How to lose weight?

niucyclist22

I absolutley love cycling, I try for about 15-25 mi a day... Is this too much, or too little? I also weight 230 and am trying to get back to my high school weight of 170. I'd prefer to do it with something i love to do. I own a Trek 1000(basic I know... but I'm a college student), and am willing to try any on road exercise program to not only lose weight, but increase my speed and my endurance. If people could help me out that would be great!

NomadVW

Welcome to cycling and Cyclingforums.com

There is a lot of information on what you're looking for. I would recommend the search feature here for a whole mess load of information - almost more than you could probably digest right up front.

Many people come to cycling and think it should be just as easy as getting on the bike and riding and fitness and/or weight loss will just occur. While SOME fitness will occur just from being active, there's no guarantee that you'll meet any speed records until you set goals and start your journey from where you are to where you want to get.

My recommendation to you is to set two goals. One of them, you've already set. Lose around 60 pounds (230 down to 170). You should plan on that weight loss taking up to a year or more. A healthy and sustainable weight loss is roughly 1 lb per week. Initially you'll probably see pretty quick weight loss, then a plateau, and then another drop. Don't sweat this, and just keep doing what you know is right.

What you know is right is that calories in minus calories out is your key to losing weight. This means counting calories down to the gnats rear end and just make it a habit. Find a computer program that will help you out with a good size food database to make manual entry less a hassle. In two or three weeks of doing it, you'll find it becomes a habit and it is much easier to keep track of. You'll also find it easier to look at a portion of food and have an idea of the calories it contains and be able to consider whether or not you should be eating it or how it affects your daily caloric needs.

To lose 1 lb per week, you need to have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, so about 500 calories per day. The great thing is, your cycling returns to you some of that deficit. If you're doing 15 miles, you're burning probably around 400-600 calories, depending on your pace. There are tons of calculators that will tell you what calories you're burning while cycling. Without a powermeter for accuracy, you could use a number from 35 to 40 calories per mile cycled and be pretty spot on.

You also need to have an idea of what your daily caloric burn is - aside from any time on the bike. The closest thing I've used that compares to my measured resting metabolic rate is the calculator here:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calrmr.htm

If you know your % body fat, it is pretty accurate, otherwise it tends to calculate a bit on the low side for me. (all numbers without body fat show 1800ish cal/day, with known body fat it's 2200ish. I was recently measured at 2052, so that's the rough number I use)

Finally, weigh yourself daily and keep track, but don't get wrapped up around day to day weight changes. Remember that how much you drink/eat at times of day changes your morning weight. If I drink a gallon of water at 9pm, I'm going to be heavier the next morning even though I won't have actually consumed calories. Watch your weight trend week to week.

There are tons of web sites to help you track your weight and calories. The one that seems to get a lot of attention right now is fitday.com.

Your second goal you listed was to get "faster" on the bike. That's a pretty vague goal. Try to keep cycling goals "SMART" - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-oriented. The best way you can do this is find a particular course or event you want to be able to complete in a certain time limit. Maybe next summer you want to complete a local century ride in a specific time limit, or maybe you have a local hill climb course that is challenged often that you want to complete in a time limit.

Here's an example of one of my "SMART" goals -

Complete 40km bike leg portion of team-triathlon relay on September 23rd in under 1 hour. (for the 40km TT people, this course is extremely slow with a number of 90 degree+ turns, with two 135 degree turns, so the 1 hr goal is actually right at the limits of possible for me)

Specific, yep. Measurable, yep. Attainable, through consistent training, yep. Realistic, yep (last year was 1 hr 5 min), Timely - deadline, Sept 23rd.

With all this in mind, I can tailor or have a program tailored for me to meet this goal. Now, this is one of a half-dozen or so second-half of 2007 goals I have set, so my summer training has been developed to meet this goal as well as other higher priority goals.

Once you've set goals, you can get a lot of help over at trainingpeaks.com for a pretty reasonable price. You can also purchase the Friel's Cyclist Training Bible for more information than you can possibly imagine. Or you can hit up a dozen or more books on becoming a faster/better cyclist. But first, you gotta set goals.

Good luck on the goals you set and with your weight loss. In 1998 I had let my weight slide all the way up to 220 from my previous healthy 170-180. Cycling has been instrumental in my fitness and I'm a healthy and competitive cyclist @ 165 lbs and loving being on the bike every chance I can. And to be honest, all the work I do to be meticulous about my diet and the way I train makes it more fun. I hope you find something that makes it as much fun for you.

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Meek One

Good luck losing weight.

FWIW I've only gained weight. 205-->218. Stronger and better cardio condition now...

__________________
-Meek
"Some people train to look pretty. I just train so I can be the strongest man there is. And then again, I'm already pretty." -Magnus Samuelsson

Andrija

Make a hole in your spoon

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niucyclist22

HAHA! Funny, perhaps I should try that! Thank you for all the advice Nomad, It is going to help tremendously!