FrenchFit 

Cycling is more a stepping stone to fitness than the s o l u t i o n. But it's a great stepping stone. Running might be a next step, but if you look at long distance runners many of them have poor muscle tone and carry a bunch of extra weight. I don't think there is any way to get around the comprehensive approach: nutrition, exercise, sleep, mindset, discipline, etc., etc.

MRT2

Great discussion. This is exactly what I had in Mind when I started this thread.

Something I would add is the dreaded off season. It has happened more than once to me. I work hard to gain fitness and lose a little weight, than give it all back in the off season. For those of us who live in the Northeast, the Midwest, or some other place with long cold winters, going into the off season with a plan is key. You can't go from riding 100 to 150 Miles/week to no exercise and not expect some weight gain. The plan could be tracking calories, working out on a trainer, spinning classes, or some other regular gym regime.

Livedb

I think all the comments are spot on. Calories in vs Calories out is the key. Switch up things when you stall.

I found biking again just after I started my diet and life change in May 2013. I went from 260 to 175 in 11 months. Made goal one year and one day early.

I credit the bike with keeping me excited about doing some exercise every day. I crave it. I need it. Easy, hard, slow fast, i need it.
I go to the gym and lift, I have a treadmill, I hike a lot, I play tennis, I swim.... But I love to Bike, SO i want to do it.

The bike keeps my core strong. If i eat a bit too much, ill still have that solid core.

I the winter, I biked on the road and trails as much as I could (on my 29er hard tail) but the gym became the best place to keep at it. Treadmill, Eliptical, even the horrible stationary bikes.... ug.

MyFitnessPal has been great for all my tracking.

Dave Cutter

Yes... it is very simple.... and enormously complex at the same time. We are cyclists! We exercise, we extend ourselves to become fit and healthy, we know how to suffer, we read/study about diet, .... yet we are Clyde's... and we are MANY.

I get the best results with a diet app.... and a faith-based approach towards weight loss (and about everything else).

DTSCDS

There is a difference between losing weight at first vs. losing/maintaining long term.
The equation of calories in vs calories burned is universally true. So, at first, your body is used to a daily intake of a certain number of calories in relation to the amount of 'work' you do. You reach a equilibrium. (Assuming you are not constantly gaining.)
When you suddenly add in biking (or any extra 'work') you are now burning more calories and that changes your balance. As long as you don't up the calories, you will lose weight just by adding in exercise without any diet changes. When folks start to add exercise I think they generally make--at least some--small calorie reduction.
But, you will reach a new equilibrium when you once again balance the number of calories in vs you new level of calories burned. I think that is why weight loss tends to be so dramatic at first then tapers off/plateaus.

Sullalto

Wait, we've gone a lot of posts without the obligatory mention of seeing a doctor to make sure you don't have an endocrine disorder or something that'll make it hard to lose weight/exercise/dietary deficiency/medicinal side effects/whatever.

So there it is, I feel better now.

As far as tracking calories, and calories in/out. Well. I suppose I'd lose weight faster if I didn't steadfastly insist that fresh fruits&vegetables are zero calorie(shut up, science).

But me personally, if I reduce calories too much...while I might lose weight faster, my perceived effort during exercise increases, and the times back that up. In addition, I feel bad.

I'd rather feel good and take longer to lose weight, than feel like crap and get lean a bit faster with unsustainable/depressing habits.

(That, and I love food)

Besides, I can still track my fitness improving, and that's actually more important to me than weight.

hammond9705

This is a good thread. The only thing I will add is that I think that a lot of people overestimate the number of calories they burn while riding. According to my powermeter, I typically burn about 40 cal per mile. I read threads where people talk about short rides and stopping to get a snack. That's a recipe to gain weight

daviddavieboy

Why so cynical?

if anyone insists on fresh fruits and veggies instead of stuffing their pie-hole with garbage, they WILL lost weight probably without much exercise. What do you call reducing too much? My BMR is about 2000c per day, I shoot for that. If I eat a bunch more(last night was pizza night for my family) I dont sweat it, it's not a big deal. Some fruit for b'fast and coffee, usually a salad and water for lunch and a meal for supper put me in the 2000-3000c range. I don't starve and I feel great, with my love of biking from my younger days back my motivation is back as well. Now if I could only get 'the wife' into biking again all would be great.

bbbean 

That doesn't conflict with what I said. Eat before, during, and after your rides. Just don't eat more than you burned. Have a plan.

WrightVanCleve

Cycling is a great way to loose weight but I think it all depends upon the individual.

Last year, I had trouble because I didn't have a consistent schedule to ride. Work conflicted and there were some other issues so I didn't really get to ride often and even when I did ride every day off I just wasn't loosing weight. I do 3, 12 hour shifts a week so I have plenty of days off but I may work a few days in a row and if I didn't get a ride in on those days, I yo-yo on my weight. What I lost on my day off would be back after my second 12 hour shift. That was with a modified diet for weight loss that works for my body.

One diet type also doesn't work for everyone. Increase in fruit and vegetable does work as a general blanket but for some people, cutting out meat and replacing with vegetable protein is what it takes while other people can have that baked chicken breast and not have any problems.

This year, I modified my sleep schedule so that I can get a ride in every day before work.

Even in previous years when I would try to loose weight, I couldn't loose any if I didn't work out every day. Every other day just didn't do it for me at all. Some people can do that, others can't.

Every one is different. What works well for some won't work for others. Those work out schedules in bike mags don't work for me. They are nice but they don't get me the weight loss I'm looking for and I end up frustrated because I'm just not enjoying the ride. I had to figure out a work out that worked for me. Hill rides don't work for me on weight loss. I like climbs but I just don't drop any weight when I do them. I think I may be building muscle but I can already leg press 450lb. If I rip down the bike path, I can drop the weight though. Diet is already modified.

