mrfreezesdefy3

Hope this is the right section of forum . If not mods pls move .
Since I've joined I've logged 64 miles in bout 10 days can't wait to post in 99+section
Weighed in at 312 last week ,this week no weight change .map my ride has food counter some of u might be familiar with .have been under regular daily, even on days I ride n it says I have more .have been trying to do less .but could it be muscle? I'm 6'1" big strong guy just want to loose waist line .do I need to concentrate on more of a certain food? Or pump out more miles last 2 good outing a burned 2265, and 1625 calories so wat the heck

Sasquatch16

More than likely you have to eat less. Are you counting everything you eat? Do you know how many calories you are eating in a day? You cannot trust charts for calories allowed or calories burned during exercise. One pound is 3500 calories. This is what you have to cut by eating less or exercising.
As an example I am 6' 4" and 275lbs. down from 350lbs. I log everything I eat and have to stay at around 1800 calories to lose 2 lbs. a week. That is not a lot of food. Also as far as calories burned based on power data I burn an average of 500 calories an hour. Also never plan on eating back all of your burned calories. I might only eat an extra 100-200 on a day that I ride.
It is a long slow process. I have been at this for a couple years and there were plenty of times that I lost nothing. Some were by my choice but sometimes you just stall.

dr_lha

Don't expect instant results. Training builds muscle, which adds weight for one, and the important thing is that you are improving your fitness. I rode for months without losing weight, but I got to be a stronger rider. Then the weight started coming off. 40lbs so far, and that is without calorie counting. You just have to keep going.

Bill Kapaun

You may not notice a real weight loss, but you WILL notice when you tighten the belt an extra notch and then another......

salreus

Can't remember who said it here but it was something like " weight is lost at the dinner table, not on the bike" because you can always out eat a good workout.

And most of have found the apps to be very generous with how many calories it claims we have burned.

cafzali

The best way to avoid this struggle is to eat more, smaller "meals" each day. It's not that easy doing it if you're busy, because the meal prep will take some time, but that's the best way to do it. So, for example, you might want to replace your breakfast with a protein shake, have some grilled salmon and greens for lunch and something a bit more in line with what you usually do for dinner. On weekends, give yourself one meal "off" and see how that works.

I did it for a while when I was cross training and it does work, but it is work. That said, it's a great thing to focus on this time of the year when, at least in most of the country, many of us aren't riding as much as we normally are. This time gives you a chance to get the habits engrained, which will make them easier to carry forward.

GravelMN

Map My Ride and Ride with GPS both overestimate the number of calories burned during a ride by quite a bit. Also, apps only estimate the number of calories in foods, so they too can be off by a lot. You need to be very realistic about what you are eating. Unless you are in the habit of weighing and measuring your food, estimating portion size is very difficult. Is that a medium or a large banana? a four or a six ounce patty? is that glass really 8 oz? a cup or a cup and a half of cereal? etc. Portion creep is a real problem when trying to modify weight. It has also been estimated that most people consume between 200 and 500 forgotten calories a day. You know, that lick of peanut butter off the knife, those last couple crackers or swig of milk so you can throw the container away, taste tests while you cook dinner, those food samples at the mall, that energy gel you didn't really need but you like the flavor, etc.

Try tracking absolutely everything you put in your mouth for a week, including weight or measure. It can be amazing to find out that your 1,500 kCal diet is actually an 1,800 or 2,000 kCal diet. Once you get a real handle on portion size and an awareness of what and how you eat, you don't have to constantly track everything, but you should go back to weighing and measuring for a day or two each month as a reality check.

dhender02

Ditto!! When I first started riding I noticed the inches were coming off much quicker than weight loss. Right now, I wear 3 shirt sizes smaller than when I started riding... Prior to cycling, the last time I wore this shirt size I was about 20 lbs lighter than I am now, go figure right? So just keep riding!!

indyfabz

Inasmuch as you have done a total of only 64 miles in 10 days I seriously doubt those figures. Even assuming you could burn 750/hr. at an average speed of 13 mph (which I personally think is an inflated figure), you would only have ridden about 5 hr. in order to reach 64 miles. 5x750=3750 for the entire 64 miles.

