tallbikeman

Captain Belly congratulations on your weight loss and your return to pleasurable bicycle riding. I raced road in the 1970's and one of the things that was stressed by the coach was not to push and pull hard with your legs at the beginning of the season. So we would spin our first few hundred training miles in the spring on gears that were easy to turn at a high rpm. After a month or so of this you could start loading your legs more and your knees would take it without hurting. I'm not sure if this will help you as I don't know your full story. I'm 67 yrs old, 6' 5" and topped out at 282 lbs last year. I'm at 235 lbs this morning and losing weight. this week. Looking forward to your good company in our weight loss journey.

captain belly

Yes! You’re response made my day! Great tips too. I have a good friend that bikes a lot, and he told me “play the long game”.... that makes good sense. I think that’s what I’ll do.

daoswald

So you want to drop 36 pounds. That's about 128,000 calories.

A good healthy, sustainable weight loss rate is 1-2 pounds per week. Let's split that down the middle: 1.5 pounds per week. So at that rate it will take you 24 weeks. About half the year.

1.5 pounds is about 5250 calories. So in one week you need to consume 5250 fewer calories, or burn 5250 more, or some combination of the two.

If you haven't ridden much before, you're not going to ride every day to begin with, though you can work up to 4x/week in a few weeks time, and eventually 5x. You need a calorie deficit of 750 calories per day to lose 36 pounds in 24 weeks. Let's say you get half that deficit from riding, and half from eating less. So you eat 375 fewer calories every single day between now and six months from now. Better yet, round that up to 500 calories less than you are currently eating.

That means when you have a craving for a burger, you grab a handful of carrots. When you want pizza or M&Ms or ice cream, you instead have a salad (with no dressing), or some other healthy thing. Pay attention to your protein intake; don't let it fall too low, but obtain it in lower-calorie ways. Keep in mind, you simply MUST consume 500 fewer calories every day.

Next, you need to *average* 400 calories per day of riding. Round up to 500 also. But you're going to ride an average of 4x/week because you're human. So each ride needs to burn 875 calories. That's an hour to 90 minutes of riding, 4x/week.

If you cut your calorie intake by 500 calories, and ride 60-90 minutes 4x/week, you will lose 36 pounds in six months. It will be hard. Remember, the only way you get to cheat one day and eat those extra 500 calories is if you add a 2.5 hour to 3.5 hour ride for one of your four days, or do an extra day of 60-90. The most important thing is to keep on your mind that you need a calorie deficit every single day.

Can you do this on a hybrid? Sure. Personally, I wouldn't find a flat-bar bike terribly comfortable for 60-90 minute rides 4x per week, but everyone's different. But that level of consistency and amount of time on bike is usually more comfortable on a road bike where you have more hand positions.

Will this work? Yes. If you stick to it for six months, creating a calorie deficit every day, and riding 4x/week every week, and making up for lost days by doing a 5th day the next week, you will lose those 36 pounds. I know because I was 220 at the beginning of 2018, and 188 by the end of 2018. And my riding season was mid-April through mid-October. I lost 32 pounds in six months. And there was no trick to it, no easy solution, no shortcuts. It was riding 4x/week 60-90 minutes, and eating less, and more healthy. When doughnuts were brought into the office, I did't grab one. When ordering lunch, I got the smaller-sized sandwich. I stopped boredom grazing at night. Meals were eating time, between meals was not a time to eat. I ate what I needed to at each meal to be comfortable, but not more than that.

In 2019 I added nine pounds by slacking off both sides of the equation a little. In 2020, I've dropped seven of those again, by riding 6x/week, and eating more carefully again. So I'm right around 190 at 6'3".

Let me tell you this: Every ride was a hard ride when I was losing the weight. I did hill repeats, long hilly-terrain rides, and I wore a heart rate monitor to assure that I was keeping the rate up. My helmet straps would get crusty with sweat. My eyes would burn. But by the end of the season in 2018 I was climbing hills in one or two harder gears than at the start of the season, and I could sustain higher-tier heart rates for hours. My resting pulse dropped to the mid-50s. And the health benefits were great; less problems with back pain, better blood pressure, more energy, etc. It became fun to push myself. And I still enjoy it today. Love it, really. But it is hard work, there's no magic. Calories in, and calories out are all that counts.

Toadmeister

certainly take it easy on those knees. Are you spinning or mashing those pedals? Also take a look at your seat height vs legs and pedals.

mango18

I am subscribing to the net calorie loss theory wherever it comes from and so far for the short time it is working.
Here are my stats from the last 22 days. Started seriously tracking my food intake on 03/29/20 - 21 days ago.
Weight was at 210.6. Started riding my bike (ok my sons bike) at the same time. So far till yesterday had completed 12 rides.

Calorie Goal - keep it below 1500 per day for net deficiet of 500 cals/day except on long ride days on which days I eat upto 2000 cal to prevent bonking.
Biking Goal - Wanted to do about 3 rides a week with the 3rd ride being the longest of the week with a goal to ride 50 miles in 8 weeks.
Weight loss Goal - Want to be at 200 pounds by the middle of May and 180 pounds by the end of summer.


Food Goals Hit - Tracked my food on ALL days in myfitess pal and have kept it to below 1500 per day plus or minus except for caveat above.
Ride Goals - Upped my riding to 3 to 4 weekly rides and a 4 or 5th ride being a long one. I am ahead of my schedule having done a 42 mile ride this past weekend. Also tracked on myfitness pal and Stavia.
Weight Loss as of 4/20 - I am at 205.4 pounds ie a weight loss of approx 5 pounds in 3 weeks.

Biking minutes






Lessons learnt so far - I am probably overestimating my calories spent riding and underestimating my calories eating by a lot. Hence my weight loss has been less than and not even exactly 2 pounds per week. Have to fine tune it more as I understand my body and its response to eating and training. I am learning a ton about diets and carbs and the effort and mental effort required to change it. Highly Highly recommend tracking every thing you eat and for me myfitness pal free account does just great including the reports section.


I am working from home at this time and for me this represents the best opportunity to control my diet, my zero commute and no dropping off the kids to school etc.
I expect this situation may continue worst (best? ) case till middle of May hence my aggressive goals since I commute about an hour each way.

Hope this helps someone. I hope this post does not come across as blowing my own trumpet etc. I want to continue to stick to my goals and going public this way may help me do that as well as give back to the forum. Thanks all.

captain belly

I use to mash, now I spin. When I was young and burning up the mt bike trails with my 1994 Giant Iguana, the term spinning was unheard of. Now that I'm getting back into riding, Ive been hearing that term a lot, and it makes perfect sense. I have to remind myself of it while I'm riding.