Trsnrtr

I started riding in 1982 at age 31 and 170#.

I began racing in 1982 and became a Cat 2 by 1987 and weighed 145#.

I 'retired' at the end of the 1991 season at age 40 and promptly went to 190# over the next two years.

By 2003, I weighed 242# and was still riding over 5,000 miles per year.

I retired from work in 2005 and immediately dropped to 210#.

Fast forward to 2008 and I weigh 178#.

In my case, job stress piled on pounds. I lived for lunch hours and buffets to forget my work. It also helps that since retiring, I upped my mileage to 8,000+ miles per year, mow two 1/2 acre lots by hand about 40x per year, and have a part-time job that involves a lot of walking.

aham23

amen.

later.

shundaroni

Contrary to the expert testimony here, I went from 210 to 165 in less than a three month period doing no more than 25 minutes of exercise per day. Of course, the key was intensity. On the stationary bike, for instance, I'd alternate between 1 minute of 90+% effort and 1 minute of 60% cooldown. Rinse and repeat for a total of 15-20 minutes. HIIT for the win.

Cut out the simple sugars and unnecessary fats, and the excess melted off.

Then I met my girlfriend, fell off track, ate more than half of my meals at restaurants, and over the period of two years I went back up to 190. Now that I've started biking, I've already lost over an inch around my waist, but I haven't weighed myself in a long time.

Any activity is better than none. Add in a smart diet and you're set. There are no concrete rules for weight loss beyond "create a caloric deficit." And even then, what you need to achieve that may differ dramatically from me and everyone else.

aham23

absolutely correct. the problem with most people struggling to lose pounds is they never seem to understand BOTH aspects. later.

DataJunkie

Very true. I lost a fair amount of weight eating junk and riding quite a bit. The unfortunate side effect was that I disregarded the nutrition aspect and plateaued. Now I am trimming off the rest of my weight eating a good diet. It is working much better.

patentcad

Actually there is no such thing as 'Expert Testimony' on BF.

JohnKScott

Hmmm...

I've put in 151 hours since January. That is an average of 21.5 hours a month or roughly 43 minutes a day. I've lost 20 pounds (about 45 lbs in the last year) in that time and gotten in much better shape than most people I am surrounded by each day. Even younger/thinner people . I also watched my calorie intake vs calorie burn. I really didn't do a whole lot special dietwise other than just making a few smarter choices. I still eat what I want and will have desserts etc. Just not quite as much or as often .

Now, a lot of my 40-60 minutes workouts were quite intense (time trial effort, intervals of various lengths, etc.) which tended to burn more calories in the 40 - 60 minutes than an easy 15mph ride on flat ground. And some of my rides (usually one a week) were of the 2-4 hour (some even longer) variety.

I would say 40-45 minutes a day average can make a significant difference. I wouldn't discourage anyone to do that if that is what they have time for.

thirtyminbreak

bump until i die

Naterider

I lost over 40lbs. Have kept it off.

grahny

Was at 245 when I started cycling again 7yrs ago. Lost 50lbs in 6 months from cycling/diet changes at the time... lowest I got was 180 two yrs ago, which is pretty close to ideal for my build. Am floating around 190-195 now... working to lose another 10 or so before the fall.

umd

Ok, obviously it is possible for people to lose weight without any exercise at all. It was not my intent to say that you must exercise at least an hour per day. But as a response to someone wondering "gee, I ride all the time, why am I not losing weight", I think it is reasonable to point out that an average of 10 miles per day is not very much.

ehidle

Plus, if you go out for those 10 miles, and then figure you can go out and have an extra slice of pizza, that's not going to work too well, either. That used to be my failure mode. In little league baseball, I used to eat an entire box of Kraft Spaghetti Dinner before each game, figuring I needed the calories (all 1000 of them)...

I played Catcher...

DataJunkie

No offense intended but your last line resulted in me spitting water all over my screen.

I think your downfall is fairly common. I had the same issue and thought that riding 9000 miles in a year I could eat anything I wanted. Hence the fact that I gained fat while riding a ton. Anyhow, a good diet is important if you do not exercise and even more so when you do exercise. At least that is my humble opinion.

ehidle

Har har very funny... I played the guy who expended the least amount of energy of all the players.

Sheesh!

BILL_W_WV

Do not have any pictures. Lost about 20-25 lbs, from 194 lbs to 171 lbs from April 07 to Sept. 07. My frame is small, 5'-11" with my new target is 160 lbs with a 32" waist - got about 4 lbs of gut. Modified my diet a bit, now eat breakfast & a lighter dinner most of the time. Average about 120 miles a week from April to October. Gained about 5 lbs over this past winter, but I am back down to 167-170 lb(currently 168 lbs).

Was more of a runner but had some back challenges. My back situation is not nearly as bad as PCAD's, doctors suggested I put off surgery as long as possible & do physical therapy - burning in my feet. My blood pressure went from 145/90(too much salt in my diet/extra weight/not active enough) with 70's pulse to 125-115 over 83-75 with pulse range 55-65(low of 51). Exercising while maintaining 60%-80% max heart is best way to burn fat. A few friends & co-workers thought I was sick. Good Luck in your weight loss & maintain a safe heart rate/blood pressure.

MrCrassic 

I think the 'eat what you want, but ride it off' mentality works for younger riders like me that have a really fast metabolism. Regardless, I try not to do that. I've started cooking my own food now, and now that I learned the pizza recipe from THE BEST, I might even make my own pizza and make it a bit healthier.

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DataJunkie

True but unfortunately as you age that mentality sticks with you until your mirror starts looking like something from a fun house. Not the skinny fun mirror.

MrCrassic 

That's why I started dieting now instead of waiting til later to do it. Though it came naturally for me.

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goaliedb

Before - 220 pounds



After and current- 168 pounds

ehidle

^^^^
Damn you look like one pi**ed off individual..

Congrats though...

Isn't that an odd place to keep your Coors Light?

FatguyRacer

I've been to Columbus. I'd be pissed too.

Congrats on the weight loss, Awesome job!

Here's the best I do so far. Not many action photogs on my training routes.

230 lbs +/-



198 lbs

goaliedb

I'm really not!

The before pic was more out of misery. I had just been diagnosed with Crohn's, and life was very miserable at the time

goaliedb

That's what living in the Buckeye nation will do to you

umd

I may as well add my story on this thread since I've already jumped in on it. I've gained and lost weight at various times through and related to cycling. Was as high as 155-160 at the end of college, did bike commuting on a mountain bike on and off for a few years and when I started on the road was about 145. After a year I bottomed out around 115. Yes, I was anorexic. My body fought back and I started binging and shot back up to 155-160 very quickly (took about 3 months). I still had a small frame but my face, neck and torso got very chubby. I have a few pictures around somewhere but generally stayed away from the camera. I lost a lot of muscle when I lost all that weight and when I put it all back on it was mostly fat. Over the next year or so my weight was fairly stable around 145-150 but I managed to lose a lot of the fat and regain a fair amount of muscle. In the last 3-4 months I've been trimming out and am generally in the 138-142 range currently. Here is a picture of me yesterday. I'll try to find pictures at my lowest and highest.

ehidle

I have been as low as 165, but at that point, people start accusing me of being sick or anorexic. It's amazing what those last 5lbs can do. If I don't go below 170, I don't hear a peep out of anyone.

I'm hanging around 175 now but I do worry more than I should about gaining weight.