superslomo

I find that I don't lose much of any weight riding, or at least I haven't to this point. I'd like to peel off about twenty to thirty pounds over the year, and am thinking of starting out with a new attempt at a running regimen this "off-season" to get myself a bit more trimmed down.

Any advice on the kind of techniques specifically aimed towards improving cycling fitness and/or losing weight as primary goal of this, while hopefully not stripping muscle needed for riding once the summer rolls around?

It also comes down to the fact that I have an easier time psychologically getting kitted out to go for a half-hour run than I do going for a ride in the dark and cold that is more the norm out east here these days.

Any advice is much appreciated...

aham23

last winter (2007) i soley trained and stayed in shape by running and controlling my diet. starting in january i started running 15 to 25 miles a week while training for a half marathon in march. i did 2 core workouts a week also.

when spring hit i was in the best shape of my life and had a very solid riding season. this winter i have a trainer and will be skipping the march half marathon. however, i will still run as i find it to be great cross training. my goal is two to three runs, ranging from 3 to 7 miles, a week and three to four sessions on the trainer.

the running and core workouts actually gave me more upper body muscle definitiion.

later.

rcaddy27

I started running mainly doing 5Ks with some friends and running 2-3 times per week. It was way more effective than cycling for weight loss. I actually miss it a little as I have been focusing back on cycling more.

Markedoc

I run outdoors every other day ijn the winter - maybe 5 miles a day and a 10 miler on the weekends. My cycling is indoors this time of the year. Getting ready for an outdoor run is not really a big project and you can burn more calories per hour.

H2Row

Well I know that running is pretty effective for weight loss as well as fitness from my own experience. Never really used it to lose weight, but when I run to gain fitness I'll do about 10-12km runs. Sorry I don't know much about weight loss - but I think that eating right as well as running often will help you with that. But don't take my word for it :-P

Homebrew01

What kind of riding were you doing ?? If you get out for 3+ hour rides on the weekends, you should burn quite a few calories. I'm in chilly (and sometimes snowy) Connecticut, but have been able to get good weekend rides in Sat & Sun morning. Do running (or very fast walking) when time is short, and keep riding on the weekends.

Ride a mtn bike on the road when it's messy outside. Mtn bikes are a good change of pace because you go slower for less windchill and who cares if they get messy.

Also, check the weight loss sticky thread.

Pat

Well losing weight by exercising is pretty dern tough.

The reason for this is that no matter how much you exercise, gluttony can trump it.

One needs to burn 3500 calories to lose a lb of fat. That is a high order. It is not very feasible to lose weight based just on exercise. One has to ride something like 1400 miles to lose 20 lbs and that means no eating. It is something like riding 70 miles to burn a lb of fat. There are web sites that estimate your caloric expenditure on a bike based on speed and rider weight, you can refer to one of these.

The best way to lose weight is by diet modification and aerobic exercise. The thing you need to do is assess how you eat and figure out what you can trim without a negative impact to your diet. That should be pretty easy because in the land of the big mac, we have many diet abominations. It is a good idea to get a book that gives you the calories and grams of fat, carbo and protein of common foods. Take a diet journal for a few days and figure out where your problem areas are.

Another thing is be patient. The rule of thumb is that it takes 1 week to lose 1 lb of fat. It did not come on quickly and it isn't going quickly.

Markedoc

try fitday.com or any of the free sites where you can log in your food and get an approx. idea what your caloric intake is, and figure out what you burn on an average day. Shoot for a 500 cal deficit per day if you want to hit that pound a week loss. If you are doing 30+ mins of cardio a day and watching what you eat, it should be do-able.

DataJunkie

I lost about 40 lbs riding. The remaining 10 I had to start watching what I was eating. I am still trying to cut 10 more by riding and watching what I eat using fitday.com.
Starting weight: 210 lbs
Current: 160 ish

I have no clue why the OP can not loose weight by riding.
As for running, my legs hate it. Not to mention my weak ankle.

superslomo

Last year was bad in terms of a whole bunch of nagging physical issues (broken collarbone, broken toe, little thing here and there) and it's dark and cold at night... easier to go out for a quick twenty minutes running than spend 15 getting everything ready to take a ride at the moment.

I think while riding more extensively the body composition changed, fat turned to muscle etc., but over time I didn't cut much of any significant weight over a year.

Don't know either why riding's not having that effect, even though the fitness improves...

I also don't have that high calorie a diet, although I could be more careful. I just want to have another activity where I have an easier time staying warm and can build up fitness and muscle strength a bit differently in the meantime while waiting for slightly better weather.

Weekends it's easy enough to motivate to get out for a ride, but during the week when the weather is more iffy, and it's pitch dark when I get home I just find I'm not getting myself out there on the bike.