DavidARayJaxNC

Does anyone have success stories for losing weight while on tour?

also is there a semi accurate calorie calculator for touring?

David in PA

In 2005, I toured about 2,500 miles (on the TransAm) and lost 13 pounds without even trying in that I ate a lot more than I normally do. Plus, my entire body became more toned.

MarkCoatsworth

You'd probably add a lot of muscle mass (especially on your legs) so not sure how much weight you'd lose. I guess it depends on how much fat you have to burn?

Machka 

Count on burning approx. 500 calories per hour while you cycle ... and that's whether you are touring or not.

axolotl

I've observed that many cyclists who are overweight at the beginning of a tour generally lose weight, and cyclists who are slim at the beginning often maintain or even gain a bit during a tour. I'm in the latter category. I have to watch that I don't eat too much on a tour, even though I'm burning up a lot more than normal.

NoReg

I read someone's opinion that touring can add weight for people who a do easy days stimulate their appetite, and then eat heavily.

I fall into a separate catagory. I eat everything I want, but mostly wanted stuff my body craved to perform, like water, fruit, in reasonably large amounts compared to normal. Stuff like coffee and candy I have been known to eat, was not attractive to me. And I went to bed early and didn't spend time in restaurants or bars. My weight stayed off for quite a while and my metabolism felt different. However I put the weight back on if I don't go touring again within the year. So in that sense it isn't long term successful as a binge weight loss program.

Losligato

While on tour you will be able to eat far more than normal. Many people are surprised to find that they have gained weight while touring because they unwittingly believed they could eat anything (fast food, pastries, high fat stuff) to fill this caloric gap.

Spandex cycling gear stretches easily. Most campsites do not have mirrors in the restrooms. Most people do not carry a scale while touring. All this adds up to a disaster for those who gain weight easily.

We created a few pages on our website with healthy meals for cycle touring.

The beginning of a long tour is the perfect time to start new, positive habits and drop the bad ones. You can set out with the intention that you are going to make changes for the better while away from the normal temptations of everyday life then continue them when returning home.

Good luck.

RiotBoi

OT: those plates are f-in cool.

David in PA

I am normally a heavy coffee drinker. On my tour, however, I drank a relatively small amount, maybe one or two cups a day. At first, the reason was that it simply was inconvenient to find coffee along my route. Then, like Peterpan1, I eventually chose to avoid it, although I still needed one caffeine fix daily. It seems my reduced coffee consumption contributed to my overall better mood and reduced my stress.

David in FL

jibi

I set of across Europe about 15 stone 3 months later 12 stone10 lbs.
so lost about a couple of stone (30 lbs)

Meals consisted of pasta, rice or couscous cooked with veg and tuna and in between anything I could get my hands on, cakes, biscuits and for late in the day while looking for somewhere safe to camp I would carry a 1ltr bottle lemonade or cola to give me glucose rush.

If the tour is long enough and hard enough I usually lose weight.

calories burnt while

Bicycling, at 10-11.9 mph, with light effort if you are 10 st ( 140lbs) 381 cal per hr if you are 13.5 st (195lbs) then 581 cal per hr

https://murl.se/18955

I am sure there are other place that will say different but the important thing is calories burnt is down to your weight and the amount of effort.

george

Cyclist0094

There are a lot of good calculators for burning calories while cycling. There was an formula that was in Bicycling Magazine in the 1980's ( when it was actually written by cyclists for cyclists) that went like this: .26 x weight x distance traveled= calories burned.

It has always worked well for me in meal planning for tours. When planning for meals I add 2200 calories to the sum to come up with the caloric intake I need per day to maintain weight.
example: I currently weigh 205lbs and on tour I average about 75 miles per day
I calculate: .26 x 205x 75 =3997 rounded off to 4000
So each 75 mile day I will burn on average 4000 calories. I add to that the 2200 calories(average)the body uses just to function ( metabolic rate I think it is called), so 6200 calories is what I will need to maintain 205lbs weight if I ride 75 miles every day.

If I want to drop weight I calculate my target weight, say I want to reduce to 195. Then .26 x 195 x 75 =3800 calories, I add in the 2200 = 6000 calories per day. or 200 calories less per day

A pound of body weight equals about 3500 calories. If I am consuming 200 calories less per day, theoretically I would lose 1 lb on a 18 day tour.

jibi

I said there were loads but:

don't things change, when you aint looking

the one here uses 0.28cals/mile/pound

https://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml

this one (https://murl.se/18962) says


"with at least 250 calories per hour of brisk riding, preferably twice that to replace the energy you're

consuming"

this is my personal favourite

https://w3.iac.net/~curta/bp/BikeSheet.html

So
Who is right**********??
When was right????

Me.....

I just eat. ( and eat and eat and.....)

george

card

Thank you for the info. I've been looking for a formula like that for years!

Cyclist0094

Interesting I wonder if that is the equation all the online calculators us? The difference in calorie coefficients equates to about 300 calories difference for me.
What I am using seems to be working for me. But with everyone's body being different it is unlikely that any calculator or coefficient is going to work for everyone.

Like you I just eat and ride.