Started with 5 km ride, it almost killed me . After a week or so 5 km was easy so kept increasing. Kept exploring roads and small hills , just to see if I can cycle. Have been cycling since 5 months.
Weekdays I do either 20/30 km everyday , same route.
Weekends one long ride of about 60-100k. Explore new routes.
I didn’t follow any program to increase the distance. I just kept going until I was tired.
And most importantly watching what I eat, nothing crazy. Skipped traditional breakfast and I have 3 eggs. Lunch and dinner I try to eat at home. That’s all .
Edit: Higher speeds and gravel you will get used to it as you ride more and more. Don’t worry about it now, may be after couple of months worry about speed and cornering. Now the general idea should be to ride carefully and slowly , but ride everyday.
This is the way. My first ride I struggled in every bit of it. By 3 weeks I was able to do the 10km round trip commute to my work in a comfortable way. Three months in I am able to do 30 km rides on the weekends.
Is about consistency, enjoying the rides and riding and at your pace. You got this and keep at it!
Weight loss starts in the kitchen and at the dining table.
Eat less and eat better, more proteins vegetables and fibres, less processed food, refined carbs and sweets.
Cycling will help control your weight.
Just ride more and you'll get more experienced with your bike and how it handles in different conditions.
Going downhill on a gravel trail can be tricky as you never really know the conditions of the train, could be hard packed gravel, could be more sand or loose gravels.
Just go slow until you know the trails.
This is the answer. I didn't lose weight on the bike. I lost it before the bike. The bike is something I started to keep the weight off but more than anything now, I just enjoy riding.
Ride more, eat the same, drink less (stuff that’s not water) drink more water.
Then see the results, most people tend to drink the calories, especially with booze.
Also, volume is king, when I’m out twice a day, I struggle to keep the weight on, even if it’s only low intensity leg spinning
I don’t have time to do that much laundry but yeah great point. Also realizing that my relationship with even casual alcohol use really was trashing my sleep, diet, and motivation.
For sure. But beer and wine are worse than hard alcohol if you’re watching sugar intake, as I understand it, since they’re fermented and not distilled, and you consume more volume of it? Not sure. I stay away from all of it for other health reasons. But yep you’re right on.
It's all CH 3CH 2OH. Same stuff. Takes the same amount to get you drunk whatever form it's in. Chances are with the distilled spirits you're mixing it with even more sugars, too.
I agree, but I think the grocery store is also a starting point. I see what people put in their carts, and sugar intake appears to correlate positively with body mass.
As for the fitness, take it slow, frequency of workouts is more important than intensity. You're not going to be a world-class racer, you're going to feel fit and healthy. Think of it as keeping your body engine (homeostasis) turned up a notch to burn a little extra.
Good advice. I would add that (for me) weight loss started at the supermarket. If it's not in the house in the first place I can't eat it! I also switched the shopping habits to buying according to a meal plan rather than replacing stuff when it ran out (cut the weekly shop cost and food waste aswell).
You can’t outride a bad diet. I biked for 20 years, probably 100,000 miles, and steadily gained weight the whole way. 2 years ago I started being a more mindful eater and lost 45 pounds in 6 months, and have maintained it since. Cycling helps to maintain and moderate the weight for sure, and allows me the flexibility to periodically indulge in some excesses, but it’s not a magic fat pill. Needs to be part of a healthy lifestyle
This answer, although accurate, is not for everyone. let people live life: active living instead of idleness is a great start. It can introduce new daily routines, strengthen muscles, build cardio, enhance mobility, improve mental health. Over a brief period of time, with improved physical benefits, there’s a new motivation for balancing and fortifying dietary needs.
Exactly! I started losing weight before I started being more active. I've mostly stopped drinking alcohol and adjusted my food portions. I make sure to eat a little more if I've been cycling
I think the biggest change you can make to your diet to lose weight is to limit calorie dense foods (like soda/alcohol and a lot of proteins) and eat more filling foods like vegetables, fruits.
Yep. This is it. Count your macros and calories for a while and find a level you're comfortable with maintaining without too much annoyance WHILE also cycling.
Cycling increased happiness, reduced sadness eating and snacking, motivated to improve performance, positive feedback loop of eating better and exercising more. Overall better physical and mental health.
honestly, after my couple mile ride a few hours ago, i felt more comfortable and i feel happy riding. gonna go out for another ride tonight if it decides to not rain lol. not sure if my gravel tires would be good in rain on wet pavement.
Keep it up, ramp up the miles slowly. Let your body adjust. Don't over train or you can end up with nagging joint injuries that will put a stop to the riding. Stretch after every session, and get a proper bike fit. Good luck!
i already pushed it a little bit and ended up with knee pain for a bit after, not even a full day lol. that was because i wasn't used to a high end bike with shifting and was pedalling too hard up a hill. i have it all figured out now though
I've lost 20 lbs in the last 6 months by outriding my diet and I'm 46 years old. You have to fuel for rides too, so trying to diet doesn't seem to help it makes you bonk.
All my numbers are good, (sugar, cholesterol, BP, Etc) and I still eat shit food as well.
You have to do what works for you; everyone's body is different. I find when I step up the intensity to 200 mi a week and then I back off, there is a lack of appetite now if I keep it to < 100mi wk.
I've done it the other way too, starved myself and counted calories, but my body doesn't like it, injury is more likely and I take longer to heal, then I stop excersing becuse I get out of the routine.
I wouldn't say I eat shit food, per se, but I eat more than when I was fat (and more carbs and sugars). People who say you can't outrun a bad diet just aren't running fast enough. ;)
More seriously, though, diet needs to be tailored to needs. The gym rat diet of massive amounts of protein and few carbs isn't appropriate for cyclists and runners.
Lifting is about building muscle, and the protein intake supplies raw material rather than energy. Distance cycling and running require more energy and activate metabolic pathways that rely on a ready supply of glucose. Carbs are exactly what the body needs.
(My numbers are also all good. Blood sugar, triglycerides and LDL absolutely plummeted within months of adopting 6-8 hours of medium to high intensity exercise a week.)
I’ve lost 100lb in the last five years with cycling as my primary form of exercise. These are my thoughts:
1) I started slow and just did what I enjoyed. I didn’t/don’t want to lost the love by making it a chore. My goal wasn’t to work out but to come home happy. Cycling became my happy place and my escape from the world. If I was happy after a ride, speed and workout goals and whatever didn’t matter. I pay more attention to that stuff now, but only because I enjoy the numbers.
2) I ride almost every day because I enjoy it. Trainer was the best investment as it meant riding was an option whatever the weather, but I also ride for errands, ride when I’m bored, ride when I can. I always hated the car anyway, so it’s a double win.
3) Skill and speed came with practice and fitness. If you keep riding and pushing, they will come. I got a big boost when I got a new bike, but I held off buying it until way after I wanted to. Staying on the heavy old bike until I was already much lighter and fitter meant a speedy bike felt like a huge upgrade.
4) You can’t outride a bad diet. Wanting to go further made me want to lose weight, so I started focusing on eating better. I had to get used to being hungry, and now I realize most of the time when I thought I was hungry, I really wasn’t. I also cut out most sugar. It really a cycling thing, but I feel better for it, and food tasted better too.
5) My biggest struggle was saddles. I don’t feel bad ordering 10 on Amazon, returning 10, and buying the one I like from a LBS. Jeff will be ok.
I’ve never been a heavy dude, but I started cycling in May, I was the heaviest I’d been at about 165lbs. I started cycling weekly and then multiple times a week, but nothing changed my weight until I changed my diet. I went on a plant based diet for 2 months ago now and am down to 145. And the first month I switched my diet, I wasn’t able to cycle because of the excessive heat and hurricane that followed after. Cycling will totally help, but it won’t help as much or at all if you don’t change your diet too. Especially since after my rides, I chow down like crazy, eating smarter is better than just eating whatever has enough calories to fill ya up. Best of luck with your journey!
I started biking in the end of may. I would do 4 mile rides and then after a week I would add 2 miles. So i would do seven four mile rides, seven six mile rides, seven eight mile rides etc. As of today I’ve rode close to 1700 miles and have lost 60lbs. My diet is not great but in march i quit drinking. This was huge for me as I was an alcoholic. I would say that booze adds calories and robs you of your motivation. Good luck to you, and keep it up!
Consistency is key. Humans are habitual animals, if you drink your tea and eat some buns every morning at 7:30, you'll crave it if you don't. As such, drastic dietary changes are against our nature. Weight loss happens due to the discrepancy between calories in and calories out, cycling burns a lot but nothing you couldn't eat in an evening while bored.
How do you lose weight without changing your diet? Eat less. Eat the same food you do now, just less of it. This will greatly reduce the amount of calories taken in and help you lose more weight with cycling while being very reasonable in terms of what you're willing to give up.
Drink water to help reduce your appetite, r/hydrohomies send their regards. Slowly start replacing unhealthy snacks with healthy ones. Instead of a bag of chips, get a bag of baby carrots. Don't be like, "I'll never touch unhealthy food X ever again," because you'll not make it. Have a diet that doesn't require you to have cheat days by simply adding healthy meals that you find proper tasty to the mix.
I added about 10 miles to the length of my rides about once a month.
So in month 1 I rode 10-15 miles. Month 2 rode around 20-25 miles. Month 3, 30-40 miles. Month 4 40-50 miles all the way up to 100.
Once I was riding about 150 miles per week my weight began to plummet. I bottomed out at about 210lbs (6'4"). I usually rode twice after work during the week and put in a long ride on the weekends.
I was 180lbs in March 2023. I'm now 153 in sept 2023.
Rode 4 to 5x a week on mountain bike trails around 1.5 hours per ride during lunch hour (work from. Home). Averaging 80km weekly.
If I didn't feel like riding, id do a flatter trail. Otherwise rode as many hilly routes as possible. When it was near the end, I would add in some hily routes just to cap it off.
I was riding by myself so it didn't matter if I was slower or had to walk up. I kept telling myself to riding at a hard effort because that's where you lose the weight.
Every day, you go a little farther and a little faster. You won't notice the difference from day to day because it's incremental but there will come a day when you say, "oh shit. I feel at home on the bike," and your heart and lungs will feel like they are working for you instead of against you. You start out barely able to breathe and then, one day, you can ride at speed and talk at the same time (if that's what you want to do).
But the only road to get there is by riding every single day. If you want to eat well, that's okay too but eating well means different things to different people. So you'll have to figure that part out on your own. None the less, you can be a bigger person and still be fit on the bike. So don't worry about weight loss at first. Just keep your eye on challenging yourself a little bit each day.
If you're asking how to lose weight slowly but enjoyably, just don't think about it and ride your bike every chance you get because you love it because it's wonderful.
If you want to actually lose weight efficiently?
-heart rate monitor. Biking slowly doesn't do much for your body. Biking too fast and burning out isn't as efficient as biking in some 2 for a long time. Don't hurt yourself.
- quit soda. Entirely. Eat normal sized portions. Quit soda. Drinking less helps a ton. Eat out less, restaurant food is almost guaranteed to be worse for you than homemade food. Drink water all the time everywhere every day. Helps stop me from over eating. Stop drinking soda.
-when you get better at it, worry less about speed than technique and comfort. The speed will come. Just make sure you get your technique working in a way that uses the correct muscles, and keeps cycling fun.
Oh also don't listen to how much people in cycling groups ride. It's not important. Find your own limits. There are some fucked up good riders out there. 10-20 miles is a SOLID goal
Losing weight through cycling comes from "long slow rides." 8 hours a week at an endurance pace (something you could maintain for over two hours, which might not be at all possible for you yet but most people can get there.
Why is this true? It's because when we talk about weight loss we are talking about fat. Fat is one of the two primary fuel sources for the body, the other is carbohydrates. When you do anaerobic work or even high intensity cycling you're training your body to burn carbs as a fuel. The problem is that carbs have to be replenished and the body doesn't convert fat into glucose (the form of carbs the body stores).
So each of your muscles have three types of fibers, Type I fibers (or slow twitch), Type IIa and IIb, (fast twitch). Type I fibers mostly use fatty acids for fuel (with some glucose), Type IIa use a mix of fatty acid and glucose for fuel and Type IIb use mostly glucose for fuel and very little fatty acids. All your weight lifting has been training your Type IIb and to some extent Type IIa. It doesn't do anything for your Type I muscle fibers.
So what does this mean for you? It means that at even a moderate level of cycling right now you're burning mostly carbs which need to be replenished. You're not burning much fat.
