All I can say is thanks for assuming I am skinny and know nothing of fat!

OK I am a BIG girl and I will NEVER go back to wearing cotton as work out clothes again. They are the worst and I almost stopped until I gave up my pride and put on the tight stuff. I am so much happier with them once I got use to wearing them.

Now for your issues with sweat and a skin yeast infection. Use Monkey Butt Powder. it works like Gold Bond but with out the sting. Were your under wear is rubbing, buy some different types. Some times boxer briefs can help. There are many ways to figure out how to fix issues. Some times you need to try many different ways.

always open for trying new ways and fixes :-)

vesteroid I never said you were skinny. I have not a clue what you look like or who you are I would not presume to know.

knowing nothing of fat? I know being fat sucks and its going to kill me. thats really all i care to know about it.

I know people "differ" in how they sweat. maybe that is part of this issue? Me and my half brother matt. we sweat profusely. actually he sweats more than I do by quite a bit :-) but he is not fat.

when I got my MTB 5 or so years ago I got a pair of normal cycling shorts. in the winter they were great (I got the bike in the fall) when the warm weather came I had to stop wearing them. it was the most horrible experience I ever had with clothing.

I got so hot It was truly insane. I would have to stop I simply could not go on. I simply BAKED but only my legs. never my torso. thats when the doctor told me to get some non synthetic shorts. but I stopped cycling shortly after that after a few close calls on the mtb (the wheels could not hold me safely and the back pain was killing me too)

I don't mind tight fitting. its not very flattering to someone my size but I am the kind of guy who wears anything I please if anyone don't like it I growl at them :-) hehe

I will wear pretty much anything I please without much limits if I think its cool. to heck with what anyone else thinks :-)

the sting of gold bond does not bother me and $1 is better than $6 or $13. I use powder daily to keep sweat under control. the expensive stuff is the anti fungal spray. gold bond does nothing for fungal.

oddly enough undergarments bother me :-) I just came up with a solution tonight while typing this cycling shorts and a thong. no seams under the thighs and I get the "****" cupping I need :-) but yeah no. NOT doing that :-) (people are funny in what bothers them ehh ?)

I really don't want to be arguing with people and alienating people over cycling shorts selections. Can we drop the issue peacefully and move on?

I'm trying to quit cotton period, not just for work out clothes

Some people, myself included, sweat profusely even though we are not 400+ lbs.

Vesteroid is correct.

last thing I will say about that topic then I won't reply to it anymore not saying I am right you are wrong just don't want my thread to devolve to an argument. I plan for this thread to last for YEARS.

the issue is not how much you sweat the issue is what happens when you DO sweat. when "I" sweat I get very irritated (skin wise) so the less I sweat (or the less time that sweat spends on my skin) the less "complications" I have later. namely crotch rot.

I am just going to leave that topic alone. Gone. please respect that. not claiming victory. not claiming loss. Just want to abandon it.

I am so firm on this that I am going to delete all my posts regarding this issue. I will leave them for a few days so people can read them (don't want to be accused of censoring myself) and then delete them. I will NOT delete anyone else info (don't think I even have the ability to do that and would not if I could) your welcome to do the same.

I want to keep this thread about my journey to fixing myself. not fighting and bickering over what really is NOT that important.

OK I felt good today so back on the bike. the shorts worked great in so far as no seam so no more under thigh irritation. 50minutes riding ZERO pain issues. I now have most of the pain issues resolved. still need to tweak the seat as I tend to slide forward a tiny bit (I think that is why the PO had the washers in their so I will put them back once I get longer bolts. I may look into adding some angle iron their as I fear the washers will great a pressure point (not on me on the seat plywood) and be a source of damage. IE the flat on flat "spreads" the load very well.

