New to Cycling - Must lose Weight! Please Help



Onetrade

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Mar 12, 2011
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Hey all,

Absolutely new to the forum... I need help

I am turning 30 on May 6 and currently as unhealthy as they come. A little background on me: I was very thin most of my life because there was no such thing as computers or internet till I was around 13 years old and so I would rollerblade, bike ride and play various sports with all my friends. Then at around 18 years old the internet was becoming popular and I started to gain weight. At 23 I was 225 lbs and decided enough was enough and went on a VERY low fat and low carb diet. I consumed mostly protein and hit the gym hard for 2 hours per day 6 days a week. At 25 I was in great shape and weighed 180lbs. I was strong, healthy, muscular and active. Then I quit smoking at around 26 years old and became VERY lazy. Getting out of bed was annoying to me and no matter how much sleep I get I am very fatigued. I guess being 250lbs does that to you.

So now, I am appx 250 lbs, very unhealthy and I keep gaining weight. I don't want to go on the same severe diet and exercise program, I don't have the time for it and, frankly, I am too lazy to be at the gym for 2 hours a day. Ohh, and I LOVEEEE Food. But I need to lose weight, I look horrible and feel even worse.

I went out and purchased a starter bike, I really was on a tight budget and so I went to my LBS and purchased the Cannondale Quick 6. I must say I am pretty happy with it. It is the lowest end of high quality bike brands (IMO) but previously I owned the '06 Specialized Hardrock MTB and then owned the Cannondale F300 and I must say this Cannondale rides amazing for the price.

I went out riding 2 days so far on straight level roads out here in a bike pack in Brooklyn, NY. I rode 5.72 miles on the first day out and 6.7 miles on day 2. My behind is KILLLING me and so are my legs, back and trapezius muscles.

I don't expect to lose 50 pounds in my first month but my goal is to get down to at least 200lbs. How many miles per day should I try to ride? I know the answer would be as many as I can but should I try and do 20 miles per day or 30 or 50? Or 100 miles per week?

Will I still lose weight if I eat as I do now except take out all white bread, potatoes, white rice and pasta and stick to all whole grains and eat a little less?

My goal is to become A LOT healthier, look great and feel better. I have a 6 month old daughter and I wanna be able to give her away at her wedding in 20 some odd years.

I know this was a little long but this is something I am taking very seriously. I will eventually upgrade my bike as I become better and better. Currently I am tracking my miles using mapquest so a cyclometer is the first upgrade I will get. It is important I know my average speed and actual miles ridden. I have also been riding without quenching myself during the ride (no bottle holder yet), like I said, very tight budget.
 
In your post you specifically pointed out that you LOVE food and you have issues being active, you also pointed out that at one time you were in shape and healthy. It sounds like you know what you need to do to lose weight, you need to cut the food and get more active. It is all a matter of what you want more, to be health or to indulge in good food. 6 miles is a great start, but it is a start. I would shoot to get up to 20+ miles a day and really control your diet (minimal simple carbs, low fats). Basically my diet when I am trying to cut will consist of whole grain carbs, clean low fat meats, some fruits and lots of vegetables (sorry no potatoes, corn, or other starchy veggies). I will taper my carb intake throughout the day to the point where I have very few carbs with my final meal of the day. I also typically eat at least 6 times a day (3 balanced meals and 3 health snacks) I also think a bit of weight lifting would do you some good, as the higher muscle mass to fat percentage you have the higher you metabolism will be.

Change is hard, it all comes down to how bad you want to change.
 
+1 on the advice above

Additionally, think for the long term and ideally find some activity that you truly like doing for the sake of the activity not primarily as a tool for weight loss. You didn't put the weight on all at once and it won't come off all at once so you'd better really enjoy the activities you choose. Cycling is great and my best chance for weight loss but I've relied on nordic skiing, long hikes, running, and other things over the years to stay active the key is to really enjoy the activity so you want to do it and it's not a chore you feel obliged to carry out purely for weight loss.

