Fynn

This is pretty much the answer. To be more specific, cycling can be great for weight loss. But there are a LOT of variables. #1. What is "cycling?" The level of effort and the amount of time spent doing will result in more calories being burned. So the harder, farther and more frequent you ride the more calories you burn.

#2 Like everything regarding weight loss, it is all about the calories. You have to burn more than you eat over a considerable period of time to lose weight. So if you are eating stupid, you better be doing a century a week at least to achieve weight loss.

whitefiretiger

I have a mountain dew addiction so I make it harder for myself by drinking up to 1000 empty calories on a given day. I just make sure that I work harder but I noticed even with the pop I normal have 2500 or less cal a day but once in a while ill have higher cal intake than I'd even care to admit. But for myself I've found even if I keep to 1500 cal a day and burn more than 2000 cal in a day it doesn't really affect my weight loss. Just get outward and bike I bet you feel better no mater if you lose weight or not.

2manybikes

It depends on you. Like any other plans to lose weight, it depends.

eugenek

That's easy. Just switch to diet mountain dew

It's much harder if you have an addiction to alcohol. I used to drink a six pack a day, that's easily 1000 calories too (could be even more: some styles have 1200 or more in a six pack). Trying to turn things around now, going abstinent and trying to work out, either in a gym or outside, 4-5 days a week. If anyone ever tells you that you can't lose weight and gain muscle strength at the same time - that's definitely not true! I lost 8 lbs and went from 135x6 to 135x13 bench press in two months. And I wasn't even trying too hard.

The_DK

x2 diet mountain dew. I've drank a gallon of that stuff today. It's gooooood.

Looigi

+1...sort of. IMO and experience, weight loss needs calorie restriction. For me, exercise made it more difficult to lose weight. It made me hungrier and eat more, and without counting calories I did not lose weight. I lost a lot of weight without exercising simply by restricting calories appropriately. It became more difficult to continue at the same rate of loss after starting exercising. Of course exercise has may healthful benefits so it's much better to exercise than not.

Robert C

Absolutely true. I have a friend who put on a lot of weight when he got out of the Army, he went up over 300. He switched to diet soda and lite beer (a lot of lite beer). The result was that he went down over 80 pounds in two years.

According to the chart he is still obese; however, he went from obese fat to obese brick.

BarracksSi

Right, and calorie restriction is what really got my weight loss started.

The trick that I learned was that, to stay within my calorie budget, I could eat either a small amount of junk food or a whole lot more healthy, unprocessed food. "Eating right" does not mean simply going for the whole grain Sun Chips instead of Fritos, it means abandoning all chips (even Sun Chips) and having baby carrots instead.

[minor rant]We've been hoodwinked into thinking that processed food in boxes with ingredients lists as long as the Gettysburg Address can be as healthy as, say, bananas. I've got a friend at work who thinks that he needs Clif Bars to get riboflavin, protein, potassium, vitamin D, etc etc etc, forgetting that all of that stuff is in real food.[/minor rant ]

Regarding what I said, "Endurance = cardio; strength = lifting; weight loss = eating right", I've done all combinations of the three, except that I didn't add "eating right" until the last couple of years. I thought that one plus one would equal three -- I was able to get stronger and faster, but I wondered why the excess weight never started to come off.

wahoonc

+1 on the eating "real" food, they constantly are finding that a lot of processed stuff is not particularly good for you. My question has always been; they test a single chemical to see if it is safe for humans, but there is no way they can test all the combinations out there...

We eat food that is as close to the garden as we can, the less processing the better.

Do your research, the internet makes it easy to find out what foods are high in what nutrients and you go from there. Also if you are an average American chances are you are over your ideal calorie intake by about 30% and lacking in a lot of basic nutrients and way, way overboard on things like sodium.

Aaron

chisengseng

for one thing I rarely see a fat rider D: sorry if I offended anyone

SlimRider

You've just got to watch your diet, in order to lose weight...

PS.

There must be way too much good food in China!

whitefiretiger

I can't drink diet because the aspertain stuff I get sick. On a badish day ill drink a 2L of dew and on bad day ill drink two 2L s(there's 2000+ cal.)

Lucky for me I can't drink due to medical reasons. So no worry there.

On days I take in the empty cal I try my hardest to burn them off the same day. I've set out at 10pm and rode threw the night till I got home at 8am to burn the cal off.

Btw I work late and used to do overnight so I am used to the late hours and its nice to have the city to yourself exp on Sunday night into Monday morning.

whitefiretiger

Oh let's not forget McDonald's is there too. Lol and not to mention a lot of great street venders.

BarracksSi

So, then, never buy Mountain Dew again. Especially because you say you're addicted to it.