When I got the first pair of shorts I was certain she sent the wrong ones. no WAY those are going to fit me. they do. quite well actually.

the sack issue I was worried about appears to not be an issue so far (no discomfort so far) although IT WAS pretty cool out tonight which helped a lot. very little sweating and I was pushing pretty hard. kept the heart rate over 140 for over 99% of the ride. (it appears my normal heart rate at 8-10mph is about 140)

here is hoping for a mild winter with a lot of riding in it. maybe I can lose enough weight by next summer for many of these issues to cease to be such issues :-) fingers crossed.

that brings up my other new gadget. I got the mytrek from scosche in. man is that device annoying. GREAT hardware horrible software and they seem to goto GREAT lengths to prevent you from gaining any sort of usable access to your data. the only sites you can export too ALSO lock down the data (No export) and any open methods (e-mail) it send you a png. a picture? really? how pathetic is that.

but the arm band is FANTASTIC I don't even notice it and it appears to work quite well so far. but the non access to data really sucks.

but I think I found a good solution. FINALLY found a program that claims it can "access" the data but its $2 no way to try. no $2 is not much but its principle I spent a lot of $2 bills today trying to get this stinking thing working and lots of "site signups" and crap Grrr

Finally I gave in and said screw it. IT WORKS.

icardio from digifit. got it installed it it found and connected to my mytrek

THEN I had it export the data to me (sadly not directly to strava) but it sent a CSV GPX AND TCX file

the gpx worked but no heart rate data so I tried the TCX and BINGO worked like a charm. got the tracking and speed data AND heart rate data.

I have not tried it on a "ride" yet. the ride I took earlier pooped me out a bit and I got the dream packed up into the van (REALLY need a good solid bike rack this bike is BIG and a PAIN to load into the van :-)

I am going to work tomorrow and will be their for 4 days. I want to ride every night so it goes with me.

I will try out the digifit app tomorrow and see what happens.

its a bit of a pain to do it not as "nice" as strava I have to load icardio get it going do my run. then save sync wait export then upload to strava and this has to be done on the PC not on the droid (I guess i COULD do it on the droid but normal website interfaces are a pain on the droid would be faster to just goto the laptop and upload)

Hopefully I can convince digifit to add a "direct to strava" sync option a FULLY automatic option would be REALLY cool. where it just "does it" on its own in the background but hey beggars choosers. I will take what I can get.

I split the ride in two tonight because I was hoping I could "get" the data from the mytrek and manually sync it somehow. but the mytrek app is really really bad. I switched over to strava and then back to mytrek but instead of reopening the existing instance it opened a SECOND instance (first app that did that) and this caused both instances to be active which stopped both from recording any data at all corrupting that runs data so i stopped both apps and restarted both apps.

so I did about 7.5 miles tonight (not counting the missing bit when I reset both maybe .2 miles or so not a big deal.

I did not find digifit till I was done ripping my hair out trying to get usable data from the mytrek app. its being uninstalled now :-)

Here is a picture of the shorts. its amazing how "small" they are relative to what I normally wear. they fit great though not too tight at all and very comfy.

http://i.imgur.com/gqAl6l.jpg

Here is the mytrek. I had trouble taking pictures of it. it appears the grey portions are reflective! (useless those are on the INSIDE of your arm) then lighting up during the "preflash" caused the camera to under expose.

http://i.imgur.com/KeJOPl.jpg

So I turned off the flash and used the laptop lcd to light it up :-) good enough

http://i.imgur.com/Us9Cbl.jpg

I was worried as to whether it would fit but it came with 3 size bands and the largest fits fine. thankfully my arms as big as they are, are no where near as large as my legs :-)

duh I guess I should take a picture of it "on" my arm would give better exposure too.

http://i.imgur.com/1GgNFl.jpg

Fuller report tomorrow when I do a ride using it with the digifit icardio app and then sync to strava :-)

no video tonight. camera was not charges no time to mount a battery and I wanted to get done before dark :-)

my strava and myfitnesspal are all uptodate in the first post.

hopefully this week I will get the scale and be able to #1 know what I weigh and #2 start tracking it :-) would love to get one of them wifi scales (he I am a gadget addict) but it maxes at 396pounds so got to get below 400 first :-)

did a ride tonight. got 5.7 miles and it started to drizzle (and to be honest I was really pooped I probably could have done another 2.7m lap but I keep hearing its bad to really push too hard so I am going to take that to heart and push for long term not short term gains.