Again it's going to take time and a pound or two per week is about all you can expect to lose on a sustainable plan that doesn't leave you too tired to exercise and a plan that remains healthy. So work on developing habits rather than strict diets as you're going to want to sustain this for a while ideally some of it will become ingrained and part of your life forever so you don't end up back wondering how you gained so much weight.

Check out http://www.fitday.com/ or similar sites for good information and free diet tracking tools. Awareness of what and how much you're eating now can go a long way towards making small but sustainable changes. If you're a smartphone user think about one of the low cost calorie and exercise tracking apps that lets you gain real insight into what you're consuming vs burning each day and how that jives with your weight loss or gain. One cool thing about these is that it gives you freedom to indulge a bit more after a bigger ride or bigger day of exercise without going overboard. Very cool when I get home from a long training ride and realize I've got a few thousand extra calories in my budget for the day. Good day to go out to dinner but the awareness is still important as many folks over estimate what workouts burn or under estimate the huge post ride feed and work against their long term plans.

Good luck,
-Dave
 
Some good info already so there is not much that I can add other than best wishes going not just for the goal of weight loss, but the more important goal of a lifestyle change.

Some more tips

  • As mentioned eat multiple times per day. I eat 6 to 8 small meals per day and have been doing this for well over 20 years.
  • Prepare you meals the night before and pack them into containers so that you will have meals ready and convenient rather than going through the pantry eating whatever is in sight. This is my daily ritual. On Sunday's I grill a lot of lean chicken breast and have it ready for the week ahead.
  • Clean out the pantry and fridge of all the bad things, go to the store and get the good items.
  • Keep a training log as you mentioned. It keeps you accountable. I keep a blog that helps me stay accountable to my training goals and it is public. Knowing that others are reading it keeps me honest with my effort. You could post your efforts and progress on this thread.
  • Stay as active as possible. Don't be one of those who fight to get the parking spot closest to the door to minimize the walk. Make it harder every chance you get to add more walking (stairs or whatever).

Those are just a few that I would contribute.


If you want a cycle computer to track data you might want to consider one of the Garmin products like the Edge line or Forerunner and you will be able to simply upload your post training data to Garmin Connect. Here is an example of my ride from yesterday to give you an idea of how the data would look. Ride Data

Best Wishes

Jesse
 
As someone who has made a similar journey albeit a longer one as I was fatter than you are now, here are a few things I've learned along the way...

If you aren't logging what you're eating you have NO IDEA what you caloric intake is, you can't guess, you can't estimate, you have to know. The amount of deficit that you can sustain for the duration necessary to lose the weight you're needing to is easily offset by calorie counting errors...

You absolutely cannot out exercise a bad diet... I can't emphasize this enough... I have ridden 20+ hours a week for several weeks at a time and GAINED WEIGHT !!! How? Easy... I was eating the carbs I thought were necessary to sustain that training load (Fitzgerald, Ryan, Jeukendrup et al ...)... For me it was necessary to lower my training load to enable a lower carb intake in order to facilitate weight loss...

You are an experiment of one... Everyone is different, and no two people respond the exact same way to either diet or exercise... In my case, intensity seems to cause hunger issues. I can ride 3hrs on water alone and be fine if I stay in Zone 2. If I do 2x20's in Zone 4 (about an hour or so ride...) I'll be starving... YMMV...

What works now may seem extreme but it will change over time... When I was just starting hardly any carbs at all would stall my progress, now I can eat what most would consider 'normal' carb intake and not have any issues...

Some references I have found very useful:

Paleo Diet for Athletes...
http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Diet-Athletes-Nutritional-Performance/dp/1594860890/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300017048&sr=1-1

Why We Get Fat...
http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-Borzoi/dp/0307272702/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300017102&sr=1-1

Lyle McDonald's site... http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/

HTH,
Dave
 
Wow, thank you all for all of this useful information! I hate calorie counting, I don't really eat junk food so I know my calorie intake isn't outrageous (outrageous being over 3000 with no exercise) I know that if I eat several small meals consisting of mostly protein and light whole grains that my calorie intake will be under 2000 calories for the day. However, I will try calorie counting because I need this to work.

