By that logic I need a 15 pound bike... my road bikes are both 21.

Consider yourself lucky, I need a 12.5lb bicycle WITH pedals.. -_-

Either the bike goes on a diet, or I drive to BK

I will never weigh enough to rate those tanks I ride...

Where are all these fat cyclists racing? I need to go race there. I don't know any fat racers...at all.

I tend to agree, although it does depend on how active a rider has been before starting that 2-1/2 hour ride. If they work a physical job -- as I do -- then taking in some calories before or during a ride of that length is more advisable than not. But someone jumping on the bike after working a day at the desk and having had a reasonable lunch should be able to ride that 2-1/2 hours without the need for much else based on the calories readily available in the liver and the muscles.

I have yet to see any top-level cycling athlete take in much more than a few sips of water with possibly some dissolved energy powder on a one-hour TT during a grand tour. And this after at least 30 minutes of warm-up on the rollers at the start. They simple don't have time nor need despite going at a high energy output to the point of exhaustion at the finish. I don't think many or any poster here would ride like that.

As to the OP's question... people are entitled, in free countries, to do as they wish. Yes, there are huge misunderstandings out there about weight loss, probably the most outstanding being the simple calories in/calories out equation. But give the big ones a bit of credit, that they are out there trying and improving their fitness levels, when so many aren't.

They aren't racing. All that matters is looking fast, that's where carbon aero swag comes in.

I'm a member of the the fat acceptance movement. All of you are engaging in activity that is counterproductive to our organization's intentions.

But don't foget they need a little [or big] something before the ride for energy and a big meal after because they deserve it. NOW count up the cal's.

I think in addition to the misunderstandings, is that cycling (and swimming) simply allow you to go too easily if you choose to.

Going at hard efforts is painful and potentially injurious (but pretty hard to do so on nonimpact cycling), but increases your baseline metabolism by the adaptations required to ride at those hard levels. More muscle, more capillaries, more efficiency, etc. Riding easy all the time might burn similar calories if you cover simiilar distance but it won't bring you those baseline metabolic increases anywhere near as much as if you went hard for the same distance.

Running since it's weight bearing, seems to automatically push you into at least that baseline metabolism increasing effort. It's why running can be so painful to a new person, but also why it's pretty unusual for any decent runner to be even mildly fatty - the fat tends to fly off with running with the baseline metabolic changes in the legs. It's not because of the megamiles run - cyclists routinely put in more calories burned than runners of similar ability, but the impact per stride is so high in running that even leisurely runs cause a significant baseline metabolic acceleration. (I run sub-6 minute mile 5ks, but I train at 9min/mile, and it still improves me. I'd never improve on a bike with that sort of a pace gap.)

So we start off with 1600 kcals of glycogen in the tank:



How long those calories last is a function of the intensity of the ride. At my plodding speed I could go all day on that much.

Which leads to the real reason some of us are fluffy:



These are excerpts for Chris Carmichaels book.

Link to peer reviewed research please.

The impact that you mention, I can understand. In a way, running is much more of an all-body exercise because of the arm and leg movement, but also because of the need for the muscles to continually support the skeleton as it moves up and down and sideways. These are movements that don't happen as much on a bike.

The more important bit, to me, is in the second half about the caloric overcompensation.

You dont' need the research. One is weight bearing, one is not. Thus at a leisurely pace, one of them will give you an obviously higher stress load to the muscles than the other. (The target group we're discussing isn't racers, it's recreational easy-riding or easy-running folks.)


You wouldn't fund research like this since it's too inherently obvious due to the weight bearing vs nonweightbearing aspect.

You don’t have any and there isn’t any, got it.

You wouldn’t fund this because the confounding variables are myriad and terms like easy-riding and leisurely are meaningless.

I’ve been in ultras with fatties and pros. I’ve been in crits with fatties and pro-looking guys. You can be slim or not slim in any sport.

Women who are PHAT can, and should ride bikes. Right in front of me............





just sayin..............

Because they eat too much. Period. End of discussion.

bad emoticon, encouraging further consumption and fatness.

Where's the MeanerBeaner when you need him?

Then you're not a runner,,because runners NEVER call themselves "joggers"and running does build back muscle loss,that's why I do each every other day,,,,no coasting on a run!

Just out of interest, can you dredge up a picture for me of a fat endurance athlete who has won a gold medal at the Olympic Games?

Basically a few key points:

1) Many people take up cycling to lose weight. Hence they are already fat before they begin
2) Like many have posted, cycling makes you feel very very hungry as it's a calory consuming activity. Most eat more than they consume without realising. A plate of pasta has more calories than a 2 hour ride at moderate pace. The coke you take after your ride has more calories than a 1 1/2 hour ride at slow pace..... you get it.
3) Pro cyclist ride so much than they can't physically eat more than they burn.....a 5 hour ride at slow/ moderate pace burns more calories than you can eat at a buffet....

No, I wouldn't fund this because it's so obvious that one is weight bearing and one is not that all your 'myriad confounding variables' don't even matter.

The recovery cost of running so well known that every triathlon coach warns all their athletes, novice or pro, to be CAREFUL during the run. It's weight bearing, and it's hammering.

Pro marathoners race only ONE 2hrish marathon every 4 months (if not 6 months) because of the recovery cost. Compare to TdF riders who will ride 6hrs nearly every day for weeks.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23368821

No, why are you asking me?