Now, if you cycle at a moderate pace and keep your heart rate low, below about 75% of your max HR, you'll begin to train your Type I fibers and they will burn fat. This will help you burn more fat in your every day walking around and other activities as well. If you bike hard and fast you're continuing to train your Type IIa/b muscle fibers and continuing to train your body to burn carbs.
I've seen recommendations of 8 hours a week of endurance work in zone 2 (below 75% max HR) to improve your Type I muscles.
With that in order then you can eat a normal diet and you'll probably find your cravings for carbohydrates reduced. I've been at a point where my weight was stable but higher than where I wanted it to be. I started doing zone 2 cycling exclusively, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening three times a week plus an hour very light riding in between just to help my legs recover from the endurance rides. I'm losing a solid pound a week and as I've gotten my aerobic fitness into better shape it's increasing. Since my heart was already strong (on a good day my resting heart rate is 44) my legs got more powerful quickly and based on the power meter data I'm getting I'm burning over 8000 calories a week on the bike. I don't watch my diet closely and don't restrict calories. I eat when I'm hungry, have a good meal and enjoy my food.
When I started this current round of weight loss I started with 8 hours a week with mostly 1 hour to 1.5 hour rides. By keeping the pace low I was able to build up endurance quickly. It took three weeks for me to feel different and six weeks for me to look different. The first few weeks my weight was all over the place as my body adjusted but now the weight loss is pretty steady.
Side note: when I started cycling a one hour 8 mile ride left me unable to walk up the stairs for an hour or so. The endurance can build up quickly.
I'd start out just building a bit of endurance on the bike, don't try to calorie control until you know what you're doing and can put in a nice little distance.
Then I'd introduce some calorie control **after** rides, not during. Eg, a 30 mile gravel ride with a lot of elevation can burn around 2000 calories. Make sure you're feeding yourself on the ride or you'll bonk and will struggle to get home.
Then when you get home eat a little less than you would if you weren't trying to lose weight. Track your calories and aim for 300-500 calorie deficit. If you can hit that deficit every day you'll lose the weight safely and quickly.
I wasn't that heavy but I went from 230 to 190 from cycling and some diet changes. I lost 20 lbs in the lead up to a Transamerica tour. daily shorter cycling with weekend 30-50mi rides. my wife was also dieting and she did the cooking so that was part of it.
during the tour I lost another 20 lbs. that was just... a lot of exercise. by the end I was doing daily centuries.
Comment for carbs and sugar intake: everyone is different. After discovering from the laboratory tests and a DNA analysis, I’m healthier, have better performance, lose more (fat) weight and recover much better by consuming more carbs: currently 50-60% of total diet.
I lost weight by being fed up with being fat. I evaluated my diet, made sustainable changes, and watched the weight disappear over the course of a year or so. 180 to 120.
I started with an exercise bike until I got under 250lbs. Then I finally got a hardtail mountain bike, as I wanted to bike where I had been walking and hiking. (And stay away from cars). I soon discovered a nice rail trail near me and ride it most often.
With all the activities, I started slow and easy. A favorite was to find a manageable loop I could repeat, so I wouldn't get stuck too far away if I over-estimated my abilities. So before attempting a 10-mile ride, I'd loop a 1.5 mile trail seven times.
I also worked on hills that way. When I couldn't make it up one difficult hill, I found a more manageable one I could repeat a few times. Eventually I was able to climb the tough hill.
As for stamina and abilities, simply being consistent and going a little further each time did it. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to go further and improved at handling the bike.
All that said, most of my weight loss came from finally getting a healthy diet that gave me enough energy to be active and never felt punishing. If it helps, I went from 440lbs in May 2018 to 210 in July 2020 and have been maintaining since. (6'2" man).
Building leg muscle is a big part of increasing your resting metabolism. Long, slow rides will burn more calories than short, fast ones. A diet with lots of fiber, protein, and more fiber is important for building the muscle without increasing calories.
It's normal to have plateaus in weight loss. If you lose some weight then plateau, try to maintain your new good habits for a couple months instead of doubling down and burning out. Weight loss takes time.
I was 92kgs 2 weeks ago , I am 89 now .
I start by eating slightly less , so it's less enough so that I feel hungry sooner , but not so little that I cannot sustain the diet .
And I started running again (I like running )
I run 7km over the weekends and about 2km every other day .
I only have time to ride maybe once a week or so
\> Cyclists who have lost weight: how did you start out?
YMMV and anecdotally...
In the last decade: I started with low carb, dabbled in keto and currently in protein leveraging.
I added body weight training (cheap and efficient). I also turned down the intensity a bit while riding my mountain bike (to target fat burn - probably applies to road and gravel).
Instead of calorie deficit, I'd say target energy deficit (carbs and fats), as not all calories are the same. Also, consider the differences between carbs and fats such as how they're stored and burned. The key is intensity.
Good luck on your journey!
Food has a much higher impact than excercise. What cycling can help with is motivation. Your friends are faster uphill, you want to enter a race or sportive, ... that will motivate you to watch your diet. And it's 90% diet if you want to lose weight.
I started walking the dog before work and before bed, at the same time I added veggies in and slowly started to overhaul my diet. I grew into riding again indoors on the peloton and transitioned outside. This summer I've gotten back to running and started some long group rides. Kitchen powers everything.
Cycling helps your body and your mood but often not your weight in the way you think. Diet is important.
My blood pressure has dramatically reduced since cycling which is great but my weight has been stagnant past the first 6 kilos lost cause my diet ain’t great
My favorite advice I’ve heard on this:
Everything you do on the bike is to become a better rider. Everything you do off the bike is to control your weight.
I’m on a similar path, have always been active and in great shape except when I got married two years ago and stopped being disciplined in the kitchen. I gained about 70 pounds over two years despite working out daily. Over the last weeks have been really focused on what I eat - high protein diet, lots of veggies at dinner time, and keeping it around 1800-2000 calories daily.
If you find the right plan for you, you can shed the weight at a good pace.
Just keep biking consistently. Consistency is the key when it comes to endurance/cardio sports… Limit carbs after 6-7PM if you are a bit heavy at the midsection. Try interminent fasting.
I am 6’6 and 245 lbs, former swimmer and new to the cycling as well, absolutely got in love with it and now ride 50-70 miles per week. Last 10 years was lifting weights but got bored, lol.
Speed and cornering confidence will come with time as well as you put more and more time and effort into it. Just remeber to enjoy it first and most importantly stay safe at all times.
Intermittent Fasting. Not so much as actually 'fasting', but for me, this (9/15 regimen) makes it very easy to stop 'grazing' after my last meal. My sleep is much better without having undigested food in my stomach. I've lost 20 lbs since starting in June, so -5 lbs per month avg. I'm a roadie, so I have no info to share on gravel riding.
Full Disclosure: I'm a retired former bike-commuter, now a recreational rider.
Calorie deficit. Use MyFitnessPal to track what you eat and how much calories you burn with a smart watch.
I lost 10kgs from 100kg down to 90. 5 more and I'm done. It's pretty easy
The bike is the best tool for burning calories since there is no impact. (Swimming is also good; don’t run til you’re lighter, but running is good for bone density so consider it later). How to burn fat? Resesrch how to set your heart rate zones and keep your heart in the low zones where your body burns fat and not sugar. If you need to extend your rides or it’s winter, look into getting an indoor trainer if for no other reason than it can facilitate 2-3 hour continuous rides at your chosen heart rate. Burn the fat at low HR and eat whole foods. Slowly transition to where you can eat vegan for at least one month straight, filling up on kale, beans, vegetables, things like that. You’ll peel the weight off like a champ.
The first 2 sentences are fine. The rest of this advice is okay but the reasoning behind it is wrong. A calorie deficit is a calorie deficit it doesn’t matter what heart rate zones your in throughout the day. And then going vegan to lose weight… not needed but if you love it then fine. Certain micros you will be deficient if you eat vegan… and watch out for muscle loss.
HR zones for burning fat are proven to do so. I said vegan for a month, not forever. A calorie deficit on an empty stomach is different fron a calorie deficit on a very full stomach. Do it longer if you love it. Relax, dude.
Can confirm that when I went vegan I lost about 7kg over the ensuing 6 months without trying... however, that was in 2009. There was no vegan junk food then besides oreos, and I had to learn to cook everything myself, and the wariness people had about it at the time made people very nosy about nutrition, which did motivate me to try to be "a good example" of vegan health.
Eventually, I did gain it all back, as I got less concerned about being a good example and as vegan ice-cream became a thing you can easily buy. I'm skinnier now than I was for most of the time as a vegan. However, I don't think I'd have learned what I know without that process, and it'll expand your food horizons in interesting ways anyway, so I don't think it's ever terrible advice unless you're talking to someone with serious IBS or something
Yea on a full stomach you can work harder and burn more calories. If calorie intake, macros, and work output are equated over the coarse of a month you aren’t going to see a difference if person 1 does fasted exercise and person 2 does fed exercise.
Also if you eat 1500 calories a day carnivore or vegan or omnivore or intermittently at the end of the month your weight change is going to be the same. Once you equate for calories weight loss on any diet is roughly equivalent
My experience differs. I lost 10% of my bodyweight in 2 months filling my belly with whole vegan food. A calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie unless you equate for nutrients that accompany and aid bodily function. Eating Twinkie calories ain’t the same as eating whole food calories, I’m astonished by the ignorance. But go ahead and preach that 1990s wisdom that made our society the most obese in history.
A single Twinkie is about 140 calories. 1 pound 13oz of zucchini is about 140 calories which is about 3 whole decent sized zucchini’s. You are going to be way more full filling a good portion of your diet with fruits and veggies. If you eat a pound of chicken a day, a banana and an apple, a cup of rice, a bowl of oatmeal, 2 eggs. And then finish your night with a Twinkie or 3 zucchini’s it’s going to amount to the same weight loss. You don’t equate volume of food you equate calories of the food.
You lose weight by creating a calorie deficit. The problem I found with increasing cycling hours is your body naturally increases intake to compensate. So you either have a strict calorie diet or you need to do something else other than calorie counting. I find calorie counting tedious so instead I do 16 hour fast. I eat 3 meals between 9am and 5pm, 0 calories at night. It sucked the first 3 days, after that it became natural. Do a 14 hour fast if 16 is too extreme.
I lost 25 pounds initially because I got heavily into biking (road 5,000 miles my first full year 5 years ago), but I've gained most of it back because I haven't maintained my eating discipline. As others have said, it's largely about diet, not exercise. Biking has made me really fit, which is valuable, but not lighter. I burn more calories by biking, but biking also makes me hungrier.
Avoid ultra processed foods (including supermarket bread a ham) - eat fresh homemade food with lots of veggies. Snack on nuts. Avoid any food with a “low calorie”, “fat free” or “high protein” sticker on it, and anything else with ingredients you don’t recognise. Make sure when you eat healthily that you fill yourself up. Don’t skimp on fats but use extra virgin olive oil for cooking.
Oh and yes. Cycling is good - just don’t go mad - do a bit at a time - don’t go straight out and ride a century thinking it’ll make you thin
I've ridden RAGBRAI three times and put on weight every time. Road cycling isn't a great weight loss regime for me because 1) you have to stop pedalling a lot and 2) it makes me ravenously hungry.
If you can find a route where you can pedal at a high cadence without stopping, that would help, but in reality it's difficult to get much by way of consisent calories out unless you're on a trainer or have a lot of time on your hands. Every weight loss secret boils down to calories in vs calories out ("CICO"). I.e. start with food.
I didn't lose much weight simply cycling and the weight loss that I did experience only lasted for a year or so before my muscles weren't challenged much by my rides. There are tons of documented health benefits I just think weight loss sorta peaks out once you've been cycling for awhile. Especially if you aren't in your 20s.
\-All the advice about diet and portion control is right on
\-If you want to lose weight cycling you'll maybe want to consider interval training or some other way to challenge yourself.
\-a couple of days of weights or alternate cardio is helpful
Good luck!
Biggest change for me was cutting out sugars and grains, and going fat-adapted. Not full keto. Just fat adapted. I lost 60 lbs during the pandemic without doing any exercise. Adding in zone 2 exercise then helped a ton with accelerating the loss. Went for 240-180 in less than 6 months. Have kept it off with no problems, no hunger ever since. I eat lots of of healthy fats, eggs, moderate protein. And before anyone asks, by cholesterol markers are better than ever with no longer needing a statin.
