dont eat just because your bored. did wonders for me.

If you are in good shape working out hard won't do much for losing weight, it might even make it worse because it makes you so hungry. I'd keep the workouts light.

I find that cutting out the breads, pasta, cookies, potato chips, doritos, etc. will do the trick. Stick to the basics like meats, fish, vegetables, eat dinner without bread. Make stuff like eggplant/chicken for lunch. If you can eat fish 3 times per week the weight is gonna go. I like chocolate when I get a craving. Make sure you have something sweet or risk insanity.

good advice folk's ,well the weather here in ireland is very dull but im going to headout for a 6 mile walk with the dog that will keep me away from all the junk food. Talk later.

According to some research done back in 2005, it was discovered that people who want to maintain their weight and a decent fitness level should do 60 minutes of exercise a day, and people who want to lose weight should do 90 minutes of exercise a day.

Now ... before anyone gasps in horror about that as they have in other subforums here on BF ... this is a cycling forum, right? A forum where people ride bicycles? Of all forums on the internet, ours should look at that 60-90 minutes a day recommendation and say, "Oh yeah, no problem".

Also the recommendation is for moderate exercise, not flat out sprints or intervals every day ... and it allows for exercise to be at different times of the day and in different forms.

So ... you might ride your bicycle for an hour, and walk for 30 minutes. Or you might spend 15 minutes of your day climbing stairs at work, and 30 minutes lifting weights while watching TV, and 45 minutes on the trainer. Or some other combination of exercise. But the key is to aim for 90 minutes of exercise each and every day.

90 minutes a day equals 630 minutes a week, or 10.5 hours of exercise a week. Sometimes I might take a day off ... but then the next day I'll do double the amount so that I'm exercising a minimum of 10.5 hours a week. From my experience, if I do not exercise a minimum of 10.5 hours a week, I will either maintain my weight or gain weight. I seem to need lots of exercise.

I've gained weight over the past few months what with my international move, DVT, being hospitalized, etc. ... but now I'm back on the bicycle and I've already lost 3 kg. I'm on my way down!!

+1.

Eat regular meals, at the same time every day. You can eat as much as you want, at your meals, but do not eat between meals.

Personally I think cycling is overrated as a weight loss 'tool.' In my case, I went from 400 pounds to 275 before I learned to ride a bike. (In fact, learning to ride was a motivation for learning to ride, since I was unaware 400 pound guys could sit on a bike without breaking it.)

Once I began to learn to ride, I dropped from 275 to 242 over five months. However, that was with maintaining a very strict diet and continuing a lifting/hiking routine of exercise. As I tapered off the lifting and riding became my 'primary' exercise, my weight began to climb. The biggest reason is that cycling gives me an enormous appetite. I'm never as hungry as I am after riding, and I find it hard to keep my eating in check.

well machka im well past the 90minute just been for a good walk and finished off by doing a good hour of stretching and weight lifting,so far no crap food .i don't really eat to much when im cycling just enough to keep the dreaded bonk away,it's when im relaxing watching tv or on this computer where the problem starts snacking all the time,but so far today im doing great lets hope i can stick at it god knows i really need to shed a couple stone anyway thanks everyone.cheersantokelly

- count calories. track absolutely everything you eat, down to the last bite. this will make you aware of how much you are eating that you aren't even noticing.
- there is a nutrition forum here
- repeat: "Hunger is the feeling fat makes as it leaves my body"
- don't eat in front of the computer / tv / book. attend to your eating.
- when you finish your meal, you are done. clean up, brush your teeth. if you find yourself in the kitchen again, step away.


good luck!

I hadn't thought about it before but that 'extra' 30 min (+) does correspond w/ the time I was taking those lunchtime rides beyond my hour's commute, which is when I was really losing weight.

Have to look for a reference to that so I can show my wife.

