Cycling for weight loss

[tjodit]

I started road riding this past spring and have been riding about 40-60 miles a week on average. I managed to ride 42 miles on Saturday - which I'm pretty proud of.

I was hoping that even without changing my diet that I would lose some weight due to the increase in exercise. I haven't lost any weight at all but have lost 2% body fat.

I was wondering if those of you who have lost weight by cycling can tell me how long before you started seeing results and if you had to adjust your diet as well before seeing any weight loss? Also, how many miles approx were you doing when you started seeing results?

 

[jhuskey]

I started road riding this past spring and have been riding about 40-60 miles a week on average. I managed to ride 42 miles on Saturday - which I'm pretty proud of.

I was hoping that even without changing my diet that I would lose some weight due to the increase in exercise. I haven't lost any weight at all but have lost 2% body fat.

I was wondering if those of you who have lost weight by cycling can tell me how long before you started seeing results and if you had to adjust your diet as well before seeing any weight loss? Also, how many miles approx were you doing when you started seeing results?

I am speaking for my wife who tries to ride 80- 100 miles per week plus interval training.
She has lost 25 lbs in the last 6 months by adjusting her diet along with her training.
It is always the same story. You must adjust your food intake and burn more than you are taking in.
Increased activity usually results in increased appetite.

 

[tjodit]

It is always the same story. You must adjust your food intake and burn more than you are taking in.
Increased activity usually results in increased appetite.

I honestly believe my caloric intake is the same as it was before I started riding. I exercise anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hrs a day at least 4 days a week. It seems to me that my calories out are somewhat higher than my colories in. I know the rule is simple, "eat less than you use" but it doesn't seem to be working yet.

 

[jhuskey]

I honestly believe my caloric intake is the same as it was before I started riding. I exercise anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hrs a day at least 4 days a week. It seems to me that my calories out are somewhat higher than my colories in. I know the rule is simple, "eat less than you use" but it doesn't seem to be working yet.

It is also important to consider what types of food you eat and when. I personally do not believe in diets.You can adjust your intake habits without really being on a diet. I have upped by training and not dropped weight. It was only after reducing my intake that I saw a difference.
If you are exercising and still not losing weight it is evident that you need to give something up and not knowing what your eating habits are I couldn't say what it might be.
The other thing to consider is that muscle weighs more than fat and not losing weight may not be a bad sign if you are happy with your size.
If this is not the case I would suggest counting your daily intake and removing the guess work.
The other things is that sometime it does take a while to notice a weight drop, but it is better to lose gradually in a healthy manner.
Sometimes it takes months to notice a big difference,but as long as you are enjoying your cycling be patient and don't quit.

 

[normancw]

I honestly believe my caloric intake is the same as it was before I started riding. I exercise anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hrs a day at least 4 days a week. It seems to me that my calories out are somewhat higher than my colories in. I know the rule is simple, "eat less than you use" but it doesn't seem to be working yet.

My wife started exercising again a couple of years ago, with Cardio and Karate classes 5 days a week. The first year, she did not change her diet and did not loose any weight.

Then she changed her diet (limited calories to 1400/day, with 40/40/20% coming from protein, carbs, and fat) - to do this, she had to increase her protein intake and reduce some carbs. She also added some weight lifting (45 minutes twice a week) to her exercise routine.

Within about 10 months, she lost about 23 lbs and went from ~ 33% to 22% body fat. She's maintaining her current weight by exercising the same amount, but has increased her calorie intake to about 1700 per day.

 

[Karlsmum]

I guess it depends on what you're currently eating. If I kept the same diet I was on before I started exercising regularly then I am sure I still would not have lost weight, a block of chocolate every few days certainly doesn't help weight loss, LOL !!! I have adjusted my diet, but I'm not 'dieting'. I just choose healthier alternatives and don't snack like I used to. I still have a bite size 'mars lite' every night with a cup of tea but other than that it's fruit, veges and other good stuff. Hope that helps tjodit

 

[Eden]