I have no idea about how many calories cycling burns so I am not sure how many miles to ride for each day. BGOETZ mentioned to try and hit 20+ miles each day and that will be my immediate goal. I will post my progress. I love cycling, even when I was younger I would be able to spend the entire day on a bike. There aren't too many physical activities I can do in NYC. I have cycling and jogging/running and I HATE jogging/running. I can hit the gym but I am so annoyed of the gym. It's nice out and I want to spend my days outside doing some physical activities. Right in front of my house is a bike path, so I step out and hit the path.

What do I do about a sore behind? I want to ride this morning but I can't even sit on my bike... maybe some Advil? It is a pretty soft seat but my behind isn't used to sitting on a bike seat.

If I am riding 20 miles per day, what should my calorie intake be?
 
You could use a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Calculator to see how many calories your body uses for daily functions.
http://exercise.about.com/library/blbmrcalculator.htm

Then you would have to add on other activities like your biking to your calorie usage. A heart rate monitor will give you an idea on calorie usage while doing your activities.
Just remember though that any calorie numbers you get from these calculators or Heart rate monitors are subjective and that every person is different.

My view is that you shouldn't worry about mileage but rather concentrate on time. Spend half an hour to an hour on the bike each day just riding. It doesn't matter if you ride 10 mile or 20 mile just as long as your heart rate is in an aerobic zone. This is where a heart rate monitor is helpful. You need to be working but not too hard otherwise you run out of gas and it makes it harder to follow it up the next day. And this is the biggest thing, consistency. Riding 1 hour a day, 5 days a week is better then riding 3 hours a day, 2 days a week. This is all about a life style change and making it something that you can do day in and day out.
 
Originally Posted by Onetrade .


What do I do about a sore behind? I want to ride this morning but I can't even sit on my bike... maybe some Advil? It is a pretty soft seat but my behind isn't used to sitting on a bike seat.

IMO - good bike shorts are toward the top of the investing in bike gear. When I first started I bought several pair of cheap shorts, but over the years of trying different brands I have now come to a brand that I really like. I have a friend that is a reseller of the Desoto brand and the short may not be for everyone because it is a very high compression material and the pad is somewhere between minimal and the cushy econo brand. The pad in this particular short is called the "400 mile pad." I now wear this short rather than my team kit short.

This comes down to personal preference for many of us so I am not endorsing the brand that I use, but more importantly if you stick with cycling may want to try a few different pair of shorts over the period of years and find what works for you and your budget. It also does well to have a few pair to rotate. I now have 8 pair of the Desoto shorts and bibs, about 5 pair of Hincapie shorts/bibs and some other brands. I am training twice a day on many weekdays so I am keep the laundry busy.

The second thing that I have learned the hard way is to get into dry clothes and clean up as soon as possible after training and that will help prevent some nasty rashes and other things that may make the next training session uncomfortable.

Same thing about saddles. Saddles can be a challenge because unlike shorts you want to invest in the right one right off the bat without having to buy several. Softer and wider does not necessarily equate to comfort. IMO-comfort comes first in a good pair of shorts, but when I found the saddle that worked for me I put the same one on all my road bikes.
 
I wasn't aware that bike shorts had padding in them. I am a complete newbie to cycling.... I have to get myself a pair as I cannot even sit on a bike saddle today!

My BMR is 2288. In order to lose weight I have to bike for about 4 hours a day to burn off this many calories considering I don't do any other physical activities. YIKES

I will be posting my progress and keep tracking my food and calorie intake. If anyone else has any pointers, please, do tell....
 
