MilSpec4Life

These two hit the nail on the head. "CALORIC DEFICIT = WEIGHT LOSS". I would like to add two useful links to get you and anyone wanting to lose weight moving in the right direction.

First - track what you eat! https://www.myfitnesspal.com then subtract what you burn.

Second - Know your calories burned. If you choose to avoid HR monitors, machine readouts and app averages then go with this website for great "per/hour" estimates. https://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

On a side note related to the myfitnesspal website/app; the website gave me a 2190 caloric goal per day to lose 1 lb per week. I went to a health center, measured my metabolic rate, and did some other testing and they gave me a 2196 caloric goal. Bottom line...MFP was pretty darn close with just gender/ht/wt/age data from my profile. You can also set up custom calorie goals and macro goals if you know how to get into that as well

sstorkel

If you use this website, be sure to divide the number it gives you by 2. At least for bicycling, their numbers are 2X higher than what I see from my power meter...

brianogilvie 

Quote:

Originally Posted by drorgo

You can not out ride a bad diet. Your diet is the biggest determining factor in weight loss.

+1. An analysis of two long-term studies of health-care professionals found that "Across quintiles, participants with greater increases in physical activity gained 1.76 fewer pounds within each 4-year period. Absolute levels of physical activity, rather than changes in these levels, were not associated with weight change (data not shown)." D. Mozaffarian et al., "Changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men," New England Journal of Medicine 2011 Jun 23; 364(25):2392-404.

In other words, people who increased exercise tended to lose weight (or gain weight more slowly). But there's a limit to how much you can increase physical activity.

The same analysis found significant effects for a huge range of dietary factors: not surprisingly, eating potato chips was correlated with increased weight gain, while eating vegetables and fruits was correlated with reduced weight gain. (The population as a whole gained weight over the years, so the analysis looked at which factors were correlated with more or less gain.) Perhaps more surprisingly, eating nuts was correlated with reduced weight gain.

starkmojo

I usually limit the duration of my ride to an hour and see how far I can get in that time, ie how fast I can go. Past an hour I think of it more as a liesure ride then a work out. Also on my usual route I track how fast I get up hills and try and improve that each ride. So far it's been working for me.

genejockey 

What I do is to track my intake pretty rigorously, and log my workouts based on MapMyRide's calorie estimator, which is probably really optimistic. BUT, I do NOT allow myself to eat, say, 2000 more Calories on the days when MapMyRide tells me I've expended that many. In fact, I generally only go about 2-300 Calories over 2100 or so goal, even on those days.

I've lost about 7-9 lbs (depending on when I measure it) since I started 5 weeks ago, mostly because of limiting calories. Whenever I've tried this before, I found myself eating more, which just balanced what I'd added in output, and I lost weight slowly if at all.

MilSpec4Life

Hi, could you please tell me the duration,speed and the calories burned data from your power meter on a recent ride? Thanks.

sstorkel

I'm not sure what good it will do you since you don't know my weight, how much elevation I gained, or what the wind was like but here are a couple of recent rides:

1:39:33 moving time, 17.0mph average speed, 969 calories burned
2:23:41 moving time, 14.6mph average speed, 1259 calories burned
51:47 moving time, 17.3mph average speed, 501 calories burned

UnfilteredDregs

I like to eat. I eat good. I'm a damned good cook too...I cook mostly Italian & French, my Boeuf Bourguignon takes 3 days to make...

I'm losing weight gradually; slow & steady. Started at 225 late last fall, today after my 30 mile mountain bike ride I'm 208.

The thing with calories is don't just count them, you need to eat quality calories. Pick foods with big time nutrition, I can't emphasize enough how much you need to eat your greens. I just put away a pound of spinach with dinner, only 154 calories, with 1/2tbsp of butter, dee-lish-us, fills you up. I don't take seconds, I go for proteins and I'm wary of starch & sugar. No junk food ever, stay away from fruit juices...

Quality calories satisfy, and eat your veggies, eat them for the bulk. Water...lots, of water. On the cool days I drink about 60 ounces. Today including my ride I probably drank 90oz.

Always drink water before a meal.

Null66

Uh, for body builders the saying is abz are made in the kitchen. You would not believe how disciplined they are. I try "cutting" every once in a while. I get so morose, demotivated and find that the weights feel like they are anything up to 50% heavier. I just can't do it.

Power lifters, only in the unlimited class. Most compete within a weight class. So excessive fat is a HUGE handicap. Some of the most fit women I know are power lifters. They have cuts (muscle definition) as detailed as a body builders.

Intensity is the key to burning energy.

But body composition is made in the kitchen...

digibud

I'm down 90lb in the last three years due to cycling and eating better food. I don't think either would have been as helpful alone but together, cycling and a decent diet made a huge difference.

LabRat2k3

I am aware that body builders have a different diet, that is why it is the very first thing I said. Yes I do know how disciplined/crazy they are with the way that they train and eat leading up to a show. I never said powerlifters were fat or out of shape, but they do have a different body composition than bodybuilders and do different workouts with different goals. That I what the jest of my post was about, how doing different work even on the same equipment can give different results. It was not intended to be a dissertation on the differences betwen bodybuilders and powerlifters.

WonderMonkey

The "Abs are made in the kitchen" is a common saying in the bodybuilding world and it is assumed what that means. Just a general comment supporting the above poster.

Jarrett2

I've lost 88lbs in the last 5 months. It's strictly due to tracking calories. Exercise is fine and fun and makes me feel better/be healthier, but I find it's not that important to weight loss. I just ride because I like it. It's a joint safe way to push myself at 42. I do notice that if I do a 2-3 hour ride that my belly will be physically smaller afterward. I like that bonus benefit, but tracking calorie intake I've found is the only way to really achieve sustained weight loss.

