Originally Posted by
adablduya
maybe i'm missing something in context, but it seems to me the obvious is being overlooked: if you go touring, and spend 5+ hours in the saddle daily, you WILL lose weight AND body fat %. a lot of it. your body will become a calorie and fat burning machine. one post was correct: focus on being conditioned to daily saddle time. fitness and weight loss will come as you progress, and it won't take long. have fun !
This seems to vary a lot between individuals, I knew some couriers that rode more than 5 hours/day & maintained different weights from skinny to significantly overweight. Even pro racers can struggle with getting weight down for grand tours. It's true there's nothing like touring for burning off fat if overeating is avoided. OTOH while trained muscles burn calories better I think there's sometimes a paradoxical effect of the digestive system extracting nutrients more efficiently when diet is cut. IE for overweight folks it can be quite frustrating to diet & find that after initial losses, further weight loss can get tougher.
Anyway, while it's logical to train properly for tours, sometimes adequate time isn't available. But eating a lighter diet in preparation does not necessarily take very much time. Cutting some of the flab gives a boost for short tours where the tour ends just when the training effect really has kicked in.