jdevarie

It is all about work. You can ride 100 miles but with little effort it does not help you burn any fat. Ride your miles with a purpose, challenge yourself, every day either faster or less flat but activities that will require a bigger effort every time. Riding just for riding does very little. Also watching the intake of calories helps a big time. No need to starve yourself but a reduced caloric intake and a daily increase in physical effort is the key to lose.
The OP states he is 225 with a goal of 180, if 180 is his ideal weight by whatever means that is determined, we all know how hard it is to lose the last few pounds. In this case, the effort required is likely to be intense and for a longer period.
Good luck, we are all in this boat, I myself Im trying to get the effort increased with every ride. Have been doing the riding but distance alone does not cut it. I decided that if I am going to live with a painful butt area I better make it count.
regards

jd

MRT2

Eternal vigilance, and don't rely on just 1 thing. From '04 through '08 I was in a good diet/weight loss groove losing 50 lbs and keeping it off, doing regular lunchtime workouts and eating almost exactly the same lunch and breakfast every day. Work situation changed and I got bored eating the same thing every day. And I struggled with shoulder and ankle problems and the workouts dropped off. 2 years later, gained back almost all the weight I lost,even gained an extra 15 lbs over my previous high. But that is our problem, Johde. OP is blessed to at least remain around 225 no matter what he does.

BTW, how is the new hybrid breaking in, Johde?

johde

MTR2 - Hopefully the bike is breaking in fine. After that first pair broken spokes, the LBS replaced those spokes; broke another spoke they rebuilt the entire drive side of the back wheel; broke a spoke again, warrantied the entire wheel, after all of that we applied the value of the warrantied wheel to a new 36 spoke wheel with 12 gauge spokes. I just got that wheel back Friday so only have 1 short ride on it. I had just dropped off the wheel and on the first test ride I needed to drop by the LBS to get the derailer adjusted slightly. Hopefully this will solving everything.

DnvrFox

73.5 yo - 210 right now, and I expect to stay in this range +- 15 lbs forever - well, until . . . .

Yet, I can ride 40 miles (I choose to not ride more), I did 80 body dips yesterday, several planks, etc. I swim, walk, stretch, etc.

I guess if your body wants you at 225, enjoy it, get even more fit.

JMHO

Happy at 210 lbs.

jim p

I have not been able to lose a single pound in the last year and last month I got sick and didn't ride and now I am up 5 lbs. So I have to get back on the program of watching what I eat better and also back to riding.

I have found that what I eat and the calorie intake is more important than the exercise when it comes to losing weight.

Maybe you can record everything that you are eating for a week and if you don't lose any weight then try reducing the calories by 10% and see if you lose any weight. Keep reducing the calories and the weight should drop at some point. That being said look back at what I said " I have not lost a single pound in over a year and last month I gained 5 pounds." So all I can say is never give up. I know that if I don't get back on track I will gain more weight.

When I couldn't ride or didn't feel like riding, I took some suggestions to lift weights. My arms are bigger and this may be some of my weight gain. But to me weight gain is weight gain whether it is muscle, water, fat, skin or eyeballs. I don't want to be carrying around any extra weight. I am hoping that by staying as light as I can that my joints will last me as long as I need them.

mr,grumpy 

FWIW, I think tha the whole "you're gaining muscle and that's heavier than fat" argument is kind of hog-wash.

Crash_N_Carry

BTW Mr.Grumpy. Got your PM. Unfortunately I need 50 posts before I can reply to private messages. PM me your email address and I'll reply that way.

Crash_N_Carry

You're right in that technically a pound of fat weights the same as a pound of muscle. A pound is a pound is a pound. The difference between the two is volume.

Here's a good explanation of it:

https://www.weightwatchers.com/util/a...id=8311&sc=128

dm83

An adult male weighs at least 200 lbs

No point in trying to be underweight and weak if it means you cannit do anything once you lose the helmet and the lycra.

Null66

Actually, there is only 1 exercise capable of burning more calories per hour than riding a bike. That is swimming. The biological limit to burning calories is, cooling our body. Water can pull the heat out of you quite effectively.

The larger a person is the more difficult it is to loose heat. Think surface to mass and limits of sweating.

Please understand that altering your body takes time. I lift weights rather seriously. Even seriously, less than 3 years and your still a newbie. 6 weeks is not much time at all. One place that the numbers will move much more rapidly than weight is lipid profile and inflammation markers. Have faith, moving will make you healthier. It just takes a lot more time then we'd like.

Your body will both up and down regulate calories based upon intake. If you eat less, you get more calorically efficient.

