Hi all

I've been riding 100+ miles a week recently but it is only spread over 2 rides on the weekends. This weekend I did one long ride of 65 miles where I pushed myself to my limit and then a less strenuous recovery ride the next day for as long as I can keep my legs moving at a gentler pace. I was exhausted immediately after the main ride which is in hilly terrain and I tried to do it as an intense effort in one go without stopping for a rest and at as high a pace as I can maintain, but I felt completely recovered after a couple of hours. The recovery ride was on a flat course. I do not ride on weekdays.

I was wondering if this is more or less effective for weight loss and increasing fitness than doing the same distance in the following alternatives:

a) more frequent intense shorter rides
b) more miles on my main ride but at an easier pace

Thanks

Define short in terms of time. I would think frequent rides would be more beneficent. I think recommendation is to have about 500 calorie deficit each day for a healthy weight loss. For that exercising daily would help more then killing yourself on the weekends. For fitness, look in to base training.

The Surgeon General and similar people recommend 60-90 minutes of exercise every day to lose weight and keep it off.

https://www.exrx.net/Aerobic/AerobicGoals.html
https://health.howstuffworks.com/usda...delines-ga.htm

Two different answers. For fitness, only training two days in a row isn't the best choice.

But for loosing weight, longer rides are better - assuming you have good on-bike and recovery nutrition.

not necessarily, it really depends on how elevated his heart rate is, and in turn how physically demanding the rides are. if he rides in the 80-85% range on every ride, he's not burning fat, he's burning light muscle mass. if he rides in the 70-75% range on a consistent basis, even if it's only for 1 hour say 3 weekdays a week, he will burn more fat in those 3 1-hour rides than he will on his 100+ mile weekends where he's pushing himself to his max.

and sure, there are probably people that will argue that, but that's what i learned from first hand experience. most of which was on a spin bike, for only 1 hour at a time, 2 or 3 days a week...

Thanks for all the comments.

Sounds like I should ride more often. On the heart rate point, I don't have a heart rate monitor but I guess I get a high and a moderate phase. I was really pushing hard for the first 40 miles but I couldn't keep that up for the last 20 which was less intense.