Weight loss is dead simple, it can be expresses as a mathematical formula:

CI - CO = WC

CI is calories in, this is what you stuff into your face, the problem most overweight people have is that food becomes a comfort, a friend, so they eat when they are happy, they eat when they are sad. You need a change of attitude to food is fuel, some fuels are better then others. You want the highest vitamin and mineral content (nutritional value) per calorie. This means that some foods like soda, refined sugars and a lot of the packaged foods will have zero or near zero nutritional value. Some dead simple rules, if it comes with a nature provided package and is grown within 100km (60 miles) of home, it's probably good for you. If it comes in a box and is made in a factory far far away, probably not. Product of ... is no indication of where it started it's journey. Take for example fish sticks, caught in Russian waters, processed in China, then put frozen into a box in Canada makes it a Product of Canada simply because the chick putting them in the box is making $8.50/hr.

CO is calories out. Go sell your car and throw out the TV, far far to many people in North America sit in front of the idiot box for hours on end, because TV watching is so boring and mind numbing, they eat for something to do, while glued to the couch wondering why their rear end is now wider then the rear end of an MCI J4500.... Because they are always sitting, either in the comfy cushions of the couch or the car, they never do any form of exercise.

If you actually need the car for something, an alternative is to set a guideline, any journey of less then 1 hour by foot, you walk, any journey over an hour walking, but less then 1 hour by bicycle, you bike. If it's more then 1 hour by bicycle, then take transit where available. There are exceptions, if you need to pass through an area that is excessively dangerous then maybe you switch modes.

WC is Weight change in Calories, 3500 calories is roughly 1lb, 7700 calories is roughly 1kg and 49,000 calories are 1 stone. Now lets go back to the formula:

Say you eat 2000 calories in one day, you burn 2000 calories just living, you bicycle and walk the equivalent of 1000 calories per day (which really isn't that much), so lets plug that in:

2000 - 3000 = -1000.

At that rate you will lose 2lbs per week, 1 stone takes 7 weeks, so 2 stone is about 14 weeks.

Lets bring this on-topic, a tour can mean a significant caloric burn, because your riding a lot each day, with a heavily loaded bike or trailer behind your bike, you burn more, it can be a lot more, the burn rate can be high enough, if the daily distance is long enough, that you can lose weight without trying.

BRILLIANT stuff.

i got a bike for weight loss and have shed 30lbs over like 5 months. I think mostly b/c it's a heavy as$ piece of **** MTB. I ride it hard, it's so heavy I can barely make it up hills, and I throw it on the ground when I'm done.
I think if i had a nice bike I wouldn't have lost so much weight.

Google: '90 minutes of exercise per day'.


When I was working I was getting about a 1-hour ride each evening, and then I added a 30 minute lunchtime walk. That made a difference!

The weight started coming off ... not fast. You've got to keep plugging away for months, but it does work.

I've been gradually increasing the amount of exercise I've been getting (while being careful with how much I eat) and I've dropped 3 kg since the beginning of September. This is the first week where I've been able to do 90 minutes a day, so hopefully it will start dropping off a little bit faster and more consistently than that.

There is a lot of info in all these posts and they seem to be good advice. My 2 cents as follows....

- Lifestyle not diet. If you treat this as diet it will end when you are satisfied with results and will likely start gaining again.

-Track calorie intake. If you don't know how many calories you are consuming I can almost guarantee you that you are consuming too many calories. This is a great website to track calorie intake as it allows you to track calories mostly from a user created database of foods https://sparkpeople.com/

- Cardio is a must; it goes without saying but keep in mind the earlier you exercise in your day the longer you keep your metabolism at a higher level and the more calories you burn. Spark people also has a cardio tracker.

- Strength training. Overlooked quite a bit but very effective seeing as muscles are calorie burning machines.

- Rest. Don't go go go all the time, you will get more hungry and be less likely to stick with a program; make one change at a time, then once you have that down add another.

- Protein. If you are deficient in protein your body will crave all kinds of crazy stuff, mostly carbs. Make sure you are getting enough protein especially if you are strength training.

IMO sparkpeople.com made the biggest difference in my recent bid to lose a few pounds. When I followed my plan strictly I lost roughly 4-5 lbs a week; keep in mind I was weight/strength training on top of cycling 50-70 miles a week Getting real with my self about how many calories I was consuming really did the trick, and I really don't think I was ever starving or felt that I needed to eat more. Give yourself a day to cheat but track it so you don't get out of control; I allow a myself a Ben & Jerry's sized container of ice cream each week as a dessert, and on my cheat day I can have one over the top meal ie pizza.