I used icardio (its compatible with the mytrek HRM I got)

it seems when I am exerting I run a pretty constant 140bpm minimum. is this good bad or what? ie I don't know what to make of the data. (it says average 135 because it "dropped out" a lot not sure how to fix that but its interesting to have the data either way)

icardio lets me download a tcx file which contains everything strava would record anyway plus hrm data I then upload that file to strava and all is happy :-)

I run strava too until I am satisfied icardio is stable but so far its run flawlessly (the drop outs are not icardio it did that with the stock scosche app too)

I did over 8 miles a couple times but am now finding it hard to do that again. anyone know why? was I just pushing too hard and paying for it now? no pain or anything I think I got the bike all adjusted now and the new cycling shorts are a blessing. no more pain. none.

aches from exertion, sure, but no pain :-) finally.

now to find a good SECURE bike rack since its a real pain putting it in and out of the minivan. (its a BIG bike !!)

I once saw what I really want. it was a bike rack that you put on the roof but when you unlocked it you slide it out sideways like a drawer and it pivoted down the side of the vehicle. you mounted the bike and then pivoted it up and slide it on the roof (so the bike was on the roof on its side)

I want to put it on the roof to discourage theft and vandalism make it harder. maybe even make an aero fairing for it (that I can build myself) so it won't kill my fuel economy AND so it will be protected from the elements. this way I can STORE the bike on the van and be able to ride anywhere anytime with minimal fuss.

any suggestions? I don't have a ton of cash. I can't afford no $400 or $500 rack !!

ALSO I mounted (ok electrical taped) my iclarity hd speaker to my handlebars. it behaves well with my phone in concert with the HRM no problem.

MORE than loud enough and excellent quality. nice and small too.

I am going to figure out a good way to mount it more securely and cleanly and get some pics.

http://i.imgur.com/n1Ojn.jpg

if you have the opportunity to get one of these don't hesitate. TRULY impressive big high quality sound good deep base amazing for such a tiny little thing.

if your device is A2DP compatible (wireless bluetooth headphone protocol) you just pair it and it also has a 3.5mm jack in the back and charges via USB. not sure how long it runs HOURS since I have never run it long enough to deplete it.

now I can safely listen to my podcasts or music while riding.

Don't overthink the heart rate and mileage stats. Get to where you can ride an hour a day 5 or 6 days a week. Then make one day of the week a day to ride longer and one day of the week a day for intervals (ride hard). That's basically all there is to it.

yeah, right now, an hour is about my limit. I usually stop at 45-50 minutes (don't want to overdo it)

no worries about the heart rate stuff that is pure "geek fun" for me I do that stuff because I can and I can do it cheap and its fun.

I don't know how to interpret the data and it changes nothing either way :-) just a way to add my "gadgets" to this part of my life :-)

did another 5.6 miles tonight. man I LOVE having the speaker on the bike.

my pano cycle computer is at home waiting and I think one of my 1/4" mounts is at home waiting for me too.

can't want till my good lights get in.

I was well under calories today. (and I had pizza and chinese) sometimes just not "that" hungry so I treated myself to some Hawaiian punch :-) (barely dented my cals only 200) man I love that stuff :-)

so far the bike is holding up. no issue yet. got to put aside a few dollars and take it to the bike shop and have them give it a once over and tune up.

sometimes I have to move the shifter a half twist to get it to settle into a gear. no big deal but I don't want to chance anything going wrong with this.

I NEED to build some sort of roof carrier that I can pivot over the side of the van. its a REAL pain taking this thing in and out of the van (too big) and while I can get a hitch rack cheap I do not trust them. someone will steal it if I try to leave it on one of those.

Hitch racks are fine. I'm not sure where you live, but I've hauled my bikes all over the country on hitch racks. My mountain bike stays on my car all night at work most days that I take it out. If you are paranoid you can run a cable lock or chain through the frame and around the main heavy part of the hitch.
If you change your mind and try one, I would recomend the flatbed type. I have had a couple of flatbeds and two of the type that clamped the top tube of the bike, and the flatbeds have been much more stable and don't let the bike drag the ground going through dips or ditches.

we have had more than a few bikes stolen off racks around here. cables don't slow them down sometimes they just compromise the hitch lock and take the whole darned thing! its insane. and I flat out "CAN NOT" afford to replace this bike. if I lose this bike my cycling is "done" for quite some time :-(

I am not likely to ever find another one local for $400

I'm a little late to the party, but I loved the part in your original post where it said you shouldn't diet and you should just eat healthier. I feel like a lot of people forget that the weight will come back if a good diet is not sustained. Any word on weight loss yet?

