[/QUOTE]

love that

Judi

I agree, I see people who focus on eating back their exercise calories and then they get frustrated because they don't get the results they're looking for.

Beachgrad05

I have a power meter and use HR strap. I use them because of the crazy caloric burn numbers I was given w/o those. I want as accurate as possible measurement of my caloric expenditure.

Watchdog

Congrats on your results! Keep riding and enjoying it, the weight loss will follow.

MassiveD

The standard bike wheel for people 160 pounds is 36 spokes on 700C. They build them lighter than that these days, by a lot, but that is the original design spec. If you have special durability needs I can't even fathom why people look at anything less. Back around 85 I was a solid athletic guy at 220. I bought a racing bike, Bianchii, and had some wheel trouble, the guy at the LBS finally got frustrated seeing me back, and suggested maybe it wasn't the bike, maybe it was my weight. The wheels back then other than some differences in the rims (and they still argue which was stronger), were basically the same as what bikes have today. But at the time it was normal to say, you're over 160 maybe you shouldn't have bought a bike with 36 spoke 14 gage spokes normal high flange hubs, double eyelet rims, and clincher tires.

Null66

Would you mind posting a ride particulars and the relevant numbers?

crazyb

It is really more about wheel quality than spoke count. I weigh anywhere between 215-230 depending on season and attitude and have put over 15,000 miles on a set of Mavic Ksyriums which are 18 spokes on the front and 20 on the rear. I have never broken a spoke or even had them aligned. I have them checked every season and they just keep rolling. They were a thousand dollars, but worth it. Heavier riders on low spoke count wheels "always" having problems is an internet myth.

Beachgrad05

Example of differences that Strava has with calorie burn vs Garmin connect using SAME data:

Interesting that Garmin Connect typically comes up lower and more realistic than Strava does with the same data.

Example is the Palm Springs Century in Feb of this year:

Garmin Connect: 2004 calories (2992kj)
Strava: 3337 calories (2993kj)

I choose to use the lower number as the more "real" number. I use both a HRM and a Power Meter.


That was from a post in another thread in 2014. The kj is virtually identical but not calories burned. I have not used a Garmin w/o a HR monitor but heard that the Forerunner 305 which I started with did not use HR to calculate calories burned. I upgraded to the Garmin Edge 500 in fall of 2012. I have seen others tho that use Strava on their phones and the calories burned are really high vs what I see. Granted they are not ME...and may in fact burn more calories than I do. But the amount of difference when no HR or PM is in play makes me question what they determined to be calories burned. I have my Garmin Connect hooked up to MFP and it basically takes time and my average speed plus my weight to factor calories burned which again is way higher than what I see on Garmin Connect.

I'd like to note that my HR is low most of time. So Garmin is likely lower because it factors in my HR. maybe Strava does not?

Null66

thx!

Willbird

I have been using MFP for 300+ days, I do not eat into exertion calories at all really, and over 120 lbs shed I never saw any weeks where I lost enough to support more than about 300 calories per hour burn.

i see cArdio bunny MFP friends who post some insane burn numbers and eat them back, I let the aps post the BS numbers. I just do not eat them back

Null66

Nice way to confirm.

I personally don't think I'm in good enough shape to burn 300 /hr... My sustained watt (estimate) is, well, like my estimated FTP!

Willbird

No two people are the same either, and the same person may be different at different stages of the weight loss game too :-). There are so many variables involved including your heart rate when you ride. The Power meter is probably best, and they will get cheaper and cheaper as time goes on. The 300 was just a WAG too, but I for darn sure know 1200 an hour is not right hehe :-).

People get really really wrapped around the axle some of them if you try to gently point out that 1200 cals an hour is not within the realm of possible for most of us.

Bill

Null66

Yeah, its just a number.
For me the number that matters is my BP...

I have to say, my watts (estimated) are improving. Faster than I should expect. Intervals are good for that.