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#1
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How to cycle for weight loss
Hello,
I am wondering if there is an easy way to dose my efforts toward weight loss. I could buy a HRM but I have already spent 600$ on my bike this month and would like to stop spending for a while. Any trick that can tell me I am using the right effort for weight loss? Someone told me that if I cannot speak without feeling a little out of breath that is the right zone... is that true? Also I am been trying to pedal faster. I used to pedal slow and hard but after reading some books I now understand it's a really bad way to do it. I have no idea what my current cadence is since my computer doesn't have that feature but I think I am at around 1.25 turn per second... that is of course an approximate... it would mean 75 turns per minute which is close to what is recommanded... I cannot see myself pedaling faster, already feels like I am spinning way too fast How do you guys do 100 turns per minute? Must be a mental issue, the legs don't seems to mind but geez at a 100 I am not sure I could even keep my balance hehehe! Last thing... what should I eat before and during training? I love pasta. I know they contain a lot of calories but that is the food I like. On the other hand they give lots of carbs so that can't be bad while training right? Should I eat something different the days I train? How about during training? I normal bring a Nutribar which is an meal replacement designed for weight loss. I has a balance of carbs, fats and proteins. Should I use something with more carbs? |
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#2
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How to cycle for weight loss
"Daniel Crispin" wrote in message ... Hello, I am wondering if there is an easy way to dose my efforts toward weight loss. bunch of stuff snipped Daniel, I see lots of folks who take up cycling for weight loss and never lose weight. Frankly, it's not exactly the best choice for weight loss because it's a non-weight-bearing activity and most folks who have real jobs can't do enough of it, or won't work hard enough at it, to get much benefit. What I've read and what I believe based on years of observing various riders, reading tons of stuff, etc. is that you absolutely will not lose weight if you don't ride with some intensity ... at least a couple of times a week. There was a long time when the popular theory was that, if you spent all your time training in a certain, relatively easy, heart rate zone, you were using fat as your fuel source instead of sugar. Therefore, staying in that range all the time would make you lose fat. Great theory, but I never EVER saw that work for anyone. If you want to lose weight on the bike, you have to work HARD on the bike. Lots of mile, lots of intervals of intensity, etc. I don't have a "real" job. I'm self-employed and have a farm. I have a flexible schedule and can ride alot. I get in 250 to 300 miles per week pretty much all year round. I don't race, but I do centuries with the racer folks and turn in sub-5 hour rides regularly. That's intensity for this 48 year old body. I say all that to say this ... even with all those miles and near-race intensity, if I don't eat right, I gain weight. Carbs like pasta can be great fuel before a big ride, but most of the time, if you want to lose, you've gotta discipline your diet. I recommend you look at the Zone diet and learn its principles. It's not really one of the fad diets. I'm not a dietician, but the Zone principles seem to make sense ... balancing your fat, protein and carbohydrate intake to keep your blood sugar at optimum levels. It's really worked for me. One last thing. Crosstraining. Bicycling is great, but I find it really helps to add a second activity when I want to lose weight. For me, it's just walking. As I said, I live on a farm and I simply walk the property each morning. It takes about 20 minutes and gets the motor going. For some reason, the addition of a second activity like this really pushes things into higher gear for me and I lose weight quickly. I hope some of this helps. I'm sure I'm going to get flamed 'cuz I'm not offering any specific data to back up what I'm saying. This is just based on personal experience and a decade of observation and "study." Good luck. Bob C. |
#3
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How to cycle for weight loss
Daniel Crispin wrote:
I am wondering if there is an easy way to dose my efforts toward weight loss. I could buy a HRM but I have already spent 600$ on my bike this month and would like to stop spending for a while. How about free? And probably less biased than most, because it's not selling anything: http://www.hackersdiet.org Any trick that can tell me I am using the right effort for weight loss? Someone told me that if I cannot speak without feeling a little out of breath that is the right zone... is that true? Not necessarily. Ride. Recover. Ride more. Also I am been trying to pedal faster. I used to pedal slow and hard but after reading some books I now understand it's a really bad way to do it. As long as the pressure on your knees is low, I don't think it really matters how fast you spin. Last thing... what should I eat before and during training? I love pasta. I know they contain a lot of calories but that is the food I like. On the other hand they give lots of carbs so that can't be bad while training right? Should I eat something different the days I train? Read the book above. If you want to lose fat, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. In that book, cycling is rated at about 300 calories per hour. The good news is that is probably for what most people think of as cycling--slow, easy rides on a bike path. Most of the readers of this newsgroup will burn more. How about during training? I normal bring a Nutribar which is an meal replacement designed for weight loss. I has a balance of carbs, fats and proteins. Should I use something with more carbs? How about something less manufactured and more grown? Bananas are good. So are apples. So are fig bars, for that matter. (I have mixed feelings about the current low-carb fad.) -- Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA |
#4
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How to cycle for weight loss
I generally read about 35 calories burned per mile for modest biking, dependent
upon degree of effort, wieght of biker, etc. But, it is a good figure to start with. Cadence. Look at your watch while pedaling, when it gets to a "0", start counting full revolutions until it gets to the next "0". I.e., 20-30, 0-10, etc. Multiply the revolutions you counted by 6. While not absolutely accurate, it will give you a good diea. Over the past 6 years of riding (starting at age 58) my cadence has gone from about 60-70 to 90-110, and I can get cadences up to 140-150 if I want. It just takes time and practice. Use the Zone Diet, or the Body for Life eating plan - they are pretty comparable, and the BFL is really easy to implement. It takes exercise AND good eating habits to lose weight. I bike pretty intensely, getting my heart rate up to about 155 BPM on hills and acceleration, which is pretty high for someone age 64. Good luck! http://members.aol.com/foxcondorsrvtns (Colorado rental condo) http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox (Family Web Page) |
#5
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How to cycle for weight loss
"psycholist" wrote in message ... Daniel, I see lots of folks who take up cycling for weight loss and never lose weight. Frankly, it's not exactly the best choice for weight loss because it's a non-weight-bearing activity and most folks who have real jobs can't do enough of it, or won't work hard enough at it, to get much benefit. I agree that most people can't devote racer-like hours to training, and that many people do not possess the intensity to burn lots of calories cycling. However, weight-bearing has little effect, I think. The reason people don't lose weight when they cycle is because they are consuming more calories than they burn. Didn't we have a 100+ thread about this very subject not long ago? What I've read and what I believe based on years of observing various riders, reading tons of stuff, etc. is that you absolutely will not lose weight if you don't ride with some intensity ... at least a couple of times a week. There was a long time when the popular theory was that, if you spent all your time training in a certain, relatively easy, heart rate zone, you were using fat as your fuel source instead of sugar. Therefore, staying in that range all the time would make you lose fat. Great theory, but I never EVER saw that work for anyone. Because they ate too much. It's easy to do---Powerbars, Gatorade, pre-ride pasta gorge, post-ride beers and pizza. If they ate at maintenance level calories and rode like you say, they will lose weight. If you want to lose weight on the bike, you have to work HARD on the bike. Lots of mile, lots of intervals of intensity, etc. Long slow distance seems to be the rule. Of course, some Poliquin-type interval training helps, too. But calories are the key. As bodybuilders say, "great abs are made in the kitchen". I don't have a "real" job. I'm self-employed and have a farm. I have a flexible schedule and can ride alot. I get in 250 to 300 miles per week pretty much all year round. I don't race, but I do centuries with the racer folks and turn in sub-5 hour rides regularly. That's intensity for this 48 year old body. I say all that to say this ... even with all those miles and near-race intensity, if I don't eat right, I gain weight. Carbs like pasta can be great fuel before a big ride, but most of the time, if you want to lose, you've gotta discipline your diet. I recommend you look at the Zone diet and learn its principles. It's not really one of the fad diets. I'm not a dietician, but the Zone principles seem to make sense ... balancing your fat, protein and carbohydrate intake to keep your blood sugar at optimum levels. It's really worked for me. Good for you. But tricks aside, you cannot escape The Law of Thermodynamics. If anyone consumes fewer calories than burned, weight loss will occur. The key is burning fat and not excessive amounts of muscle. One last thing. Crosstraining. Bicycling is great, but I find it really helps to add a second activity when I want to lose weight. For me, it's just walking. As I said, I live on a farm and I simply walk the property each morning. It takes about 20 minutes and gets the motor going. For some reason, the addition of a second activity like this really pushes things into higher gear for me and I lose weight quickly. Weight lifting would be ideal. Growing muscle helps to burn fat. Everybody should strength train, if for no other reason than to maintain bone density. I don't want to end up a stick-armed old man with great cardio ability. I want to end up a strong old man with great cardio ability! :-) |
