Im continuing my journey for weight loss, I started cycling last summer (august '12) at like 215, I eventually got down to approx 198. Then winter came along and I was back up to 205. Last time I weighed in I was 202. Im going to weigh in tommorow and see what i'm at.

I just got a new bike, and am trying to ride about 1100 more miles before its too cold to ride

Finally got over the hump, checked in at 174 everyday this week. I've still been averaging 140 miles per week for the past month and even bumped it up to 180 for a few weeks. The trick to the weightloos has been cutting alcohol, small dinners and lots of steady riding.

I've been fighting some light chest congestions so the riding has hit a new low but still have plenty of strength and hope to recover for a club ride this weekend.

Five years ago I started riding my bike to work. My reasons were that it took me the same amount of time to get there, including a hot shower at the office, as it took my public transport. Buses, trains and subways are great, but they just take too long to get from A to B. After riding my bike in to work for two years, my employer decided to introduce me at a customer's office, and gave me a car as it was too far to ride the bike. I was pretty happy with that, but during the two years I had lost 10kg's and weighed 95kg's. That weight came back to me pretty fast and got me back at 110kg's in about two years.

Now I have switched jobs and work at the other end of the country. I still ride a car to work each day, but have actually lost weight. Two months ago I got a dog, which I do a long walk with twice a day. It gives me around an hour of exercise. Right now I am back down at 99-100kg's.

I'm pretty happy with the accomplishment above, but am still missing riding my bike. During the next two weeks I will be on vacation and will be picking up cycling again. Even if I don't lose weight, I will at least have a fun element back in my life. :)

Started to ride this year and was at 224 lbs.

now with starting to eat healthyly (weeks) im at 217 lbs. Goal is 190 lbs and time frame to about christmas. Now that Im doing this with my girlfriend its alot easier since were not buy junk food or going out to eat as much. The motivation has been increasing each week.

I also started riding a few months ago. I was at 192 now down to 182. My initial goal is to get to 175 by the end of the riding season this year and maybe a bit lower next year...

I've been commuting for over 2 years on the bike, but only a few miles a day, so not enough to really lose weight. About a month and a half ago, my wife started to change her diet and calorie count so I joined in, since I was easily 15 lbs overweight. Initially I tried to add some jogging but really couldn't get into it, so I began to add extra riding. I think b/c of the commuting I was well acclimated to cycling and I also bought my first road bike.

when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was down almost 14 lbs from when I started. I've started to do an extra 10 miles after work at high pace, roughly 18 mph average on the coast which has some heavy offshore wind in spots - really good resistance. On weekends I'll try to get up to 20 per ride, more due to time than anything. I'm just blown away at how the riding has help me drop the weight - something I've always failed at before.

Additionally, I'm addicted to the 'high' I get post ride. It really turns the volume way down and makes me incredibly relaxed for the rest of the night. I've always heard of the runners high, but could never get over the hump to experience it - luckily I've found it on the bike.

Started biking about 6 weeks ago. Started at 200lbs (almost on the dot), 5'8". I am now still 5'8" ;), but about 182lbs. But more important than the weight loss are: Better nutrition, more stamina and endurance when doing aerobic activity, more musculature, and the ability to fit into pants I haven't comfortably fit into for about 8 years now. I'm basically back to my weight when I was married, and my target is around 170lbs, which I haven't been since I was living with my parents :)

I am addicted to riding now, and hate to miss a morning's ride. I ride about 12 miles 5x a week in the morning before work (about 50 minutes), plus assorted family outings where I pull the two youngest in a trailer while my wife and two oldest ride along. It's a wonderful lifestyle, and I had no idea what I was missing!

I hope to get a road bike in a couple of years once I get much more in shape and am a better cyclist.

I became convinced I loved cycling when a rented bike was my primary mode of transportation while in Florida for a week (I was too cheap to pay for cabs or a car rental). I rode up to twenty miles a day and even got hit by a car pulling out of a driveway(this was the state that had to ask its citizens to stop driving into post offices). Needless to say, it was a painful experience, and yet I loved it. It somehow felt freer than a motor vehicle. A month later, I had a physical where I had a BMI of 38 (not a tall, muscly 38). I was otherwise pretty healthy and my doctor said I could easily turn this around within a year. But I've always been a little heavy and doubted it.