intransit1217

Also, for many, the waist is the last thing to go. My face got thinner first. Then my legs thinned and toned. Then my waist started. But it doesn't want to leave. Don't rely solely on the bike. Add as many options for exercise as your schedule will allow. Then be as consistent as you can. Keep after it.

dr_lha

I don't entirely agree with this statement. As you say, as long as you don't eat more as a result of exercising (i.e. avoid the whole "I did exercise so I can eat this ice cream"), then if you add exercise and don't change your diet, you will lose weight. I haven't changed my diet at all and have lost 40lbs. I could certainly lose more if I dieted, but I long ago realized that I'm no good at that, so concentrate on getting daily exercise, which I wasn't when I weighed 290lbs, instead.

IBOHUNT

I'll snip out the points I think is where there may be issues

OK, 6.4 miles per day average. great start

Not sure how long it's taking you to cover the miles and I don't know how long it was for the "last 2 good outing" but 2265 and 1625 calories seems a bit high and my 'bit high' is being very polite. In short, that dog don't hunt and I'm throwing the BS flag.

As for building muscle. I know for me muscle packs on in grams but the fat bit comes in pounds.

Keep up the exercise and watch not only the calories but the type of calories. I'm good with as much protien and fat as I can shove down but start throwing in junk carbs and it never ends well

TrojanHorse

I think you're on the right track - it's good that you're riding consistently but 10 days is a bit brief to start judging results. It took you years to get up to 310, it's not going to come off overnight.

I highly recommend tracking what you eat - EVERYTHING!, no cheating! - and measure / weigh it until you get a feel for what a cup of rice really looks like (or whatever you're eating). My fitness pal is a good website / phone app.

As others have mentioned, calories burned during exercise are usually grossly over stated. A safe weight-loss strategy would be to determine your BMR and eat just that or below and let whatever calories you burn from exercise drive your weight loss.

dagray

Keep riding. You may or may not see weight loss, but take a tape to yourself, your middle, your thighs, your calves, your arms, your neck..... you will lose mass.

Remember you didn't get in the shape we (yes I am including myself in this as I am now down to 362 pounds at 6'3") didn't get this way over night, and we aren't going to change ourselves back to where we want to be overnight either.

Keep at it, you will get there.

Dave

Leebo

10 days and 64 miles? Report back when you get to 100+ miles a week for 6 months. You have just started, keep pedaling. I commute to work some of the time. I average around 2,000 miles a year just for that. Plus tour, mt bike and errand stuff. Are you able to bike to work or for errands? Best of luck. Try some group rides?

sstorkel

Online calorie-burn calculators and many HR monitors are notoriously inaccurate at estimating calories burned. A good rule of thumb is that you burn 30-35 calories per mile ridden if you're working hard.. So in your case, you've burned something like 1920-2240 calories across all the rides you've done.

The other rule of thumb is that you have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat. So based on cycling alone, you should have lost 0.55 - 0.64 pounds of fat. That's the sort of difference that might not be noticed by a consumer scale. Or might disappear entirely if you eat back even a small portion of the calories that your inaccurate calorie estimates are predicting.

Unfortunately, weight loss doesn't happen overnight. If you're not already fit, you may have to ride for weeks or months before you're fit enough to produce a significant calorie deficit while bicycling. I know I did! Even so, you should keep at it: increased fitness is its own reward, even if you're not immediately losing weight. In my case, I started trying to ride regularly and didn't worry about my diet at all for the first month or so. Once I gained some fitness, then I started making small changes in my diet. For me, this came very naturally. After completing a grueling ride that burned a mere 450 calories, it was a pretty easy decision to skip the 550-calorie BigMac and 380-calorie french fries at lunch and instead have a 300-calorie sandwich.

Judi

I ride 6 miles a day at a fairly slow pace (9mph), and my calorie calculator says I burn 130 or 140 calories during the ride.


