statelax3

so my goal is to do 100 miles per week. so far i have ridden the last 4 days for a total of 95 miles. i am so pumped. i am not going to weigh myself for a month. but i started at 278lbs. i hope in the first month i am down to 274lbs. my goal weight is 210lbs. i am going to really try hard to do it by july 4th 2010. i wish i had taken before pics. my wife says she can visibly see a difference already. i would never be able to keep this up without all of you guys posting your struggles and milestones. it makes all of this much easier to know i am not the only one suffering on the bike.

ok enough tootin my horn. tonight i rode 20 solo. after riding with other sunday, monday,and tuesday it was real work to average 17mph for 21 miles. i am truly amazed at how much being in a slip stream helps. i am learning about this cycling thing more every day. i think i am addicted.

TomM

Its never too late to take those pictures.

</intolerance>

I suspect if you watch what you eat (and drink) and how much of it you eat, you'll lose more than 4 pounds a month. Way to go and keep it up!

Mr. Beanz

Good job! 100 a week is a great goal. I need to stay on my horse to keep the weight down!


I can't ride this weekends so I've been riding during the week to make up for it. I've got 175 for this month already and it's only the 5th!


I like to post my mileage on bikejournal dotcom. Gives me a little motivation to pick it up when I see others pass me!............

perryw

It's fun and addicting! Keep tabs of your calorie intake and outtake and the weight should come right off.

Go ahead and do the pictures now. You'll still appreciate them next year.

StephenH

You kind of get in a routine, and if that is riding 5 miles a day, you feel good about, and don't think about being able to do more.

Weight loss is complicated. Get out there and ride, whether the scales show 1 lb or 50 lb loss. It's still doing you good, whether you can measure it or not.

breadbin

i was also going to say its not too late to take the before pictures, i take them quite often just in case i lose any i'd be expecting more than 4lbs a month with that sort of effort but depends on the person and other things too. good luck with it!

irwin7638

I average about 100 miles a week and most of it is utility riding. I've found that I can't seem to be consistent just riding for recreation because there is not always time, so having a destination keeps me on the bike. Just using the bike for trips to the store, post office or bank 4-5 times a week puts about 75 miles on for me and I manage to work in one recreational ride a week.
Good Luck!

donhaller 

Yep.. Take the photos today. Next week you will have lost another 3lbs and wish you had taken them the last opportunity. I have nasty phat photos of me lurking on my computer from all of my yo yos. The skinny ones are inspirational and the phat ones make me ride longer.

professorbob

Your numbers are EXACTLY the same as mine. I lose about 5-7 lbs. per month. I set small goals for myself with the larger goal of 210 (funny coincidence!) in mind. So far, so good. Keep it up!

statelax3

i took pictures last night. in fact my wife took them and i was embarrassed to have her take them. at some point when better ones come along i will post the old ones with a new one. i think at 6 months i will post them. in fact january 12th i will post them. i will take one once a month in between but on the 12th of january i will make my debut. profbob keep posting and let me know how you are doing. i hope it will help keep me on track. in 2 weeks i am going to start lifting weights on the 2-3 days i dont ride.

new garmin edge came today and i am pissed today is an off day! i can not wait to use it!

ZippyThePinhead

I have to admit, I'm curious about how everyone fits long rides into their schedule.

My routine for the past couple of months has been crack-of-dawn rides, but as the days get shorter, I have to start later. At the start of July, it was light enough to start riding at 5:30 a.m., but now it's closer to 5:45 a.m.

Once the fall semester starts-- I live according to the academic calendar-- I have to be at work too early, so no more morning rides.

Morning rides have some nice advantages: not so many cars on the road, not so many bugs in the air, and not a lot of wind, typically. Kids are still sleeping, wife is still sleeping, so no-one is inconvenienced.

To do 20-25 miles in a day would be great. But carving out an hour or two in the middle of the day (or in the evening, doesn't really matter) seems to be a little difficult.

Ghoulardi

I don't get the miles some do around here, but commuting by bike helps me. Depending on when I leave in the morning, I sometimes go for a bit longer on the ride home taking different routes so long as I don't make my dog wait too long.

statelax3

i ride in the evening. i am on the east coast and start at 7 and get home by 830 to run upstairs and help the wife give our newborn a bath and put her down. then the group rides are on the weekends and we take off at 730 and i am home by 10-11. i can do 22 miles in my neighborhood by doing 3 laps. so when it is winter and dark early i can still ride in the dark without traffic fear.

Rubino

Keep up the good work, and yes take some pics now. I've jiust started to ride again after a 15 year break, and I'm trying to get in 60-70 mi per week on our neighborhoood area. The killer is there ar no flat roads here, Just rolling hills with long 2-3% inclines. They feel like mountains to me, and the avg 40 min ride seems to be 35 min of slow climbing and a coupe of gee-whiz down hill blasts.

I know...i know it's a zero sum game on a round trip, but by time-per-section, it seems I'm spending 85% of my time going up hills slowly

I too started out at ~280 (years ago) , and now am hovering around 185 with another 10 to go by thanksgiving. The riding has helped, and I treated myself to a new bike last week (Trek FX 7.6) If I hit my goal I'm going for the carbon version.

Time is on you side, and my diet rules were simple No Alcohol, no fried stuff, lower quantities, and only occasional sweets in modest amounts.

Best of luck and keep riding.

Walfredo

Dude that's awesome. You're motivating me.

billyymc

Define long

My typical week includes three commutes (MWF) of about 28m round trip, two mountain bike rides (not sure how far) one of which will be with my wife, a few evenings just tooling around the neighborhood with my kids on their bikes, at least one recreational only ride (which tends to be solo, between 30/40 miles), and one or sometimes two destination oriented family rides which range from 10 to 15 miles (stopping to wade in the creek, get ice cream, etc.)