I had a cheap mountain bike that had been sitting in my garage for a year. It just needed a couple repairs and adjustments but I just kept putting it off. I finally fixed it in May and took it for a ride. I had lost some weight but the bike and I easily weighed over 300 lbs. I needed to walk it up the first hill out of my neighborhood. I only managed about 2 miles. Then I just kept doing a slightly longer ride each week. I drove out to local trails and would do 5-10 mile circuits. Hills were still daunting - the biggest barrier, honestly, was just getting off to walk the bike without embarrassment. My breakthrough came when I took my bike out to Georgetown, DC to see how far up the C&O canal I could go. There's a special place in my heart for the C&O. I once hiked 30 miles of it (not recommended, it can get very dull). On a bike, I was gaining more and more confidence as I effortlessly zipped passed points that I took a whole day to hike through. I thought I'd only do about 15 miles that day but I made it out to Great Falls and then back tracked to Alexandria, a total of 30 miles. I could not even get up the stairs for the next 2 days but it was worth it! I started to look for 20+ mile routes around my neighborhood and started to do these several times a week.

I haven't had a huge drop in weight - maybe about 15 pounds this summer. I'm still plenty overweight but that weight loss was while doing something almost addictive and with no big changes to my diet. Also, people have started to notice me slimming down a little. I've recently purchased a road bike and hoping it helps me stay on the bike longer. This year has become a real turning point in my life.

I bought a MNT bike off craigslist for my Birthday back in March just to test the water. After a few rides around the block I started to feel like a kid again. I just wanted to start riding to keep from being so bored on the weekends. I soon ditched the MNT bike and bought a road bike. I didn't know I was losing weight until my wife asked me to check the scale. I had lost 8 pounds in a month. it's been about 7 months now, Ive gone up to riding about 5-6 days a week. But now that fall is here I've lost an hour of daylight and it's conflicting with my schedule. This week I'll only ride 3 days. So far I have lost 37 pounds on cycling alone with no diet plan. I'm going to buy a bike trainer soon so I can still ride 5-6 days a week through the winter. I'm 10-15 pounds from 18% body fat and I want to be ready when spring hits.

I'm the smallest Ive been in 16 years. Though It's kind of a bummer no family or co workers have noticed i've dropped 37 pounds. Good thing i'm self motivated! plus riding a bike is just fun. Not work.

Don't forget, you can still get a cheap blinky light for the back and a small light for the front, they will help with riding at the edge of daylight. More to be seen than to see. Any more than that, it can run into some serious money.

I bought a MTB two years ago (a Scott Aspect 30) but quickly found that I was so far out of shape that trail riding wasn't my thing at that stage in the game. Ultimately, what I really wanted to do with a bike was to just get out there and enjoy cycling like I did as a teen (gosh those days are so long gone!) and eventually for commuting. I sold the Scott and a few weeks ago, picked up a BMC Alpenchallenge AC01 Hybrid (which I also love). However, my conditioning is still far from ideal.

A little more background: I'm 48 years old, weigh 84kg down from a high of 97kg, a Type 2 diabetic and had a very minor heart attack 3 years ago. I was a smoker at the time, very sedentary and ate very poorly. The day of my heart attack, I vowed to change my life and quit smoking then and there. I also slowly began walking... starting with less than 1km walks to today where I walk between 7-30km daily. But walking is very time consuming and I feel I'm at the point where I don't benefit from it anymore. Biking would hopefully bring me to the next level. At this stage of biking though, I still tire easily (mostly because I have this insatiable need to bike fast all the time) but I know my condition will improve as I get out there more often. I still have a belly and need to lose approximately another 20kg.

Wow, this thread started in 2002? And I've just noticed it?