I've dropped about 20/25 lbs over the last couple of years from cycling. The first 10 came off really quick - my husband and I went on a cycling trip to Spain and I lost 10lbs in the two weeks we were there. I certainly can say that diet had no influence on that bit as we were eating far worse than we ever do at home. We were doing only doing 30 to 60 miles/day but, on loaded bikes (the extra weight makes a big difference) with a couple of rest/sightseeing days thrown in.
The next 10 lbs came of much more slowly, about 1lb every week or two. I was doing about 15 to 30 miles 4 days/ during the week and 35 to 60 on weekend days. I haven't really changed what I eat recently - but I cook a lot of vegetarian and soy dishes and a lot of fresh veggies anyway. We aren't vegetarians, but we eat meat fairly rarely and mostly turkey at that (we do have sushi every Friday ). I have made a conscious effort to eat less - stopping before I feel full.
My weight has pretty much stablized right now, I haven't really lost or gained anything for the last month or two, so I just have to work on not gaining any of it back over the winter. Come spring I may try to take off a little more - about 5 more lbs and I should be at an optimum weight for climbing.
I have a tanita scale and it reads me between 17.5 and 19% right now depending on how well hydrated I happen to be, down from about 23 -25% when I first got it.
Enough about me - it sounds like you are on the right track. With a little adjustment to your diet or adding a bit more exercise you'll probably start to take some weight off too. In any case losing 2% body fat is a great start - even if you are not lighter you have gained muscle and lost fat. If you are feeling discouraged try using other means to track your progress other than just weight. I'll bet your waist and hips are smaller now than when you started.

 

[MLMercer]

I went from little or no exercise to cycling to work and home again (35km) two or three times a week + weekend rides of 20km+ and expected to automatically loose some weight - but after about 8 months .. nothing...

Then I looked at what I was eating ... counting calories sounds very cliché but after doing a bit of reading I immediately stopped drinking so much apple juice, cut the amount of rice, bread and pasta (I only eat brown rice and rye bread in smaller quantities now) and increased the amount of veggies and water in my diet...

My advice is be aware and make educated and informed decisions about what you eat - some "healthy" foods such as fruit juice, rice and bread are calorie loaded You will get to know what foods are best by looking at how many calories are in each ...

There are lots of good sites that give info on calories in foods ... one good one is ... http://www.food.com.au/ - another site I use to add calories from exercise is ... http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html

I reduced my daily calorie intake to 1235 cal per day + any extra calories from exercise - after 7 weeks and with minimal increase to exercise I have lost 6kg.

Hope this helps

MLM

 

[tjodit]

With a little adjustment to your diet or adding a bit more exercise you'll probably start to take some weight off too. In any case losing 2% body fat is a great start - even if you are not lighter you have gained muscle and lost fat. If you are feeling discouraged try using other means to track your progress other than just weight. I'll bet your waist and hips are smaller now than when you started.

Something I just realized...when I started cycling I replaced racquetball with cycling on those days so I really haven't upped my calorie expenditure all that much. Really the only "extra" days were Saturday and Sunday when I typically didn't play racquetball but did cycle. I guess that explains not losing weight. So I feel pretty good about the 2% fat loss. My clothes do fit a bit better. I guess I should just expect a very gradual change. I'm just worried about what's going to happen over the winter. I hate stationary bikes, etc. If it doesn't feel like "play" or fun then I don't care for it much!
Guess the only riding I'll get in is on the weekends now.

 

[basso97]

I started road riding this past spring and have been riding about 40-60 miles a week on average. I managed to ride 42 miles on Saturday - which I'm pretty proud of.

I was hoping that even without changing my diet that I would lose some weight due to the increase in exercise. I haven't lost any weight at all but have lost 2% body fat.

I was wondering if those of you who have lost weight by cycling can tell me how long before you started seeing results and if you had to adjust your diet as well before seeing any weight loss? Also, how many miles approx were you doing when you started seeing results?

It took me 9 months before I started loosing the actual weight. I was loosing inches everyone thought I was loosing weight but I was not. I was doing hard riding and training on keeping up with the fast guys.



In past years my goal was to loose the weight and I would not loose it, this year my goal was to keep up with the fast guys. As I made progress I stayed motivated and eventually lost the weight. Now with the winter coming I am going to concentrate on eating healthy and see if I can improve my cycling by actually loosing another 10 lbs.

 

[tjodit]

It took me 9 months before I started loosing the actual weight. I was loosing inches everyone thought I was loosing weight but I was not. I was doing hard riding and training on keeping up with the fast guys.

That's encouraging! I'm not totally hung up on the scale...if I could just see changes in my appearance I would feel better. But it's discouraging to work so hard, even though riding is so much fun, and not see improvements. All the ladies I work with don't exercise at all and they seem to stay at the same body weight. But then again most of them are on diets. So I guess that's one reward. I haven't been gaining any weight and I've been eating what I want. That's got to beat dieting, right?

 

[Eden]

All the ladies I work with don't exercise at all and they seem to stay at the same body weight. But then again most of them are on diets. So I guess that's one reward. I haven't been gaining any weight and I've been eating what I want. That's got to beat dieting, right?

Just being thin doesn't necessarily make you healthy either. Thin inactive people are still more likely to die (55% more ) than thin/active people.