Counting calorie intake is something I forgot to mention, but am glad to see that others mentioned as this is a KEY component to your journey. Even IF you think you can maintain *** calories by just reducing what you eat, the act of counting calories makes you look at nutrition facts and it teaches you a TON about what you are putting in your body. At this point my diet is consistant enough that I know what I am putting into my body, but if I am trying something new, specifically if there is more than one type of it, I look and compare the heck out of the nutrition facts. I have really become a nutrition facts expert, in fact people at work quiz me with different products and I can typically get within 10% on calories per serving, and fat content (sugar and carbs can be a bit more difficult, but I know if they are high or low).

The real key to a healthy diet is that it is NOT a diet at all it is a life style change, so if you are to aggresive you won't be able to maintain the life style and will fall back into unhealthy eating habits. If you are not aggresive enough you will not see results. I would say that some level of hunger and disscomfort with the diet change that you will need to make would be normal.

With regards to your butt, a nice pair of shorts are a MUST. Also make sure your seat angle is correct, start at level and go from there.
 
Originally Posted by Onetrade .

I wasn't aware that bike shorts had padding in them. I am a complete newbie to cycling.... I have to get myself a pair as I cannot even sit on a bike saddle today!

My BMR is 2288. In order to lose weight I have to bike for about 4 hours a day to burn off this many calories considering I don't do any other physical activities. YIKES

I will be posting my progress and keep tracking my food and calorie intake. If anyone else has any pointers, please, do tell....
Wrong.

You use energy no matter what you're doing, even when sleeping. The BMR Calculator will calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day.

In other words, the calculator gives you an "approximate" calculation of how many calories your body needs to stay functional, doing things such as breathing, digesting food etc.. This doesn't include any extra you do such as cycling. An hour of easy cycling, you may burn an extra 300 calories. So that would mean with an hour of cycling (300 calories) and your daily BMR (2288 calories), this is roughly 2500 calories you would burn a day. You said earlier you roughly eat 3000 calories a day. This means you are eating 500 more calories a day then you are using.

I read somewhere that to lose 1 pound a week safely, you need to have a 500 calorie deficit a day. This would mean you would have to either lower your food intake to 2000 calories a day, which is hard to do or increase your calorie usage to 2500 which is easier.

Hopefully this makes more sense and remember these numbers are approximate.
 
Oh ok, got it now! I will just work myself up to burning more calories by staying on my bike for a longer time as well as trying to keep my calories at around 2500 and lower.

Today was my third day riding, I was out for exactly one hour and covered more ground than the first 2 days. My ride today was 8.76 miles. Yesterday's ride was 6.7 miles which also took me an hour. I ended up taking 2 Advils to better cope with the pain in my ****.

I will invest in a pair of cycling shorts, it does seem like a must.
I know when working out with weights you cannot workout the same body part 2 days in a row or it will pretty much be counter productive. What is the story with cycling? Is it something I can do everyday? Do I take off a day or 2 a week?
 
Cycling is different in that there are various methods in training. For the most part, Cycling is about heart rate zones. Do some research on heart rate training. This will give you a fair idea on what cycling is all about. Basically there are heart rate zones, Aerobic and Anaerobic and the majority of cycling is about being aerobic and increasing your aerobic capacity.
 
You'll have to figure out a bicycling schedule that meets your needs, schedule, and physical ability.

For instance, there are some folks on the forum that started out just like you are....they were overweight and had low stamina, but had a desire just as you do to get fit.

If you read through some of the threads you'll hear people saying how they could only ride 1 or two miles every other day when they started, but soon started seeing some big gains in the distance and speed of their rides. Some of these folks ride every day now and ride quite a few miles....but, there is no hard and fast rule as to how far you should ride or how often. That's really up to each individual.

You have to listen to your body.

If you are really sore from an excercise, whether its from bicycling or some other type of excercise, then you should allow some recovery time. But, after you have ridden for a few weeks and toughened up your body, then you can start riding more frequently, every day if you have the time to do so.

