Lost too much weight riding fixed; How to gain weight back?
 

Been riding bikes since I can remember 4-5 years old, and would go on little 10 mile trips as a kid 3-4 times/week

I was lean and maybe a little too thin, but not like I am now.

Fast forward to college, eat tons of dorm food, hittin the gym, beer and parties, and trying to look good to impress the girls also meant 3 weight gain shakes a day, lol. 2-4 miles of riding/day to class.

A solid 175lbs @ 6'0 and 8% bodyfat (where I desire to be)

I move to go to a different school and I'm 3 miles from campus. So I was riding home in between classes 3-4 times day 5x/week.

I dropped to 165lbs @ 10%bf

Then I get a fixed gear, and this is the most fun I've ever had riding, I totally give up driving anywhere, and start riding to the grocery store/work/school/weekend trail rides.

I dropped to 155lbs @ 10%bf after 6 months riding fixed

Not really all that worried I keep riding, and try to eat more. I had a pretty bad crash 4 months ago and went to the ER, and when they weighed me

144lbs, bf unknown 18 months later riding fixed

Unable to ride for the next month, and being doped up on vicoden I didn't really care about anything. Then as soon as I could ride again I was doing 40-60 miles/day

148lbs @ 10% bf

Now I'm going to farmers market and eating as much healthy calorie dense food as possible (avocados, banana, potatoes) with weight gain shakes, oatmeal, rice, beans, ground beef, milk, peanut butter, nuts, etc.

And I can't get over 150lbs @ 10% bf after 2 years and a few months of riding fixed.

Eating fast food & simple carbs does not allow me to gain weight, only complex carbs, and lean meats.

I tried riding a geared bike and felt completely out of control when coasting, I switch my gearing every couple months to keep my legs from getting used to something...I'm kind of at a loss other than to cut down on biking...


Anyone else have this problem? What do you do?

Oreos and cream cheese frosting... only sort of kidding.

You need to find out your basal metabolic rate. Gaining and losing weight isn't really all that complicated, calories in vs calories out. If you are taking in more that you are using you will gain weight.

You might check out some of the bodybuilding forums. Obviously a lot of the advice doesn't relate to cycling but, as a group body builders are some of the most knowledgeable people when it come to nutrition and body composition manipulation.

If you feel good and you are health, my advise is to forget about gaining weight. I look at it this way. The more you weigh the more weight your legs have to support. If you think that weighing 20 more pounds would be nice, then get a vest and put 20 lbs or weight in it and wear it all day.

Also I have heard that for every 50 lbs of fat you get the insulating affect of one coat. Coats are great in the winter but not so much fun in the summer.

I may be wrong about this but eating to gain weight might trigger other diseases like diabetes. Once some diseases are triggered they can't be cured.

I weighed 213 at my heaviest. I now weigh 152 and I am trying to drop on down to 140. I am 6'-0 and I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was at the 213 mark.

I understand that being thin is not normal and many look at you and think that you are too thin and sickly. I keep thinking that most have just become acclimated to seeing over weight people and the thin guys just don't fit the profile of healthy.

If you do gain the weight that you want, my guess is that in a few years you will be regretting the gain unless you decide to become a sumo wrestler.

I currently weigh 185, the experts say that I should weigh between 160 and 170 so I am shooting for that. If I get there it will be the first time in 25 years I was that thin.

148 pounds is pretty light for someone who is six feet tall... when I am good riding shape I weigh 145 at five foot nine and am fairly small boned so pack a fair amount of muscle on my frame.

Now I am at 155 pounds... have been recovering from an injury am just getting back up to some semblance of my previous shape and don't mind a little extra body fat which is something I have never had... it gives me some reserve to fall back on. :)

Am also on a very low carb diet and eating all the meat and vegetables I want... the fat is burning away and I have gained back some strength and muscle.

I used to ride 40 miles a day and do 8-10 hours of very laborious paid work and needed 4000 calories a day to maintain my weight...

http://www.bmicharts.org/wp-content/...-chart-men.jpg According to the BMI chart a male that is 6' tall with a weight of 140 - 150 is not underweight. However , if you wonder how the BMI chart takes into consideration frame size, this website answers that question. http://www.livestrong.com/article/35...ur-frame-size/
In order to meet the BMI specs in the chart using a large frame I would have to weigh a maximum of 187 pounds. However, I don't like the way I look when I weigh that much.

I'm 6' and do well at 142 lbs. That's now, when I'm in my 50s. When I was in my late 20s, 138 was good. It all depends on your build. If you feel good, don't worry about it. 10% BF is more than enough to be healthy. I'm happy at 6-7%.

However if you're really doing 40-60 miles every day you may be over-reaching and on the way to over training.

What are you training for? The mileage you're doing is more than normal for track racers.

The only think eating more will do is put on fat. If you want to add muscle you'll need to hit the gym. Riding a bike, fixed or not, is primarily an aerobic exercise and won't lead to muscle hypertrophy. For that you need 6-8 rep exercises not the 5000+ rep exercise you get on a bike ride.

Explain that to me please. My experience differs. I go to the gym regularly and do upper body plus some core. I do very little with legs at the gym. About 3-4 years ago, I started to ride 75-100 miles a week. My legs, calves in particular, have gained a LOT of firm muscle mass, my arms and shoulders are stronger than before I started going to the gym but nothing to show off.

Don in Austin

i'm surprised that somebody hasn't mentioned that going from 185@8%BF to 148@10%BF means you've lost close to 37 pounds of skin, bone, muscle or worse. have you been selling your organs? seriously, stop riding, watch some TV and eat some chips and sour cream... (like the rest of us :))

I have two riding buddies, one in his late 60's, the other over 70, both about 6', both about 145. Both totally healthy and can still outperform guys 20 years younger. Nothing wrong with that. Americans have weird body image.

Everyone's different, differently talented. I gain zero muscle mass or measurement from cycling, in fact the more I ride, the skinnier my thighs get. 75-100 miles/week is not that much. The OP was riding 40-60 miles/day. You might find you'd get different results at 250 miles/week.

BTW, riding fixed rather than geared has nothing to do with it IME.

I was wondering about that; I don't think chips/sour cream are the answer to recovering digested organ and muscle mass though.

I can't explain your results. Are you the same weight as before? Maybe you've gotten leaner and have better definition of your existing calf muscles. Are your quads bigger than before? The calf muscle doesn't contribute a lot to your power on the bike so if they have gotten bigger I suspect it's from something other than cycling.

Do you even know how many calories you eat per day?
Do you have a training plan? Have you ever seen a coach? A nutritionist? Did you ever read any books / articles on training or nutrition?

What are you using to check your body fat anyway?

I've never heard of any serious athletes not being able to achieve XYZ goal because of genetics, save for being at the very top of the field. No one's stuck skinny or fat, even if it's harder for some to change than others. It's never so hard that you're just doomed to it if you're careful. So my advice is: get informed. You'll get answers to questions you didn't even know you had!