sfo_biker2010

Last year I switched from running to cycling because my knees just couldn't take the running any more. Even though I've trained hard with cycling--150 miles or so every weekend for the past 10 months or so--my weight has been creeping up. I stepped on the scale this morning and found that I've gained 20 pounds over the past ten months, although I've kept close tabs on my diet.

I've also noticed that, as a group, a lot of the riders I meet tend to be quite overweight (I'm not racing or anything, just training for charity rides), whereas it was very rare to see overweight runners in the groups I would train with. Any idea why this is? Is it because biking just doesn't burn anywhere near the number of calories we think it does? I've read that I should be estimating 25-30 calories per mile, or about 1500 calories or so for a 50-mile ride, but my friends who wear heart-rate monitors get ridiculous calorie-burn readings (upwards of 3000 for the same ride).

umd

Many people way overestimate the amount of calories they burn riding, and/or eat way too much while they are riding. Cycling can burn a lot of calories if you are working hard, but it's easy to just loaf around too.

chasm54

Forget the HRM readings. About 30 calories a mile is a reasonable estimate, more if you're doing a lot of climbing or pushing hard. umd is right. Running is brutal. Cycling is only brutal if you push yourself, and because the bike is carrying your weight, it's easy not to. Nonetheless 20 lbs in ten months is quite a lot if you're riding >600 miles per month, so unless your running mileage was very high I'd suggest you look again at whether you are really keeping "close tabs" on your diet.

umd

For what it's worth, I did about 45 cal/mile yesterday and about 42 cal/mile today. I still think cal/mile is a bad way to look at it, cal/hr is much better, easier to scale with intensity and less dependent on terrain. Yesterday for me was about 850 cal/hr and today was about 750 cal/hr. Assuming roughly 1 kJ = 1 kCal (work energy to food energy taking efficiency into account) of course

gregf83 

The riders you meet are the equivalent of walkers not runners. I went for a run for the first time in two years the other day and my avg HR was 143. I was running as slow as I could because I wanted to be gentle on my legs. On an easy recovery bike ride my HR would be between 100 and 110. There is no way to run with my HR that low so running is in general a more intense workout.

On the other hand, my legs are sore two days after a 43min run. It will be a long time before I could run for a couple of hours with no pain. And that 43 min run burned less than 400 Cals. On a bike ride I can comfortably burn 2400 cals in a 3 hr ride with zero residual pain.

chasm54

This. Well expressed.

Yes, but to be fair, this is a consequence not merely of running being more intense than cycling, but of you being untrained as a runner but trained as a cyclist.

I too have recently returned to running after several years because I was stupid enough to agree to be part of a team on a bike/run/kayak event. (An excellent illustration of why one should not drink too much, btw). I was forced to ease myself into it very gingerly because my muscles were so unused to it, and like you I got serious DOMS the first few times. But I didn't find my HR soaring - jogging along at ten-minute mile pace barely got it out of the 120s, except uphill. Interestingly, now my leg muscles are getting used to it I am slowly getting faster without trying to speed up, and my HR is still down in the 120s as I approach 9-minute mile pace. Not exactly Usain Bolt, though. LOL. The guy who sold me my running shoes had it right. After videoing me on a treadmill he said, tactfully he thought, "cyclists tend to run like...cyclists."

sfo_biker2010

Great analogy--I hadn't thought of that before. Of course, all the racing cyclists are lean... just like runners.

gregf83 

True and I probably wasn't running as slow as I could. I started out at 8min/mile pace and slowed. My heart and lungs were good but my legs need some conditioning.

Brontide

Weight is, primarily, controlled by diet; fitness by exercise. Not that it's impossible to lose weight with "just exercise", but you miss out on a large part of the equation. If you need to reduce your body fat the best way is through a combination of diet, strength training, and cardio. You have the cardio well covered, you just need to work on the other two.

DwarvenChef

In the past two months I went from the equivalent of a couch potato (whats the term if your in front of the 'puter?) , to getting out and riding 10 miles a night. I also started eating real foods and cut out processed foods. Even with being full all the time I've lost 18 pounds so far. I feel great but I can already see where allot of the weight gain can come from. We think we are burning more than we are and tend to treat ourselves more that we burn. I have to keep on top of my urges when on the ride as I ride by a few In and Out burger places on my rides and they are a huge weakness for me I love burgers Now I only eat a few a month and make them myself so I know whats in them. Helps being a trained cook

Be aware of the quality of calories and the real amount burned, if you still gain check for muscle mass changes.

DataJunkie

I generally creep up a tiny bit during summer then loose during winter. I would rather stay fed, focus on getting stronger, and enjoy my rides instead of watching what I am eating. I start calorie counting in fall and drop a few lbs, put on a few during the holiday, and drop them in Jan and Feb. Such is life.

abdon

There's a reason why sprinters look like sprinters and marathoners look like marathoners. The former are nothing but lean muscle, the latter often sport a good pouch of fat on their belly.

Untra endurance (3+ hour cardio) will put your body in energy preservation mode; it will do all it can to stop burning fuel in case whatever was chasing you starts getting faster. Last month I finished training for a double metric, and even with a super clean diet I barely managed to shed 3 pounds. This month I'm probably putting a third of the effort and will end up losing twice the weight

For what's left of the year I'm done with the long distance. I'll first lose the last 14 pounds I want to shed, then I'll be ready to build up for the 300k in one day challenge.