Anyways here is my intro post. Around Thanksgiving of 2012 I hit 300lbs. I am 6'2" and that is FAR too much weight. I exercised the first 16lbs off and then around Feb of 2013 I got my nutrition right and the weight came off fairly quickly, even with only minimal exercise. Along the way I'm off all my meds and feel great with more energy than I've had in a long time.

I am now down to 230lbs. Back when I was around 280lbs and started to believe that what I was doing could get me to whatever weight I needed to be at I put a goal out there of 220lbs. Now that I am 230lbs I can see that I may be able to get to 210lbs. When I get closer to that maybe I'll be able to go lower but the mirror will tell me that.

How I Got To 300lbs - I think to progress in weight loss (actually being healthier) you may want to know how you got to where you are. Back in 2000 I started to coach my son's baseball team and help run the organization. That began ignoring exercise, eating on the run, not getting enough sleep, etc. Soon after that he went into travel ball and was one of the coaches. I also gave pitching instruction, etc. More busy stuff. In there somewhere my daughter starts to become more active and I help coach whatever it is she is playing (fastpitch softball, soccer, basketball). On some of that I was a primary coach (fastpitch, basketball) and on others I was just a parent helping out at practice (soccer). Mix my kid's schedules together, throw in making sure the grass is cut, etc. and you have a recipe for weight gain. I live out of ball fields, gymnasiums, etc. and concession stand food was my friend/enemy.

Each year I would gain 10-15lbs during fastpitch and each off-season my only goal was to get back to “zero”. Year after year the weight would creep up. In 2012 I stepped on the scale and it topped out at 300lbs. Wow. I just stared at it.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I don't remember what I weighed when I first posted in the thread.

I'm barely under 6.2", too. I started at just over 230 (the highest I remember seeing was 237) in the fall of 2009. I knocked off 30 lbs between October of 2009 and April 2010, and I've been sitting in the 190-or-lower range for close to two years now. Two mornings ago, I weighed 183.

The improvement in eating habits was the biggest difference. BY FAR. I can tell you how often I used to exercise and how many different workout routines I've dabbled in, and I can tell you that I used to ride a lot more than I have the last three years. I will also tell you that I was at my heaviest while I was biking the most. I just ate like crap.

canadiandude, you're right that biking will get you to the next level. Running will get you there, too, but IMO, you're too heavy... for now. I've got friends that think they have to start running right away, even at 300lbs and over, but it was wrecking everything below the waist. I've told them to forget running until they're at least a hundred pounds lighter. There are dozens of different exercise regimens out there, so running is hardly necessary. Biking does get your heart rate up, though, and can help build a cardio base that will let you start other exercise routines later.

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So many people think that running or cycling is the best cardio exercise. They're pretty good, but I don't think that's the reason behind the opinion. I've recently realized that most people think of running & biking only because that's the exercising that they see other people doing the most. However, they don't see people working out in their living rooms, nor do they stalk them around the gym to copy their routines. I've done calisthenics, weight training, and even yoga on my living room floor where there's nobody around to see me. All of those routines have helped my fitness in ways that neither biking nor running can do, yet nobody guesses that I do them.
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A road bike will indeed help you ride longer. Make sure it fits well, and you'll find yourself riding out past Vienna just for kicks. Pretty decent number of routes around here, and plenty of other riders to encounter.

Excellent advice, BarracksSi! I have been on a few runs up to 2 km but as you say, it really isn't doing my legs any favours. I get shin pain (not splints) that is most likely from bearing so much weight. I do some exercising at home (mostly sit-ups and pushups) and bought a treadmill only to sell it after a few uses, realising that I much preferred the outdoors when walking or running. I AM still to heavy and know it but I'm now doing everything I can to get the weight off. I hate going to gyms as well, preferring my solitary approach to fitness. Thanks for your advice!

I try to read all posts before responding ... but with 98 pages of posts I think I will bend that rule. :)

My story is like one of the early posts. I am 6-2, 56. A year ago I was 250, 39" waist and started to see complications from high blood pressure (155/95).

