I am not a big fan of eat less to lose more. Unless you plan to train like Michael Phelps, I suggest eating in moderation.

Simple rules:
Calories taken in exceeds calories burned -- gain weight.
Colories taken in falls short of calories burned -- lose weight.

Big Potato, Don't get discouraged. Even if you see no results right now and don't for another six weeks you are still on the path to healthiness. Let me describe what will happen if you keep going. You will feel stronger. Your legs won't feel wobbly when you go up the stairs anymore after commuting. You will start to look for longer routes to work and start taking them. On saturdays you will take a look at you bike and think hmm wouldn't it be fun to take a ride. Foods that you used to eat routinely will become treats that you occassionally indulge. You will be more attracted to fruits and vegetables. Oh and when you stand on the scale you will notice that the numbers on it are lower than they used to be. If you look at this as just a weight loss jag you will probably be disappointed but if you see it as a lifestyle change you will be very happy.

Hey, you started this off by snarking at me for no good reason that I could see. If I was supposed to see that as "humor", I guess that either our senses of humor are incompatible, or yours is on the fritz. It's yours, so own it.

Easily, the best response in this thread. Hey, OP, read this response, then read it again. The bolded sentence is especially relevant. Good luck.

Good lord.

Bite me.

Yeah, 20 minutes of biking each way isnt a lot of calorie burning. However, its a great start. I think you need to focus on diet change. Its really difficult and I suggest cutting out the nasty foods a little bit at a time. You need to find what works for you

I weighed in at 243 before I started to try and lose weight. A few years later and I weigh around 180. I have gained a lot of muscle mass as well so ive lost a lot of fat. I still have to count calories but thats okay. The way I see it is that now know alot of about healthy diets and Ive helped a lot of other people with my knowledge.. I am also a personal trainer too.

Anyone can do it, but you have to keep yourself motivated and dont kill yourself for slipups. If you need any advice on your diet etc, feel free to throw me an email and ill help ya out (marklegear@gmail.com)

G luck!

When looking at the benefits of commuting regularly, in my experience, my body gets used to an increased distance quite easily. The result is that I get a bit of benefit (lung, leg and weight) as a result of the initial rides, but that is plateaus quite quickly. I have found that to continue to see improvement, I must continue to challenge myself. The commute is no longer adequate, and I have to add in other exercise and rides to keep seeing improvements. That's not a negative though, it just means that I'm fitter, so I require more work to challenge my body, and that I have good reason to ride more.

So, my advice is to RIDE MORE! Yaay!

Oh, and for weight loss, the only thing virtually any regular person needs to know is "calories in < calories out = weight loss". There's little point in complicating it more than that unless you're an elite athlete or working off those last 4 lbs. Just know how many calories you're taking in. A soda is often about a third refined sugar. A third. Think about pouring a third of a cup of sugar into your glass to make a cup of a drink. A serving of meat is the size of a pack of cards, not a 12oz. sirloin. Modern, western "servings" are ********. Restaurants regularly add insane amounts of butter and other fats to things where you wouldn't bother to at home.

Day two of calorie counting. Was running low on my "budget," so I went out for an 800 calorie ride, got about 1100 left for the day. Now, since it's Friday and I am on vacation for the next week, do I eat that slice of pizza, or drink those martini's**********?

1100 calories of martinis might not be a bad way to begin vacation.

The two things one has to do is not drink soda and not eat potato chips. Those suckers are just deadly for people who have regular metabolisms.

It's weird how easy it is to eat badly; it seems like there should be warnings more immanent than "my body gets fat." It's also weird how badly one can eat, if one snacks a lot or drinks sugared soda.

Weight loss & body transformation, in general requires patience & research. If you are a soda drinker you probably have some other dietary habits worth changing. Most people don't enough enough protein & eat too much carb related foods. Keep up your research & get you head around a lifestyle change rather than a quick fix diet mentality. Week by week, month by month, year by year you will improve.

For those that count calories, have you found that you eat out less often, if for no other reason than because you don't know the number of calories you have when you go out, so you can't track them as easily as you can in a "controlled environment" at home?

Yes. That and the shear number of calories you consume when eating out is insane.

Thanks for all the great advice. I guess I left out some info. The last time I got weighed I was about 220 lbs at 5'9", but haven't stepped on a scale in about 5 weeks. I just know my clothes haven't gotten any loser. I've been working in Taiwan since the beginning of February, hence way more vegetables and less meat. Colas are going to hard to kick since I've been drinking them for so long, though I could try diet cola if I can find it. I could substitute juice, I don't drink teas, and only drinking water just tastes blah to me.
I don't ride on Sat. or Sun.
I can easily lengthen my ride and will map out a few possibilities. Eating more, nor problem. Eating more of the right things, do-able but not easily. I'll keep working.
Thanks for the encouragement!

