Krispy

Due to a bike related injury in November, long work hours, and crappy weather I was off my bike a whole lot more than I wanted during the winter. When I was able to start riding again I was 45 lbs over weight. I’ve been gradually loosing the weight but still need to loose 25 to 30 lbs. As I’ve been buying and gathering my gear to do some touring I’ve estimated that the weight of my gear will be 30 lbs including racks and panniers. So I’m really already carrying the load that I will be carrying while on a loaded tour. Rather than the weight being in my panniers it is now being carried (temporarily) on my body.

Some of the books covering the subject of long distance touring suggest concentrating on increasing your weekly mileage and not adding any weight until about 2 weeks before your tour. If I’m already carrying the weight it doesn’t make much sense to me to loose it and then add it back shortly before a tour. It seems more logical to me that as I loose a pound of body weight I could add a pound of gear to my panniers as I continue to increase my weekly mileage? Anyone see any reason this shouldn’t work?

Guest

If I were you, I'd spend some time just working on stamina and making sure you can do the mileage you want to do first. Then ease in all your gear at once- it may make your mileage slip a bit, but as you rebuild your stamina with the books, I'm sure your body will adapt and you'll end up being better off for it.

I say bunk it all and ride with all your gear, once you've built up your endurance and you've built up to where you are getting in a decent amount of mileage in every week consistently.

Koffee

Leon

How about the opposite? I'm too skinny (about 140-145 pounds), about to embark on a three month tour at the end of April and starting to get a bit concerned about burning off muscle on long days. I stopped training about a week ago (figure I'll get all the training I need once I start) and hoped that I could try and add a bit of weight by eating a lot before I sleep. Should I be concerned about my lack of weight?

So far it's not working. I eat quite healthy and haven't seen any pound increase. Has anyone got any suggestions? (sorry to jump in mid-thread Krispy, thought you may have some ideas?)

Krispy

Leon,

You should feel fortunate you are not overweight. But if you really want to gain weight I'd highly recommend Donuts!

Take it from one who knows from experience. Just eat 4 a day and I guarantee you will gain weight. Of course with all the wrong kinds of fat and other unhealthy things you may clog your arteries.

They don't call me Krispy for nuthin'!

RWTD

Leon You likely have a fast metabolism making gaining and retaining muscle difficult.Cutting back on aerobics does help in this regard but if you just increase the calories without any exercise you will eventually put on fat not a good idea.To add muscle you need to increase the calories while doing anaerobic exercise such as weight training or sprinting.
On your tour(or other times of high aerobics) to minimize muscle loss you need to eat plenty at that time focusing on enough complex carbs not to let your glycogen stores get depleted.

Leon

Hey Thanks for the advice guys. I've checked out a few websites on what to eat and will try it out.
Cheers
Leon