I stopped drinking (that was a big one), cut out sweets and treats (no more Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches -- man those are good but more cow than skinny), and started exercising (cycling, walking when I golf, weights).

I am down to 212, BP is 120/117, resting heart rate is 42 and 32" waist. I am still dropping, but as I up my training I am also gaining muscle mass, so it is getting close to what I think will be my new normal -- probably about 205.

The formula is ultimately pretty simple -- less calories in than out. Exercise. Do that and you'll lose the weight.

Unfortunately, getting your calories under control requires pretty big lifestyle changes for most of us. It is really hard to let of treats, alcohol, etc. Until you get your calories under control you won't lose the weight you want. Exercise alone is not enough.

Almost three years of cycling (track racing), olympic lifting, and eating right (most of the time). I don't miss that guy on the left AT ALL http://www.markcafiero.com/3-year-before-aftersm.jpg

P.S. Anyone who says having a baby means that you are destined to lose your athleticism are excuse-makers.

Some pretty inspiring stories here. Just thought I say congratulations to everyone who's lost weight and kept it off. Cycling is a great ingredient to success here. I could stand to lose 8-10 lbs, so not a lot, but those can be hard to lose, b/c you're pretty close to your ideal weight so you're not going to see dramatic changes quickly. Also it's more about the hard work of getting toned and fit than actually shedding the pounds - though in the process you usually lose that pesky love handle. I've been through cycles of fitness and I need to get serious.

For me it's more about getting more regular exercise than diet. I generally eat very well, my wife really helps there, and I don't want to spend effort analyzing my diet. But yeah I could cut out the salty / sweet snacking that gets to so many of us.

I find I go through phases with exercise and I need to get back into a good phase. You feel so much better and don't eat more, but enjoy what you do eat more if that makes sense. Also you get out there with other fit folks and see what they're doing and you want to be like them, not a couch potato.

Keep it up!

I'm new to this. All of it. Riding, training, the whole 9 yards. I weigh in a little over 200 pounds now. I want to get down to about 140, maybe a little less. I have read quiye a few folks say they experienced 'over training symptoms.' Are these symptoms the same for everyone, or does everyone experience different symptoms? I don't know how hard to push myself at first to avoid that. My husband and I want to take off on long distance touring, but I'm not physically ready. My brain says lets go, but my pants size says otherwise. :P Advice would be great. What is the best food to eat/avoid while pushing myself? I can do tons of research, but the best advice comes from those that have experienced it.

Well i have nothing inspiring yet but im currently at 315 lbs and 5'10 and short term goal with cycling I hope to get to 280 lbs. Long term goal however is 150-170 lbs. Im trying to get into at least some cycle shape so I can join the bike club. Their easy runs are 12 miles!! XD Ive got some work ahead of me especially since their normal rides are usually about 24!

Many amazing and inspiring stories here. Thank you all. I will share my story, for what it is worth, and share what I have learned from a life time of battling my weight. I am, and have always been a four hundred plus pounder just waiting to happen. My entire life has been a struggle not to let it happen. I am just shy of six feet tall, currently 220 pounds, and dropping. I am sixty years old and retired. I weighed 370 pounds two years or so ago. I have been on every kind of "diet" known to man during my life time, at one time or another. All of this has caused me to draw some very definite conclusions about the art of losing weight. I had taken a similar plunge about fifteen years ago when I went from about 360 pounds to less than 170 pounds. But I changed jobs from one where I walked all day to one where I sat at a desk all day, got nothing that could be confused with exercise, started eating everything in sight with no thought of the consequences, and drank beer by the twelve pack four of five times a week. I began the climb back up to 400. I was able to hold the line at 370, where I stayed for years, but did not consider that much of a victory. I am not here to lecture of make universal rules for anyone. I will just relate my experiences, and what I believe to be true as a result of them. I will do my best not to label anything "right" or "wrong". What is right is what works for you.