 

[James Bruce Gil]

Just being thin doesn't necessarily make you healthy either. Thin inactive people are still more likely to die (55% more ) than thin/active people.

Eden,

I subscribe to your theory. I have never ever seen an overweight alcoholic they always die younger on average.

Huskey, is right; Unless you adjust your intake, exercise will not make you lighter. Believe me, I have gone through this cycle several times.

What is most likely to occur if you don't adjust your food intake is that your weight will redistribute: That is you will put on muscle in your arms & legs and you will lose weight from your body. Leaving you within a few ounces of where you started.

The big plus is that the weight you lose from your body will be largely fat which is not of much use unless you live in a particularly cold climate.

Kind regards,

Bluto.

 

[James Bruce Gil]

Just being thin doesn't necessarily make you healthy either. Thin inactive people are still more likely to die (55% more ) than thin/active people.

Eden,

I subscribe to your theory. I have never ever seen an overweight alcoholic they always die younger on average.

Huskey, is right; Unless you adjust your intake, exercise will not make you lighter. Believe me, I have gone through this cycle several times.

What is most likely to occur if you don't adjust your food intake is that your weight will redistribute: That is you will put on muscle in your arms & legs and you will lose weight from your body. Leaving you within a few ounces of where you started.

The big plus is that the weight you lose from your body will be largely fat which is not of much use unless you live in a particularly cold climate.

Kind regards,

Bluto.

 

[borisBob]

I was wondering if those of you who have lost weight by cycling can tell me how long before you started seeing results and if you had to adjust your diet as well before seeing any weight loss? Also, how many miles approx were you doing when you started seeing results?[/QUOTE]

If you look in my story above, maybe you will find out the answer
Bob

 

[Equus123]

I started road riding this past spring and have been riding about 40-60 miles a week on average. I managed to ride 42 miles on Saturday - which I'm pretty proud of.

I was hoping that even without changing my diet that I would lose some weight due to the increase in exercise. I haven't lost any weight at all but have lost 2% body fat.

I was wondering if those of you who have lost weight by cycling can tell me how long before you started seeing results and if you had to adjust your diet as well before seeing any weight loss? Also, how many miles approx were you doing when you started seeing results?

yay! my favorite topic of conversation here's the best breakdown for your situation...

weight is an arbitrary and undefined term, used rarely in the sports and science world. weight is made up of two things (excluding the obvious mass of your bones, organs, etc) - muscle mass and fat mass. in the nutrition and exercise world, these two objects are the main focus.

the body is an interesting thing to study because of its complexity and its simplicity. your weight can remain the same while your muscle mass and fat mass are manipulated. the two main contributors to this ratio of one to the other are diet and exercise. relating this to a science experiment....you had a constant in your equation - your diet. that was kept the same throughout. so after riding, exercising, you added a little of something which in turn took away a little of something else to keep the equation balanced. basically, with your weight remaining the same and dropping 2% body fat...adding exercise increased your muscle mass and decreased your body fat percentage. muscle is heavier than fat. muscle also burns more calories than fat. the more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism tends to be. does all this make sense?

if you really want to go into it and see much larger results, manipulating your diet is the way to go. its usually recommended to take in 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight i.e. i weigh 125lbs. i should take in 125 grams of protein per day. eat a well balanced diet - lots of fresh or raw veggies. dont cut out carbs and dont eat too many....stuff everybody knows. but if you modify your diet to make it easier for your to benefit from the exercise you're doing, you will be able to reach it faster.

focus on the types of food that you are eating. be careful about what you take in. i know that my resting metabolic rate (RMR) is 1340 - my body burns 1340 calories a day just by default. if i want to maintain my current weight, i can weigh 125lbs whether i eat 1340 calories in ice cream and pizza or by eating proteins (chicken, lean beef) and clean (uncooked) veggies. ....but one will look VERY different from the other.

the main thing is NOT to focus on the number on the scale. like i said, weight is an arbitrary number. its possible that your weight can remain the same the entire time you are a cyclist. but the key is that your body will LOOK completely different. i guarantee it. if the number on the scale stays the same, its because you added more muscle and lost some body fat. thats not a bad thing!

 

[TrekCyclerChic]

I've been biking for about 2 years and running for as long as I can remember. How much I do fluxuates a lot throughout the year. But in the last two years I have not lost weight. Ocasionally a pound here or there, but i have been withing 8 lbs of my avg weight for the last two years. This includes this past spring (jan to June) when I was biking about 250-350 miles a week while training for my tour. Then, I got very sick and stop riding as well as aborted the tour. But through it all I've weighed the same. It just muscle to fat and vice versa depending on what I am doing.

