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Back on a bike after 30 years... suggestions?

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Fifty Plus (50+) Share the victories, challenges, successes and special concerns of bicyclists 50 and older. Especially useful for those entering or reentering bicycling.

Back on a bike after 30 years... suggestions?

Old 09-14-21, 01:43 PM
  #26  
caloso
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This is awesome. Keep going!
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Old 09-22-21, 12:57 PM
  #27  
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A heart rate monitor is a good investment. There is a formula using your age to calculate a working range for your heart rate as you exercise. Keeps it high enough for fitness gain and not too high to cause problems.
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Old 09-23-21, 12:38 PM
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Originally Posted by anna000
is it possible reduce belly fat through cycling or running bike?
On the bike, at least for me, the only way I lose belly fat through cycling is if I spend a certain amount of time standing on the bike. Since I spent several years primarily riding fixed-gears or single-speeds, that was easy - any serious hill required dancing on the pedals. The years when I was riding single-speed mountain bikes were the years when my abdomen was probably the firmest it has ever been. I will note that those were the first couple of years AFTER my heart attack and quad bypass at 42.
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Old 10-02-21, 02:45 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by rustystrings61
On the bike, at least for me, the only way I lose belly fat through cycling is if I spend a certain amount of time standing on the bike. Since I spent several years primarily riding fixed-gears or single-speeds, that was easy - any serious hill required dancing on the pedals. The years when I was riding single-speed mountain bikes were the years when my abdomen was probably the firmest it has ever been. I will note that those were the first couple of years AFTER my heart attack and quad bypass at 42.
I’ve seen some intense debates here about whether weight loss can be driven by exercise or is basically a matter of diet. I don’t know.

But I do know that riding my single speed MTB on our local trails feels like riding a big version of a kids bike: just pure fun (and a fair helping of brutally hard work from time to time).

Since I switched back to SS again a bit over a year ago, I’ve actually been riding even more, which may be because it’s fun or maybe also because my overall riding comfort is better when I stand more.

And yeah, it will make you stronger and tone your whole body to some degree.

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Old 10-02-21, 05:08 PM
  #30  
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A great deal of research by scientists (as opposed to nutritionists) has demonstrated that exercise alone does not result in weight loss. It is a matter of diet and where the people have been led astray is with the focus on calories or paleo diets and not the type of food and in particular the amount of refined sugar being consumed. Look at school photos taken prior to 1970 and you will find very few overweight individuals. People were not exercising more in the 1960's and the running as an activity only existed for track athletes in competition at that time. Even the famous Tarahumara of Mexico only run as part of their ceremonial practices and otherwise walk day to day.

Sugar consumption in 1800 was 60 lbs per person per year. At this time it is more than 150 lbs per person in the USA. A great deal of this is tied to consumption of soft drinks and highly processed foods. The sugar industry has spent millions of dollars to suppress the health problems associated with refined sugar consumption and a lot of this has been in payment to scientists to buy their support and use their names on papers produced by industry flacks.

We burn a fair number of calories by being awake with our brains activated. Even more if we activate the muscles by moving around and not sitting for hours in front of a computer or a television. Bicycling burns about 600 calories per hour for the average person at average rates of speed. So about two hours of bicycling will burn off a Big Mac Meal in terms of calories but there is also a lot of fat and this is metabolized by the body differently than sugars.

Lots of physical and mental benefits to outdoor exercise but weight reduction is not one of them without a significant change in ones diet. No free lunch as they say. A great deal of research by scientists (as opposed to nutritionists) has demonstrated that exercise alone does not result in weight loss. It is a matter of diet and where the people have been led astray is with the focus on calories or paleo diets and not the type of food and in particular the amount of refined sugar being consumed. Look at school photos taken prior to 1970 and you will find very few overweight individuals. People were not exercising more in the 1960's and the running as an activity only existed for track athletes in competition at that time. Even the famous Tarahumara of Mexico only run as part of their ceremonial practices and otherwise walk day to day.

Sugar consumption in 1800 was 60 lbs per person per year. At this time it is more than 150 lbs per person in the USA. A great deal of this is tied to consumption of soft drinks and highly processed foods. The sugar industry has spent millions of dollars to suppress the health problems associated with refined sugar consumption and a lot of this has been in payment to scientists to buy their support and use their names on papers produced by industry flacks.

We burn a fair number of calories by being awake with our brains activated. Even more if we activate the muscles by moving around and not sitting for hours in front of a computer or a television. Bicycling burns about 600 calories per hour for the average person at average rates of speed. So about two hours of bicycling will burn off a Big Mac Meal in terms of calories but there is also a lot of fat and this is metabolized by the body differently than sugars.

For myself, hill work is the most productive and with a series of hills it becomes interval training in a fun way. I get the best workout on a road bike on hills as compared to a mountain bike on the trails.
Lots of physical and mental benefits to outdoor exercise but weight reduction is not one of them without a significant change in ones diet. No free lunch as they say.
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Old 10-02-21, 06:48 PM
  #31  
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I can add that I stopped drinking sugary soda drinks 20 years ago (just for the purpose of giving up caffeine), made no other changes to diet or lifestyle and lost 20 pounds in 20 months, back to what I weighed in high school in the late 70s and still weigh today. Sugar definitely was a key factor for me.

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