The first rule that I believe to be absolutely true: Forget "dieting". By that I mean any regimen that caused me to eat unnaturally for me. Yes, I would lose weight. And I would put it back on, and probably more, when I was through. I finally came to the realization that eating more calories than I burned meant that I gained weight, and eating less meant that I lost. It is no more complicated than that for me. So, my mission was to arrive at a healthy plan for eating that met all of my nutritional needs, and something that I could stay on for the rest of my life. Sure, I have been on, and have seen others do the Atkins thing. Just the mention of that hocus pocus can get me ranting and raving, so I will avoid going into a long scientific rant filled with big words etc... and just say that it has been proven to me through experience and exhaustive research that it is a fool's errand. Sure, you can lose some weight, but you can't stay on that thing forever. Well actually you can stay on it forever because if you stay on it long enough it will kill you, which will mean forever for you. It has been my experience, and the experience of countless others that I have known, that when you finally go off it, which you will, and should for your health at some point, what you have managed to lose will come back with some additional weight as a reward for your efforts (sorry, I guess I lectured a bit here and espoused a "value judgement). I get a big laugh out of the "juice diet". Friends who have gone on it are always amazed and report amazing weight losses of up to ten pounds in the first week or so. This is absolutely predictable. The average human being is going around with seven to ten pounds of "stuff" in their intestines on any given day of their life. Suddenly blasting it will lots of nothing but liquified fruits and vegetables results in a predictable massive clean out. Duh...! Of course all that weight left, and quick. But what do you think will happen the moment you go back on solid food, which you must because few would be happy living on juice forever? I firmly believe that there is no magic bullet. Calories consumed in relationship to calories burned is an undefeatable law of nature, in my opinion. So, my mission was to develop an eating plan that I could stay one forever. It's all about "conditioning" myself to alter, or amend my expectations. Humans are remarkably adaptive creatures. Given enough time, we can adapt to anything, to the point that it becomes our expectation. To offer a crazy example, if someone arrived an nine in the morning and hit me over the head twice with a stick every day, of course it would suck and I really would not like it. But, if done long enough, the first time that I would experience a major psychological crisis would be the first day that they did not show up. My expectations would not have been met, my life would lose the predictability that we all crave, and I would have this underlying feeling that my little universe was spinning out of control. I would crave the stick, and my daily ability to complain about it.

The other important part of weight loss, and maintenance, is regular exercise. Another big problem for me. I categorically, and with no reservation hate "exercise". I can not just sit and do anything for the sole purpose of doing it. I have a long history of gym memberships paid for, and not used for more than a few weeks to prove it. I know that I should do it, I wish that I could, but after beating my head on that wall for more years than I want to admit, I had to come to grips with the fact that I can't, and accept that. Yes, if I were to follow my own advise and stick with it long enough to "condition" my mind, I probably could. But the concept is just so abhorrent to me that I can never make it that far. Kudos to those who can do this. I can't.

So, my challenge was to arrive at a healthy eating plan that I could stick with forever, and "condition" (or brainwash) myself into causing it to be my expectation. I studied nutrition extensively, with the help of my wife, a veteran nurse. I stopped eating meat, or most animal by-products. I replace that food group with beans, legumes, the very high protein grain called quinoa, and my one concession to animal by products, a serving of low fat yogurt daily. We need an adequate amount of protein daily, and it needs to be a complete protein. Some of it has to come from animal products to round out our requirement. I mainly eat vegetables, fruit, and whole, unprocessed grains. I do not eat processed, refined sugar in any form. A treat for me is a can of nice sweet beets. I do not consume alcoholic beverages in any form, at all, ever. I cap my intake at 1200 calories a day. I am never hungry. You would be amazed how much broccoli you have to eat to get to 1200 calories worth. In this plan, I am at the point that I literally can eat as much as I want on any given day. I eat just once a day in the middle of the day. I never could eat breakfast, and my former habit was to eat a light lunch so as not to get sleepy at work, and gorge myself at supper, the worst time of the day to do that if weight is a concern. I now eat my big meal around mid-day, with an apple or an orange, and a cup of low fat yogurt in the evening for supper. There are days when I have to stuff something down my throat that I probably would not have eaten, just to make sure that I get my 1200 calories. I know that eating only once a day is not recommended, but I had to go with what works for me. I will be the first to tell you that in the beginning, this regimen really sucked. But I knew that if I stayed at it long enough, it would become my habit and expectation. These days, where I used to crave M+M's, I now crave green beans. I could no more eat an M+M than the neighbor's cat.

