madprofessor100

Hey Carbonfiberboy, thanks for the support. I think you have some good ideas on how I should approach this. I used to use a heart rate monitor but I always felt like I didn't need a heart rate monitor to tell me what zone I'm in. But I do agree that it could come in handy in terms of keeping track of my morning heart rate or even making sure I cool down and warm up properly. I think part of the problem right now is that I'm not quite in cycling shape yet now, since I was off the bike for a while, but I'm still going in with the standards that I had when I was biking regularly. And I'm used to biking on more calories. I think reaching my cycling and weight loss goals gradually is going to be the way to go. So we'll see...

Carbonfiberboy 

Again, important to keep on the exercise routine. I find it entirely too easy to reward myself with a day off because I feel tired. Oh, good for me, I feel tired, better miss a day. Wrong. Much better to only miss a day when I notice I'm slower, or at least no faster.

I also try to do different things on different days so I don't repeat the same thing frequently. That's sort of like bodybuilders advise: only work a part of the body 2 or 3 times a week. Well, cyclists can't do that, but we can work different energy systems and do different pedaling techniques. There's a zillion ways to do change-ups on a bike. And that way this question of faster or slower can only come up once a week or so. Prevents unnecessary anxiety.

lovestoride

im just going to say one thing. lose weight in small drops each day, because if you lose 3 pounds your first week, you have trouble keeping that weight off and still losing more, versus losing about a pounds a week and maintaining and continuing to lose weight. trust me i just lost 13 pounds in one week thanks to having to be at wrestling weight by today, and i have already gained back 5 pounds from noon to 11 25. i know that this example is an extreme, i just wanted to share how slow and steady wins when it comes to losing wieght.

tallmantim

Hi

If you have a look at the link in my sig you'll see my food and exercise tracking. If you look at the exercise page, I put down the efforts I do and the base calories (calculated from basal metabolic rate, also on that page). As part of the base calculation, I subtract a proportion of the day based upon how many hours I am exercising - so if I exercise for 3 hours, I put down the effort for that and subtract 3 hours from the base number (ie. multiply by 21/24).

It has worked well for me, although I think that even though I am currently trying to keep approximately calorie neutral and maintain my current weight I may still be losing slightly.

Anyway, I have tried to be as scientific about it as possible.

Cheers