It should take a while to start losing. In an article I was reading, it generally takes a while to adapt, and then you are going to be building muscle which will not necessarily make you lose weight right away, it might even make you gain. But, once you have the muscle, you'll be burning more fat, so eventually you should start losing. But remember, it's not always about a number. I can weigh the same yet my size can vary a ton. So just keep that in mind to when you are weighing in and feeling frustrated. Personally I'd rather see an athletic well built girl than a thin one anyways. But cudos on the biking... isn't it addicting? :-D

 

[James Bruce Gil]

I was wondering if those of you who have lost weight by cycling can tell me how long before you started seeing results and if you had to adjust your diet as well before seeing any weight loss? Also, how many miles approx were you doing when you started seeing results?

If you look in my story above, maybe you will find out the answer
Bob[/QUOTE]

Bob,

I thought it was doing it for me at one stage, but it turned out to be cancer!

In general you must adjust your diet, to do otherwise will result in trimming you up, you'll put on more muscle, (which is heavier than fat), but your final weight won't be significantly different to where you started.

Not that this is a bad thing; Your heart-rate will certainly drop, (and along with it blood pressure), your aerobic fitness will improve and you'll feel better generally, but not much lighter I'm afraid.

KInd regards,

 

[tjodit]

...you had a constant in your equation - your diet. that was kept the same throughout. so after riding, exercising, you added a little of something which in turn took away a little of something else to keep the equation balanced. basically, with your weight remaining the same and dropping 2% body fat...

i know that my resting metabolic rate (RMR) is 1340 - my body burns 1340 calories a day just by default. if i want to maintain my current weight, i can weigh 125lbs whether i eat 1340 calories in ice cream and pizza or by eating proteins (chicken, lean beef) and clean (uncooked) veggies. ....but one will look VERY different from the other.

Very good explanation! Thank you. But I have a question about the last part that I quoted above. Isn't a calorie a calorie - just a source of fuel for the body? If that is true then what difference would it make if your 1340 calories a day come from ice cream or chicken? Won't the body use what it needs and store the rest as fat regardless of they type of food? Isn't exercise what would determine how you looked? Flabby/no tone vs. lean and muscular?

 

[Equus123]

Very good explanation! Thank you. But I have a question about the last part that I quoted above. Isn't a calorie a calorie - just a source of fuel for the body? If that is true then what difference would it make if your 1340 calories a day come from ice cream or chicken? Won't the body use what it needs and store the rest as fat regardless of they type of food? Isn't exercise what would determine how you looked? Flabby/no tone vs. lean and muscular?

you're welcome for the explanation. my pleasure to clarify on calories and food sources....

hypothetically, the 1340 resting metabolic rate is what the body needs to maintain normal function. any increase in daily activity (i.e. exercise) will mean that more calories will be burned, creating a caloric debt, and therefore decreasing weight.

in regards to a calorie being a calorie, there is a lot more physiology behind how the body uses nutrients for energy efficiency and metabolic function. if i need 1340 calories and eat protein, veggies, good fats, and drink plenty of water then the body will use the protein for muscle (primarily), the veggies as vitamins, and the good fats as a source of either primary or secondary energy sources dependending on chemical composition. now compared to if i eat bad fats, minimal protein/veggies/fruits, and have a high sugar source (i.e. sweets, ice cream), the body will only use as much sugar (=carbs) as it needs for its current energy output. the other carbs will go to a secondary or third fat source which will be harder to lose.

a calorie isn't a source of fuel for the body, it is a measurement for how much energy the body will have to use to break down the food. would you agree that eating a chicken breast will be more beneficial than a bowl of ice cream? here's why... chicken is protein and muscle needs protein. so the body uses the protein to strengthen muscle and keep it healthy. since stronger, healthier muscle burns more calories naturally... that creates a lean body. ice cream is sugar. even though you may exercise and burn calories, that doesn't mean that you automatically burn the ice cream calories first. depending on when you eat and when you exercise, the body will burn sugar first (and the body is very efficient so it will use the easiest sugar available, which is not sugar that you eat but sugar that is made by the body). if you don't exceed normal energy output (1340) then ice cream sugar will be put into a secondary fat store and be hard to breakdown later when you do exercise. the body is a survival mechanism and between meals energy not burned gets stored as fat (that's why it's not good to not eat, especially since most thin women tend to have high body fat percentage as compared with the average).

hope this helps and it's too much info to process. i had a friend who is a biologist/athletic trainer write this for you. let me know if you have any more questions and we will be glad to answer them for you. happy riding!