Mark Stone

I read through the answers - and I agree. 😊. Yes, a person can lose weight with riding alone - but that would take a lot of riding! It's best to lose weight with the combination of exercise and diet, with the emphasis on diet. I would add that an even better idea is to eat/ride for health and weight loss comes as a by-product.

MinnMan

As with everything, YMMV, but one of the reasons that I lose weight through cycling (or maintain a good weight) is that regular strenuous exercise improves my physical and mental health and makes me less prone to seeking comfort through food.

The biggest mistake, mentioned here repeatedly, is thinking that because you're going on long bicycle rides, you can eat whatever and as much as you want. You can't. If you want to lose weight, you must take care with your intake.

With that said, 1-2 hour rides/day aren't going to make much of a dent. It's when I'm regularly doing 3-6 hour rides that the weight comes off.

BTW, you can do 1-2 hour rides on an empty stomach, but even for a weight loss regimen, you'll need to eat well prior to long rides. And during.

Phil_gretz

If you want to lose weight, start by eating like someone who cares about the result. Healthy simple foods. Small portions. Limit or eliminate sugars. Then begin to raise activity levels accordingly. Walking can do almost as much as cycling, if you are beginning as a sedentary individual. Add resistance workouts - using your own body weight.

The bicycle is not the problem. Your habits are.

Milton Keynes

What a lot of other people have already said, change your diet in order to lose weight. Ride the bike for exercise. Yes, you'll be burning more calories by riding, but if you're eating a bad diet which is keeping your weight up, you won't be able to ride enough to burn it all off. So, in short, diet to lose weight, exercise to maintain health.

Milton Keynes

But that mainly depends on the diet. If you're eating 2,000 calories a day, sure, you'll lose weight. If you're eating something like 6,000 calories a day, riding will only slow your weight gain.

PeteHski

Bike riding can HELP to reduce weight. But not without paying attention to your diet.

Mark Stone

I completely agree. The rest of my post stated just that. 😊

MinnMan

I don't agree with the comments that diet alone controls weight and bike riding is for health, but not weight loss. Regular aerobic exercise is definitely an important component of weight management and loss. It's not magical and it doesn' work without intake control, but the bike riding (or equivalent) unquestionably can contribute to weight loss.

Milton Keynes

But what I find amazing is the number of people who don't understand that. So many people seem to think that exercise is only for weight loss, which is why you hear things like, "Why does she bother going to the gym every day? She's already so skinny."

Milton Keynes

I don't mean to imply that exercise doesn't help with maintaining your weight, but it's not the ONLY thing that someone wanting to lose weight should focus on. Your last sentence is what my point is all about. Yes, moving around more helps burn calories, but like you say it doesn't work for weight loss without intake control. Exercise helps unless you fall into the trap of "I walked around the block yesterday so I can eat this donut today," that is, eating back the calories you burned, and then some.

So the bottom line is, focus on your eating habits in order to lose weight, and focus on exercise in order to maintain your health. Any extra calories you burn from exercise is just a bonus, and the muscle you gain will also help you to burn more calories.

Mark Stone

That's true. Exercise plays a part, for sure, but it's never the only thing - unless a person is a Tour de France level rider. I think it's probably better to concentrate on health (which would include exercise and eating correctly), and then weight takes care of itself -- at least in most cases.

Phil_gretz

Exercise is not the first thing. Healthy eating is the very very first thing when moving toward a healthy lifestyle that includes weight appropriate to frame and body type. Activity is high on the list, but I'd say that emotional and spiritual health are equally of greater importance because they drive habits.

MinnMan

Although we are agreeing in essence, it is your messaging with which I disagree. The way you write that EXCLUDES the role of exercise in weight loss and weight maintenance, and IMHO that is the neither true nor the a correct message. Why write it in such absolutist terms? Why not "focus on your eating habits and if you do, exercise can also help you lose weight"

Milton Keynes

Well, I don't disagree with that. I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that weight loss is ~80% diet and 20% exercise. Focus on your diet and don't forget to exercise, but realize that diet is the larger portion of weight loss. So many people don't realize that exercise won't really help if you're eating Big Macs and donuts every day, so getting a handle on what you eat will change the effect that exercise has.

vane171

Last week, two mountain climbers got stranded on Baruntse at ~7000 meters above sea level shortly after starting descent and due to bad weather, had to camp for some five days with very little food. They were losing 1Kg, ~2 lbs a day. And that was just laying about in a tiny tent without any exercise beyond getting out several times a day to move snow off the tent.

Somebody should start organizing slimming tours up there.

It very much supports that about the weight gain being due to intake

EliasGoodman

I know all that, but every step we need to take seriously to get the best results.

EliasGoodman

Thank you for your positive comments. In my opinion, every step is important and we need to do it step by step and need accuracy, the efficiency will be very high.

terrymorse 

You don’t have to be a pro cyclist to burn a whole lot of calories. I ride just for fun, and I have to worry about getting enough to eat.

My GARMIN says I burn close to 10,000 calories per week. That’s based on power meter values.

livedarklions

I don't think you can put numbers on that like you do. People vary so much in metabolism and their propensity to store fat that the ratio is going to vary wildly from person to person. TBH, most advice like this is largely worthless. I've lost and kept off about 145 pounds a few years ago, the last 45 or so while exercising a lot and eating quite a bit more. I don't recommend that to other people because I have no idea whether they could sustain the level of activity or even if it would be good for them if they did. I only know what works for me.

livedarklions

Moving snow and maintaining body heat in the cold is going to burn quite a few calories.

Mark Stone

Absolutely correct. 😊

indyfabz

+1.

Lost 90 lbs. in 9 months way back during my senior year of college through diet change combined with aerobic exercise in the form of cycling.

More than a decade later I rode a loaded bike across the country (west to east) and then some. We usually rode about 6 days and then took one day off. Averaged probably 60 miles/day. Believe it or not, I actually started to put on weight after we got out of the mountains/real hills at Cut Bank, MT. Why? because I was still eating like we were riding in the mountainous/hilly terrain. Portion sizes at second breakfasts became larger. Due to various circumstances, we ate out a more often. Food choices in the Midwest were not often the healthiest. I remember eating out at a place near our hostel in Lake Itasca State Park because there was no grocery source within practical riding distance. It was all you could eat fish night. Sounded healthy until the fish was brought out and we discovered it was deep fried and loaded into baskets with greasy paper towels at the bottom. Stayed in a senior center in a small IA town so we could take advantage of air conditioning. No grocery store anywhere near. The only dinner restaurant in town had a salad bar which consisted of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, onions and things like potato salad and macaroni salad slathered in mayo.

Finally had to slap myself in the face and check my eating. Lost the weight I had put on thanks to the hills of NY and New England.

BikingViking793 

and it’s really important to count calories. Some foods are sneakily bad for you. Ride regularly and use an app like myfitnesspal to track calories.

Milton Keynes

MFP is a good tool to use. But personally I'd ignore the calorie allowance it gives you from exercise. You don't want to eat back the calories you burned.

AdkMtnMonster

Wow- that’s amazing. Even more exciting than the first time in post #28.