New to this, uneducated with fitness.

[walla]

Hi all, this is my first post because this is new to me. I am looking to train in the gym by cycling. I started last week and rode for an hour. Then i was sore for a few days that stretching alone couldnt prevent, so i took a few days off.

Monday and yesterday though, I biked for 1 hour at a time (15 Miles) and feel fine. I will do it again today and tomorrow and friday. Is this good for someone starting. The machine i use is one of those technogym bikes and has a lot of info about Kcals, BPM's, Distance, etc.. but there is no way to program information into it. After an hour it will say total distance, kcals, etc..

My guess is the kcal's can't be right because my weight, etc.. isn't inputted in. It says like 500 Kcal's in an hour (15 miles).

Is this good for starting? I am 5'11" and 200 pounds and am looking to shed some weight. do you think biking 15 miles a day (5-days a week) will shed weight and fat?

I'm new to this and very uneducated when it comes to fitness. Thanks for your help

 

[DZ-015]

Hi Walla,

Any kind of exercise will help you lose fat if you eat sensibly.

Take it easy at first and build up your intensity and vary the type of exercise you do.

500 Calories might be correct, because that's around what my Polar HR monitor tells me I've burned after a 45 minute spinning session.

Have a look here:

http://www.cptips.com/

It's a good place to start.

Good luck with the training

 

[dhk]

Hi all, this is my first post because this is new to me. I am looking to train in the gym by cycling. I started last week and rode for an hour. Then i was sore for a few days that stretching alone couldnt prevent, so i took a few days off.

Monday and yesterday though, I biked for 1 hour at a time (15 Miles) and feel fine. I will do it again today and tomorrow and friday. Is this good for someone starting. The machine i use is one of those technogym bikes and has a lot of info about Kcals, BPM's, Distance, etc.. but there is no way to program information into it. After an hour it will say total distance, kcals, etc..

My guess is the kcal's can't be right because my weight, etc.. isn't inputted in. It says like 500 Kcal's in an hour (15 miles).

Is this good for starting? I am 5'11" and 200 pounds and am looking to shed some weight. do you think biking 15 miles a day (5-days a week) will shed weight and fat?

I'm new to this and very uneducated when it comes to fitness. Thanks for your help

Unlike walking or running, you're not supporting your body on the bike or stationary trainer so body weight isn't significant. The energy burned in riding a bike or stationary trainer is just a function of the power output and time of your ride, plus the common estimate that kjoules work done ~ kcals of energy burned.

EG, if you put out 139 watts (joules/sec), for 3600 seconds, you've done 500,400 joules worth of work in an hour, or ~500 kjoules. Using the estimate that kjoules output is equivalent to kcals burned by your body gets the 500 kcal result you see.

Actually, have no idea how closely the typical gym machine is calibrated. I ride a Life Cycle trainer at the local Y, train by HR and RPE, not kcals. But it's interesting to back into average power output from the kcal reading (just divide by 3.6 does the trick of converting back to watts).

Your 139 watts for 1 hour certainly seems solid for a beginner. Feel free to cut back the intensity or time if you get too sore or tired from this level of effort; you can always ramp up again after a few weeks.

Agree with DZ too of course....you've got to watch the diet and produce a net calorie deficit if you want to lose weight. As most of us know, it's all to easy to eat back all the calories you burn after a hard ride.

 

[frenchyge]

My guess is the kcal's can't be right because my weight, etc.. isn't inputted in. It says like 500 Kcal's in an hour (15 miles).

Is this good for starting? I am 5'11" and 200 pounds and am looking to shed some weight. do you think biking 15 miles a day (5-days a week) will shed weight and fat?

75 miles and 5 hours of exercise a week? Heck yeah, that's good! Don't believe me(?), ask yourself how that compares to what you've been doing before now.

1-hr, 5x per week might be a little aggressive at first, but if you feel good then go for it. If you find yourself feeling tired or sore I'd suggest slowing down a bit (10-12mph, maybe) a couple times a week and keeping the duration steady.

If it's a fancy gym bike, then it may be measuring your calorie burn directly, rather than estimating it from your weight as if you were really riding outside. 500 cal/hr is not unreasonable at all, and at 5x per week that's 7500 cal/wk. That'll burn you some weight (~1.5-2 pounds per week depending on whether you increase consumption because of the new workload). Keep it up!