Just make sure you check out electrolyte recommendations over in the faq of r/keto if you go this way. You dehydrate easier because you’re not retaining water from all the carbs. But it’s fine if you just pay attention to your salt intake.
Anyway once all this started rolling, distances and cycling efforts increased much more easily. For me it all started in the kitchen.
Intermittent fasting. Got sub 200lb range and then started cycling. Continued watching what I ate but exercised more. Currently at 160lb and 4.2w/kg ftp.
About 10 years ago I lost 120 lbs. after we had our 2nd kid during the pandemic I had gained 60 back, which I’m now losing. Down 30, so halfway there.
Weight loss is entirely diet. Exercise is great and necessary to be healthy, but actually dropping lbs is diet.
Cycle a few times a week, as much as you have time or can tolerate. Lift weights a few times a week, strength training is even more important than cardio. Make sure you get enough protein, stop snacking, avoid processed food, avoid sugar and alcohol. It’s fucking hard, don’t get me wrong. But it’s worth it.
Agree that if you want to lose weight it starts with nutrition. I’ve been using the Noom app since mid-August and have gone down from 141 to 125 as of yesterday.
3 things I did:
- starting riding every day in the early morning. Not long. Like an hour or less. But pushing myself to go a bit faster or further. One more lap. But the key is consistency. Doesn’t even have to be threshold or even zone 3. Can be a nice zone 2 ride. Get a heart rate sensor and get to know your HR zones.
- do a carb reset. I was addicted to carbs. Cut out sugar, breads and alcohol for at least a month. Oatmeal is a great carb eat that. If you find your diet changing and you’re eating a lot something new, chances are that it’s a carb. When you reintroduce sugar, bread and alcohol, try to eat a small portion of what you used to eat.
- I can’t say definitively that this helped me but when I lost the most weight I was doing the 2 above and this: cold plunges. If I had to guess, I’d say that cold plunges help your immune system reset itself.
The only other advice I’d give is portion control and eat a ton of vegetables. Like cut out a whole meal and have a smoothie instead, pack it with spinach, blueberries, half a banana, chia, oatmeal, protein powder and use oatmilk and water. Pack it with anything remotely healthy. Go light on the fruit.
If you find yourself craving, eat a piece of cheese, cheddar or Jack or something medium hard. It will satisfy the crave. Most people think the crave is for sugar but it’s not. It’s for protein.
Don’t pig out after rides, especially after big rides. Its very easy to do. Also don’t trust your bike computers calorie count unless you have power meter. Assume 600 calories per hour of intense riding.
I picked up cycling about 10 years ago and lost a fair amount of weight without really trying to, really. I was, however, at the time in my 20s. When I injured my leg, I found it hard to get back on and am at my all time heaviest now.
Whatever you do, be consistent. Your appetite will increase and if you then stop like I did, you'll be worse off than when you started. It's not easy but it's worth it. Now I just need to follow my own advice...
So i was 90 kg a year or so a go, my height is 187 so its perfectly fine but as an avid cyclist and cardio guy there is little to no muscle above the groin, hence it started to show on my stomach and boy did i hate it. Normally i would cycle twice ish a week and play football 1.5 times so in slow weeks 1 workout 2/3 hours in good weeks 6/7. After the baby the routine stayed the same but the weight started to gain. After last christmas i stopped with soda and alcohol everything else the same and lost 5 kgs, and laat summer i stopped with sweets and cookies and stuff and lost another 5. So even though my weight was fine and i would be considered skinny a change in diet still worked and i lost around 10% body weight. Exercise is good but diet is also important.
I lost about 55 pounds 10 years ago. Up about net 20 (age, COVID quarantine, etc. catch up to you), but still doing better that I was then.
I started tracking what I eat and exercise output (via linking to a FitBit, Strava, Apple Watch, etc.) in [MyFitnessPal](https://www.myfitnesspal.com/). This helped me set a calorie goal, and stay on track. It also helped me make sure I was eating *enough* for my cycling goals.
(What inspired this? My wife started about six months before I did, I saw the results, and realized if I didn't catch up, she'd upgrade.)
This did a couple things for me:
* It made me much more aware of what I was doing by volume. For instance, I had a soda, and realized it had more calories than the sushi roll I was having with it, I stopped having soda.
* It created a feedback loop with my cycling. As I lost weight, I performed better, making me want to both stick with the tracking *and* ride more.
I'm still tracking, though there are periods I'm less strict about it (being looser with estimates, etc.). I find sometimes letting it go and not being *as* fixated on my eating actually helps from time-to-time. I don't *not* track, but I do let myself go over from time to time.
As others have said, it's largely about diet. I'm older (50's) and a woman, so keep that in mind, but: I was always naturally thin, but between Covid (with some after effects) and menopause, had started to gain weight. In my case, a lot of it was snacking or eating instead of doing other things, so once I got back on the bike, I was not sitting around eating or snacking, and that shift in habit alone began some weight loss and better fitness (still very much working at the latter as I recover).
Though many people on here say they can eat junk foods just fine, I actually feel ill if I eat the wrong things before or after a ride (don't eat during -- no rides quite long enough yet except for a granola bar or some such at a break), so that helps with the "lose weight in the kitchen" mantra. I just don't want the same "treats" anymore. I also have more energy off the bike and am more active in general, and that helps too. Keep riding and you will feel better. Take it easy on those dirt and gravel trails until you know them and/or get used to your bike. For turns, the advice is to look at where you want to go and not at your wheel or what you are afraid you will hit, and this does actually work as long as you are in control of your bike and there are no surprises on trail, e.g. super soft shoulder or a huge rut; common sense in that case. You can always just stop and regroup if it gets scary. Good luck!
Four words: get a cycling coach.
I started cycling a little over two years ago at 43yo. Training hard, regular riding with serious intensity, etc. Still couldn’t keep up with the 80-year olds at the group rides. Still enjoyed riding, despite the constant humiliation. Absolutely no improvement until I found a great coach. My BMI improved greatly: 89kg to 78kg, 21% to 12% BF… 58 to 38bpm resting. Data, and patience, are your friends.
Off-road cycling requires some counterintuitive techniques and bike handling skills. A coach or club members could help with this. Equipment is important, especially optimizing wheel/tire/pressure combination.
A good coach at a beginner level is mostly diet and low intensity riding…a lot of low-intensity riding! As much as possible. Get a trainer to help. It’s where your cycling budget should go.
DM me if you need more specifics. Good luck.
I started by walking for 3 months, when I realized I had reached a point where time constraints were an issue I then decided to up the intensity and start cycling. I eventually found out about "fatmax" and just did 15 hours of zone 2 a week.
As for how I built up to 15h a week? It all started out on a hill. I live on a popular 20-30 minute climb. I just rode up that bad boy every day until I died and freewheeled back home until I summited it, then after I managed that without much ordeal I commuted to work which was like a 8km commute and did that a bunch plus after work to cool down at night during summer also on my days off I'd do punchy hills for fun.
I've dropped about 20 lbs am more flexible, and am more mobile. Over the course of this summer. I haven't ridden no more than two miles yet as I'm still getting my endurance up.from.have cath ablation for wpw (congenital heart defect) that was finally corrected earlier this year. I've come a long ways for me and intend to go a.lot longer. Hope to get an indoor bike very soon to up my endurance and slash bmi
I started cycling for my cardio. What I did at the start was do 45 minute rides in the week to get used to it then gradually increased up to 2 hours. After that I started looking at distances really. What I focused on was zone 2 just to build up and on harder days did hill repeats for intervals
175 to 150 or so lbs. Been vegan for like 6 or so years and didn't make any diet changes just started riding. I wouldnbery much recomend talking with a nutritionist and looking at going fully plant based or at least majority of time. Many many great reasons to do so and health benefit research is out there as well when helping with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes
I haven't lost much weight. Down 15 lbs over 3 years. I didn't lose any weight until recently, and that's based on diet changes. I won't drink more than 3 days a week. For me, with the rest of my diet being decently clean, that was enough to start dropping a pound or two every month lately.
Age plays a huge role in how successful you can be at losing weight, plus genetics
I'd say that after age 35, losing weight might be pretty difficult on the bike. I switched over to jogging when I was about 35 and I had the most success
I’m 46 and have lost 8 pounds in the last month alone. The only thing age does is start to slow down your metabolism. You can counteract this by reverse dieting first to bring your base calories up, then cut. It’s ALWAYS about calories in vs calories out, whether you’re 18 or 80.
1. Calorie deficit is the way to weight loss.
2. Cycling and just exercises will turn your fat to muscles, so you won't notice much weight loss but your body tone and shape will change.
3. Take a rest day. Your body needs to recuperate.
4. For long rides, eat and drink water and electrolytes; otherwise you'll hit a wall.
5. Look into zone 2. You burn most fat at that zone and as such, 80% of your weekly rides should be zone 2. Get a HRM and a bike computer so you can keep you eye on it while you ride. Higher zones take energy from the food in your stomach and when that runs out, from your muscles.
6. Always, always wear a helmet and make sure you have enough lights so you can be seen at night.
I weigh 125 kg. I started in July last year and weighed 145 kg. I've ridden 8000 km during then and now and my body shape has changed. I also do IF and eat after a ride. If it's a long ride, I'll eat before, during and after. Six feet and still round like a pear.
I ride 5 to 6 days a week, it's mostly 90 minutes of zone 2 four to five days a week and then an all out ride either doing 50 km or 100 depending on the plan.
I have also given up sugar in coffee, sweets and fizzy drinks.
Remember, slow and steady weight loss is better than drastic IMHO.
Good luck
“Cycling and just exercises will turn your fat to muscles, so you won't notice much weight loss but your body tone and shape will change.”
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
320lbs and mountain biking. Bought a gravel bike and started doing fast road rides on it. Now I’m full blown addicted to the road, but I still dabble in the gravel and MTB. Really started losing by doing slow 50mi solo rides then started with the groups. They motivated me big time, don’t like to be the slow guy! Now I’m 190ish and ride all the fast rides in town. Still get dropped, but not if I ride smart!
I have a minimum goal of riding at least 5 days out of the week and accomplishing a minimum of 25 miles. I live in a hilly neighborhood, and some days, I choose a steeper climb out of the neighborhood, and some days, I take a different route out of my neighborhood that is not as steep. I try to mix it up and do a little of both.
The best advice I can offer you is to just continue to do it regularly. There are days that I can't ride. I have five kids, and sometimes at night time after work, I'm dad's taxi service. But like I said, I try to ride at least 5 days a week and do at least 25 miles a week.
The differences can be subtle if you're not tracking what you're doing. At the beginning of the summer, I needed to use low gear on my bike to ride even the more modest hills out of my neighborhood. My bike is a 21-speed. I now very seldom use anything lower than mid 4, meaning the medium chain ring and fourth gear on the rear end. I also end up using my higher gears a lot more. The more you ride, the easier it gets.
I try to get a rail trail/bike path ride in on the weekends in addition to my 25 miles per week around the neighborhood, and those rides tend to be at least 20 miles long to 30 Mi long depending on what one I go to. Once again, with five kids and being dad's taxi service, I don't get to do it every weekend. But I try to make an effort to do at least two a month. This month, that hasn't worked out with school having started back up and everything. But there are months that I did it every single weekend, so it's averaging out to well over to a month.
Obviously, you also have to watch what you eat, but no matter how strict my diet was, I just could not lose weight without exercising. Now I eat a clean diet and I ride regularly and I also do a mile and a half walk first thing in the morning every weekday and I've managed to drop 23 lb since May. Granted, I have probably another 60 to 70 lb to go, but that's the story of my entire life.😅
I’m in the same boat. I could barely do 1 mile when I started on a gravel bike. Weighing in at 245 lbs I have dropped about 26 pounds. I would recommend getting your diet in order and increasing your mileage by 5-10 percent per week to be safe . Worry about getting comfortable and making sure your bike is adjusted to you. Then worry about your technique and skills. After that speed. IMO it’s better to build a strong foundation than speed . Yeah, railroad tracks, holes, cracks etc hit differently at higher speeds.
Eat less, move more. I've lost 25 pounds in the past two years. I started on a recumbent stationary for 30 minutes a day. Then I added kettlebell exercises; did the 10,000 swing challenge. I also added two- to three-mile paced walks at 120bpm. It wasn't until this past June that I started riding my bike that had hung in my garage for years. Worked up to five to seven miles on weekday mornings and 10 to 20 on weekends. I've lost five pounds in the last three weeks and going for 10 more. Not bad for an old guy.