Keep it up man!! I started commuting 16 miles each way 3 days a week last summer - but my scale did not move until a 6 weeks ago when I took control of my intake. There are several great sites out there to help you with this - personally, I am using sparkpeople.com and am dropping 1-2 lbs per week. I log all my exercise and everything I eat or drink. Not on any weird diet or anything but logging everything really helps me to make good choices.

Don't be discouraged. If you're not doing an intensive program, your progress will be slow--but slow isn't always bad. Slow is still real.

On the soda--I'd see if you cant find some kind of iced tea you like. There's more out there than the garden variety liptons.

Paradise iced tea is naturally slightly sweet w/o any sweeteners

Tejava is slightly tangy and astringent and is like crack to me

Diet Arizona Green tea w/Ginseng (uses splenda -- I go for the regular stuff myself but I haven't noticed much of a taste difference so they did a good job w/the formulation)

I'm not sure what kind of food you cook at home (or is Taiwan an indefinite stay?), but olive oil > butter. As much as I love the Julia Child "throw a stick of butter in the pan" approach, it's not exactly the road to wellness. To that end, I'll shill for a couple of my favorite cookbooks, by Kleinman & LaPlace, as I think variety is helpful when trying to stay within a diet. These are not diet cookbooks, but the cuisine is (mostly) naturally healthy (avoiding the obvious exceptions) or can be adapted.

Cucina Rustica: Simple, Irresistible Recipes in the Rustic Italian Style

Cucina Fresca: Italian Food, Simply Prepared (fast meals)

VERDURA: Vegetables Italian Style

I'm leaving out the pasta book, as I assume massive carbo loads are not the order of the day.

Good luck! Just keep going, you'll get there eventually. (That applies to both weight loss and riding roadsters, btw.)

Juice is good for you, but it isn't low calorie. And some juices are better than others... you see white grape juice in a lot of blended juices because it is very sweet and has few nutrients. Natural sugar water. Apple juice is often used in the same way. Orange juice doesn't, and is not *so* bad for you.

Water with a bit of lemon or ginger can be nice. Teas can taste very different... a lot of folks like green teas even if they don't like black tea. (me, I like black...) There are also herb teas, like mint and chamomile. Try a few different things to see if something works.

Man, that is not overstating the situation in the least.

Visiting the folks, in another state, a few weeks ago, we all went out to eat at a nice Italian joint. Several of us ordered the lasagna. When the meals arrived, our eyes just about popped out of our heads. Each plate was packed so full, they must have weighed 5 lbs. Six of us could have shared two plates and still walked away full.

It really was insane to see how much food they piled on our plates. No wonder everyone is getting so darned fat.

Makes you think twice about what you order when some of the "light" menu items I've seen at some places still have over 700 calories.

Chicken Caesar salad is the way to go. Lasagna is for people under the age of 30.

Just don't fall into the "salad = healthy" mindset. Many entree-sized salads as prepared at lots of restaurants can easily be nearly 1,000 calories. Most dressings are awful for you, so get it on the side.

You could try and find a salad buffet restaurant like souper salad or sweet tomatoes.
I am a vegetarian and love those places.
However, you still need to watch how much you eat and what you put on your plate. One can still overeat.
If you do it right you can fill up on salads with small amounts of dressing and then grab a couple small items as a treat.
I refuse to eat 100% healthy. If I do not have a treat every so often the cravings grow and grow until I binge with something that is terrible for me.
Then remember the good fats.
Researching what foods are healthy can be amusing if you like that sort of thing.

+1 on eating healthy fats.

I've been on a roll lately, losing poundage like it's out of style. I credit all of it to taking in more of these healthy fats, which help keep me away from the junk food (burgers and fries from the FF joints).

These days my primary fat sources have been avacado, coconut oil and raw cacao butter. Salad dressings are always olive oil and liquid amino acid (Braggs).

Six weeks isn't a long time. In a few months, you'll develop some muscle tone, and the legs will stop hurting.

Maybe you should try going as fast as you can every other day. If you can improve your times, that will be a good thing. And if not, it will at least be amusing.

For drinks, try various types of Chinese tea which have no sugar yet are flavorful. They're pretty much calorie-free. Remember, it takes a long time to acquire a taste for a new beverage, so don't discard a flavor after just one drink. Also, try diluted fruit juice. Regular strength fruit juice has tons of sugar. Yes, it has nutrition, but the sugar is a lot. Man isn't meant to drink a ton of juice a day.

It took me about 4 years to drop from 210 to 150. I am 5'9" tall as well.

Weight loss is more sustainable if you think of it in the long term and adopt a bit of patience. At least that worked for me. I still tend to freak out when my scale jumps 5 lbs in a week but that is more of a mental thing.

When my old job went away I decided to ride my bike to the next job I'd get, that was Dec 2007. It's now been well over a year and I've lost 25 lbs since then and I'm still looking at this long term, change wise, because that is what it is.
Now because of this thread and wanting to further my nutrition education to be in better shape, I can look at those sites and others and find what will work for me in my quest for better fitness.