army14

Hello everyone,
I have recently began riding a bike again after a 20 year hiatus. I'm 6'2" and 220 and hoping to lose some weight. My rides started about 2 months ago. It started with about 6 miles and now I'm up to 12 miles. I try to ride 3-4 times a week. My house has hills coming and going. My weight has not changed. I'm eating about 2000 calories a day. My rides average 40-45 minutes in HR zone 4. My heart rate goes up pretty fast and stays there most of the ride. I know to burn fat I should stay in zones 1 or 2 but I can't get my heart rate down.

Am I on the right track? Does it just take more time? Any suggestions or questions? Thanks for your help.

st0ut

breath slower focus on exhale

Hobartlemagne 

The hills are making your heart rate rise.
Also- you may need to reduce calories.

10 Wheels

You need more miles. I lost 20 lbs @ 3400 milies this year. Started at 223 lbs. 6' 2", 66 y/o
385 miles last week.

Little Darwin

While the exercise burns calories, it is a whole lot harder to burn them than to avoid them.

Trying to keep the heart rate down is pushed by some, and others say it is not necessarily a big deal, and that burning the glycogen (sp?) stores before they are stored as fat is just as efffective for weight loss. I don't know enough to say. Others here may be more knowledgeable and can explain the biochemical reactions.

I do know from experience that the activity will help you gain muscle and that the active mass will help you to burn more calories, so you may be building some muscle now and the weight loss will follow. Have you noticed any difference in body shape? Smaller waste or anything? Does your significant other crave you more? These could be signs that your body composition is changing, even though the weight is staying the same.

If you are maintaining weight, the bottom line is that if you keep up your current activity and drop a few calories per day from your diet you should drop weight.

Are there any small things you can do in your diet? Switch to low fat or non fat alternatives? Slightly smaller portions? Do you actually weigh or measure your food to come to the 2,000 calorie number? When you're hungry, if you are like me, the estimates can get generous.

At any rate, your cycling is a good thing, so keep that in the mix, and work with the other aspects of your lifestyle to accentuate this positive activity.

army14

Thanks everyone. I forgot to mention that I'm 43 if that makes a difference.

Little Darwin, My body composition is constant. I weigh myself every morning at the same time it also includes body fat (albeit not completely accurate, but consistent) and that has also not changed.

My breakfast and lunch is exactly the same 5 days a week and on weekends it's not that bad. I have counted my calories pretty accurately and I was eating about 1600-1700 calories and it was suggested my body may be in starvation mode, storing fat because it was afraid it wasn't going to be fed again. So I increased to about 2000 calories. I plan on continuously increasing my miles as time permits.

10 Wheels

Just pedal more. My goal was to get in shape. The weight loss was a plus. I eat for energy to ride.
It does take time to ride miles. I am retired and enjoy it.

wrk101

I am 51. The key is work the balance: eat less, ride more. Its just that simple. So if you are not losing weight, and you do not have time to ride more, then you have to eat less.

I target riding 4 times a week, 120 to 150 miles per week. Riding four days a week seems to be a sweet spot for me. You have to be consistent and diligent about it. I figure about 300 calorie burn per 10 miles ridden as a basic estimate. So this means I am burning about a pound of calories per week. So if my food intake is about what would maintain my weight without the riding, then after adding the miles I should lose a pound a week. So far, that is how it is working.

I started riding in February after not riding in over 30 years. First ride was 3 1/2 miles. Recent rides are in the 40 mile range. As you ride more, your pace will increase, so you will be able to fit more miles in the same amount of time. But 45 minutes is kind of on the light end if you are looking for major progress.

I recently retired so it is easier to find time to ride. My job right now is to get in shape...

I agree with 10 Wheels, make the goal getting into shape, weight loss is a plus. Just increasing muscle mass at the same weight level is a significant improvement.

tdbmd

Army14,

A couple of things come to mind, when you say "zone 4-5" what are you refering to? A zone based on a maximal HR equation, a VO2 test? How many BPM are you actually seeing? What does your scale with body composition say your % of body fat is currently? This might give a better idea of where you are to figure some changes.

lil brown bat

Well, you haven't necessarily been totally on the wrong track up until now. If you've been completely sedentary, starting with an easy workout and gradually increasing it is the best way to go. If you haven't been seeing any weight loss at all, though, it's probably time to change things up.

The key to weight loss is to expend more calories than you take in. Dropping the intensity of your exercise won't do that -- the so-called "fat-burning zone" is a partial truth at best, and if you want I can give you a more detailed explanation, or you can just take my word for it that you won't lose more weight by burning fewer calories. You can either:

• increase the frequency of your exercise
• increase the duration of your exercise
• increase the intensity of your exercise
• decrease your caloric intake, or
• some combination of the above

It's as simple as that, although the different ways to do this efficiently and safely can get pretty complex. In general, it will probably involve a greater commitment to exercise than 3-4 times a week for 45 minutes. Before you get into any particulars, you first need to accept that it'll take more of your time, and figure out where you're going to find that time. The details will follow.

devildogmech

Remember, you are building muscle (seen the size of your quads lately?) and it is 8x denser than fat.... Most people actually see their weight go UP when they first start working out (especially with weights).... Just keep at it and the weight will come off...