#6
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How to cycle for weight loss
"Gooserider" wrote in message om... "psycholist" wrote in message ... Daniel, I see lots of folks who take up cycling for weight loss and never lose weight. Frankly, it's not exactly the best choice for weight loss because it's a non-weight-bearing activity and most folks who have real jobs can't do enough of it, or won't work hard enough at it, to get much benefit. I agree that most people can't devote racer-like hours to training, and that many people do not possess the intensity to burn lots of calories cycling. However, weight-bearing has little effect, I think. The reason people don't lose weight when they cycle is because they are consuming more calories than they burn. Didn't we have a 100+ thread about this very subject not long ago? What I've read and what I believe based on years of observing various riders, reading tons of stuff, etc. is that you absolutely will not lose weight if you don't ride with some intensity ... at least a couple of times a week. There was a long time when the popular theory was that, if you spent all your time training in a certain, relatively easy, heart rate zone, you were using fat as your fuel source instead of sugar. Therefore, staying in that range all the time would make you lose fat. Great theory, but I never EVER saw that work for anyone. Because they ate too much. It's easy to do---Powerbars, Gatorade, pre-ride pasta gorge, post-ride beers and pizza. If they ate at maintenance level calories and rode like you say, they will lose weight. If you want to lose weight on the bike, you have to work HARD on the bike. Lots of mile, lots of intervals of intensity, etc. Long slow distance seems to be the rule. Of course, some Poliquin-type interval training helps, too. But calories are the key. As bodybuilders say, "great abs are made in the kitchen". I don't have a "real" job. I'm self-employed and have a farm. I have a flexible schedule and can ride alot. I get in 250 to 300 miles per week pretty much all year round. I don't race, but I do centuries with the racer folks and turn in sub-5 hour rides regularly. That's intensity for this 48 year old body. I say all that to say this ... even with all those miles and near-race intensity, if I don't eat right, I gain weight. Carbs like pasta can be great fuel before a big ride, but most of the time, if you want to lose, you've gotta discipline your diet. I recommend you look at the Zone diet and learn its principles. It's not really one of the fad diets. I'm not a dietician, but the Zone principles seem to make sense ... balancing your fat, protein and carbohydrate intake to keep your blood sugar at optimum levels. It's really worked for me. Good for you. But tricks aside, you cannot escape The Law of Thermodynamics. If anyone consumes fewer calories than burned, weight loss will occur. The key is burning fat and not excessive amounts of muscle. One last thing. Crosstraining. Bicycling is great, but I find it really helps to add a second activity when I want to lose weight. For me, it's just walking. As I said, I live on a farm and I simply walk the property each morning. It takes about 20 minutes and gets the motor going. For some reason, the addition of a second activity like this really pushes things into higher gear for me and I lose weight quickly. Weight lifting would be ideal. Growing muscle helps to burn fat. Everybody should strength train, if for no other reason than to maintain bone density. I don't want to end up a stick-armed old man with great cardio ability. I want to end up a strong old man with great cardio ability! :-) I do core strength work. I believe that's important. Weight training, per se, can actually result in gaining weight. If the goal is strictly weight loss, I'd opt for some core strength exercises that don't involve much in the way of weights. You can do a lot with crunches, pushups, chair dips, etc. Bob C. |
#7
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How to cycle for weight loss
On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 20:30:33 +0000, Warren Block wrote:
Daniel Crispin wrote: I am wondering if there is an easy way to dose my efforts toward weight loss. I could buy a HRM but I have already spent 600$ on my bike this month and would like to stop spending for a while. Most of the previous posts have been to the point, but numerically (and approximately), Weight loss = (Calories out - calories in) / 3500. If you push on the bike, rather than just cruising, you might burn 500 calories / hr. But it would still take about seven hours of pedaling to burn off one pound of fat, assuming no change in diet. This is why you have to watch it in the kitchen, too, since it is not too difficult to add back a few hundred calories a day with the pasta, energy bars, etc., etc. It doesn't take much, unfortunately... The moral: if you want to be a bit more scientific about it, try actually adding up the calories. Then you can find out where they came from and where they went (and if you're not losing weight, why they didn't went). Cheers, and happy pedaling. At least we have fun while we struggle... |
#8
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How to cycle for weight loss
Bicycling is a great way to lose weight! I think most important is to ride
