superstar4410

Well I'm thinking of taking a break from cycling so I can gain some weight. Its not that I dont like it, I loveeeee it. I'm in good health, but I've have been like a cycling fool and I have always been pretty skinny my whole life. Put to together with the weight lifting that I do, I'm like 4-6% body fat. Is there a way for me to take a break from cycling but still be able to not loose alot of my cardio when I am ready to go back. For example running, but running is a bad example because running will get you real skinny, and my goal is to start to gain some weight while doing something that keeps my cardio up.

atbman

Are you crazy? Give up weight lifting - muscle growth is an illusion, it just shrinks your head

slvoid

Take a little more protein, continue weight lifting and riding and most importantly, get more water and sleep. Your body can't grow if you don't give it time to rest.

surfncycling

This is among the worst complaints I've ever heard. If you're 4-6% BF without trying 1st off you're so lucky you don't even know. 2nd, if you're lifting stopping is going to make you lose weight faster than anything else (muscle weighs quite a bit more than fat). 3rd, No, you can't sit on your ass getting fat and expect to keep cardio fitness.

Basically youre only option is to keep cycling, start lifting alot more to build muscle, and start eating absolutely massive quantities of food.

superstar4410

I taught about that in the past but I dont want to loose my muscle definition. In college I did some personal body building, I still workout now, but just once a week.
Muscle growth an illusion? check this out,
https://www.deviantart.com/deviation/11802334/
Its an artistic piece I did of myself after I had a workout, so my muscles were really swollen and inflated thats why I look so big in that picture. It dosen't really show how skinny I am. My real skinny areas are really my legs. I have that Californian body building shape, (you know the skinny legs) but they do just find cycling though.

Maybe I should give up lifting, but I mean, I have been lifting for longer than I have been cycling. At the current moment I probably love cycling more than I love lifting, but I dont know, give up lifting, ummh.....




[EDIT]

I must have missed the two previous post while I was posting.
Thanks for the clarification

Without even trying? oh now I got there by really following a structured workout plan.
Well I guess the lifting was more about building muscle mass and definition not
really loosing fat since I never really had much. I would probably
be like 8-12% body fat if I didnt workout ever. My goal was never
really a target body fat percentage but just a certian muscular apperance.

[/EDIT]

nycm'er

You want body fat? Why? You want some of mine?

Wait, is this a ploy to land chicks?

slvoid

Chick ploy chick ploy!

forum*rider

You want to lift, cycle, eat lots of(healthy) food and take protein.

Remember, you want muscle not fat right?

Unless you do want fat. I recommend eating foods fried in lard atleast 6 times a day and not exercising at all. I gaurantee weight gain

edit: I meant "You want to lift" not "You want to life"

superstar4410

More body fat, yess. Not necessarily a certian weight but yea more body fat. This is kinda personal but since you asked, it would be nice to have a full glutius-maxius, or at least just not have to feel my ribs when i touch my side. I mean I dont hate my body, yea its nice but it wouldn't mind not being so skinny. I mean its kinda hard to add more muscle to cover up my skinny areas because well I'm just going to get leaner and leaner and I dont really want to gain any more muscle, just mantain what I had. My days of intense lifting is over, I'm in the mantianing phase, (lifting once a week) so I keep in physical shape as well as cardio wise(cycling).

A ploy to get girls, Lollll. Let me think, no. How many really hot cycling females do you know? From what I have seen alot of the ladies that get into cycling do it to loose weight. Plus it seems like there aren't a whole lot of females my age (23) that do alot of cycling, its mostly older women (at least around here). Plus how lame would that be, posting a thread like this to advertise myself. But that was funny though, your comment. Strangely enough, I never really had much luck with the ladies, well yea I did, in terms of having friends, but not in terms of intimate relationships (not talking about sex). It wasn't like I walked around you know showing everyone how muscular I was. I would say most people around me actually dont know how muscular I am because I dont really show it. except when its really hot outside and I ride without my shirt.

But yea, nope not a ploy to get the ladies. The way I see it when the time is right God will provide so I dont even really stress about that issue.



[EDIT]
Eat what?? I'm not trying to get a heart attack. I do eat very healthy, really got into that because of lifting, any powerlifter will tell you that working out is like >60% nutrition. So yea lifting got me eating healthy and it has become a life style. So all that fat would just clog my arteries. Gain muscle? noo, fat, healthy fat. There are such things as good/healthy fats.

[/EDIT]




[EDIT]
I guess the awkwardness of this thread as I see it really is due to the fact that the issue that I'm dealing with isn't something that many others face. We live in a nation where it seems that everyone is getting fat. And everyone is trying to loose weight. So when someone comes along talking about how skinny they are, everyone is like what are you talking about, I wish I was like you. I'm not saying I wish I had a fat problem opposed to a skinny problem, definitely not. But I guess its hard for many to empathize with my situation due to the fact that it isn't something they might have experienced before.
Dont get me wrong, I'm not crying about having 4-6% body fat and having lots of muscules. I think as humans we can all understand that it seems that each person no matter how they are seems to want to change something about themselves, and thats just what is on my list. Maybe I should just be satisfy with the way I am, or than again, lollL maybe theres a way for me to gain some weight but yet not wreak my cardio, who knows.

forum*rider

Hmmm, this is hard. I'm usually trying to lose what fat I have. I am happy at what I'm at currently(5%).

So keep cardio without cardio exercise...