There is no late to this party. I am in it for the long haul. I plan to keep this thread going till I hit 225 and then some.

negative. waiting for the scale to arrive in the mail (needed one that goes over 450 pounds to weigh me)

yeah - reading online all I see is over and over again pounds off then gain it back pounds off then gain it back over and over and over again adnoseum.

it become obvious to me they either "give up" or "reach" some sort of goal and then go right back to eating the same stuff the same way.

what linked it for me was a favorite phrase of mine.

The definition of insanity.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the results to be different. (not really but you get the idea)

I realized I was insane. of course if I go back to eating the same stuff the same way OF COURSE the result will be exactly the same result.

so I realized the only right way is to permanently change the terms of the game. forever.

I am going to try to accomplish that. Fingers crossed hope I have enough will power.

my tipping point I think will be around 75 pounds. I think once I lose that much the IMPROVEMENT in my life by being 75 pounds will create a self reinforcing process.

walking will be easier exercise will be easier activities will be easier and that will reinforce the behaviour that led to that.

as I am able to DO more my level of activity will go up reinforcing the good habits that got me their

self reinforcing. at least that is the idea. I am naturally an active person the weight is keeping me down. if i can get rid of enough to "REALLY" get active again. I think I can do it.

Man, i am a little late to this thread also. This is my first post here but just wanted to chime in. You can do it man! I feel your pain. I was not as big as u but I was 400lbs. 2 months ago I got real tired of it being so big. I now weight 325. I feel great. I am real suprised you can ride so far, when I started I rode 1/2 mile and went home. lol. I use spray tinactin spray for the fungal stuff. I had major swelling in my legs, high blood pressure, ecx. I am off all the drugs now and hope to get down to 250 range. good luck

Keep it going! :thumb:

It does get hard to keep getting out there and especially when the cold sets in. I make it a challenge by picking up good winter gear and riding as much as possible. Im off the bike right now due to a health issue and its driving me crazy. The silver lining is that I lost 10lbs due to my health issue and so Im finally in the 270's ;). Not my first choice method to attain weight loss but it works.

What calorie amount are you allowed per day? I was allowed 2200 cals but made the mistake of taking the calorie counts for exercise seriously. MyFatSecret would suggest an hours ride burnt 1100 cals - i dont think so ;). Id eat the cals and end up losing zero weight. Now I stick to the 2200 cals and the exercise cals I look on as a bonus and dont 'eat them'. Seems a better process.

Keep em rolling.

Love the thread, espeical like the Can do way you are approaching problems .

In regards to the bike shorts i will point out that it can be subjective , my skin can not handle nylon/polyester blends if i wear bike shorts made out of that you can bet your life i will have a rash in about an hour and if i ignore it i will be not wearing pants for a few days afterwards while i heal :p.

Nylon/X or Polyester/X i can handle but never the two should meet in a sweaty environment . I had to learn this by trail and error ... and a embarrassing trip to the hospital


Keep up the riding mate :thumb:

thanks for the support guys. I am jonesing for a ride but the damned rain won't go away. Grrr

I set my goal at 2000 calories a day. I take great effort NOT to "eat" my exercise calories. kind of defeats the point it seems :-) hehe

its telling me the same thing. I would not be surprised if riding an hour did burn 1000 calories. I try to keep my average speed as close to 10mph as I can. many times I end up at 9mph or so. thats close enough.

remember your using your own power to propel (in my case) over 500 pounds at 10mph for 1 hour. that is a decent amount of energy :-)

I have had different programs tell me anything from 500 to 1400 calories expended in that time. I don't worry too much about those numbers. I worry about the real numbers calories EATEN.

Got a new toy!! Galaxy S3 baby !! man this thing is nice. I figured out how to get one for FREE :-) my cell plan is special. I can migrate between the $30 plan I am on and the $50 plan I need to get a new phone at will.

