Originally Posted by
Iride01
I think you summed up what I couldn't. If the goal of riding is to lose weight, then just ride low intensity. I've always felt that high effort increased my hunger. I have a lot of trouble trying to ride low effort. Every climb, no matter the change of elevation or grade is a challenge for me. So I fail at trying to stay low intensity on short rides.
Longer rides wear me out of some of that energy. And I find that I can stay low effort for a longer percentage of my ride. And therefore I don't eat back the Calories I just rode off.
Yes. I'm surprised by my weight loss from this low intensity regimen I've been doing. It's December, and I haven't been this weight since 2 summers ago. I consume maybe 75 calories (or less) in 2 hours and am not particularly hungry afterward or later. I have a apple.
Outdoors, I've been just staring at my stem and gearing down to keep my watts at least close to my supposed goal. Stupid low gears on shallow hills, no pride at all. I'll wind up with average watts below goal because descents. OTOH, that means I can stay out longer because of small partial rests.