MRT2

That is a tremendous achievement.

Dunbar

For you northerners (and I grew up in Chicago) I wonder if only riding 7-8 months out of the year (due to the weather) hurts weight loss maintenance. There's no way you'd catch me on a treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike for a 2-3 hour workout. I think if you're genetically predisposed to gain weight you need to either eat strictly or exercise hard (or do some combination of the two) to maintain weight loss. I wonder how much packing it in for winter contributes to weight gain. Even here in Southern California, where we have year-round riding weather, a lot of people stop riding during the week when daylight savings time ends.

Doohickie

I'm using MyFitnessPal and I find the same thing- you can't take the exercise calorie allotment for what it's worth; it needs to be devalued by about 50%.

I'm about three weeks in and down 9 lb. I don't expect that rate to continue (it's typical compared to past diets; I usually get a quick start). Lots of cycling miles logged, lots of food tracked (but not as much eaten )

MilSpec4Life

I was curious to know what reading you are getting because you said that it reads about half of the website info rating. Regardless, I looked up info for myself (240 lbs) and multiple resources/websites all indicated about a 15 calorie burn per minute. Your power meter may be right for you, but I do not think that I can go by your method of simply dividing by 2, i.e. 7 calories per minute. My HR Monitor regularly calculates my workouts (gym/run/ride) at about 12-20 cals per minute depending on intensity. I hope that anyone reading my suggestion does their own research to determine their caloric needs in order to reach their own deficit which is the important takeaway. Cheers.

Joemess

It is ALL about what you eat. Oddly enough this summer I was not able to ride due to schedule conflicts and the constant rain. Now that I am back at work (I teach) I commute by bike every other day (30 miles round trip with some hills), I hope to up that a little more as I get back into the groove. What I have not done is increase what I eat each day. I stick to 2000 calories or less each day regardless of whether I commute in or not. Even though I use a HRM, I have always used the 25-30 calories per mile as a rule of thumb when calculating calories burned. It seems to be about average if low. That said, if I ride into work and then eat a Snickers bar because I "Earned It" or any of the numerous and assundry treats the other teachers bring in I could easily undo all my work. I am not 198 at 6' 2.5" so the other the other teachers do not see why I am being careful.

WHat I do get a bit of a kick out of, is that while I am sitting at the table logging my tuna pouch and fruit (hey its easy) my coworkers are griping about gaining weight while eating junkfood giving me crap about riding in. I just smile.

sstorkel

If you think that you're burning 900 calories/hour and you're successfully losing weight, more power to you.

If you're not losing weight, or not losing it as quickly as you'd like, you might want to find a more accurate estimate. The only thing I've found that comes close to the numbers I get from the power meter are the Kreuzotter equations. Even these aren't terribly accurate, since they assume steady-state speed, hills, wind, etc.

My HRM told me the same thing. The thing is: the HRM doesn't really know anything about your workout. It just knows that your heart is beating quickly. Wear it during a horror movie, a roller coaster ride, or an IRS audit and it will probably tell you that those are all fantastic workouts, too! When I first bought the power meter, I compared it to my HRM. The numbers from the HRM were 1.5-2X higher than those coming out of the PM. Needless to say, I listen to the power meter these days...

mr_pedro

I found exercise to be very good to keep my weight stable. I have lost 35 lbs in a few stages and every time I lost weight it was by paying special attention to create a calorie deficit. I am averaging more than 100 miles per week but if I follow my appetite the weight just remains stable.

Mithrandir

I'm coming off of a 5-month hiatus for the first time in years, after 3 years of almost non-stop cycling. I've noticed something odd.

The first week back I was able to pump my heart rate up to 175 with no problems. 2nd week I topped out at 160. Third week (last week) I barely breach 150.

My first instinct was to simply assume my body was getting acclimated to the cycling, but after paying attention more I noticed that my muscles were simultaneously feeling more and more fatigued. I think I'm at a point where I cannot pump my heart rate up to 175 because my muscles are so tired they're simply not letting me exercise as hard as I need to anymore. I'm unsure of what to do about this.

Anyway, I always sweat like crazy no matter how hard I work out. I range from "sweat lots" to "sweat even more".

irwin7638

A few things help; studded tires, Rule 9, if rule 9 doesn't cover it, refer to rule 5 .

Marc

Fastflyingasian

in the summer i strictly run and ride. winter i spend all my time in the gym. if you take biking as a leisurely thing to do than you might not be doing the same amount of work as you do in the gym. this summer i have kept the weight off but im riding with guys that look like elves with tree trunks for legs. so i am always working very hard to the point of failure like i would in the gym. i would be willing to bet if you took the gym as a leisurely experience like some of my friends, you might ask the opposite of your question.

MRT2

Point taken. I wouldn't say I am biking at a leisurely pace, but I get it. When riding for distance and 3 or more hours in the saddle, I can't go at an intensity I would for 45 minutes at the gym. This summer, I worked on my endurance. Perhaps next spring, I will focus a bit more on speed and intensity, perhaps hanging with the faster riders on club rides, and not so much on time in the saddle and distance and merely finishing long rides.

BaseGuy

+1. I lost 75 pounds the same way.

Just as a footnote - my riding is not socializing, but a pretty intense workout, especially with the hills that I have around here (TN). I've done a couple of spinning classes with my wife that are great, but from a heart-rate and intensity standpoint, they are probably a bit easier than my bike rides.