Just don't over do it when you first start, but realize that you are going to experience some muscle soreness...
 
Hey Onetrade-- Everyone is different so you have to find what works for you. However, some advice: 1) As someone else said earlier, cycling will not overcome bad eating. You cannot continue to eat the way you do now and lose weight, no matter how many miles you put in. 2) So you have to change your diet. Counting calories will help let you know why you are fat, and maybe help you address it by eating less. However, it's a lot of work and it won't on its own address your bad eating. You need to change *what* you eat as well. Why? Because eating badly makes you hungry believe it or not. And if you're hungry all the time you're going to have a hell of a time losing weight because you won't be able to resist eating, even if you know how many calories it is you are eating. 3) So how do you learn what to eat? There are lots of books and lots of theories out there and lots of things will work. The basic idea is to eat real food (not something unrecognizeable and not chemical compounds you can't pronounce) and eat mostly plants. I.e., not much meat or dairy. If you start eating well you will feel really good all the time, like you did in high school, and getting out of bed will not be hard anymore. My personal favorite diet is the "clean" diet. There's a book by Junger. You don't need to follow it to the letter. Just eliminate most/all the foods he says and make lunch your large meal rather than dinner. Make breakfast a 100% fruit/veggie smoothie (like a Naked juice smoothie, switch up the type), as much as you want. Eat another smoothie before you eat a light dinner (it will make you eat less at dinner). In a few weeks you will feel fantastic and it should be effortless to lose weight.
 
Started riding right after I had meniscus surgery four years ago. I weighed between 250-260. I lost four pounds a month for 15 months. During the winter months I spent some time on the dreadmill due to poor riding weather. I started riding on a mtn/trail bike and my rides were 5-7 miles. After three months I bought by Trek FX series bike. By the 15th month my rides were 18-22 miles. My last two rides this week were over 30 miles each on my new Bianchi Road bike. I feel better than I have in years. My diet is not some weirdness either. I eat a variety of foods, depriving myself of nothing. I just don't overdo anything. I do stay away from deep fried foods, treating myself to Five Guys french fries maybe once a month. I try to limit dairy and I rarely drink sodas. I do try to avoid eating out frequently...that's a killer. Maybe once or twice a week at most. I also play basketball once a week and play golf once or twice a week (walking the course, not riding a cart). My key is staying active, building into my lifestyle. It has to be a priority. Cycling is the key component as it burns the most calories for me. But my advice is to simply stick with it and slowly push yourself farther and farther. It is sooo well worth it. It's not complicated. You just gotta get going!
 
I don't want to belabor the above points but you have gotten a lot of great advice so far. I will just add a couple of points from the experience of one who was in your shoes not long ago.

About ten months ago I weighed 230 lbs. I was already riding road and mountain bikes when I could find the time without any appreciable improvement. Like you said, I was also in the worst shape of my life. After having a physical for work, something clicked and I began a lifestyle change that, so far, has me 50 lbs lighter and in better shape than I've been in since my early twenties (I'm 35 now). I got back on my bike and started riding as often as I could challenging myself each ride to go faster and farther (insert bike computer here). I found that I really enjoyed the solitude that came with riding back country roads mile after mile. Even though the roads are very familiar to me, I noticed scenery that I have never seen before. I experimented with different riding positions, pedaling and climbing techniques effectively discovering the science of cycling which intrigued my inner geek. Gradually, I realized that I wasn't just out there exercising, I was becoming a cyclist. I became more and more interested in the sport itself which completely changed my focus. No longer was I completely fixated on losing weight; I wanted to do whatever I needed to to become a stronger, faster rider.