Caincando1

I’m going to buck the trend here and suggest pedaling less. I’ve lost a boat load of weight from low intensity work outs like walking and biking (at a moderate to low intensity). For me personally high zone training did nothing to help with weight loss and only benefited me for preparing for racing. I’m going to have to see the proof that the “fat burning zone” is a myth. Everybody is different, but for me it worked. So I’d say pedal slower to keep your heart rate down. If you are to the point that you can’t lower your heart rate, stop or walk and let it come down. I know it’s not cool and seems counter productive but it sure wasn’t for me. It’s hard to break the “go hard or go home” mentality of the old school way of thinking. I will agree however that daily exercise will help a lot. I shoot for 30-45 min. 6 times a week with at least 75% of that being at a low intensity.

mkadam68

If you're exercising and then sitting around for work (desk job?), the exercise only helps a little. Make sure you're also active throughout the rest of the day, and maybe increase the amount of time you're exercising. (For instance: I ride probably 2 hours minimum a day, 5-6 times a week. Others I know do more than this.)

sstorkel

Well said! I think there's a large amount of confusion on this issue. In particular, while your body may be more efficient at burning fat calories during a long, low-intensity workout you don't necessarily burn more of them. In my experience, a high-intensity workout burns more fat calories... even if the body is somewhat inefficient about it.

Jay68442

You are on the right track. I just made a post this morning about losing 6 lbs in the past month and a half. But for the first month my weight did not change. Only in the past 2 weeks has it started to come down. I think in part to the building of muscle and other changes to my body. When I started riding 2 months ago my rides were 8 miles. Now I can do 15 hard miles without a break and 30 with a rest. The rides I do are also in the higher zones and with the amount of climbing I do there is no way to get it down. Only over time as climbing gets easier will I start to notice lower heart rates. Try adding one long ride a week. During the week I do 2-3 15 mile rides and on Saturday I do a 25-30 mile ride.

army14

Tdbmd,

It is based on the 220-age. Probably not the best but it gives me a general idea. Current body fat is about 24%. Thanks

army14

Lil Brown Bat,

All points well taken. I teach PE and I used to play basketball with the kids twice a week until I broke my finger playing basketball with them last week. My plan is to increase my frequency and duration in a month when summer vacation starts. Right now I'm trying to build a base to work from. How much time should I take between rides, currently my legs feel like I got a pretty good workout the following day. My main goal is to maximize my effort while riding my bike to achieve my goals. Go Red Sox.
Thanks

army14

Thanks Jay,

I hope to start increasing my weekend rides. I hope to see the results you have. I'm realistic in my expectations and I don't expect to see all the pounds disappear quickly, it took me a long time to put them on.

Fastflyingasian

as others have said everybody's bodies are different. my buddie and i in the last 10 months have worked are way into very high intensity biking (mountain and road) and instead of dropping calories we have increased considerably. especially after 5 hour mountain bike rides lol. even though we are eating more, the difference is that we are eating smarter. not skipping breakfast or lunch even add in a meal or 2 like body builders. lay off the junk food except our one vise. we refuse to be miserable. i almost compare our rides to interval training. since last august i have lost 55 lbs and my buddie 40. i started at 295. i noticed after the first jump in weight loss it seemed like i didnt change for a month even though i was going harder. after that period i noticed my weight loss to speed back up. i am at my next plateau at 245 and im hoping for 220 this year.

splattered

asian if you hit 220 dose that mean you will finally drop the (big people don't fly speech )


FFA is right on, we kill 5 hours on road or mountain come back and i personally tear the house apart looking for food, on average i put down 3-4k calories after a hard ride, my rule is if i'm still hungry i eat until i'm not, i've lost over 40 lbs of fat, gained 15-20 lbs in muscle, and my gut has almost gone away. from 239 to 198/205

army14

I have increased my weekly rides to 17 miles each, relatively flat and averaging 16 mph. Too many damn traffic lights. My legs are sore/tired the next day. I know if I'm lifting weights you can't work the same muscle everyday. Should I ride through the pain or ride every other day? Or something else? Thanks.

chirojeremy

This is true for me. At first I dropped about 10lbs. Now I have gained 2.4lbs on the scale. However, my bf% has dropped from 43% to 41.8% which at 299.2lbs is a loss of 3lbs of body fat. So how did I gain 2.4lbs when I lost 3lbs of body fat? I gained 2.4lbs of water and 1.5lbs of muscle.

chirojeremy

I have been wondering about this a little bit too. Coming from a medical perspective, the soreness is primarily lactic acid. You need to focus more on your breathing and possibly increase your carb intake because lactic acid is a metabolic waste produce when there is not enough glucose and oxygen.

What I have decided to do is treat this sport/hobby like bodybuilding.

Pre workout meal
slow digesting carbs/protein about 30 minutes prior to exercise to fuel endurance while minimizing muscle loss

Post workout meal
high glycemic carbs/fast digesting protein (whey) immediately after exercise to replentish glycogen levels and to increase the speed of protein uptake to repair muscles.

v1k1ng1001

My biggest suggestion is to lift weights. I lose weight 4X as fast when I am lifting every other day. I just got back into the gym about 3 weeks ago and I've gone from a 36" waist to a 34" waist. I've only lost five lbs but the point is that my body is building muscle which, in turn, will replace fat and burn a lot more calories throughout the day.

lil brown bat

My thought is that you'd do a lot better to be riding 10 miles every day, or even 5 miles every day, than 17 miles once a week.