I have been losing weight steadily for the last year, including the first half of the year when I wasn't able to exercise because of health problems. It's really all about how many calories you take in. Also, you won't lose the same amount of weight every week. One week you might lose nothing, then six lbs the next week. I think this is more pronounced for women than men. Right now I'm in a pattern where I don't lose anything for 3 weeks, then I lose 7 or 8 pounds the fourth week. The key is not to weigh yourself every day, and not to get discouraged if you have a week or two where you don't lose weight like you're hoping to do. If you have more than a month without a change on the scale, that's a clue that you need to change something you're doing, either increase or decrease calories, increase exercise, or change the foods that you're eating, like switch to less carbs and more protein and fat.

A couple of years ago I started riding my bike 6 miles a day and didn't change my diet at all. I lost 40 lbs over the course of 6 months. When I quit riding for a while, that weight came back, plus a bit more. A year ago I started eating 1200 to 1400 calories a day (I'm female and 5'3", so my calorie intake to lose weight is lower than yours would be). I've lost 180 lbs in the past year. So for me it's mainly about food intake. I've added exercise now, but intense exercise seems to increase my appetite and also to slow my weight loss. It's kind of a strain on the body losing weight as fast as I have, it does weird things to your emotions and it's made my hair fall out. So going more slowly probably isn't a bad thing.

mrfreezesdefy3

I appreciate all your comments . Like first ride 10 miles n 2 ride 8.98 mules with 312 ft of climb next ride 15 next 19.29 650ft climb n so on .biking is a sickness n I'm liking it . I generally for being honest I'll pic the bigger portion on the map my ride app on food counting n I COUNT every thing I intake .I do however need to start weighing food tho .like posted above I will get a real jist of how much a cup of rice is
I only go by what my app says as in my burn off cal. im 6' 1" very healthy but this spinning is Def a cardiovascular work out .
Any other tools or gadgets I can get to monitor that stuff I want to get something that says my speed on my handle bars so I can keep up I'd like to stay at 14-15 but feel it's unrealistic for now .BUT my hill speeds are improving . And I now have respect for how it feels to be passed on the rd by vehicles n apologize for my insestitiveness before biking
I know it won't come off quick .guess that's why some people quit early but Mr freeze ain't a quitter .
My work n weather limit my rides but I have a goal of 200 a month .being a newbie here I appreciate all the senior feed back thanks bruce

mrfreezesdefy3

Ps a weight lifter here at work said ur body is currently taking in like 2600 cal n ur body app says 3500 is OK but ur body is saying wat the heck this guy's shocking us .start storing every thing he eats .could this be true .seems real enough to belive I guess????

Black wallnut 

FIFY

Good luck finding science that backs up such outlandish claims.

mrfreezesdefy3 you are welcome to post in the 99+ mile a month club now. the only "requirement" is to set a goal to ride more than that and then work to achieve the goal, whether you do or don't reach your goal does not limit the welcome mat. My weight loss seems to go in spurts. It also does not seem to matter how much I ride as long as I do ride. Weight gain on the other hand happens faster when I don't ride.

cafzali

Work with a trainer as part of an event prep who has a nutritionist on staff and they'll tell you the exact same thing. Absolutely, positively, unequivocally nothing outlandish about it. It's a lot of work and most aren't willing to do it. But if followed, it solves the overeating issue for the vast majority of people.

dr_lha

Almost all carefully controlling what/how you eat results in a lower calorific intake, which leads to weight loss. This is the secret behind all fad diets, they all involve you paying more attention to what, how much and when you eat.

obed7

well at 6'1'' and 350 lbs, you are NOT a big strong guy, you are a big FAT guy.
You did not get fat overnight, nor are you going to get skinny over night...
you have made a good start, now man up and keep going.

cafzali

Right, but the fad part comes in only when a particular diet involves focusing on one type of element to the exclusion of all others (e.g. the Atkins diet and its frowning on carbs, while paying little attention to fat). The trick is to lower your calories while maintaining nutritional balance.

Black wallnut 

The science is out there. Here is just one link Just because someone is paid as a nutritionist does not mean they are right. We could argue all day but that would derail this thread. If you do the research to back up your claim you will find that there is no agreement on how valid your claim is meaning it has been disproved by a number of studies. If it is working for you great. The first hit when the search query is "6 meal a day myth" is WebMD and they refute it as well.