long and steady to lose. I don't use a HR monitor, so I can't help you there, but there is an effective HR for weight loss, but it is different for everyone and we would need to know more information about you. If you like pasta, it will be harder to lose, unless you don't eat that much. Sorry, that is just the way it is. A high carb diet makes it harder to lose, it is just the facts. It can certainly be done and is done all the time, but you need to cut calories, unless you are going to ride very long distances 4+ days a week. I suggest lower fat if you are going high carb. If you want to lose faster, then bag the pasta and eat chicken, fish, etc. JMHO, Curt "Daniel Crispin" wrote in message ... Hello, I am wondering if there is an easy way to dose my efforts toward weight loss. I could buy a HRM but I have already spent 600$ on my bike this month and would like to stop spending for a while. Any trick that can tell me I am using the right effort for weight loss? Someone told me that if I cannot speak without feeling a little out of breath that is the right zone... is that true? Also I am been trying to pedal faster. I used to pedal slow and hard but after reading some books I now understand it's a really bad way to do it. I have no idea what my current cadence is since my computer doesn't have that feature but I think I am at around 1.25 turn per second... that is of course an approximate... it would mean 75 turns per minute which is close to what is recommanded... I cannot see myself pedaling faster, already feels like I am spinning way too fast How do you guys do 100 turns per minute? Must be a mental issue, the legs don't seems to mind but geez at a 100 I am not sure I could even keep my balance hehehe! Last thing... what should I eat before and during training? I love pasta. I know they contain a lot of calories but that is the food I like. On the other hand they give lots of carbs so that can't be bad while training right? Should I eat something different the days I train? How about during training? I normal bring a Nutribar which is an meal replacement designed for weight loss. I has a balance of carbs, fats and proteins. Should I use something with more carbs? |
#9
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How to cycle for weight loss
"psycholist" wrote in message ... I do core strength work. I believe that's important. Weight training, per se, can actually result in gaining weight. If the goal is strictly weight loss, I'd opt for some core strength exercises that don't involve much in the way of weights. You can do a lot with crunches, pushups, chair dips, etc. True. But someone who is 150 pounds at 10 percent bodyfat is in far better shape than someone who weighs 150 pounds at 20 percent bodyfat. Weight alone is not the issue(except for racers). We're not talking about becoming Mr Olympia. Just general fitness, and nothing works better at building strength than basic compound strength training exercises. Bench press, military press, squat, deadlift. Difficult to duplicate with just bodyweight, especially once one attains a basic strength level. :-) |
#10
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How to cycle for weight loss
"psycholist" wrote in message ... "Daniel Crispin" wrote in message ... Hello, I am wondering if there is an easy way to dose my efforts toward weight loss. bunch of stuff snipped Daniel, I see lots of folks who take up cycling for weight loss and never lose weight. Frankly, it's not exactly the best choice for weight loss because it's a non-weight-bearing activity and most folks who have real jobs can't do enough of it, or won't work hard enough at it, to get much benefit. What I've read and what I believe based on years of observing various riders, reading tons of stuff, etc. is that you absolutely will not lose weight if you don't ride with some intensity ... at least a couple of times a week. There was a long time when the popular theory was that, if you spent all your time training in a certain, relatively easy, heart rate zone, you were using fat as your fuel source instead of sugar. Therefore, staying in that range all the time would make you lose fat. Great theory, but I never EVER saw that work for anyone. If you want to lose weight on the bike, you have to work HARD on the bike. I put on some weight a couple of years ago from a thyroid condition. About 15 lbs, which doesn't sound like much but it was on me! It was largely due to metabolism. However, I found that I began to lose the weight during the cycling season, and the best thing I can advise is lots of long rides. Intensity is good, but if fat burning is the goal, long, steady rides are best- not necessarily fast, but steady. I began to burn fat, and during the winter would work out at the gym. I guess the muscle toning and fat burning kick started my slowed-down metabolism and made me burn energy more efficiently. I lost all the weight I gained and then some, 20 lbs altogether. ANd you won't just lose weight, you'll lose inches.I gained and then lost a pant size. As for intensity, like hills etc, I think once you build endurance, that comes easier. Also as you lose weight, climbing is easier. So get those miles and go for a couple of really long rides a week and you'll not only lose the weight, you'll keep it off. And when your metabolism is working faster, you won't gain too much during the winter, unless you totally stuff your face and do nothing but watch tv for four months. |
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