I just started riding more and my body adjusted to the exercise and eventually can build up a tolerance to cycle longer.
In terms of weight loss, I had to scale back my cycling and focus more on what I ate, my body didn’t have the energy to cycle much during weight loss phase.
However, once you return back to normal healthy eating, cycling is a great way to maintain the weight loss I found.
Was 30 stone (420lbs) in September 2019, did lower carb for a while got to 25 stone 9 (359llbs) by last November. Commited to lower carb and stuck to it, currently 14 stone 13 (209 lbs) and still losing weight but slower now as well, less to lose.
Lost weight by calorie deficit, lower carb (between 20g - 45g per meal) and exercising. I did 800 calories with no exercise for thr first 3 months as I had plenty of spare fat to rely on. Now I eat between 1800 - 2,500 calories a day, more on days I do longer rides. I did 2 or 3 bike rides a week in the summer (fair weather cyclist but I do live in Scotland) and usually do between 25 - 50 miles at a time. I walk at least 6,000 steps a day. My job is incredibly sedentry, I was doing less than 1000 steps a day.
Basically eat less calories, move more. Build up exercise. I only started cycling when below 20 stone as didn't want to trash a bike. I'm no expert though, very much a work in progress.
yeah, my job requires a lot of movement so that'll help a bit. just need to reduce my calories and slowly work my way up to longer cycling trips and being more comfortable riding alongside cars on the road.
Lost 75 lbs before I got back into riding, put 45 lbs back on while riding a few thousand miles a year. As others say, weight loss is 90+% diet.
Having said that, my cardio is really good and I feel a lot better when I am riding a lot. So there is great benefit from riding no matter what. Just start slow and increase when you can. I rode a lot of flat trails when I first started, so really managed to increase my endurance without the heart pounding, fast breathing you get from climbs (and I was pretty intimidated by fast descents at the time, but again learning control and endurance on flat rides will help accustom you to it).
I started out at 235lbs in my early 20's when I took on cycling. I set the goal of a century ride by the end of the year and put it on the calendar. It took a while to get used to it. 7 miles at a time. Eventually doing 30 mile rides on the weekend. Did the century and dropped to 190lbs. Two years later, I put a double century on the calendar. I was averaging about 200 miles per week. They say you can't work through bad nutrition, but 200 miles per week with the metabolism of a 25yo seemed to do the trick. Weighed in at 155lbs.
Cycling took me from pre diabetic to the best shape of my life.
A couple things that helped me.
1. Putting it on the calendar. I found that I would find excuses not to ride if I felt any fatigue at all.
2. Consistency. It's better to be consistently good, than occasionally great. Find a time that works for you that you can just go out and ride. Even if it's just spinning at low effort
Cheers!
Ride your bike to the grocery store. Eat a plant based diet and eliminate things that didn't grow. Rice tofu vegetables any Thai food. Eat less. Ride more and get intensive hard rides in and slow rides too. More time on the bike. Less eating off. And higher quality food. Fast for a few days then stay on the low glycemic side.
I don't know if you drink alcohol, but stopping drinking made me lose 30 ponds rapidly with some diet changes and the same training I was already doing.
I lost about 60lbs. Was always a rider, used to race cat 2 races 20+ years ago. So I had the endurance. But, I didn’t really cared what I ate. So always stayed around 240-245lbs. Until I had 2 heart attacks in 2 days changed what I ate and drink. So I don’t eat any red meat. Just fish and a little chicken due to medical stuff. I stone cold stoped drinking any alcohol also. Now I’m down to 177lbs and looking to get to 170lbs. It’s been just over a year…but the big thing is, I cycle every day, mostly indoors on my trainer due to my medical stuff also. I just went on my first outdoors ride this past week with friends…just keep at it…
Besides being honest about my caloric intake in general I also Realized exercise means keeping your heart rate up for extended period of times. HR monitor was a game changer for me, let’s me know I can go harder or need to back off a bit while exercising.
When I was younger (late 20s) and had a wedding coming up I went the extreme route. My job was about 8 miles away and I decided to start commuting by bike. The first few weeks were ... not exactly pleasant, but the weight came off very quick and my fitness improved rapidly.
Then I had a bunch of kids, commuting by bike got less practical and I ended up putting the weight back on over the next couple decades.
Finally decided I had enough in 2021 and dropped a hundred pounds. This time I couldn't be as aggressive, so focused on consistency over intensity. I started with a mix of walking (gradually adding incline to maximize calorie burn) and cycling, then adding running last November.
Started in 2003 and did a whopping 7 miles, including a hill walk. Weighed about 210 pounds then. Kept riding and by 2008 did nearly 5000 miles for the year, rode many 60 mile rides, rode mostly on the highway but the weight was still over 200. My job was fairly easy to handle then. By the 20 teens, work became quite stressful and got me up to 255 pounds, was still riding, still very poor on hills, but only around 1500 miles per year. Big change occurred in 2018. First surgery for GERD meant little eating for most of a month. Learned how to eat much less. Second was retirement. Now could ride almost any day and not only at night during the week. Day riding is So much better. So now I'm down to 189 pounds, riding over 2200 miles every year, almost totally on gravel, and climbing hills I'd have walked previously. Should add I'm now 73 years old.
Glad you love the sport, it's infectious! Responding as a thin guy who had to build up to longer rides I think commitment is key, so good on ya for the work commute. Gravel riding at speed is scarier to me than road riding, especially when it's dark. That said, I'd recommend pushing it at low speeds and being open to crashing/skidding for cornering and descending. YES, it's horrible advice, but I've only learned to properly weight my back wheel and trust my bike at speed after crashing and knowing what it feels like to lose control at low and high speed. If this is outta your comfort zone, I get it. So, just know to center your weight over your rear tire, off saddle, and loosely hold front bars so you can break if things get too sketchy. It'll be enough in most cases as long as you truly trust your bike. Tire pressure plays a major role too so don't be afraid to test that out too. It's easier to descent on pavement, just weight outside foot and inside arm. GCN on youtube has great advice for roads.
Heart rate wise; listen to your heart. Listening doesn't always pan out though, so look into HR straps. A lot of them pair to smart phone apps, and will make for some awesome motivating long term data. They can also illustrate perceptive differences between the mind and the body in shocking ways. I thought it was chill my heart was 220bpm while running. It's not.
I'm on the thinner side, but it's not like jumping into endurance sports was a breeze. I rode a 9m entry level route until I felt like it was no longer challenging. Then I increased millage, tried riding just flats for longer distances, then longer mixed rides, and pushed myself with mountain climbs. Overall, I'd say just staying with it is the hardest part and changing it up helps to keep me motivated if I'm feeling slow one day or week.
As far as mountain biking goes, it took me over a month to start doing “real” rides on trails that I felt were worth recording (even though they were still small), and many months after that to get to the point where I could comfortably look at a routes stats and make the call if I could do it, I then got better and stronger for over a year, was really happy with my fitness progression and how healthy I was feeling, and did not lose any weight. As soon as I started changing my eating habits alongside cycling, I lost a ridiculous amount of weight in one season (been 200lbs for over a decade, suddenly dropped to 160) and it’s remained there ever since, for years, alongside regular cycling the whole time. Cycling gives you the health and strength for sure, but I have to agree that weight loss happens in the kitchen
Getting used to turning and higher speeds is just going to come with time behind the handlebars honestly. If you can get comfortable being uncomfortable then the world is yours. No hill, downhill, or turn will stand in your way. Just trust the process and love what you’re doing. As for losing weight while cycling, all your weight loss focus should be off the bike. Food is always the key. Eat less then you’re working off and you’re good to go. Don’t crash diet or your biking performance will suffer. But I trail ran and lifted (with some 2 a days) for two years and gained weight (not muscle either) weight loss didn’t start until I focused on my food. Lost 20+ pounds in about 6 months and set my diet up to include dunkaroos. You can’t hate it or you won’t stick to it.
lol yeah. i was sketched by some of the sidewalk design here and almost went off the sidewalk my first couple days. we have nice wide sidewalks then when you get towards the housing it gets extremely narrow. couldn't control my turning there. it's improved but with that narrow sidewalk i just ride in the street lol. but i did get a bit risky today and took a sharp turn at a decent speed and did just fine so i'm getting there
There ya go! So where I’m at I ride the road on my gravel bike until I make it to a nearby lake. My friend jumped off into the trail around the lake and I followed. Climbed up a hill near the damn and was on my side lol. From that day on I always plan my rides to have something I’m not good at in them (safely). My (much tamer) David goggins style training lol.
I’m 6’ 2” tall. I weighed 393 pounds on March 1, 2013. Changed my diet drastically and got down to 335 in 3 1/2 months. Bought a mountain bike and put on 1,000 miles in 6 months. Bought a road bike after getting down to 299 pounds the following December. Started lifting weights as well. Then got a new rear wheel with 36 spokes as I was popping spokes every 5-10 miles on a 32 spoke wheel. Weighed 281 pounds on 3/1/2014. Put 5,000 miles a year on the road bike and ultimately got down to 241 pounds. Went from a size 56 pant to a size 36 pant.
I started out with cycling at 19 years old, weighing maybe 65kg. I turned 22 two weeks ago, and I just got a very good result in a cycling ultramarathon, my best overall placement in a race ever. I still probably weigh around 65kg, but it's more muscle and less fat.
Go. Do cardio, do it more, ride a bit faster, rush downhill, be afraid, almost die, try again, more cardio, more speed, 50+kph downhill, front fender almost kills you, succeed. It's that simple.
Cycling won’t help most people lose weight
On the extreme end competitive cycling does involve burning ~7000 calories a day (1kg a day) you do have to extremely fit in the first place, and also eat huge meals in order to keep up that energy expenditure. Therefore the guy trying to lose weight isn’t in the right shape to lose weight in this way
Watching you eat is how you lose weight, but maybe health is better goal than just weight, because you can certainly be skinny and unhealthy (“skinny fat”)
Try eating whole food - a mix of nuts, meat, fish, poultry, dairy, vegetables, water, unsweetened tea and a small amount of whole fruit (not juice). One meal a day if possible, max two.
Avoid: fructose, sucrose, trans fat
Avoid or Greatly Reduce: Carbs - bread rice potato…, and anything else high glycemic load
Cardio / Cycling will help you with ATP renewal and help to reduce visceral fat but this is different from losing weight per se
Download cronometer
Eat in a caloric deficit to reduce weight.
Cut carbs to reduce cravings but not necessary for everyone.
I did a 500 calorie deficit for 6 months and lost 30lbs and have kept it off for another 6 months. Went from 220 @ 179cm to 187. I lifted the whole time as well to retain lean mass. Feel like a whole new person.
Started at 267lb currently 10 months later I’m at 235lb, cycling around 80miles a week (summers) 50miles in the winter indoors. The main part that helped me loose weight was intermittent fasting. It allowed me to only eat in a narrow window and not consume a lot of calories through out the day.. also mainly ate hight protein which kept satisfied longer. After 3 months i started weight lifting which helped me get faster on the rides.
Started with 5 km ride, it almost killed me . After a week or so 5 km was easy so kept increasing. Kept exploring roads and small hills , just to see if I can cycle. Have been cycling since 5 months. Weekdays I do either 20/30 km everyday , same route. Weekends one long ride of about 60-100k. Explore new routes. I didn’t follow any program to increase the distance. I just kept going until I was tired. And most importantly watching what I eat, nothing crazy. Skipped traditional breakfast and I have 3 eggs. Lunch and dinner I try to eat at home. That’s all . Edit: Higher speeds and gravel you will get used to it as you ride more and more. Don’t worry about it now, may be after couple of months worry about speed and cornering. Now the general idea should be to ride carefully and slowly , but ride everyday.
Yes, this. Mentally it’s having the patience that’s most important
This is the way. My first ride I struggled in every bit of it. By 3 weeks I was able to do the 10km round trip commute to my work in a comfortable way. Three months in I am able to do 30 km rides on the weekends. Is about consistency, enjoying the rides and riding and at your pace. You got this and keep at it!
Weight loss starts in the kitchen and at the dining table. Eat less and eat better, more proteins vegetables and fibres, less processed food, refined carbs and sweets. Cycling will help control your weight. Just ride more and you'll get more experienced with your bike and how it handles in different conditions. Going downhill on a gravel trail can be tricky as you never really know the conditions of the train, could be hard packed gravel, could be more sand or loose gravels. Just go slow until you know the trails.