Bicycling, swimming, and resistance are marvelous for your health! Bicycling and swimming have the added benefit of low risk of injury that would side line you efforts. Resistance training is not the mindless activity that most think it is. It is easy to injure yourself (either seriously or enough to discourage) if you don't approach it with the proper respect and expectations.

Also please clarify your goals.
AS for me, I'm 6' and 265-285. I have reversed insulin resistance. I don't care if I'm 300. But I do care about body composition. I will stay below 25% body fat and strive to 20%, then 17%. Oh, and in my vanity, I don't want my max lifts to decline too much...

sstorkel

I'm sorry, but this just simply isn't correct. Cross-country skiing and running at high speed both burn significantly more calories than bicycling. Those standard "calories burned during exercise" charts show that there are several other exercises which may be candidates. And that doesn't even count the fact that their calorie estimates for cycling are 100% too high!

Null66

It's been a while since I read the study. I love to be shown new data! So please post a reference.

I'm not satisfied with the quality of this one but better then others I've seen in short notice.

https://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10764123

Mr Sinister

Ok so let me start by saying whatever you burn will not be as much as you think you have burned. Meaning all the math is done on the average, and might not be 100% for anyone here as we are all different. I also do not agree with the charts sstorkel provided the link for and feel they are high numbers (its a good place to learn what might be best, but not a be all end all). I do agree that any sport that uses all of your muscles/body for the same amount of time will burn more calories than cycling.

The main way I have found to lose weight which works for me BUT may not be right for you is I eat less, cycle more and drink nothing but water, and flavored water (I make my own). I have dropped down since June from 239.8 to 214.6 pounds. I could have dropped more if I change my eating habits. This is the part that I really suck at. I still eat chips (not as often), junk and not half the fruits and veggies I should. BUT what I did was cut out all processed food, most canned foods, and cut back on pasta and breads. I eat about 1 pizza a month. I do not drink and have not for years so that was easy for me to not do. I also cut my red meat down to about 1 time a week, and substituted ground chicken and ground turkey for it.

With the Biking I have done 680 miles in June, 1040 July and so far 799 for Aug. This has been my biggest key to dropping the weight and I know it. More miles = more calories burnt, just not as much as I might think.

Null66

Still can't find it, It measured Vo2 for various top in field athletes. Will look more later. But to avoid thread hijack.

There is no way I can come anywhere near to the max theoretical energy consumption of any exercise. I run out of heart, lungs and sometimes legs. I am much faster and have much better endurance as the temperature falls. The more miles I put in, the faster / farther / more intense I can achieve and sustain.

I personally use the calorie estimate as a rather rough relative measure of work. NOT as an actual calorie estimate. Too many uncontrolled variables such as wind, humidity and etc. that the Garmin (or such) doesn't have access to. Also we are all different in our caloric efficiency, both between different people and based upon our own particular condition that day, such as hydration, nutrition, rest/sleep hygiene.

To exercise selection: Any are better than none, as long as you avoid injury. The best is one that you enjoy and will do even just for the fun of it.

When I started lifting an experienced lifter noted that I should be very patient. That it took a long time to get in the (poor) condition I was and that it would take time to improve it.

So please, just keep doing it. Every day you do, you will be better for it. Even when you backslide, just get back at it.

IBOHUNT

Not entirely hog-wash but the amount of weight gained from muscle mass is FAR lower than what folks tend to want to believe.

Randolfo

Some scientist says I should weigh 190 pounds. When I was in the Army in the eighties, and college afterwards, I ran twice a day, used nautilus for lunch. I have never been in better conditioning. During that time, I could not hit 190 no matter how hard I tried. I was taped at Army weigh-ins every time. I taped fine. My weight varied from 201 pounds to 210. I have an issue with these charts to say the least. I think what matters is, are you healthy?

IBOHUNT

Define "fast".
Define "social pace"

I've found over the past 2 years of cycling that those definitions, just like "hilly" may mean far different things to different people and even for me those definitions have changed over time.

I'm not sure that the baseline caloric needs for a 225 lb man are 2200-2400 but regardless, if one eats less than their needs the weight should come off. If you add in exercise then you can up the daily caloric needs or in vs. out however it takes time.

If you are in fact starving then that's not good as I have been told your body will react to that and go into a self defense mode to save itself.

I too am in the camp that any online calculator for calories expended is off, some far worse than others. Even Garmin, for me at least, reports my caloric usage higher by about 30% than what my powermeter tells me.

I've found that I burn, as measured by a powermeter, between 400-~1000 calories per hour. If I am at the high end then I can't get in much more than an hour per day whereas if I am only burning the lower end of the spectrum I can expend far more calories.