Low calorie foods that may help you: Galeo's Miso Dijonaise Dressing, tofu scrambles instead of eggs (throw in garlic, tumeric, onions, spices), Hummus and veggies, Tempeh , high protein breads instead of wheat, lentils, thick hearty soups fill you up very easily and if made at home typically can be made very low calorie.

Good Luck!!!

cheers dave p i'll check out that site larer,so far so good im training a bit more and eating far less diden't realize how much junk i was eating.

The formula for weight loss is very simple: calories in minus calories out.

Your body burns a certain number of calories per day through metabolic processes simply maintaining body temperature and operating involuntary muscles, such as your heart and lungs. Some people seem to burn more calories than others simply through base metabolism. We all know people who don't seem especially active at exercise, eat anything they want, and never gain weight. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.

You can lose weight without ever getting out of your Lazy Boy recliner if you are willing and able to restrict your calories enough. No sane person is willing to do it that way, so that's where the exercise comes into play. Michael Phelps was eating 6500 calories/day while he was training for the Olympics without gaining any weight. The formula is the formula: calories in minus calories out.

You've seen at least 25 people here offer at least 25 pieces of advice on how to lose weight. My advice is to find a system that works for you over the long term.

Take the long view of weight loss. You didn't get fat in 30 days. You're not going to get skinny in 30 days, either. At least not in a way that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Make changes in your diet and exercise program that you are willing to adopt for life. When the inevitable day comes where you cave in to cravings and eat like convicted death row inmate, put it behind you and continue the diet and exercise program as if it never occurred. In the big picture, occasional failures are not weight loss killers as long as they are truly occasional and the background program of reasonable eating and good exercise is continued.

At 50 years old, I've lost about 90 lbs. since the first of the year. I eat pretty much the same foods I always have with some modifications I can live with for life (lots of simple substitutions, such as mustard for mayo on sandwiches, leave off the cheese and add extra pickles and tomato, etc.). I eat much less than I did before, but I'm still eating about 1500 to 1800 calories/day.

Most importantly to me, I committed to at least one hour of cardio exercise per day at 80% of my maximum heart rate, seven days a week, no exceptions. I exercise with a heart rate monitor to gauge the level of exertion. It also allows me to utilize different modes of exercise as needed while maintaining an 80% heart rate cardio workout. My strong first preference is to ride my bike outside. When I can't do that, I get on my treadmill, elliptical trainer, or rowing machine for an hour.

In the beginning, I could reach 80% of my max heart rate quite easily. After 10 months of daily training, I have to work quite vigorously to maintain the target heart rate. My heart rate recovery time is much, much faster. My resting heart rate has dropped from the mid-70s to the low 50s.

I still weigh 225 lbs. and I have a ways more to go, but I'm no longer focused on a particular goal, just the process. The rate of weight loss has slowed considerably, but it's still going the the right direction. I feel great and if it takes another year to lose the next 25 lbs., so be it.

https://www.velonews.com/article/9761...spite-riding-a

This is a good starting place for the way you think about food. No need to obsess, just consider what it is you are putting into your body.

Do SOMETHING everyday. Whether it's a ride, a 2-hour walk, a stroll through town or a museum, get on your feet and be active everyday. Canceling your TV's cable service is a good start.

And with regards to eating fat: learn about it. Find out which sources are good (nuts, avocados, olive oil) and which are bad (all fast food) and eat them all you want. Humans are meant to be active, which requires endurance, and the best way for an endurance athlete to fuel is through good, healthy fats.

Decide to change your life, and the way you think about what you eat and how you treat your body. Diets are what Americans latch onto because we generally want things to be quick and easy with amazing results. That doesn't happen. Be patient, learn about your body, push it to new limits, and treat it well with a healthy, balanced way of eating. Also, drinking a gallon of water a day will do wonders for you.