About 11 years ago, all I did was ride because I didn't have a car(that was my last year I didn't have one and had been commuting on a bike for years before.) I could loose weight when I went for a ride but commute miles didn't net me any looses and I was eating healthy to loose weight then. The best I hit was 260lb but that was with a regular ride schedule in addition to commute all over town miles, then I fell off my bike and broke some ribs and that really put a damper on things. The rest of that year didn't get me very far and I started college. I got a car at that point and didn't get to ride that much till this year.

Know your body, what foods work for you, what exercise schedule works for you, and what kind of exercise type(hills or bike path) works for you. Everyone is different and you need to do some research on yourself sometimes to figure out what makes your body respond to get the results you desire.

RamAlaRag 

I'm chiming in due to my weight loss, I am not a clyde. I have lost about 40lbs since last year. I was only about 210 when I started my weight loss. 40 lbs later, I still have a little bit I want to lose, and I have hit the wall, the weight loss has been slow for me, and since I am in school, it makes it very slow for the 9 months out of the year when it is hard to manage your time to fit in exercise. I lost about 30 lbs in the summer. Recently, I have slowed, but am picking back up, as I am fitting in more time each day.

Anyway, cycling helped me lost weight, but it was really diet control. I cut back to about 1300 calories when I want to drop weight, and try and burn at least 1000 every other day, through exercise, which sets me up for a good amount lost each week. After I lose the weight, I up my calories until I am stagnant, and then I keep my regular exercise routine and have no issues. Since I have resumed my weight loss after the school year, I am now on the 1300 calories, more exercise routine.

Counting calories really helps. Reading labels, reading about nutrition, and understanding what you are eating and how it will help you helps.

Just my two cents.

daviddavieboy

IMO 1300c is not sustainable for an active adult. For me it sounds more like Sunday dinner

RamAlaRag 

No, it's not. On bad days, I eat a little more. The idea, at least for me, is to drop the calories for a temporary amount of time. When I want to sustain my intake and return back to normal, I pump my intake back up.

Garret

bbbean 

If you were only eating 1300 calories and burning 1000 calories, you'd be trying to run your basic functions on 300 calories a day. That's not healthy. A normal sized man neets between 1400 and 2000 calories a day just to function.

RamAlaRag 

I don't know if it is a big difference, but I am 17, so I don't know if that changes it. But I never feel bad, when I over exercise and I feel off, I eat a little more.

bbbean 

If you aren't having any ill effects from knocking out 1000 calories of exercise and only eating 1300 calories, then the odds are that you are pretty dramatically overestimating how any calories you are burning in your exercise, and dramatically underestimating the calories in your food.

If you're 17, 5'9", and 155 lbs, your Base Metabolic Rate (roughly the number of calories you would burn if you spent the day in bed) is between 1700 and 1800. If your activity level was sedentary, you'd increase your daily burn to somewhere between 2000 and 2200. Throw in 1000 calories of exercise, and your daily burn would be in the 3000+ calorie range, meaning your 1300 calories would leave you with a 1700 calorie deficit. While you could certainly do that occasionally, you couldn't sustain it very long, and the short term effect would be that your body would start storing more nutrients, not less (i.e., not a good strategy for weight loss).

FrenchFit 

Calories In / Calories Out ?

I thought that had pretty much debunked by now; ignoring insulin, hormones, metabolic rate, macro-nutrients, timing, etc. as this simplistic advice does. Do people still believe that any calorie is simply the same as any other calorie with respect to nutrition & obesity management?

bbbean 

There is a difference in pointing out the general principle and pretending that nuances don't exist. Very clearly, if you want to lose weight and be healthy, yuo have to consider more than your calorie counts. However, the principle still applies. You can eat as healthy as you want, but if you're eating more calories than you are expending, you will not lose weight.

daviddavieboy

Please enlighten me because when I do watch my calorie intake and expenditure I loose weight. Are you saying that if a person eats 2000c of healthy food and then exercises and burns 500c plus 2000c just for base daily calorie use they GAIN weight??

CommuteCommando

I agree that while "Calories in/Calories out" is true in principle, it is an over simplification. Quality matters, and maintaining a reasonable amount of calories in is easier if they are consumed in the proper balance of good quality food. If you try to get 2000 Cal daily by eating only at McDonalds, you will still feel hungry.

daviddavieboy

I agree and it really boggles my mind to think that some people cannot get this simple truth through their heads. You cannot eat garbage and expect to be healthy.

RamAlaRag 

Maybe I am underestimating sometimes. And the 1000c burn isn't everyday, so I can rest. I might adjust my diet, and make sure I am taking in what I think. But, so far it has worked very well for these last 12 months. I'll definitely double check though. I'm not saying my way is right, and I am new to training and dieting so I always accept and appreciate comments.

FrenchFit 

No, I am not the person to give specific advice, it's just not my dealie. But I am sure it's obvious to you that 2000 calorie of McDonalds, pork rinds and Pepsi is going to leave you looking and feeling a lot different than 2000 calories of healthy foods, timed and balanced for your metabolism and activities, and I suspect you will find unintentional fat storage gets replaced by insulin tolerance and sustainable energy if you eat well. I am not saying calories don't matter, but just calorie counting is misleading.

MRT2

At the very least, 2000 calories of healthy food likely will leave you feeling much fuller than a single 2000 calorie McDonald's binge. That said, I am the last guy to criticize people who eat fast food. I eat more than I should.

Sullalto

Eating healthy IS pretty damn important though.

Princeton University - A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain