tjkoko

It's just that your body learns to extract more energy outta' what you eat....

60 years old and still crankin....

Best,

Cognitive

I started cycling at 54 and 230 lb on Memorial Day. By Labor Day I'm riding 10-12 miles a day and more like 15-17 on the weekends. Nothing fancy, 10 mph rides on trails riding a hybrid.

I dropped 10 lb and have not changed my eating habits at all. Call me CarbMan . I will be more than happy to be at 215 by thanksgiving and drop another 15 next year. Over a 4 year period 15 lb a year is not bad.

The winter is my threadmill and walk on diet plan. Wife is a health aficionado and accompanies me in my rides, she's same age and 130 lb. The cooking part should not be too difficult.

Today I did my first ever 20 miles and I feel I won the Tour de France. After 3 hours sleep the night before. If anyone had told me I could cycle 20 miles in two hours six months ago I would have said they're out of their mind. But here I am.

My metabolism has changed a bit, I'm not as likely to snack or forage between meals. But I eat the typical software engineer diet, lots of coffee and bad things for you...

NVanHiker

Never lost an ounce exercising no matter how hard I go at it. Diet seems to be the only way.

OldsCOOL

We are all custom units. For me, I cant fathom the thought of losing a single pound unless I am in a vigorous exercise routine.

SA_Brak

My best success with losing weight was when I started using one of the calorie counting apps. It opens your eyes to what your calorie budget is for the day/week and why exercise alone is often not enough. I also believe diets are successful when you don't limit yourself to any types of food. Dieting is not about being hungry all the time if you are smart about your food choices. You can pretty much eat all the vegetables and fruit that you want but not all the steak/mashed potatoes and fried chicken. If you have bad eating habits it will be hard to lose weight but if you are serious about it, get a calories counter and you will be successful.

Dolanarc1

Much the same with my story, I turned 58 this summer. Been battling the slower metabolism since 51 yrs.

I've actually reached a point now where I'm happy with a couple of extra pounds around the middle as long as I feel good.
Eating well is the key, As a family we all went no gluten. Not due to any allergy or anything, just for health reasons.
I lost about 2lb by doing that but the up side is I'm feeling much more energy and not hitting that sleepy time mid afternoon or after supper.

ButchA

Same here...

At 53, I am 6'0" and (was) 225 lbs. I started bike riding a lot more and got back into jogging a little bit too. There is some sort of cruel joke that gets played on everyone once they hit 50. It's like you wake up one morning and say, "Hey, what happened? Why is my hair going gray and where did this belly come from?"

I am now 218 and need to lose 18 more pounds. It is a constant struggle. I can no longer eat a "Double Whopper w/ Fries" at a fast food place, or else I'd balloon up to 250 lbs.

What bugs me is how I fit I was back when I was in the military. I was always 6'0" and 180 lbs no matter what. Being semi-retired and driving a school bus for a living is okay, but I constantly have to watch what I eat and get exercise as much as I can to fight the aging process.

MikeD1

I'm 60, my wife is 61. Over the last dozen years or so we have read and experimented with at least that many diet/food plans. At 5'10", I peaked at 193lbs in my late 40s. I'm currently at 155 or a bit less. I would like to be another 5 lower. Five years ago I made a commitment to exercise 5-7 days a week including cardio and strength. Within about a year that got me down to around 178 and significantly stronger. Getting more serious about diet and more biking/running/hiking/swimming has taken off another 23lbs. Different approaches to diet have yielded varying results. What I am pretty sure of regarding my experiences with diet in no particular order: -AVOID: processed foods, fast foods, soda especially diet soda, gluten if possible. Minimize the relatively empty carbs like potatoes and white rice. Try to eat lots of fresh veggies, as much variety as possible. We eat meats of all kinds, but probably more seafood than anything else. MORE than just weight loss, I am convinced that avoiding the stuff I mentioned just makes me feel a whole lot better. More energy, less aches and pains, more alert overall. I notice that when I totally eliminate gluten I have no congestion or nasal drip etc. Unfortunately, I'm only about 80% successful at cutting out gluten. My big downfall is beer . . . . but I'm not planning on giving that up anytime soon

Cognitive

I'm 220, down 10 lb since early June. Need to be 180 (high school / college weight ). I came to 200 lb a few years ago with walking 5 miles a day but drove me nuts. Then back to 230 slowly, like 5 lb a year. If I do serious (for me) bike rides like 15 miles a day at a very moderate 10mph I can pretty much eat a bison for lunch and stay where I am, or reduce food and lose about a pound a week, maybe two (20 mile rides on weekends). Metabolism still works OK for me.

My wife has had more trouble losing weight but she's 130 lb and comes with me on my rides. The reason we go 10mph only is because she rides a BSO, not a real bike. That will change next season when she gets a good LBS bike.

Feeling better wise, no. There are days I feel like a corpse after 15 miles due to headwinds and the like, but for the most part can't wait to get back on the trail. But my joints kind of hate it, seat bones are protesting, and so on. I have noticed that long bike rides seem to lower my appetite.

Plan is to drop to 215 by end of this season and try to stay at 215 then slowly increase speed etc for next year when wife gets a better bike. I think dropping another 15 in a year should be doable to 200 with minor diet changes (we already eat good-for-you stuff, so it's just snacking and eating outside).

From there dropping to 180 is uncharted territory. I'm mid 50's like my wife.

Srcpt

Resting heart rate of 50 BPM sounds like bradycardia territory. I would want to consult my doctor.

Rich Gibson 

What would make this a disorder when l've put in 20 miles or more on each ride for a year straight? In a ride my pulse runs around 112 BPM average for the two hours and will max out at 135. At age 72 my MHR is between 155-160.

Now that ragweed season has started everything runs about 7 BPM higher for similar exertion. I have a yearly physical and at the last one this past July I mentioned the 50 BPM and he said fantastic. He even said to stop taking Benicar my bp medication.

Rich

qcpmsame 

I have a regular RHR of around 48, doctor's all say its fine and I have a bradycardia sinus arythmia, found out in my first flight physical for the USMC in 1975. Flight surgeon told the panicking corpsman what it was and that "he's just a large man with a healthy heart". Lots of us that ride regularly have RHR in this range. Unless he feels off or has problems I doubt the doctor would object at all.

Srcpt

Or don't, it's entirely your choice.

Rich Gibson 

I flew Navy Air (light attack) beginning in 1966. What did you fly?

I appreciate your advice Srcpt, thanks. You had no way of knowing my history and expressed a genuine concern for me.

Rich

CrankyOne

Americans complicate things too much (at least compared to Europeans). Eat mostly healthy, don't pig out, lots of fiber helps you feel fuller, no between meal snacks, enjoy a good dessert everyday. U.S. folk may need a calorie app for a bit to get an idea of what healthy portions are (hint: on average we eat about 70% more than we should).

You don't need a vigorous exercise program. A few bits of moderate exercise throughout the day, like riding or walking for local neighborhood transportation will do it. Riding a mile or two to lunch (or breakfast or dinner) will also help curb your appetite (increases peptide YY).

findude

Data, data, data.

I'm down nearly 50 pounds from early May. Monitor your dietary intakes using one of the free apps (I use fatsecret--also available on the internet if you don't have a smart phone). Input 100% of everything you eat. Use an exercise monitoring app (I use runkeeper which accommodates running, biking, and walking as well as other activities) to provide simple data on how often you exercise, how fast you go, and how you are improving.

I don't think it matters what data tools you use, just use them! I'm a believer in the simple weight-loss advice of "Eat less, move more" -- it generally isn't more complicated than that, but tracking it helps a lot.

Gerryattrick

I'm 5'8" and 67. To the age of 40 I was around 147 lbs then gradually crept up to to 165lbs by the time I was 62 even though I always played a lot of sport. Took up cycling at 62 at the same time as my wife was hospitalised for 10 months with a serious illness. Within a couple of months had dropped to 150 lbs and have stuck at that weight with no change in my eating habits and my wife making a full recovery.

I don't know how much loss was down to worry and how much to cycling or to changed metabolism but I'm very happy at this weight and do not want to go back up to 165 lbs so the cycling is here to stay.

fastcarbon

Age 72, RHR at 40bpm. I was up to 230 lb. after a marginal back fusion with major nerve damage which required me to take Lyrica which unfortunately seems to add weight fast, both water and fat. After about 4 mo. with almost no exercise I was able to get back on the bike. After about 25 - 30 minutes the endorphins crank up and cut the nerve pain. Currently at 190 lb. with a weekly goal of 200 miles and 10,000 or so feet of climbing. Carbs were cut significantly but I use HEED in my bottle during rides so I don't bonk. If I get close I stop and eat a Power Bar. As I am not working it is not hard to get the time I need. I used to fight to get enough time to ride 100 mi per week and controlled weight with trail running 10 mi per week with hills. As I can no longer run weight loss is a continuous battle. My body fat scale says I am still at 20%BF but a pinch test reveals little fat. The other thing I notice is plateaus where you have to do some fasting to jump below them. The accuracy of the BF scales is questionable but I keep pushing for 12%. I don't believe really low BF is healthy if you are a codger.

icyclist 

Here's my 2 cents worth. Bike riding won't help anyone lose weight. It'll make us hungry, just enough to make us want to replace the energy you expended riding your bike. Frankly, we could lose weight just as easily by not riding at all, by cutting back on what we eat.

Of course we should ride, for a variety of reasons. But not to lose weight, because it'll make us hungrier. Either way, with or without exercising, we're going to be hungry once in a while in order to be able to lose weight. Cutting out ALL sweets helps.

I'm 5'11" and 173 pounds. I used to be 188 pounds, back in the late 90's. It took a while to knock the weight down once I decided to do it. In fact, I gained a little weight initially because I started gaining muscle mass from riding more. Even so, I managed to eat less, and bit by bit by bit, the weight came off. For some long rides with lots of hills, I've gotten down to 160 pounds a few times. I start looking gaunt, though.

oldroadog

This is what I've been reading too . Some fats are way less fattening than refined carbs. As your fitness and endurance improves so does your ability to burn fat. Personally I' m having problems practising what I'm reading. My eating habits and when I eat violates a lot of the proper diet rules. I'm 217 at 5'9". I would love to be 199 lbs. once again. I' m working on it and correcting some bad habits. It will no doubt take increased effort and diligence.

Dirt Road

I think one important aspect of dieting is to get some calories, ie a sensible snack, in between meals. It should be one that does not cause big swings in blood sugar, which make us hungrier and therefore eat more at the next meal. I've been experimenting with taking a small snack if one of my rides coincides with snack time, and it seems to be working. A small, satisfying snack after the ride, as well, helps prevent overeating at the next meal.

I haven't always been a proponent of this, of course. I used to carry things like Twinkies and Zero bars and bottles of Gatorade, just in case I had some sort of nutritional trauma on the way.