cantdrv55

I'm discouraged because all the weight I've lost from dieting have come back. I haven't been on my bike for a couple of years and instead had relied on fad diets which resulted in 20 lb weight loss. But, as we all know, as soon as you get a taste of the forbidden fruit again, off the wagon you go. The 20 lb are back on and then some. I will start riding again and give up the fad diet (modified Atkins). Hoping to lose weight as fast as when I was on the Atkins.

Is that possible with mostly exercise and just a little less carb intake? I know that I cannot give up carbs anymore. That just doesn't work for me. I was crabby and tired all the time when I was on Atkins. Plus I smelled like a carnivore - meat breath and gassy. TMI, I know. Anyway, I want to ride about 100 miles a week on my trainer, road bike or gym exercycle. How much do you ride and how quickly did you start losing weight?

digger531

I have been riding regularly again for 4 or 5 years....I haven't lost a pound. Losing weight is mostly diet. Exercise for quality of life. Thats overly simplified but

islandseas

I follow Weight Watchers and ride for part of my activities. I also spin once a week and am now incorporating weights. I started WW this time in July/August 2010 and have lost 67lbs. decided that I wasn't going to give up any one food group but restrict portion sizes. I knew that this time it was going to be a lifestyle change and not a "diet". I will keep up the lifestyle after I reach goal in approximately 30lbs. Just get out there moving and control your portions. Good luck and enjoy your riding.

Karen

snidely

Read the book "Ride Your Way Lean" by Selene Yeager, and it will all make sense. Making progress is really a combination of diet AND exercise. You should be able to see results pretty quickly.

10 Wheels

Loosing weight is about calorie intake.

Bike riding will get you looking and feeling better.

islandseas

This is a great book. I've been through it a couple of times refreshing my memory. I don't follow all the drills but it's full of great information.

Karen

slowride454

it's like a bank account. the more you take out the smaller you get. Last year I took up cycling again after about 20 years off. It took me about 300 miles before I started to notice a difference in the way my clothes fit and how I felt. I lost about 50 pounds last summer and only rode about 1200 miles without depriving myself of the foods I enjoy. Problem is I gained back 40 over the winter even with riding the trainer a few times a week. I hope to do 3600 miles this year and a century per month from May to October with a handful of XC MTB races thrown in as well. I should talk...but it needs to be a lifestyle change. My best friend was well over 400# a number of times in his life. Up and down, yo-yo diets and exercise. Last year he switched to being a vegetarian and got serious about exercise. Let's just say he is less than 1/2 the man he used to be. He is 6' 2" and now right around 200#.

Astrozombie

Jeez, I wish i could go through a cycle of dropping 20lbs, i've only ballooned since leaving High School Sometimes I wonder if i have what it takes..........and i'm never giving up beer!

chasm54

To be brutal, if you aren't prepared to give up beer then no, you probably don't have what it takes.

OP, cycling 100 miles per week will help with weight loss. A reasonable estimate is that you'd burn upwards of 3000 kcal doing that, which amounts to a bit less than one pound of fat. But that is meaningless unless you know that you are restricting you calorie intake. If you need 2000kcal per day to maintain your weight, but are eating 3000, then all the cycling will do is slow the rate at which you get fatter. So do the cycling, it will help. But count calories at the same time.

Myosmith

Riding a bike does not make you lose weight, a caloric deficit makes you lose weight. How fast you see results depends not only on how much or how hard you ride, but also what and how much you eat. I rode like a madman all last summer and didn't really lose a significant amount of weight because I was eating approximately the same number of calories I was burning. There is a saying "You can always outeat your training" and it is absolutely true. My goals for last year were improved strength, endurance, and riding skills, which were accomplished. Over the winter I was able to avoid gaining any weight and this summer my goal is to drop that last 30 pounds. I'm not going for any radical new nutrition plan, just the good choices I made last year in smaller portions.

bbeasley

Best advice I've gotten here "you can't out ride a bad diet"

Ursa Minor

I read a study comparing many different diets: low carb low fat all veggie etc.
The result was that they ALL work if you stick with them.
Good luck to the OP; for the last 3 weeks Ive been off the wagon and struggling with increased weight and the depression
that goes with it. Today Im trying to get back on the wagon.

Bill Kapaun

I really didn't lose weight from riding, but I lost a lot of INCHES.
I'm just getting back on my feet (and the bike a bit) after being laid up the last 4 months with a broken leg.
I LOST about 15 lbs! Bad part, it was all muscle. Talk about flabby legs!

brianogilvie 

As others have said, you can't reliably lose weight by riding without restricting your calories too. In 2009 and 2010 I increased my cycling miles substantially and lost some weight without dieting; that's consistent with research indicating a correlation between increased exercise and weight loss (see Mozaffarian et al., NEJM 2011;364:2392-404). However, once I stopped increasing my monthly mileage, that weight came back, with interest.