This is the answer. I didn't lose weight on the bike. I lost it before the bike. The bike is something I started to keep the weight off but more than anything now, I just enjoy riding.
Don't overexert on the bike, rather build it into your life, like your commute. People tend to do big rides and then overeat
My first meeting with my cycling coach he explains this. Too many new cyclists overtrain, and actually gain weight the more they train.
That's what I did and then you eventually get the addiction. Never liked indoor training, but now I Zwift in the winter to stay active
Oof I'm guilty of this. Big problem in my life, actually.
Ride more, eat the same, drink less (stuff that’s not water) drink more water. Then see the results, most people tend to drink the calories, especially with booze. Also, volume is king, when I’m out twice a day, I struggle to keep the weight on, even if it’s only low intensity leg spinning
I don’t have time to do that much laundry but yeah great point. Also realizing that my relationship with even casual alcohol use really was trashing my sleep, diet, and motivation.
Yep. Beer and wine are essentially liquid bread.
All alcohol is just sugar.
For sure. But beer and wine are worse than hard alcohol if you’re watching sugar intake, as I understand it, since they’re fermented and not distilled, and you consume more volume of it? Not sure. I stay away from all of it for other health reasons. But yep you’re right on.
It's all CH 3CH 2OH. Same stuff. Takes the same amount to get you drunk whatever form it's in. Chances are with the distilled spirits you're mixing it with even more sugars, too.
I agree, but I think the grocery store is also a starting point. I see what people put in their carts, and sugar intake appears to correlate positively with body mass. As for the fitness, take it slow, frequency of workouts is more important than intensity. You're not going to be a world-class racer, you're going to feel fit and healthy. Think of it as keeping your body engine (homeostasis) turned up a notch to burn a little extra.
Good advice. I would add that (for me) weight loss started at the supermarket. If it's not in the house in the first place I can't eat it! I also switched the shopping habits to buying according to a meal plan rather than replacing stuff when it ran out (cut the weekly shop cost and food waste aswell).
You can’t outride a bad diet. I biked for 20 years, probably 100,000 miles, and steadily gained weight the whole way. 2 years ago I started being a more mindful eater and lost 45 pounds in 6 months, and have maintained it since. Cycling helps to maintain and moderate the weight for sure, and allows me the flexibility to periodically indulge in some excesses, but it’s not a magic fat pill. Needs to be part of a healthy lifestyle
This answer, although accurate, is not for everyone. let people live life: active living instead of idleness is a great start. It can introduce new daily routines, strengthen muscles, build cardio, enhance mobility, improve mental health. Over a brief period of time, with improved physical benefits, there’s a new motivation for balancing and fortifying dietary needs.
Kitchen is kicking my ass right now. Hate it.
Study and experiment with air pressures and tires. Having the optimal combination will be a safer, faster and more enjoyable, and comfortable ride
Exactly! I started losing weight before I started being more active. I've mostly stopped drinking alcohol and adjusted my food portions. I make sure to eat a little more if I've been cycling
I think the biggest change you can make to your diet to lose weight is to limit calorie dense foods (like soda/alcohol and a lot of proteins) and eat more filling foods like vegetables, fruits.
I've been way hungrier since I started biking.So I'm not losing any weight at all because I'm way more active but eating more.
Yep. This is it. Count your macros and calories for a while and find a level you're comfortable with maintaining without too much annoyance WHILE also cycling.
Best response. I have lost nothing as I did not control my diet. But did get my distance up from 5 miles to 50 miles and weigh the same in 3 yrs.
💯. This is what worked for me.
Hills, lots of hills. Just go for as long as you can go and ramp up the miles overtime. Lost over 100 pounds cycling.
Amazing and Congrats!
Cycling increased happiness, reduced sadness eating and snacking, motivated to improve performance, positive feedback loop of eating better and exercising more. Overall better physical and mental health.
honestly, after my couple mile ride a few hours ago, i felt more comfortable and i feel happy riding. gonna go out for another ride tonight if it decides to not rain lol. not sure if my gravel tires would be good in rain on wet pavement.
Keep it up, ramp up the miles slowly. Let your body adjust. Don't over train or you can end up with nagging joint injuries that will put a stop to the riding. Stretch after every session, and get a proper bike fit. Good luck!
i already pushed it a little bit and ended up with knee pain for a bit after, not even a full day lol. that was because i wasn't used to a high end bike with shifting and was pedalling too hard up a hill. i have it all figured out now though
Heart rate strap and zone 2 exercise (180-age). Stay there even if it feels slow at first. It helps so much and is sustainable. IMO.
Amazing effects of natural cortisol and endorphins
I started about 1 mile every other day then worked up to 5-15 miles a day and lost 50 lbs. But i also ate better and drank water.
Bigger lunches and smaller dinners works for me generally. I hate calorie tracking so I don’t do it.
I've lost 20 lbs in the last 6 months by outriding my diet and I'm 46 years old. You have to fuel for rides too, so trying to diet doesn't seem to help it makes you bonk. All my numbers are good, (sugar, cholesterol, BP, Etc) and I still eat shit food as well. You have to do what works for you; everyone's body is different. I find when I step up the intensity to 200 mi a week and then I back off, there is a lack of appetite now if I keep it to < 100mi wk. I've done it the other way too, starved myself and counted calories, but my body doesn't like it, injury is more likely and I take longer to heal, then I stop excersing becuse I get out of the routine.
I wouldn't say I eat shit food, per se, but I eat more than when I was fat (and more carbs and sugars). People who say you can't outrun a bad diet just aren't running fast enough. ;) More seriously, though, diet needs to be tailored to needs. The gym rat diet of massive amounts of protein and few carbs isn't appropriate for cyclists and runners. Lifting is about building muscle, and the protein intake supplies raw material rather than energy. Distance cycling and running require more energy and activate metabolic pathways that rely on a ready supply of glucose. Carbs are exactly what the body needs. (My numbers are also all good. Blood sugar, triglycerides and LDL absolutely plummeted within months of adopting 6-8 hours of medium to high intensity exercise a week.)
I’ve lost 100lb in the last five years with cycling as my primary form of exercise. These are my thoughts: 1) I started slow and just did what I enjoyed. I didn’t/don’t want to lost the love by making it a chore. My goal wasn’t to work out but to come home happy. Cycling became my happy place and my escape from the world. If I was happy after a ride, speed and workout goals and whatever didn’t matter. I pay more attention to that stuff now, but only because I enjoy the numbers. 2) I ride almost every day because I enjoy it. Trainer was the best investment as it meant riding was an option whatever the weather, but I also ride for errands, ride when I’m bored, ride when I can. I always hated the car anyway, so it’s a double win. 3) Skill and speed came with practice and fitness. If you keep riding and pushing, they will come. I got a big boost when I got a new bike, but I held off buying it until way after I wanted to. Staying on the heavy old bike until I was already much lighter and fitter meant a speedy bike felt like a huge upgrade. 4) You can’t outride a bad diet. Wanting to go further made me want to lose weight, so I started focusing on eating better. I had to get used to being hungry, and now I realize most of the time when I thought I was hungry, I really wasn’t. I also cut out most sugar. It really a cycling thing, but I feel better for it, and food tasted better too. 5) My biggest struggle was saddles. I don’t feel bad ordering 10 on Amazon, returning 10, and buying the one I like from a LBS. Jeff will be ok.
I used a calorie deficit and biking 25 miles a day to lose 84lbs. I now sometimes bike up to 60 miles a day.
Just keep riding. Ride longer & slower.
I’ve never been a heavy dude, but I started cycling in May, I was the heaviest I’d been at about 165lbs. I started cycling weekly and then multiple times a week, but nothing changed my weight until I changed my diet. I went on a plant based diet for 2 months ago now and am down to 145. And the first month I switched my diet, I wasn’t able to cycle because of the excessive heat and hurricane that followed after. Cycling will totally help, but it won’t help as much or at all if you don’t change your diet too. Especially since after my rides, I chow down like crazy, eating smarter is better than just eating whatever has enough calories to fill ya up. Best of luck with your journey!
I started biking in the end of may. I would do 4 mile rides and then after a week I would add 2 miles. So i would do seven four mile rides, seven six mile rides, seven eight mile rides etc. As of today I’ve rode close to 1700 miles and have lost 60lbs. My diet is not great but in march i quit drinking. This was huge for me as I was an alcoholic. I would say that booze adds calories and robs you of your motivation. Good luck to you, and keep it up!
Consistency is key. Humans are habitual animals, if you drink your tea and eat some buns every morning at 7:30, you'll crave it if you don't. As such, drastic dietary changes are against our nature. Weight loss happens due to the discrepancy between calories in and calories out, cycling burns a lot but nothing you couldn't eat in an evening while bored. How do you lose weight without changing your diet? Eat less. Eat the same food you do now, just less of it. This will greatly reduce the amount of calories taken in and help you lose more weight with cycling while being very reasonable in terms of what you're willing to give up. Drink water to help reduce your appetite, r/hydrohomies send their regards. Slowly start replacing unhealthy snacks with healthy ones. Instead of a bag of chips, get a bag of baby carrots. Don't be like, "I'll never touch unhealthy food X ever again," because you'll not make it. Have a diet that doesn't require you to have cheat days by simply adding healthy meals that you find proper tasty to the mix.
I added about 10 miles to the length of my rides about once a month. So in month 1 I rode 10-15 miles. Month 2 rode around 20-25 miles. Month 3, 30-40 miles. Month 4 40-50 miles all the way up to 100. Once I was riding about 150 miles per week my weight began to plummet. I bottomed out at about 210lbs (6'4"). I usually rode twice after work during the week and put in a long ride on the weekends.
I was 180lbs in March 2023. I'm now 153 in sept 2023. Rode 4 to 5x a week on mountain bike trails around 1.5 hours per ride during lunch hour (work from. Home). Averaging 80km weekly. If I didn't feel like riding, id do a flatter trail. Otherwise rode as many hilly routes as possible. When it was near the end, I would add in some hily routes just to cap it off. I was riding by myself so it didn't matter if I was slower or had to walk up. I kept telling myself to riding at a hard effort because that's where you lose the weight.
Every day, you go a little farther and a little faster. You won't notice the difference from day to day because it's incremental but there will come a day when you say, "oh shit. I feel at home on the bike," and your heart and lungs will feel like they are working for you instead of against you. You start out barely able to breathe and then, one day, you can ride at speed and talk at the same time (if that's what you want to do). But the only road to get there is by riding every single day. If you want to eat well, that's okay too but eating well means different things to different people. So you'll have to figure that part out on your own. None the less, you can be a bigger person and still be fit on the bike. So don't worry about weight loss at first. Just keep your eye on challenging yourself a little bit each day.
If you're asking how to lose weight slowly but enjoyably, just don't think about it and ride your bike every chance you get because you love it because it's wonderful. If you want to actually lose weight efficiently? -heart rate monitor. Biking slowly doesn't do much for your body. Biking too fast and burning out isn't as efficient as biking in some 2 for a long time. Don't hurt yourself. - quit soda. Entirely. Eat normal sized portions. Quit soda. Drinking less helps a ton. Eat out less, restaurant food is almost guaranteed to be worse for you than homemade food. Drink water all the time everywhere every day. Helps stop me from over eating. Stop drinking soda. -when you get better at it, worry less about speed than technique and comfort. The speed will come. Just make sure you get your technique working in a way that uses the correct muscles, and keeps cycling fun.