SO I upgrade to $50 plan get an Iphone 5 (wait I though I wanted S3 no worries keep reading)

you see Iphone users are flat out mad and they have mad money :-) so I get the I5 because another person who already "spent" their upgrade (you get one every 2 years) on an S3 is not drooling over the I5. so you give me your S3 and $225 and I give you a brand spanking new I5.

the I5 costs me $216 :-) hehe. I then activate my old phone again put my plan back down to $30 and bingo. S3 and it cost me NOTHING in fact I made $9 on the deal but thats eaten up by the gas to go meet at the store :-)

the bike is still holding up well. no new issues. I am very pleased. the seat repair reinforcement is holding. icardio is working WONDERFULLY. I use it exclusively now and "sync" to strava once I get home.

its looking like RAIN monday and tuesday Grrrr. after that it should clear up.

if it looks like a big enough "gap" in the rain monday or tuesday gonna get me some mileage in. now that I have the speaker on the bike I look forward to that time even more.

I found a single speed adult tricycle for $80 !!!!! I am going to try and grab it tomorrow. man I hope I get it.

I am hoping it will be easy enough and comfortable enough to ride to get my sister on a bike and riding with us.

OH and the scale came in and GRRRRRRRR GROOWWWWLLL HOWWWWLLL the damned thing needs a 9v battery. I have ALL SORTS of batteries except not one good 9v. gonna run out and get one tomorrow.

What kind of scale did you get? I have been using a $30 Weight Watchers scale that reported my weight at 285lb. I half-believed it to be accurate but had no faith in it. Last weekend I was in hospital for a few days and they weighed me there - 285lbs!!! I was kinda shocked it was so accurate.

Anyways, Ive been jonesing for one of those BMI 'insptector gadget' scales that does all kinds of tricks - what did you get? I supposedly go back to work in 2 weeks so a new scale is first on my 'reward' list. :)

do an ebay search for scale 550 (thats the magic number)

I got the one that is $38 BIN - 230855308956

Here is the one you want does all the bio crap for $26 shipped 250932142554

Well finally got the scale and the 9v battery. Looks like things are working well. I am 440 on the nose (ok 440.1 440.2 fluctuates)

which means I lost likely around 15 pounds. I figure most of that is water like anytime you start a new diet but still its progress. we shall see if it continues.

have not been able to rude in a few days. RAIN every freaking day. man does it suck. hard core itching to ride.

got some new goodies. my tail lights came in. I got 2 of the $5 crazy brights (and they are crazy bright) and 2 of the $3 solar charges ones. I am going to figure out how to install all 4 leave the CBL's on solid and the solar ones on blink.

still waiting for the headlight to ship. Grrr hate waiting :-)

also got my camera 1/4" mounts.

and my EL wire light. Very nice. I hope that one works out nice its going to be fun if it does.

some pictures and video !

http://i.imgur.com/uma3gl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hcWthl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/N1fXHl.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KCmFgKmZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tSoG4OZCTE

ALSO really sweet score tonight!!

I got an adult tricycle for my sister! aluminum $80. sweet !! very very cool. I can finally get her on a bike. will get some pictures of that when it stops raining (its on the roof of the van right now :-)

sadly its single speed but she won't be able to go far anyway we will stick to the parking lots (nice and flat) and just casually ride till she starts to feel tired and stop.

since its aluminum I am hoping that makes it somewhat more valuable and that I might be able to trade it for a steel multi speed.

+1 on the lenovo T61 laptop :)

Sorry if i missed it .... but what are you doing with the EL wire lol

I am going to mount the batt box near the axle and run the wire along the rim weaving it around the spokes. ie make the whole wheel light up.

if it looks nice will order some more :-) yeah LOVE my T61. the display on the T60p is a wee nicer (brighter crisper) but it died. I am hoping I can get it fixed as these flex panels are VERY hard to find (at least affordably) 1600x1200 and 1920x1200

I do like the addition of the firewire and SD slot on the T61. going to try to save up to get another one so I have a spare. just all around VERY good solid reliable laptops.

I REALLY crave high resolution displays. 1024x768 might as well be klingon pain stick to my eyes. can't stand low res displays. :-)

Just so you know i am stealing that line for when the next customer asks me about screen res at work .

let me know how the EL wire turns out .

here are some pics of the trike. its looking like this might be a "home made" trike (thats ok) could use some beefing up but I think it will hold up under her weight ok.

http://i.imgur.com/xQ5yml.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/4wbg9l.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFLI4Uvew0