 

[SolarEnergy]

The important thing, is not what you will be doing in the next few weeks, but rather what you will be doing in 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 months from now, hopefully, without any interruption (other than taking few weeks off, couple of times a year).

So take your time, build up a nice progression, and...

Have fun

 

[pod]

Hi all, this is my first post because this is new to me. I am looking to train in the gym by cycling. I started last week and rode for an hour. Then i was sore for a few days that stretching alone couldnt prevent, so i took a few days off.

Monday and yesterday though, I biked for 1 hour at a time (15 Miles) and feel fine. I will do it again today and tomorrow and friday. Is this good for someone starting. The machine i use is one of those technogym bikes and has a lot of info about Kcals, BPM's, Distance, etc.. but there is no way to program information into it. After an hour it will say total distance, kcals, etc..

My guess is the kcal's can't be right because my weight, etc.. isn't inputted in. It says like 500 Kcal's in an hour (15 miles).

Is this good for starting? I am 5'11" and 200 pounds and am looking to shed some weight. do you think biking 15 miles a day (5-days a week) will shed weight and fat?

I'm new to this and very uneducated when it comes to fitness. Thanks for your help

The machines in gyms can be a bit deceptive in that you get to choose the resistance level and there is a big range from very light at the lowest levels to climbing Alp d'heuz at the upper end. If you are spinning at a very light level of resistance for an hour or 15 miles then you are probably doing no more than if you were walking slowly for an hour. Walking or spinning lightly is good for loosing weight but if you want to get fitter you need to progressively turn up the resistance to a level that will stress your heart, lungs and muscles somewhat which in turn will lead to adaptations that make each stronger.

I see a lot of people in the gym spinning with very light resistance and unless they are very unfit or doing a light recovery ride it is probably not doing much for them.

 

[netscriber]

But it's interesting to back into average power output from the kcal reading (just divide by 3.6 does the trick of converting back to watts).

Oh wait...did you just say divide the Kcal by 3.6 and get the wattage for the entire workout? Wow, this sounds fun to me. I just cannot afford a powermeter right now and use ht HRM method but am always curious as to how much work I have done. My polar has the KCAL estimation too.

 

[walla]

500 cal/hr is not unreasonable at all, and at 5x per week that's 7500 cal/wk. That'll burn you some weight (~1.5-2 pounds per week depending on whether you increase consumption because of the new workload). Keep it up!

Did you mean 500 cal/hr at 5x per week is 2500 cal/week? I bike one hour at at a time?

Thanks for the all the comments and what not. Right now, I'm sweating like crazy. After an hour my shirt is soaked. I think this is a good place to start and eventually I will increase the level of intensity and the duration. For the next few weeks I will stick with this.

 

[DZ-015]

Walla,

Glad you're doing OK. Be careful about fluid intake!

Weigh yourself before and after a session if you can. The amount of weight you lose needs to be put back in fluid (water). Drink water on the bike.

Pretty soon you'll be buying a lightweight road bike

 

[frenchyge]

Did you mean 500 cal/hr at 5x per week is 2500 cal/week? I bike one hour at at a time?

Whoops! Umm, yeah that's what I meant.

I must have been thinking of the 15 day Vulcan week or something. Anyway, ~3300-3500 calories = a pound of fat loss, so I'll let you do your own math rather than embarassing myself further.

 

[li rider]

15 miles a day at 15 mph is a good routine.

but if your gym has spin (studio cycling) classes, try those instead of just riding the stationary bike. it will force you into different routines which work on cardio, muscle strength etc.

1 hour at good intensity probably will get you to about 500 calories.

another basic you need to follow -- remember to drink before, during and after you exercise and eat within 1 hour after exercising.

Hi all, this is my first post because this is new to me. I am looking to train in the gym by cycling. I started last week and rode for an hour. Then i was sore for a few days that stretching alone couldnt prevent, so i took a few days off.

Monday and yesterday though, I biked for 1 hour at a time (15 Miles) and feel fine. I will do it again today and tomorrow and friday. Is this good for someone starting. The machine i use is one of those technogym bikes and has a lot of info about Kcals, BPM's, Distance, etc.. but there is no way to program information into it. After an hour it will say total distance, kcals, etc..