Pretty much any cardio exercise is going to burn fat. I can't think of anything except to eat more fat. Don't trim the steak as well, eat the fat on the chicken(once in awhile, don't go buying chickens just for fried fat), etc.

slvoid

Heh you should've been on the group ride we had on sunday, we spotted a bunch of hot chicks on road bikes.

superstar4410

Why didn't you call me up? I taught we were boys, loLLLL,

forum*rider

man, I never see any hot chicks when I'm riding.

Atleast not any hot chicks on bikes...

lol, funny story

I was riding on Sunday and this girl leans out of her window and yells "Nice a--!" while I'm at a stoplight. I'm thinking "Nice a--? me? Wow!"

Today I was telling my friend Mandy that some girl told me I had a nice a-- while I was riding. She started giggling and I asked her what was so funny. She whispered something but I didn't hear it so I leaned in and asked her to say it again. This time I caught it. she said "It was me"

Girls can be so cruel

superstar4410

haven't had that happened to me. Only thing I get sometimes are some cars that pass by and blow their horns right as they are passing me. I dont know if they know me and are trying to say hi or trying to make me fall off my bike, any who- it annoys the h*LL out of me. OOhhhh whats even worst this scares me, is when I'm riding, in the zone focused, pedaling and doing my thing, and this car passes by and theres a dog and the window is down and the dog just starts barking really loud as it passes, it just startles me, one time I almost lost control of my bike because I was taken by such surprise.

forum*rider

lol I hate the honking horn thing, dogs don't bother me as much.

Anyway...

We have to help you get fat so back on topic

Anyone have any ideas? All I could think of was eat more fat and exercise less. But then there goes you're cardio.

Ya know what? I don't think it's possible.

oldspark

Don't stop cycling just start eating more, you eat more calories then you burn the weight will come back slowly which is what you want any way and the cardio is still there.

nycm'er

I wasn't implying you would meet chicks here, I am sure there are some lovelies, though. Two questions,
one, if God is going to provide you with a lady someday, won't God provide you with your lumpy a$$ too?
Question two. No hot cycle chicks where you live? Then MOVE. Go sit on the Williamsburg Bridge (New York City) bike path, (or ride anywhere in The Haight in San Francisco) rush hour is best, and WHO is riding on that bridge will show you WHERE you need to move to.
You want to be attractive? Be yourself; fat or skinny, most people can see right through the good or bad of the package.

Sorry ladies, but, really I had to counter such a misguided post.

slvoid

Actually the bonus at the Williamsburg bridge is that you can catch them when their bikes hit the expansion plates and they fly off.

djbrod

I just got my ribs back! You'll miss them when they're gone, trust me.

iamlucky13

I'm also trying to gain weight. Unfortunately, I'm so busy I seldom have time to stick to my plans for more than a couple days a month. I did start to see some results last summer after classes got out. I got into a cycle for a month of lifting 3 times a week, having at least one soccer practice and one soccer game, and squeezing in bike rides when it was convenient. Soccer doesn't do much for the upper body, but it sure builds the legs and butt. I think the riding was good because it works a slightly different set of muscles. I also try to watch what I eat. By watch I mean fill up on protein and carbs and snack on carbs between meals, while still rounding out the 5 food groups. Of course, I wasn't very scientific about it and I have no idea what by body fat sits at, but I picked up about 5 pounds in that month. Then school started again and I lost those 5 pounds in about a month.

operator

Loose is what you do with arrows, lose is what happens when you get the line "how do you like them apples".

superstar4410

Its not about being attractive to others. I'm doing it for myself not others. Its not about being attractive to myself either. Its just about feeling a certian way, and by feeling I dont mean emotional. This is not a, "I want to look this way to get girls post". The whole idea about females being added into this equation was based on someone else's comment.


Yea God can provide all things,
Lumpy??? who wants a lumpy a**.


My partner dosen't have to be a female that cycles.



[EDIT]
In closing, this is what I'm going to do.


Keep cycling but only say once a week, not 2-3 like now. Keep lifting and trying to up my
protien and make some muscle gains. Slowly increase caloric intake nothing too intense.
I already snack alot now but I'll try to do that a bit more, and I'll try to consume more water. The doctor
told me that I needed to drink more water from the results of my blood test last year. And finally I'll try not to really think too much about being a bit skinny and consider it a blessing. Thanks for all the feedback from those who contributed their opinions and perspectives. Time to get back to work, soo much paper work I have to do here.

pj7

Take it from a fat man (me). Don't look a gift horse in the mouth man, please!!
You can't control how much fat you add to your body. It'll be a vicious cycle of gaining too much, then working hard to get it down to what you want, to gaining to much, etc... etc.. etc. And in the long run it really sucks.
When I was younger I was built pretty well, played Hurling 3 hours a day 5 days a week and looking back at myself then, had an excellant body and fitness regime. Then I got caught up in life. Drove instead of walked, ate, ate, and ate some more. Worked 80+ hrs a week, and now I'm over 300lbs and I never even saw it happen. One day I saw a photo of me and my nephew and realized just how farking large I was, and I damn near broke down a cried.
Don't do it man, please don't, you'll hate yourself in the future.
Add some more muscle in the areas you think are to small. Check this out:
https://www.exrx.net/Lists/WtMale.html
Just click on a body part and it'll show you several ways of adding muscle there.
Be happy with what you have, because the older you get, the harder it is to keep your body in shape, and if you purposely let yourself go now, even just a little, you'll be killing yourself down the road.

jeff-o

If you wipe it on a piece of paper, and the paper turns clear, it's your window to weight gain!

roadfix

Do you have a nice comfortable couch and do you like football?