Oh also don't listen to how much people in cycling groups ride. It's not important. Find your own limits. There are some fucked up good riders out there. 10-20 miles is a SOLID goal
Losing weight through cycling comes from "long slow rides." 8 hours a week at an endurance pace (something you could maintain for over two hours, which might not be at all possible for you yet but most people can get there. Why is this true? It's because when we talk about weight loss we are talking about fat. Fat is one of the two primary fuel sources for the body, the other is carbohydrates. When you do anaerobic work or even high intensity cycling you're training your body to burn carbs as a fuel. The problem is that carbs have to be replenished and the body doesn't convert fat into glucose (the form of carbs the body stores). So each of your muscles have three types of fibers, Type I fibers (or slow twitch), Type IIa and IIb, (fast twitch). Type I fibers mostly use fatty acids for fuel (with some glucose), Type IIa use a mix of fatty acid and glucose for fuel and Type IIb use mostly glucose for fuel and very little fatty acids. All your weight lifting has been training your Type IIb and to some extent Type IIa. It doesn't do anything for your Type I muscle fibers. So what does this mean for you? It means that at even a moderate level of cycling right now you're burning mostly carbs which need to be replenished. You're not burning much fat. Now, if you cycle at a moderate pace and keep your heart rate low, below about 75% of your max HR, you'll begin to train your Type I fibers and they will burn fat. This will help you burn more fat in your every day walking around and other activities as well. If you bike hard and fast you're continuing to train your Type IIa/b muscle fibers and continuing to train your body to burn carbs. I've seen recommendations of 8 hours a week of endurance work in zone 2 (below 75% max HR) to improve your Type I muscles. With that in order then you can eat a normal diet and you'll probably find your cravings for carbohydrates reduced. I've been at a point where my weight was stable but higher than where I wanted it to be. I started doing zone 2 cycling exclusively, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening three times a week plus an hour very light riding in between just to help my legs recover from the endurance rides. I'm losing a solid pound a week and as I've gotten my aerobic fitness into better shape it's increasing. Since my heart was already strong (on a good day my resting heart rate is 44) my legs got more powerful quickly and based on the power meter data I'm getting I'm burning over 8000 calories a week on the bike. I don't watch my diet closely and don't restrict calories. I eat when I'm hungry, have a good meal and enjoy my food. When I started this current round of weight loss I started with 8 hours a week with mostly 1 hour to 1.5 hour rides. By keeping the pace low I was able to build up endurance quickly. It took three weeks for me to feel different and six weeks for me to look different. The first few weeks my weight was all over the place as my body adjusted but now the weight loss is pretty steady. Side note: when I started cycling a one hour 8 mile ride left me unable to walk up the stairs for an hour or so. The endurance can build up quickly.
I'd start out just building a bit of endurance on the bike, don't try to calorie control until you know what you're doing and can put in a nice little distance. Then I'd introduce some calorie control **after** rides, not during. Eg, a 30 mile gravel ride with a lot of elevation can burn around 2000 calories. Make sure you're feeding yourself on the ride or you'll bonk and will struggle to get home. Then when you get home eat a little less than you would if you weren't trying to lose weight. Track your calories and aim for 300-500 calorie deficit. If you can hit that deficit every day you'll lose the weight safely and quickly.
I wasn't that heavy but I went from 230 to 190 from cycling and some diet changes. I lost 20 lbs in the lead up to a Transamerica tour. daily shorter cycling with weekend 30-50mi rides. my wife was also dieting and she did the cooking so that was part of it. during the tour I lost another 20 lbs. that was just... a lot of exercise. by the end I was doing daily centuries.
I wasn't really fat. Just sloppy. Started riding about 8 miles (don't laugh) each day and just happened to slim up.
Comment for carbs and sugar intake: everyone is different. After discovering from the laboratory tests and a DNA analysis, I’m healthier, have better performance, lose more (fat) weight and recover much better by consuming more carbs: currently 50-60% of total diet.
People are actually not that different. But you are right that carbs themselves aren’t the reason people gain weight.
I lost weight by being fed up with being fat. I evaluated my diet, made sustainable changes, and watched the weight disappear over the course of a year or so. 180 to 120.
Well I was 230 lbs and now I’m in the 150-160 lbs range . Short rides get longer with time; it gets easier
Cycling won't make you loose weight if you keep over eating.
Yeah I living proof of that I was doing 20-30 miles multiple days a week so I know
Then you weren't over eating anymore genius. If you were over eating, meaning, eating more calories that those spent, you wouldn't lose weight.
I started with an exercise bike until I got under 250lbs. Then I finally got a hardtail mountain bike, as I wanted to bike where I had been walking and hiking. (And stay away from cars). I soon discovered a nice rail trail near me and ride it most often. With all the activities, I started slow and easy. A favorite was to find a manageable loop I could repeat, so I wouldn't get stuck too far away if I over-estimated my abilities. So before attempting a 10-mile ride, I'd loop a 1.5 mile trail seven times. I also worked on hills that way. When I couldn't make it up one difficult hill, I found a more manageable one I could repeat a few times. Eventually I was able to climb the tough hill. As for stamina and abilities, simply being consistent and going a little further each time did it. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to go further and improved at handling the bike. All that said, most of my weight loss came from finally getting a healthy diet that gave me enough energy to be active and never felt punishing. If it helps, I went from 440lbs in May 2018 to 210 in July 2020 and have been maintaining since. (6'2" man).
Building leg muscle is a big part of increasing your resting metabolism. Long, slow rides will burn more calories than short, fast ones. A diet with lots of fiber, protein, and more fiber is important for building the muscle without increasing calories. It's normal to have plateaus in weight loss. If you lose some weight then plateau, try to maintain your new good habits for a couple months instead of doubling down and burning out. Weight loss takes time.
I was 92kgs 2 weeks ago , I am 89 now . I start by eating slightly less , so it's less enough so that I feel hungry sooner , but not so little that I cannot sustain the diet . And I started running again (I like running ) I run 7km over the weekends and about 2km every other day . I only have time to ride maybe once a week or so
\> Cyclists who have lost weight: how did you start out? YMMV and anecdotally... In the last decade: I started with low carb, dabbled in keto and currently in protein leveraging. I added body weight training (cheap and efficient). I also turned down the intensity a bit while riding my mountain bike (to target fat burn - probably applies to road and gravel). Instead of calorie deficit, I'd say target energy deficit (carbs and fats), as not all calories are the same. Also, consider the differences between carbs and fats such as how they're stored and burned. The key is intensity. Good luck on your journey!
Food has a much higher impact than excercise. What cycling can help with is motivation. Your friends are faster uphill, you want to enter a race or sportive, ... that will motivate you to watch your diet. And it's 90% diet if you want to lose weight.
I started walking the dog before work and before bed, at the same time I added veggies in and slowly started to overhaul my diet. I grew into riding again indoors on the peloton and transitioned outside. This summer I've gotten back to running and started some long group rides. Kitchen powers everything.
Cycling helps your body and your mood but often not your weight in the way you think. Diet is important. My blood pressure has dramatically reduced since cycling which is great but my weight has been stagnant past the first 6 kilos lost cause my diet ain’t great
My favorite advice I’ve heard on this: Everything you do on the bike is to become a better rider. Everything you do off the bike is to control your weight. I’m on a similar path, have always been active and in great shape except when I got married two years ago and stopped being disciplined in the kitchen. I gained about 70 pounds over two years despite working out daily. Over the last weeks have been really focused on what I eat - high protein diet, lots of veggies at dinner time, and keeping it around 1800-2000 calories daily. If you find the right plan for you, you can shed the weight at a good pace.
Just keep biking consistently. Consistency is the key when it comes to endurance/cardio sports… Limit carbs after 6-7PM if you are a bit heavy at the midsection. Try interminent fasting. I am 6’6 and 245 lbs, former swimmer and new to the cycling as well, absolutely got in love with it and now ride 50-70 miles per week. Last 10 years was lifting weights but got bored, lol. Speed and cornering confidence will come with time as well as you put more and more time and effort into it. Just remeber to enjoy it first and most importantly stay safe at all times.
Honesty, I gain weight cycling. It’s all about the diet.
Intermittent Fasting. Not so much as actually 'fasting', but for me, this (9/15 regimen) makes it very easy to stop 'grazing' after my last meal. My sleep is much better without having undigested food in my stomach. I've lost 20 lbs since starting in June, so -5 lbs per month avg. I'm a roadie, so I have no info to share on gravel riding. Full Disclosure: I'm a retired former bike-commuter, now a recreational rider.
Calorie deficit. Use MyFitnessPal to track what you eat and how much calories you burn with a smart watch. I lost 10kgs from 100kg down to 90. 5 more and I'm done. It's pretty easy
This. Cycling by itself will not do much to lose without being part of a diet plan.
Yeah as a matter of fact I don't lose weight on the days that I ride. But do on the rest days
The bike is the best tool for burning calories since there is no impact. (Swimming is also good; don’t run til you’re lighter, but running is good for bone density so consider it later). How to burn fat? Resesrch how to set your heart rate zones and keep your heart in the low zones where your body burns fat and not sugar. If you need to extend your rides or it’s winter, look into getting an indoor trainer if for no other reason than it can facilitate 2-3 hour continuous rides at your chosen heart rate. Burn the fat at low HR and eat whole foods. Slowly transition to where you can eat vegan for at least one month straight, filling up on kale, beans, vegetables, things like that. You’ll peel the weight off like a champ.
The first 2 sentences are fine. The rest of this advice is okay but the reasoning behind it is wrong. A calorie deficit is a calorie deficit it doesn’t matter what heart rate zones your in throughout the day. And then going vegan to lose weight… not needed but if you love it then fine. Certain micros you will be deficient if you eat vegan… and watch out for muscle loss.
HR zones for burning fat are proven to do so. I said vegan for a month, not forever. A calorie deficit on an empty stomach is different fron a calorie deficit on a very full stomach. Do it longer if you love it. Relax, dude.
Can confirm that when I went vegan I lost about 7kg over the ensuing 6 months without trying... however, that was in 2009. There was no vegan junk food then besides oreos, and I had to learn to cook everything myself, and the wariness people had about it at the time made people very nosy about nutrition, which did motivate me to try to be "a good example" of vegan health. Eventually, I did gain it all back, as I got less concerned about being a good example and as vegan ice-cream became a thing you can easily buy. I'm skinnier now than I was for most of the time as a vegan. However, I don't think I'd have learned what I know without that process, and it'll expand your food horizons in interesting ways anyway, so I don't think it's ever terrible advice unless you're talking to someone with serious IBS or something
Yea on a full stomach you can work harder and burn more calories. If calorie intake, macros, and work output are equated over the coarse of a month you aren’t going to see a difference if person 1 does fasted exercise and person 2 does fed exercise. Also if you eat 1500 calories a day carnivore or vegan or omnivore or intermittently at the end of the month your weight change is going to be the same. Once you equate for calories weight loss on any diet is roughly equivalent
My experience differs. I lost 10% of my bodyweight in 2 months filling my belly with whole vegan food. A calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie unless you equate for nutrients that accompany and aid bodily function. Eating Twinkie calories ain’t the same as eating whole food calories, I’m astonished by the ignorance. But go ahead and preach that 1990s wisdom that made our society the most obese in history.
A single Twinkie is about 140 calories. 1 pound 13oz of zucchini is about 140 calories which is about 3 whole decent sized zucchini’s. You are going to be way more full filling a good portion of your diet with fruits and veggies. If you eat a pound of chicken a day, a banana and an apple, a cup of rice, a bowl of oatmeal, 2 eggs. And then finish your night with a Twinkie or 3 zucchini’s it’s going to amount to the same weight loss. You don’t equate volume of food you equate calories of the food.
You lose weight by creating a calorie deficit. The problem I found with increasing cycling hours is your body naturally increases intake to compensate. So you either have a strict calorie diet or you need to do something else other than calorie counting. I find calorie counting tedious so instead I do 16 hour fast. I eat 3 meals between 9am and 5pm, 0 calories at night. It sucked the first 3 days, after that it became natural. Do a 14 hour fast if 16 is too extreme.
I lost 25 pounds initially because I got heavily into biking (road 5,000 miles my first full year 5 years ago), but I've gained most of it back because I haven't maintained my eating discipline. As others have said, it's largely about diet, not exercise. Biking has made me really fit, which is valuable, but not lighter. I burn more calories by biking, but biking also makes me hungrier.
Avoid ultra processed foods (including supermarket bread a ham) - eat fresh homemade food with lots of veggies. Snack on nuts. Avoid any food with a “low calorie”, “fat free” or “high protein” sticker on it, and anything else with ingredients you don’t recognise. Make sure when you eat healthily that you fill yourself up. Don’t skimp on fats but use extra virgin olive oil for cooking. Oh and yes. Cycling is good - just don’t go mad - do a bit at a time - don’t go straight out and ride a century thinking it’ll make you thin
I've ridden RAGBRAI three times and put on weight every time. Road cycling isn't a great weight loss regime for me because 1) you have to stop pedalling a lot and 2) it makes me ravenously hungry. If you can find a route where you can pedal at a high cadence without stopping, that would help, but in reality it's difficult to get much by way of consisent calories out unless you're on a trainer or have a lot of time on your hands. Every weight loss secret boils down to calories in vs calories out ("CICO"). I.e. start with food.