I had a friend who went to the doctor to ask about her shakes and jitters. He asked if she drank lots of coffee, and she said no. He asked if she was nervous about anything, and she said no. She did eventually reveal that she averaged a six-pack of Dew per day. He made her quit.

whitefiretiger

I try to drink (real) juice and leave dew alone but sometimes but it and start drinking before I realize I've done it I'm already 1/4-1/2 way threw a bottle. I find that if I have juice around I'm way less likely to go for soda so at home I have a surplus of juice that doesn't have corn syrup and very little sugar and I try stuff like mimo and Crystallight. I do drink a lot of water now but I grew up in a suburb that had brown tap water and drank anything but water because of it. It's taken half of my life to get to drinking proper amounts of water every day. But still after always having flavored beverages and sweet ones for the most part its hard to drink plain water. I also have a major dislike for bitter stuff like coffee and certain types of juices.

Iv also found I have a high fluid intake weather I'm active or not it sometimes seem like id rather drink than eat. At an average meal I drink 2-4x more than the people around me. I've talked to my doc and had test done and have found no medical problems causing this.

Fynn

And another thing....on a thread like this often you hear words like "can't." I can't live without steak. I can't live without mountain dew. I can't live without fried food. That's fine if you "can't" but you also can't lose weight. The choice is yours. I know a lot of overwieght people who have taken to the bike to lose weight. They ride like hell, and never lose weight. Because 30 minutes after they ride they stop at McDonalds and consume 1300 calories and 50 grams of fat.

I always say that if you want to cut off a lot of weight, diet is the chain saw that will make it happen. Riding is a hand saw that will provide calorie deficits to help you cheat on the diet a wee bit eventually, but it certainly isn't the most important part of weight loss unless you are riding for several hours per day, every day at an intense rate. Again it's all about calories consumed vs. calories burned.

If you consume a LOT then you are going to have to ride a LOT to break even let alone lose.

Looigi

??? I see quite a few that could stand to lose 20-50+ lbs and are still really strong riders.

My wife and I made the decision 2 years ago to not have alcohol in the house anymore. Since we dine out infrequently and don't hang out in bars that means I have maybe 4 drinks a month and she 2 drinks. I don't think it's made much difference other than cutting down on empty calories to count and the booze bill.

EndoCyc

I beg to differ. There is a difference between losing weight and have little body fat and 6 pack abs. I was 35-40 pounds overweight and have lost 30 (technically fit within the range of for my height however still have some excess around the midsection). Had been holding at my top end weight for a number of years. With a history of little exercise I started hanging out with Tony Horton and friends and lost 20 pounds.


Kept it off but had some injuries that I had to deal with so could not work out more than 30 minutes but was enough to keep stable. Picked up cycling this summer and lost another 10 or so--would be down more but gained some over the holidays which has worked itself off. Over that time I made minor changes to diet but still enjoy deserts (not every day), the occasional fast food, etc. The key is this was not much different than before I started exercising regularly. I did not give up what I liked, I may moderate intake but eating particular foods is not incompatible with losing weight--it is the amount and frequency that matters.

Yes if you ride a bike casually and then go to Mc D's you will not see any difference. And yes a better diet will enable you to see better returns. And yes at some point if you want to a flat midsection you are probably going to have to make some sacrifices. But one can lose weight without sacrificing what they enjoy. Claiming you have to go without steak too lose weight is as misguided as the person who believes they can ride 30 minutes and then eat whatever they like. There are however plenty of people in good physical shape who sensibly eat things they enjoy eating.

BarracksSi

You've probably heard the phrase, "Don't say 'I can't', say 'I presently struggle with.'"

It's taken a while, but I don't enjoy Mexican food anymore (as one example). Probably the only thing I'd have at a Mexican restaurant anymore is a chicken fajita, and that's mainly because it's one of the only meals they serve that has a bunch of veggies. Plus, I can make it the way I want, leaving out the usual handful of sour cream and half-pound of rice. Too bad most places still "season" their food with a salt grenade; they're even better when I make them at home.

whitefiretiger

You make a valid point ... But for myself its not that I can't, its remembering that I don't need it. It's easy to make a habit whether good (biking) or bad (dew) but its hard to brake a habit tho I know it can be done.

jsdavis

Alternatively drink black coffee if all you want is caffeine. An 8 or 12 ounce cup is about equal to 4 to 6 cans of Mountain Dew. Going down the coffee road opens up another addiction though since it can turn into another hobby. Soon you'll find yourself with a grinder and multiple brewing apparatuses.

Espresso or moka pot will reduce the caffeine amount, but the serving size is a lot smaller. Espresso is more concentrated in both flavor and caffeine, but the serving size is something like 1 ounce -- you're done in about three sips.

Once you have a good cup of coffee, it's pretty easy to drink that stuff black because it's not just some burt or bitter swill anymore.

wahoonc

I wouldn't be drinking the Mountain Dew because of all the other crap in it, things like HFC and the acids.

I drink plain filtered tap water and plenty of it.

Aaron