That desire quickly led to a voluntary change in diet. I started eliminating fat wherever I could. What does the inside of a restaurant lod ok like anyway? I loaded a calorie and fitness app onto my phone and tracked my calorie intake each day. That helped me learn what I could get away with eating and still meet my goals. By the way, I love food just as much as you do. I went all the way on whole grains. I was once a sweet tea enthusiast... no more. Water for me, please. Boneless, skinless chicken is now my best friend and you can do ANYTHING with it. Extra virgin olive oil substituted for butter and other fats.

I also became more interested in other forms of exercise. I started running, lifting weights, basically whatever I could think of. Every time I hit a plateau, I would switch up my workout and do something new. That always broke the plateau and got me losing weight again. As I said, I now weigh 180 pounds and smoking hot women literally follow me around. Ok, not really but my wife does say that I look much better. My rides have gone from a labored 10 miles to a rather pleasant 35 to 40 miles and I'm hoping to ride my first metric century in a couple months. My average speed has increased from about 14. 5 mph to 16.9 mph (still not lightning fast, but definitely better).

The point to all this is to say that when you are motivated you can accomplish your goals. One of the biggest weight loss traps that people fall into is focusing solely on their weight. When they plateau they lose their momentum because their driving force is weight loss. Make fitness your focus. Change your workout periodically and eat right. I hope to inspire you some because I know exactly how it feels to be too heavy to do what you want to do. Keep at it and most of all, enjoy cycling!

Brian
 
To add to what everyone else has said, you must run a calorie deficit of about 500 cal per day to lose 1 lb/ week, but at the same time eat enough good fuel to power your weight loss. If you under eat, you body simply goes into starvation mode, your metabolism slows and your body retains fat for survival. I use the livestrong site and the daily plate calculator for tracking food intake and calories burned. There is an iPhone app that you can use and sync to the main site. The food inventory is very large and has many restaurant items. Fitness activities are pretty extensive as well. One thing that is important to weight loss is to keep a reasonable balance of calories from carbs, protein and fat. My trainer has me on a 40,40 20 ratio which the site above will calculate for you every day. To get enough protein, you may have to supplement with a protein drink of your liking. Please note that unless you are very diligent in tracking your food, pretty much any tracking site is worthless. The calorie burn indicated on the site is likely higher than you will realize. My strategy was to set my profile up with a low base activity level (sedentary) and under report the fitness time to try and be more realistic with calorie burn, I cycle on weekends about 100 - 120 miles a week, and do indoor cycling classes another 3 days per week trying to get a 6-700+ calorie burn for each class. The weekend rides are usually about 3 hours and burn 1800 - 2600 depending on the ride. Using this approach has let me drop about 18 lbs in the last 4 months. So, for a week, I burn about 3500 - 3800 riding/training, have a BMR of 1980 cal/day to maintain or about 1230 cal/day for a weight loss goal of 1.5 lb/week. I consume about 1800 cal/day while doing the above activity. The net is about 1300 cal/day or a 500 cal/day deficit over an average week. On days when I don't ride, I try to stay around the 1300 calorie level, riding days are around 2000 cal/day.

DAL
 
[SIZE= medium]Do you REALLY want to lose weight and make healthy eating choices ALL the time? [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium](like others have said – losing weight is much more about what we eat than about how much we exercise) [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]If you want to you can read “Prevent and reverse heart disease” by C B Esselstyn Jr M.D. [/SIZE]

[SIZE= medium]Most of what he advocates I (we, my wife and boys) do.[/SIZE]

[SIZE= medium]I’ve been Vegetarian (and now nearly Vegan) for over 15 years. My weight stays light and stable and for my age I’m a pretty decent bike rider (club racer) – especially when it comes to hills when weight really makes a difference. [/SIZE]

[SIZE= medium]BBB[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE= medium]To add to the above – what makes healthy Vegetarianism (and more so Veganism) good is that it’s not about the fiddliness of calorie counting or a bit of this and a little of that it becomes easier to say – right that’s what I have, that’s what I don’t. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]It keeps it simple and effective. [/SIZE]

[SIZE= medium]BBB[/SIZE]
 

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