Having found myself overweight by a larger amount than had registered, I found cycle touring did help, but I gained the weight back. What did work for me was simply to cut out all the bad food I knew I was eating, like butter, pizza, any restaurant meals etc... At some level there is a diet that is healthier than the one you are on and naturally will allow you to loose weight. I also cut out all salt (which is pretty much impossible), but I tried. In fact going radically low salt will probably still see one at an unhealthy level, the stuff is so pervasive. Cutting out salt seems to promote weight loss, which was my experience, and I later read an article that stated the same thing.

There are two kinds of bicycle touring. One, most often described here, consists of buying as many touring branded items as it is possible to drag down the highway. The other involves going on a tour, using a bicycle. My wife does the later, and she can drop into a community and find a thrift shop, and outfit herself with cheap gear, hit the road, and have a fabulous experience without hardly lightening her wallet. She makes her way through life naturally without spending a dime. Reducing your expenses to near zero is possible. Bike touring itself isn't climbing mount Everest. In fact climbing Mount Everest really isn't climbing Mount Everest any more. Your chance of finding people who will pay you to do it is pretty low. But you can lower your expectation to the point where it is pretty cheap to tour. I once found a site on people that for sorta political reasons tour without spending money. I cna't find a search term for it. Anyway, have fun.