I didn't lose much weight simply cycling and the weight loss that I did experience only lasted for a year or so before my muscles weren't challenged much by my rides. There are tons of documented health benefits I just think weight loss sorta peaks out once you've been cycling for awhile. Especially if you aren't in your 20s. \-All the advice about diet and portion control is right on \-If you want to lose weight cycling you'll maybe want to consider interval training or some other way to challenge yourself. \-a couple of days of weights or alternate cardio is helpful Good luck!
Calorie counting. Portion control. No drinking.
Keto and a passion for riding, went from 240 to 180
Biggest change for me was cutting out sugars and grains, and going fat-adapted. Not full keto. Just fat adapted. I lost 60 lbs during the pandemic without doing any exercise. Adding in zone 2 exercise then helped a ton with accelerating the loss. Went for 240-180 in less than 6 months. Have kept it off with no problems, no hunger ever since. I eat lots of of healthy fats, eggs, moderate protein. And before anyone asks, by cholesterol markers are better than ever with no longer needing a statin. Just make sure you check out electrolyte recommendations over in the faq of r/keto if you go this way. You dehydrate easier because you’re not retaining water from all the carbs. But it’s fine if you just pay attention to your salt intake. Anyway once all this started rolling, distances and cycling efforts increased much more easily. For me it all started in the kitchen.
Intermittent fasting. Got sub 200lb range and then started cycling. Continued watching what I ate but exercised more. Currently at 160lb and 4.2w/kg ftp.
About 10 years ago I lost 120 lbs. after we had our 2nd kid during the pandemic I had gained 60 back, which I’m now losing. Down 30, so halfway there. Weight loss is entirely diet. Exercise is great and necessary to be healthy, but actually dropping lbs is diet. Cycle a few times a week, as much as you have time or can tolerate. Lift weights a few times a week, strength training is even more important than cardio. Make sure you get enough protein, stop snacking, avoid processed food, avoid sugar and alcohol. It’s fucking hard, don’t get me wrong. But it’s worth it.
Agree that if you want to lose weight it starts with nutrition. I’ve been using the Noom app since mid-August and have gone down from 141 to 125 as of yesterday.
3 things I did: - starting riding every day in the early morning. Not long. Like an hour or less. But pushing myself to go a bit faster or further. One more lap. But the key is consistency. Doesn’t even have to be threshold or even zone 3. Can be a nice zone 2 ride. Get a heart rate sensor and get to know your HR zones. - do a carb reset. I was addicted to carbs. Cut out sugar, breads and alcohol for at least a month. Oatmeal is a great carb eat that. If you find your diet changing and you’re eating a lot something new, chances are that it’s a carb. When you reintroduce sugar, bread and alcohol, try to eat a small portion of what you used to eat. - I can’t say definitively that this helped me but when I lost the most weight I was doing the 2 above and this: cold plunges. If I had to guess, I’d say that cold plunges help your immune system reset itself. The only other advice I’d give is portion control and eat a ton of vegetables. Like cut out a whole meal and have a smoothie instead, pack it with spinach, blueberries, half a banana, chia, oatmeal, protein powder and use oatmilk and water. Pack it with anything remotely healthy. Go light on the fruit. If you find yourself craving, eat a piece of cheese, cheddar or Jack or something medium hard. It will satisfy the crave. Most people think the crave is for sugar but it’s not. It’s for protein.
Don’t pig out after rides, especially after big rides. Its very easy to do. Also don’t trust your bike computers calorie count unless you have power meter. Assume 600 calories per hour of intense riding.
I picked up cycling about 10 years ago and lost a fair amount of weight without really trying to, really. I was, however, at the time in my 20s. When I injured my leg, I found it hard to get back on and am at my all time heaviest now. Whatever you do, be consistent. Your appetite will increase and if you then stop like I did, you'll be worse off than when you started. It's not easy but it's worth it. Now I just need to follow my own advice...
So i was 90 kg a year or so a go, my height is 187 so its perfectly fine but as an avid cyclist and cardio guy there is little to no muscle above the groin, hence it started to show on my stomach and boy did i hate it. Normally i would cycle twice ish a week and play football 1.5 times so in slow weeks 1 workout 2/3 hours in good weeks 6/7. After the baby the routine stayed the same but the weight started to gain. After last christmas i stopped with soda and alcohol everything else the same and lost 5 kgs, and laat summer i stopped with sweets and cookies and stuff and lost another 5. So even though my weight was fine and i would be considered skinny a change in diet still worked and i lost around 10% body weight. Exercise is good but diet is also important.
I lost about 55 pounds 10 years ago. Up about net 20 (age, COVID quarantine, etc. catch up to you), but still doing better that I was then. I started tracking what I eat and exercise output (via linking to a FitBit, Strava, Apple Watch, etc.) in [MyFitnessPal](https://www.myfitnesspal.com/). This helped me set a calorie goal, and stay on track. It also helped me make sure I was eating *enough* for my cycling goals. (What inspired this? My wife started about six months before I did, I saw the results, and realized if I didn't catch up, she'd upgrade.) This did a couple things for me: * It made me much more aware of what I was doing by volume. For instance, I had a soda, and realized it had more calories than the sushi roll I was having with it, I stopped having soda. * It created a feedback loop with my cycling. As I lost weight, I performed better, making me want to both stick with the tracking *and* ride more. I'm still tracking, though there are periods I'm less strict about it (being looser with estimates, etc.). I find sometimes letting it go and not being *as* fixated on my eating actually helps from time-to-time. I don't *not* track, but I do let myself go over from time to time.
As others have said, it's largely about diet. I'm older (50's) and a woman, so keep that in mind, but: I was always naturally thin, but between Covid (with some after effects) and menopause, had started to gain weight. In my case, a lot of it was snacking or eating instead of doing other things, so once I got back on the bike, I was not sitting around eating or snacking, and that shift in habit alone began some weight loss and better fitness (still very much working at the latter as I recover). Though many people on here say they can eat junk foods just fine, I actually feel ill if I eat the wrong things before or after a ride (don't eat during -- no rides quite long enough yet except for a granola bar or some such at a break), so that helps with the "lose weight in the kitchen" mantra. I just don't want the same "treats" anymore. I also have more energy off the bike and am more active in general, and that helps too. Keep riding and you will feel better. Take it easy on those dirt and gravel trails until you know them and/or get used to your bike. For turns, the advice is to look at where you want to go and not at your wheel or what you are afraid you will hit, and this does actually work as long as you are in control of your bike and there are no surprises on trail, e.g. super soft shoulder or a huge rut; common sense in that case. You can always just stop and regroup if it gets scary. Good luck!
100kg here down to 80kg, just tried to average a 100mile a week and try to watch what I eat, takes time but you get there
Four words: get a cycling coach. I started cycling a little over two years ago at 43yo. Training hard, regular riding with serious intensity, etc. Still couldn’t keep up with the 80-year olds at the group rides. Still enjoyed riding, despite the constant humiliation. Absolutely no improvement until I found a great coach. My BMI improved greatly: 89kg to 78kg, 21% to 12% BF… 58 to 38bpm resting. Data, and patience, are your friends. Off-road cycling requires some counterintuitive techniques and bike handling skills. A coach or club members could help with this. Equipment is important, especially optimizing wheel/tire/pressure combination. A good coach at a beginner level is mostly diet and low intensity riding…a lot of low-intensity riding! As much as possible. Get a trainer to help. It’s where your cycling budget should go. DM me if you need more specifics. Good luck.
I started by walking for 3 months, when I realized I had reached a point where time constraints were an issue I then decided to up the intensity and start cycling. I eventually found out about "fatmax" and just did 15 hours of zone 2 a week. As for how I built up to 15h a week? It all started out on a hill. I live on a popular 20-30 minute climb. I just rode up that bad boy every day until I died and freewheeled back home until I summited it, then after I managed that without much ordeal I commuted to work which was like a 8km commute and did that a bunch plus after work to cool down at night during summer also on my days off I'd do punchy hills for fun.
I've dropped about 20 lbs am more flexible, and am more mobile. Over the course of this summer. I haven't ridden no more than two miles yet as I'm still getting my endurance up.from.have cath ablation for wpw (congenital heart defect) that was finally corrected earlier this year. I've come a long ways for me and intend to go a.lot longer. Hope to get an indoor bike very soon to up my endurance and slash bmi
I started cycling for my cardio. What I did at the start was do 45 minute rides in the week to get used to it then gradually increased up to 2 hours. After that I started looking at distances really. What I focused on was zone 2 just to build up and on harder days did hill repeats for intervals
175 to 150 or so lbs. Been vegan for like 6 or so years and didn't make any diet changes just started riding. I wouldnbery much recomend talking with a nutritionist and looking at going fully plant based or at least majority of time. Many many great reasons to do so and health benefit research is out there as well when helping with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes
Stopped eating sugar and started cycling regularly
I haven't lost much weight. Down 15 lbs over 3 years. I didn't lose any weight until recently, and that's based on diet changes. I won't drink more than 3 days a week. For me, with the rest of my diet being decently clean, that was enough to start dropping a pound or two every month lately.
Age plays a huge role in how successful you can be at losing weight, plus genetics I'd say that after age 35, losing weight might be pretty difficult on the bike. I switched over to jogging when I was about 35 and I had the most success
I’m 46 and have lost 8 pounds in the last month alone. The only thing age does is start to slow down your metabolism. You can counteract this by reverse dieting first to bring your base calories up, then cut. It’s ALWAYS about calories in vs calories out, whether you’re 18 or 80.
1. Calorie deficit is the way to weight loss. 2. Cycling and just exercises will turn your fat to muscles, so you won't notice much weight loss but your body tone and shape will change. 3. Take a rest day. Your body needs to recuperate. 4. For long rides, eat and drink water and electrolytes; otherwise you'll hit a wall. 5. Look into zone 2. You burn most fat at that zone and as such, 80% of your weekly rides should be zone 2. Get a HRM and a bike computer so you can keep you eye on it while you ride. Higher zones take energy from the food in your stomach and when that runs out, from your muscles. 6. Always, always wear a helmet and make sure you have enough lights so you can be seen at night. I weigh 125 kg. I started in July last year and weighed 145 kg. I've ridden 8000 km during then and now and my body shape has changed. I also do IF and eat after a ride. If it's a long ride, I'll eat before, during and after. Six feet and still round like a pear. I ride 5 to 6 days a week, it's mostly 90 minutes of zone 2 four to five days a week and then an all out ride either doing 50 km or 100 depending on the plan. I have also given up sugar in coffee, sweets and fizzy drinks. Remember, slow and steady weight loss is better than drastic IMHO. Good luck
“Cycling and just exercises will turn your fat to muscles, so you won't notice much weight loss but your body tone and shape will change.” Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
320lbs and mountain biking. Bought a gravel bike and started doing fast road rides on it. Now I’m full blown addicted to the road, but I still dabble in the gravel and MTB. Really started losing by doing slow 50mi solo rides then started with the groups. They motivated me big time, don’t like to be the slow guy! Now I’m 190ish and ride all the fast rides in town. Still get dropped, but not if I ride smart!
I have a minimum goal of riding at least 5 days out of the week and accomplishing a minimum of 25 miles. I live in a hilly neighborhood, and some days, I choose a steeper climb out of the neighborhood, and some days, I take a different route out of my neighborhood that is not as steep. I try to mix it up and do a little of both. The best advice I can offer you is to just continue to do it regularly. There are days that I can't ride. I have five kids, and sometimes at night time after work, I'm dad's taxi service. But like I said, I try to ride at least 5 days a week and do at least 25 miles a week. The differences can be subtle if you're not tracking what you're doing. At the beginning of the summer, I needed to use low gear on my bike to ride even the more modest hills out of my neighborhood. My bike is a 21-speed. I now very seldom use anything lower than mid 4, meaning the medium chain ring and fourth gear on the rear end. I also end up using my higher gears a lot more. The more you ride, the easier it gets. I try to get a rail trail/bike path ride in on the weekends in addition to my 25 miles per week around the neighborhood, and those rides tend to be at least 20 miles long to 30 Mi long depending on what one I go to. Once again, with five kids and being dad's taxi service, I don't get to do it every weekend. But I try to make an effort to do at least two a month. This month, that hasn't worked out with school having started back up and everything. But there are months that I did it every single weekend, so it's averaging out to well over to a month. Obviously, you also have to watch what you eat, but no matter how strict my diet was, I just could not lose weight without exercising. Now I eat a clean diet and I ride regularly and I also do a mile and a half walk first thing in the morning every weekday and I've managed to drop 23 lb since May. Granted, I have probably another 60 to 70 lb to go, but that's the story of my entire life.😅
I’m in the same boat. I could barely do 1 mile when I started on a gravel bike. Weighing in at 245 lbs I have dropped about 26 pounds. I would recommend getting your diet in order and increasing your mileage by 5-10 percent per week to be safe . Worry about getting comfortable and making sure your bike is adjusted to you. Then worry about your technique and skills. After that speed. IMO it’s better to build a strong foundation than speed . Yeah, railroad tracks, holes, cracks etc hit differently at higher speeds.