As an example

- a hilly metric I did not to long ago took me 4hr 17 min and according to the power numbers used 2,727 kJ or 636/hr or 42/mi.
- The social painfully slow century I did yesterday took me 6 hr 22 min and used 3,103 kJ or 479/hr or 31/mi.
- A short flat Time Trial. Used 342kJ or 1016/hr or 42/mi. I wasn't worth a plug nickle after that effort until I had recovered which took me about an hour or so.


Do you need a power meter? More than likely not. I'd suggest a deficit of 500 calories a day based on some sound caloric burned data and not based using an online calculator. Try using .6 as a factor when using the online calculator for a couple of weeks to see if you make any progress in how your pants or shirts fit. For me the tell tale sign is a t-shirt as I tend to gain weight in my upper body first.

IBOHUNT

sarcasam I hope

MRT2

True. 20 odd years ago, I got down to 200 lbs running 4 or 5 days a week, 4 to 5 miles per day. then I started lifting and cut way back on the running, eventually stopped doing cardio altogether except for a quick 10 or 15 minute warmup on the stationary bike. And I stopped worrying about the scale. Big mistake. While I put on some muscle, when the scale got past 230, even 235, couldn't kid myself any more. It wasn't all muscle. No matter how many squats or bench presses I did.

Divtos

Lots of good advice and observations here. Its probably past overkill but I'll add something here as well:

Some tools I find invaluable are: A good digital bathroom scale, a good digital kitchen scale and a good food tracking program. Guesstimating food weights for calories is useless. Seeing what works quickly with a quality bathroom scale is priceless. Keeping track of it all is necessary.

I'd also suggest a program like Rubitrack or Training-peaks to track your activities and get you a better estimate of calories burned. As stated previously though the only gold standard is an expensive power meter.

Not so necessary but a fun toy that helps with motivation is a Fitbit. Ive made all my stats public so you can take a look at what I'm doing www.fitbit.com/user/2747KV. A quick look shows you I've lost about 10 lbs in the last 3 weeks and I'm on a 3k calorie diet :-)

A quote I like: A flawed plan you follow is better than the perfect one you don't.
Best of luck :-)

Winnershcyclist

I am 53 doing 12 hours of gym and 250 miles on my bike during the summer Weeks 2 weeks ago I took part in the Prudential london surrey 100 mile race on a hard incline I was left for dead by a guy who was severly obese I mean how disheartening his ankles were bigger than my waist.

I will also add 5 years ago I was sedentary and did nothing and weighed 183 ilbs I now eat 1200 calories and do all above and now weigh exactly 183 lbs so I too am resigned to being fat

jim p

In a previous reply some one mentioned that the body adjust its energy requirements based on calorie intake. So I will tell what I read about this.

One lady was on weight watchers and hit a plateau. She could not lose an ounce and she was keeping very accurate records. Well she noticed that every once in a while she would lose some weight. She finally noticed that all of her weight loss occurred after a holiday. She looked back at her records and discovered that she had over eaten on the holidays and the week after she would lose a little weight. So she started having one day of over eating each two weeks and the weight started to really come off.

It seems that the body can't adjust as quickly to calorie intake as needed to prevent weight loss. So if you make sure that your body has to adjust over and over then there is a possibility that you can lose some weight.

Never give up on your goals. If you want to lose weight there is a way. Just keep trying. Also remember that for most of us, if we give up on losing weight and just start eating everything in sight then we will shortly find ourselves in a much worse position. Sometimes it is a good idea to just be thankful for what we have.

Notgrownup

I started at 225 almost 3 months ago and guess what, i am at 227 now, my pants are falling off, i am faster, i can go farther, i look slimmer but the weight...DAMN weight....I am still going out and trying to go faster and farther and i am sure after a while the muscles getting bigger will start to help burn fat, One thing i have done is up my cadence on the advice of many here and guess what, my average speed has gone up, i can go farther, easier....I know if i keep plugging at it i will be the winner in the end...I don't worry about the power meters, the calories, the watts, i just ...WANNA RIDE MY BICYCLE, I WANNA RIDE BIKE...

sstorkel

1200 calories/day is pretty much a starvation diet for someone who weighs 183lbs. Starvation diets can work, but they can't work forever in my experience. You may need to eat more calories (1700-1800?) for a week or so to convince your body you're not starving, then go back to the reduced-calorie diet. If you're lucky, you'll buy yourself 1-3 weeks of weight loss before you have to cycle back to a more reasonable calorie level again.

brianogilvie 

In this forum, that's by definition!

Otherwise, no way. You wanna tell Sergio Martinez that he's too light to be a real man by your definition?