Since January 7, though, I've lost about 11 pounds by counting calories and making small dietary tweaks, such as eating smaller portions of rice and bread with my meals, eating a little more salad and a little less cheese, and taking seconds only after waiting to see if I'm really still hungry. Counting calories, though, is the most important thing. I use MyFitnessPal.com, because the app for my iPhone makes it very easy to record meals on the go. I haven't given up anything - I still have the occasional cocktail or beer, and usually a glass of wine with dinner - but I am consistently eating 500-600 calories less each day than I need to maintain my weight, and I'm seeing the results.

Cycling for 4-6 hours a week, plus going for walks and lifting dumbbells a couple days a week, helps keep me fit, and lets me eat more than I otherwise would. But I've been sick for the past week and a half, and have had to cut back significantly on my cycling (from 70-90 miles a week to around 30), and the weight is still coming off. It really is about cutting back on calories.

I haven't made any major changes to my diet because I was already eating a relatively healthy diet, with lots of vegetables and a few meatless days each week, and I know that any changes I make have to be lifestyle changes, not short-term tweaks.

I've also learned, from John Walker's "The Hacker's Diet," that the scale can be my friend, once I learned how to use it properly. Everyone's weight fluctuates from day to day, but Walker figured out that an exponentially weighted average of daily measurements (done at the same time each day) can be used to filter out the noise and identify trends. I plan to keep weighing myself daily after I reach my target (hopefully in November or December), in order to identify any new weight gain before it becomes serious.

Good luck!

curbtender

3... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0epRjfGLw

USMCRet

As mentioned by another poster, myfitnesspal is a great app that makes you aware of what you are doing. It really opened my eyes! You don't have to give up what you like, you just have to be sensible about it.

I am a former smoker of over 30 years, and I believe that losing weight is just like quitting smoking. It's not going to happen until you set your mind to do so. Decide this is what you want, truly, and it will happen.

1242Vintage

Cycling didn't help me lose weight. Couple years ago I dropped 65 lbs, going from 250 to 185, by cutting out soda, fast food, and replacing trips to the candy machine at work with a healthier option (carrot sticks). Also started to drink water, lots and lots of water. I was only cycling a few miles a day then.

What really helped drive my weight loss and keep me making healthy food choices is a clear motivator. Mine is the lousy genetics I inherited for heart disease. I know I needed to get my weight down and get exercise to hopefully counteract those genetics. My current, more fun motivator, is to drop a few more pounds (goal is 170 lbs) this Spring so that I can be more competetive in cyclocross next fall. That gives me something tangible and fun to work torward.

To answer your question, for the last couple years I've been averaging over 1,000 miles a month (daily commuter here) and haven't lost any more weight. Have much improved cardio and better muscle tone, but still sitting at 190 lbs.

Good luck with your weight loss journey.

cantdrv55

Great input everyone. I am OK with no weight loss as long as I'm losing inches off my waist and booty. I know 100 miles a week will get me in better cardio. Thanks for your responses!

snidely

+1 to an app like myfitnesspal. You can use this particular one on your smartphone or computer or tablet. Tracking the calories in and out is a sure way to successful weight loss. I am down 32lbs, with 45 more to go. There is no way I would have gotten here without accountability to myself.

cantdrv55

Do you just guess how many calories you are eating? I just downloaded the app and am playing with it now.

avance

I lost more weight a two weeks ago then I did all last summer thanks to the norovirus. I dropped over 20lbs due no importing, but a ton of exporting.

chasm54

If you use the search function it offers you a long list of foods with calories stated. You can adapt them for quantity. Alternatively you can enter customised foods/meals having worked out the calories yourself. It becomes less of a hassle as time goes on as you can simply pull down items you frequently eat/drink for the "my foods" menu.

cantdrv55

Thanks for the tip.

Norovirus is no fun. Hope you are feeling better.

curbtender

When you get into longer mileage And learn how to hydrate and take food as energy, you'll learn a whole new way of life. You also need to enjoy what you are doing. Go out and and make someone else wonder why they aren't riding a bike, cause 55 at comute time is non-op.

WonderMonkey

You start seeing results as soon as the math is right. Simply it is calories in versus calories burned but there are influencers such as how you get your calories, do you eat them all at once, etc.

So basically you have to make the decision not to lose weight but to make a lifestyle change. That is when you will see weight coming off with a better chance of it staying off. Until I made that decision I was up and down all over the place.