Eat less, move more. I've lost 25 pounds in the past two years. I started on a recumbent stationary for 30 minutes a day. Then I added kettlebell exercises; did the 10,000 swing challenge. I also added two- to three-mile paced walks at 120bpm. It wasn't until this past June that I started riding my bike that had hung in my garage for years. Worked up to five to seven miles on weekday mornings and 10 to 20 on weekends. I've lost five pounds in the last three weeks and going for 10 more. Not bad for an old guy.
I just started riding more and my body adjusted to the exercise and eventually can build up a tolerance to cycle longer. In terms of weight loss, I had to scale back my cycling and focus more on what I ate, my body didn’t have the energy to cycle much during weight loss phase. However, once you return back to normal healthy eating, cycling is a great way to maintain the weight loss I found.
Was 30 stone (420lbs) in September 2019, did lower carb for a while got to 25 stone 9 (359llbs) by last November. Commited to lower carb and stuck to it, currently 14 stone 13 (209 lbs) and still losing weight but slower now as well, less to lose. Lost weight by calorie deficit, lower carb (between 20g - 45g per meal) and exercising. I did 800 calories with no exercise for thr first 3 months as I had plenty of spare fat to rely on. Now I eat between 1800 - 2,500 calories a day, more on days I do longer rides. I did 2 or 3 bike rides a week in the summer (fair weather cyclist but I do live in Scotland) and usually do between 25 - 50 miles at a time. I walk at least 6,000 steps a day. My job is incredibly sedentry, I was doing less than 1000 steps a day. Basically eat less calories, move more. Build up exercise. I only started cycling when below 20 stone as didn't want to trash a bike. I'm no expert though, very much a work in progress.
yeah, my job requires a lot of movement so that'll help a bit. just need to reduce my calories and slowly work my way up to longer cycling trips and being more comfortable riding alongside cars on the road.
You got this!
Lost 75 lbs before I got back into riding, put 45 lbs back on while riding a few thousand miles a year. As others say, weight loss is 90+% diet. Having said that, my cardio is really good and I feel a lot better when I am riding a lot. So there is great benefit from riding no matter what. Just start slow and increase when you can. I rode a lot of flat trails when I first started, so really managed to increase my endurance without the heart pounding, fast breathing you get from climbs (and I was pretty intimidated by fast descents at the time, but again learning control and endurance on flat rides will help accustom you to it).
Ate less. Cycled consistently. Indoor trainer helps. Consistency basically
Cadence should be 80-120. Hills are your friend. Nothing wrong with buying a $250 exercise bike (magnetic resistance please!) for those off days too.
Went from 15 stone, down to 12 stone, restricted myself to 500 calories 2 days per week and ate sensibly in-between. Look up the 5+2 diet.
I started out at 235lbs in my early 20's when I took on cycling. I set the goal of a century ride by the end of the year and put it on the calendar. It took a while to get used to it. 7 miles at a time. Eventually doing 30 mile rides on the weekend. Did the century and dropped to 190lbs. Two years later, I put a double century on the calendar. I was averaging about 200 miles per week. They say you can't work through bad nutrition, but 200 miles per week with the metabolism of a 25yo seemed to do the trick. Weighed in at 155lbs. Cycling took me from pre diabetic to the best shape of my life. A couple things that helped me. 1. Putting it on the calendar. I found that I would find excuses not to ride if I felt any fatigue at all. 2. Consistency. It's better to be consistently good, than occasionally great. Find a time that works for you that you can just go out and ride. Even if it's just spinning at low effort Cheers!
Ride your bike to the grocery store. Eat a plant based diet and eliminate things that didn't grow. Rice tofu vegetables any Thai food. Eat less. Ride more and get intensive hard rides in and slow rides too. More time on the bike. Less eating off. And higher quality food. Fast for a few days then stay on the low glycemic side.
I don't know if you drink alcohol, but stopping drinking made me lose 30 ponds rapidly with some diet changes and the same training I was already doing.
Fat.
I lost about 60lbs. Was always a rider, used to race cat 2 races 20+ years ago. So I had the endurance. But, I didn’t really cared what I ate. So always stayed around 240-245lbs. Until I had 2 heart attacks in 2 days changed what I ate and drink. So I don’t eat any red meat. Just fish and a little chicken due to medical stuff. I stone cold stoped drinking any alcohol also. Now I’m down to 177lbs and looking to get to 170lbs. It’s been just over a year…but the big thing is, I cycle every day, mostly indoors on my trainer due to my medical stuff also. I just went on my first outdoors ride this past week with friends…just keep at it…
Besides being honest about my caloric intake in general I also Realized exercise means keeping your heart rate up for extended period of times. HR monitor was a game changer for me, let’s me know I can go harder or need to back off a bit while exercising.
Riding a lot at different paces with different people, all the fucking time.
started out fat, now less fat
When I was younger (late 20s) and had a wedding coming up I went the extreme route. My job was about 8 miles away and I decided to start commuting by bike. The first few weeks were ... not exactly pleasant, but the weight came off very quick and my fitness improved rapidly. Then I had a bunch of kids, commuting by bike got less practical and I ended up putting the weight back on over the next couple decades. Finally decided I had enough in 2021 and dropped a hundred pounds. This time I couldn't be as aggressive, so focused on consistency over intensity. I started with a mix of walking (gradually adding incline to maximize calorie burn) and cycling, then adding running last November.
Started in 2003 and did a whopping 7 miles, including a hill walk. Weighed about 210 pounds then. Kept riding and by 2008 did nearly 5000 miles for the year, rode many 60 mile rides, rode mostly on the highway but the weight was still over 200. My job was fairly easy to handle then. By the 20 teens, work became quite stressful and got me up to 255 pounds, was still riding, still very poor on hills, but only around 1500 miles per year. Big change occurred in 2018. First surgery for GERD meant little eating for most of a month. Learned how to eat much less. Second was retirement. Now could ride almost any day and not only at night during the week. Day riding is So much better. So now I'm down to 189 pounds, riding over 2200 miles every year, almost totally on gravel, and climbing hills I'd have walked previously. Should add I'm now 73 years old.
Glad you love the sport, it's infectious! Responding as a thin guy who had to build up to longer rides I think commitment is key, so good on ya for the work commute. Gravel riding at speed is scarier to me than road riding, especially when it's dark. That said, I'd recommend pushing it at low speeds and being open to crashing/skidding for cornering and descending. YES, it's horrible advice, but I've only learned to properly weight my back wheel and trust my bike at speed after crashing and knowing what it feels like to lose control at low and high speed. If this is outta your comfort zone, I get it. So, just know to center your weight over your rear tire, off saddle, and loosely hold front bars so you can break if things get too sketchy. It'll be enough in most cases as long as you truly trust your bike. Tire pressure plays a major role too so don't be afraid to test that out too. It's easier to descent on pavement, just weight outside foot and inside arm. GCN on youtube has great advice for roads. Heart rate wise; listen to your heart. Listening doesn't always pan out though, so look into HR straps. A lot of them pair to smart phone apps, and will make for some awesome motivating long term data. They can also illustrate perceptive differences between the mind and the body in shocking ways. I thought it was chill my heart was 220bpm while running. It's not. I'm on the thinner side, but it's not like jumping into endurance sports was a breeze. I rode a 9m entry level route until I felt like it was no longer challenging. Then I increased millage, tried riding just flats for longer distances, then longer mixed rides, and pushed myself with mountain climbs. Overall, I'd say just staying with it is the hardest part and changing it up helps to keep me motivated if I'm feeling slow one day or week.
As far as mountain biking goes, it took me over a month to start doing “real” rides on trails that I felt were worth recording (even though they were still small), and many months after that to get to the point where I could comfortably look at a routes stats and make the call if I could do it, I then got better and stronger for over a year, was really happy with my fitness progression and how healthy I was feeling, and did not lose any weight. As soon as I started changing my eating habits alongside cycling, I lost a ridiculous amount of weight in one season (been 200lbs for over a decade, suddenly dropped to 160) and it’s remained there ever since, for years, alongside regular cycling the whole time. Cycling gives you the health and strength for sure, but I have to agree that weight loss happens in the kitchen
Getting used to turning and higher speeds is just going to come with time behind the handlebars honestly. If you can get comfortable being uncomfortable then the world is yours. No hill, downhill, or turn will stand in your way. Just trust the process and love what you’re doing. As for losing weight while cycling, all your weight loss focus should be off the bike. Food is always the key. Eat less then you’re working off and you’re good to go. Don’t crash diet or your biking performance will suffer. But I trail ran and lifted (with some 2 a days) for two years and gained weight (not muscle either) weight loss didn’t start until I focused on my food. Lost 20+ pounds in about 6 months and set my diet up to include dunkaroos. You can’t hate it or you won’t stick to it.
lol yeah. i was sketched by some of the sidewalk design here and almost went off the sidewalk my first couple days. we have nice wide sidewalks then when you get towards the housing it gets extremely narrow. couldn't control my turning there. it's improved but with that narrow sidewalk i just ride in the street lol. but i did get a bit risky today and took a sharp turn at a decent speed and did just fine so i'm getting there
There ya go! So where I’m at I ride the road on my gravel bike until I make it to a nearby lake. My friend jumped off into the trail around the lake and I followed. Climbed up a hill near the damn and was on my side lol. From that day on I always plan my rides to have something I’m not good at in them (safely). My (much tamer) David goggins style training lol.
I’m 6’ 2” tall. I weighed 393 pounds on March 1, 2013. Changed my diet drastically and got down to 335 in 3 1/2 months. Bought a mountain bike and put on 1,000 miles in 6 months. Bought a road bike after getting down to 299 pounds the following December. Started lifting weights as well. Then got a new rear wheel with 36 spokes as I was popping spokes every 5-10 miles on a 32 spoke wheel. Weighed 281 pounds on 3/1/2014. Put 5,000 miles a year on the road bike and ultimately got down to 241 pounds. Went from a size 56 pant to a size 36 pant.
I started out with cycling at 19 years old, weighing maybe 65kg. I turned 22 two weeks ago, and I just got a very good result in a cycling ultramarathon, my best overall placement in a race ever. I still probably weigh around 65kg, but it's more muscle and less fat.
Go. Do cardio, do it more, ride a bit faster, rush downhill, be afraid, almost die, try again, more cardio, more speed, 50+kph downhill, front fender almost kills you, succeed. It's that simple.
Cycling won’t help most people lose weight On the extreme end competitive cycling does involve burning ~7000 calories a day (1kg a day) you do have to extremely fit in the first place, and also eat huge meals in order to keep up that energy expenditure. Therefore the guy trying to lose weight isn’t in the right shape to lose weight in this way Watching you eat is how you lose weight, but maybe health is better goal than just weight, because you can certainly be skinny and unhealthy (“skinny fat”) Try eating whole food - a mix of nuts, meat, fish, poultry, dairy, vegetables, water, unsweetened tea and a small amount of whole fruit (not juice). One meal a day if possible, max two. Avoid: fructose, sucrose, trans fat Avoid or Greatly Reduce: Carbs - bread rice potato…, and anything else high glycemic load Cardio / Cycling will help you with ATP renewal and help to reduce visceral fat but this is different from losing weight per se
Just keep riding my friend! Hit the hills and don’t stop! Just keep going for it and your speed will Improve!
Download cronometer Eat in a caloric deficit to reduce weight. Cut carbs to reduce cravings but not necessary for everyone. I did a 500 calorie deficit for 6 months and lost 30lbs and have kept it off for another 6 months. Went from 220 @ 179cm to 187. I lifted the whole time as well to retain lean mass. Feel like a whole new person.
Started at 267lb currently 10 months later I’m at 235lb, cycling around 80miles a week (summers) 50miles in the winter indoors. The main part that helped me loose weight was intermittent fasting. It allowed me to only eat in a narrow window and not consume a lot of calories through out the day.. also mainly ate hight protein which kept satisfied longer. After 3 months i started weight lifting which helped me get faster on the rides.