My guess is the kcal's can't be right because my weight, etc.. isn't inputted in. It says like 500 Kcal's in an hour (15 miles).

Is this good for starting? I am 5'11" and 200 pounds and am looking to shed some weight. do you think biking 15 miles a day (5-days a week) will shed weight and fat?

I'm new to this and very uneducated when it comes to fitness. Thanks for your help

 

[dhk]

Oh wait...did you just say divide the Kcal by 3.6 and get the wattage for the entire workout? Wow, this sounds fun to me. I just cannot afford a powermeter right now and use ht HRM method but am always curious as to how much work I have done. My polar has the KCAL estimation too.

Yes, that would be the conversion from total kcals to average power in watts for a one hour ride. The "3.6" factor is just the number of seconds you ride (eg, an hour is 3600 seconds), divided by 1000. So, if you ride for 30 minutes, the factor is 1.8, or two hours, it's 7.2.

Of course, that will give you only average power for the workout. If you're doing hard intervals of say 5 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of easy spinning, the overall average power figure won't adequately reflect what you're doing.

Also, have no idea how accurately calibrated these LifeCycle trainers really are. They display "kcals" to 3 digits, but wouldn't count on lab-accuracy from them.

 

[walla]

Yeah the gym has classes, heck the gym has everything. And for the price i pay its totally worth it (a few hours a week working the front desk). I'll be honest with everyone that college put me out of shape. Cheesesteaks, pizza, and beer don't do the body any good. Well my glory days have been over for a year now so its time to get back in shape, eating healty and exercising regularly. I will probably stick with the stationary for a few weeks and then get involved in the spin classes. With my day job, my part time job at the gym, and just beginning to work out, i wouldnt want to put too much stress on me so fast. I want to ease into everything. Today i pumped out 16.3 miles in exactly an hour--hoping to hit 20 miles an hour by March 15th.

 

[DJA]

Yeah the gym has classes, heck the gym has everything. And for the price i pay its totally worth it (a few hours a week working the front desk). I'll be honest with everyone that college put me out of shape. Cheesesteaks, pizza, and beer don't do the body any good. Well my glory days have been over for a year now so its time to get back in shape, eating healty and exercising regularly. I will probably stick with the stationary for a few weeks and then get involved in the spin classes. With my day job, my part time job at the gym, and just beginning to work out, i wouldnt want to put too much stress on me so fast. I want to ease into everything. Today i pumped out 16.3 miles in exactly an hour--hoping to hit 20 miles an hour by March 15th.

Keep it up, sounds like your doing ok. Remember to increase gradually and good luck keeping bordom at bay.

5 hrs on a stat bike would do my head in but if you are able to do it in 6mths try racing because your mentally tough and that helps especially in time trails and handicaps.

 

[walla]

Thanks, but I dont think i could do it without the TV that's built into the bike! Plug my headphones in and watch some TV. Monday's are great because I watch 24

 

[ToffoIsMe]

Thanks, but I dont think i could do it without the TV that's built into the bike! Plug my headphones in and watch some TV. Monday's are great because I watch 24

If there is any way to play a DVD or VHS on that tv, then it might be worth your time to look into a training video such as a CTS or Spinervals workout. It will give you specific intensities, heart rates, and cadences to hold for certain amounts of time (intervals), and will really help you improve your workout routine.

 

[MikeThe Bike]

Walla,

Not sure what poinit your training is at now, but if you are trying to loose weight/burn fat, it is important to keep your intensity low. Your body will use fat as a fuel when you are working at a heart rate below your "anaerobic threshold." What this means is basically you can sustain the effort for some time without breathing heavy. If you do a spin class, the instructor will likely try to motivate you to go hard. Intensity is good to build fitness, but not so good to loose weight. Bottom line, give yourself 1-2 days each week when you go hard in classes for short tmie periods with adequate rest between the hard efforts. The other 3-4 days keep things easy. If you take a class, just pedal easy and enjoy the tunes, and let the other people beat themselves up if they want. Take 1-2 days off each week.

Make sense?

Cheers,
Mike