When the kids have soccer practice, my wife and I will put the bikes in the car and take a quick ride instead of sitting there watching practice -- that's what coaches are for!

It helps that my wife likes to ride (but hasn't yet gotten passionate about it), and that the kids are enjoying it too (9 and almost 11). If my master plan goes well in a couple years we'll be doing 25 mile rides together a few times during the week and longer rides on the weekends : ) In between paddling trip. When we're not skiing.

statelax3

i am from charlotte and know what you mean. in fact my inlaws live in concord and i took my bike up there 2 weeks ago and was surprised how many hills there were compared to living here at the coast. next time i am up there i am going to bring my new bike and try to ride some bigger hills since i dont get to do that here. i will ride around the davidson area where i was born and raised. there are some awesome hills out davidson concord road near river run.

as far as diet goes i eat out twice a week. where before i would eat out 7-9 times. i am packing my lunch and keeping my calories under 2200 every day accept Wednesday when i eat lunch out (3500) and Friday night with my wife (3500). i would cut those 2 days but i want to see how i do like this. i am not in a panic to lose weight but i dont want to slow it down anymore than i do already with those 2 days. below is some info from a web site i found. do you all think the calories burned is any where near accurate?

You are a 29 year old man, 6ft 2in / 188cm tall, with a current weight of 275.0lbs. You lead a somewhat active lifestyle, and participate in the following exercise:
75 minutes of bicycling, 16-19 mph no drafting or >19 drafting


Body Mass Index (BMI)
Your BMI
35.3

BMI is a standardized ratio of weight to height, and is often used as a general indicator of health. The "normal" BMI for an adult man of your height is 18.5 to 24.9. This translates to a healthy weight range of 144 to 194 lbs.However, BMI does not take body composition into account. A weight above this range could still be considered healthy if your percentage body fat is less than average. For more accurate determination of body fat levels, consider using a body fat caliper.
Calories Burned
Your Calories Burned
Daily Energy Expenditure: 3625 kcal ( 15177 kJ)
Additional Calories from Exercise: + 2296.0 kcal ( 9613 kJ)

Estimated Energy Requirement: 5921.0 kcal ( 24790 kJ)



lets say this is only 50% accurate in the total calories burned it should kill 1000 calories 3 days a week riding solo and then atleast that on 30-40 mile group rides on saturday and sunday. i figure 50% because solo rides i average only 16.5mph and it says 16-19 mph. with all that said i feel like the 1 lb a week is attainable. i would think it could be more but better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.

statelax3

142 in last 7 days. also have a new one day milestone of 46 miles. i am going to try for 25-30 tomorrow. this cycling thing is alot of fun.

eshvanu

100 miles/week sounds like a good schedule. I've been riding about that since early June, and at last visit to the doctor I've dropped 22 lbs since mid-May, from 231 to 209.

Keep up the good routine, and I hope you find yourself, as I did, losing quicker than you planned.

ECB1

Just keep pedalling, I have 94 miles in this week and I weigh in at 251lbs, thats down a total of 85lbs. I just don't like the peaple who say if you just close your mouth you'll lose more. I like to eat and it has taken me years to get down this far.

professorbob

Statelax3, I've been working on it since Apr. 1 or so. I started at 278 and yesterday, dipped to 249. I think I was a little dehydrated, because I was back up to 252 this morning. However, the 100 miles per week and trying to stay at 2000-2500 calories is really doing the trick for me. I'm also needing to drink a LOT of water, which is good for me in any case, but since I sweat a lot, I need the hydration. The goal, like you, is to be at 210 by next summer.

statelax3

i think i am on track for my goals. i did 26 this morning and it was a lot more work than yesterday as we still averaged 18.8 and there was only 2 of us. i really learned alot about pulling today, my legs are strong enough to pull for 1 mile at a time. after that i need to wheel suck for about 2 miles to recover. luckily the guy i rode with as in much better shape than me and could pull for 2 miles at a time. i am 2 weeks from weighing my self. i can not wait to see what the result is. i feel like i am kickin butt right now.

Brando_T.

motivating thread, as others have said.

I had the intention to go for morning rides, but I have simply not been able to get out in the morning, mainly due to my lack of motivation.

I am doing commutes when I can, and recently started extending the commute to add miles. Saturday and Sunday are major rides, with the occasional evening ride during the week. Finally, I find myself still taking the bike downstairs onto the trainer on rainy days, or days when I'm home with kids. The kids love it, as they sit on the treadmill beside the bike and hand me drinks, etc. "towel, daddy?" "pretend you have a flat front tire and I'm the mechanic, ok daddy?"

I'm still working towards a solo metric century in September. 1600 km so far this year, 63 km longest ride.

JoelS

You have to make time to ride. My during the week riding is early in the morning. Lights are good for that. Today I got out for a quick 30 miles.

Over the weekend, I do one day. Typically Sunday. Distances are anywhere from 80 to 120 miles, pending the route and the amount of time I have. I'm usually home between 1 and 4, pending the distance.

This past weekend, I did 40 with my wife on Saturday, but it had a LOT of climbing, 3100 feet. Sunday I rode 73. Left at 8 and home around 1:30. That included a couple of water stops and one lunch stop. Just make the time.

My own weight loss journey wasn't nearly as much as some of you. End of April '08 I weighed in at 210. I'm a smidge shorter than 5'7" tall and had a 40 inch waist. This morning, I was 143 and I checked my waist yesterday at 28 inches even. I've been pretty well maintaining this weight. But I'm still not used to being skinny. And I'm worried about putting it back on. So I try to keep meals small and drink a lot of water. And I ride a lot. I'm over 4000 miles on the year, and about 290 so far this month.