I then had to address the regular exercise problem. In order for it to work, I knew that it had to be something that I considered fun. If I thought that I was doing it for exercise, I wouldn't do it. It took a while for me to arrive at the right activity. One day, out of the blue, I remembered how much I used to enjoy riding a bicycle when I was a kid. I had not been on one, or thought about one for probably fifty years. I have a bad back, so I didn't know if I could do it or not. I borrowed my grandson's bike for an afternoon, and was absolutely hooked when I returned it. I came here and eagerly gobbled up all of the vast knowledge available here that I could process, and pretty soon knew what I wanted for a bike. And yes, a year later, experience had honed my taste and I sought and bought another bike to compliment the first one and fill in the voids of the additional things that I wanted to do on a bike that the first one was not good at. I love my bikes and look forward to my daily ride. Sometimes on the pavement with my hybrid, and sometimes on dirt roads and slightly rough trails with my mountain bike. This way I do not get bored with my routine.

So, to bring this long epistle to a close (sorry for the length), I beat this problem just by realizing that the key to success or failure laid between my ears. It was not what I did, but how I looked at what I did. I had to strip away the B.S. and become nakedly honest with myself. It was not about what I should do, what I wished that I could do, or what someone else thought would work for me. It was about being real honest with myself about who I was, what I was and was not capable of doing, and working with what I had in a way that would end in accomplishing my goals. It was about baring my soul to myself, and accepting what I saw staring back at me. The key to my success was knowing that we are a critter that is capable of reprogramming our software, and knew that if I stuck with what I decided long enough, it would become what I expected and wanted. In my case, I was right. I will never eat any differently than I do, except add some more calories daily when I reach my goal weight, and never stop loving and riding my bikes. It took will power in the beginning, but I knew that every day that passed put me closer to my goal of accepting and desiring my current lifestyle.

What are some opinions on a mainly liquid diet? I'm trying to drop about 8-10 pounds (currently 511.25, 161). I have a lot of protein shakes I can drink as meals, and lightly snack on some nuts and berries as snacks.

I'm vegan, if it matters

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I did a 3 week juice fast last year. Lost 28 lbs in 21 days. Was fresh juice from fresh veggies and fruit.

Hit 179 - all time high just after holidays. 100 mile ride planned in early May with sub seven goal. Hope to achieve goal by training hard and loosing weight. Bike already lost 8 pounds (new bike) and I am down 11 already and shooting for high 150's before the big ride. Amazing what just 20 or 30 miles a day does for my body. Eating better quality food and less junk is helping. Hope to loose the additional weight when I start increasing the daily miles.

Hello -

I've been on bf.net for awhile, but not "formally" intro-ed myself here. I'm a 48yr old male and 5' 11". As of last week was at 267lbs. Most people would never guess I weigh that much b/c I'm fairly solidly built from years of weight training/martial arts/etc. Since grad school in my early 30's I've just lazed and gained 55-60lbs (a "normal" wgt for me when training and @ 7-12% body fat was 205-215lbs).

However, last week Mrs. PolarBear007 and I started a paleo/LCHF diet. As a result, this past Sundays 1st week weigh-in has me 12lbs less at 255lbs. I don't have a specific weight goal in mind, but since my muscularity is much less than before (from a size 50 jacket to 46, etc.,), I think 220-215lbs is not out of the question - maybe even less.

I'm really interested in touring/commuting types of bicycling so I'm in the process of slowly rebuilding a 1990 23" Schwinn High Plains hard-tail mtb to do that with and am still adjusting to a bunch of things so my riding has been temporarily stalled. However, I'll be getting in the saddle soon and really cranking the pedals.