>now I'm healthy enough again to start thinking about getting on a bike to shed some of this girth<
The good news is you want to lose weight. The bad news is exercise won't help. It'll simply make you more hungry. Exercise will make you fit, of course, a worthy goal for which to strive. But exercise won't make you lose weight.
To lose weight, you have to cut back on the amount of stored energy - food - you're eating compared to the energy you are expending, whether or not you exercise.
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