masi61

Every winter I vow that I will stay below #200 and yes I stay close but usually go over 200 sometime after thanksgiving and even if I exercise religiously all winter, I typically easily surpass 200 to 205 or higher with overindulgent eating & fewer weekly hours of exercise.

I do fitness classes every week and being almost a 61 y/o at this point I do have to continually monitor injury risk. Even though I have a moderate click in my left knee, I believe it is stable. And when I do squat type exercises, I know the importance of keeping a slight bend in my knees at all times.

Which brings me to running as a weight reduction tool: I’ve got the desire to go back to this once or twice a week in hopes that it will trim off the adipose deposits in my tummy, butt and just hidden throughout.

My weekend ride buddies are mostly skinnier than me @ ~ 160# for their 5’10” to 5’11” height. I’m 5’11” and lucky to get to 190# during the summer. So what can happen is that these fellas have a more advantageous power to weight ratio than me and as a result they can dramatically pass on the rollers and moderate hills making me have to dig deep to keep up or to be more aggressive on the downhills to level the playing field.

So my early season training goal (as always) is to drop below 200 & hopefully stay there. But realistically, it might be necessary to go all in & start incorporating running in order to move the needle more dramatically & set my goals as getting to ~185 by summer.

Anybody else come to similar conclusions about how best to tweak their training to assure you remain sub-200#?

base2 

The conclusion I have come to is: "You can't exercise your way out of an eating problem."

In it's most distilled form, calories in vs calories out is true. I don't look it but, I struggle to keep a sensible weight. 200lbs is my red flag weight. I'm not going to 250+ again. I've resigned to being a habitual user of an app called "My Fitness Pal" & have paid the $80 annual subscription fee for about the last 7 years or so.

I'm all for exercise in any & all it's forms, especially if it is a kind that you enjoy & encourages you to do regularly, consistently. Theres just more to the weight gain/loss equation than just exercise. That's all.

There isn't enough time in a day, nor is there effort stored up in the human brain to engage in all the activity needed to burn off all the calories you didn't need in the first place.

Sometimes, I sort of think of My Fitness Pal as my "new" sport. At least it compliments my bike riding.

GhostRider62

I regraduated into Clydehood during the lockdowns, going from 190 to 230 give or take, mostly give.

I've dropped from 230 to 209# today.

I was thinking of running, too. I'd like to be 190 by end of April. I was thinking of getting a Dexa scan to see how much fat I really have and if as bad as I think, running or hiking to supplement cycling. If not so bad, just accept a slow and gradual loss to 190. I used to race back in the day at 170-172# but it seems my old bones have lead or something in them.

Clyde1820

If at all concerned about joints or older-aged running, another option would be to consider some low- or non-impact type cardiovascular exercises.

Such as rowing with sufficient resistance at a pace fast enough to get your cardio where you want it to be. Or swimming. And/or more-rapid circuits of compound-muscle resistance exercises. That plus a couple key nutritional changes might well do the trick.

(Used to run, myself, back in the day. Hard. No can do, anymore, due to muscle injuries. So, it's the non-impact alternatives for me.)

HIPCHIP

If you can handle the pounding, running is one of the best, and an all-around way to get in shape and lose weight. If running becomes too hard then just walk. 4, 6, 8 miles is the same distance walked or ran. Bicycling can be an excellent way to exercise if you do it the correct way, and it can be easier on your joints if too.

seypat

I do it all, year round. Running, cycling, swimming, yoga, strength training and whatever other crosstraining I can. I have a half marathon coming up in 2 weekends. The training for the fall full marathons will begin first week in June. You can keep increasing your exercise load, but until you get control of you calorie intake, it won't work. Simple as that. You'll have to change your eating/drinking habits to be successful. I had to quit court sports about 15 years ago because of an injury. Turned to endurance sports. Figured I'd lose some weight with all those centuries/marathons/tris and the training that goes with them. Still weigh close to what I did when I started. Still need to lose about 15lbs. Gradually chipping away at it. The main success I've had is gaining less back each offseason. Going under 200lbs seems to be the wall. I'm at 202 now. That's usually around what I'm at after the last marathon in late November. I've kept it off by changing the eating habits some. Maybe this will be the year I break through and get an extra 5-10 off. It's a struggle, but I keep up the good fight.

Last night I took an hour long yoga class, then ran 3 miles and did 30 minutes of strength training after that. I'll run 6-7 miles tonight and the same tomorrow night. Friday will be a day off. Saturday will be a 14 mile run. Sunday will be the yoga/ strength training and recovery. Cycling Monday evening. Next week will also start the taper for the 1/2 marathon, so the load will decrease. You know what? Unless I keep on top of the calorie intake, I'll still weight the same 202 next week as I did this morning. That's the way it is.

skidder

If your into strength training, try 'push-aways'; push away from the dinner table, push away from the refrgerator, puh away from the snack foods cabinet.

More seriously: I found a slope on a hilly section of a local park that works great for conditioning when I don't want to ride. Walk up it briskly, then a quick, controlled walk downhill, repeat again and again until exhausted; not going to run it as I'm worried about my aged joints. I started at 20 minutes, got up to 35 minutes. It can get boring but it sure does help with overall conditioning and it seems to help with endurance on the bicycle, too.

Eric F 

I went from 225 to 185 in 6 months by riding regularly (3-4 times per week, about 5-6 hrs total) and controlling my intake quantity. I eat the things I like to eat, and don't feel like I'm missing out. I just have smaller portions. Cutting out my daily after-work beer was also a big factor in the calories in-calories out equation. Some of that weight crept back on in the middle of last year when family schedule challenges limited my riding time, and I got up to 193. Getting back to riding and being better about portion control has me down to 181 right now. Also part of the equation for me is having a significant portion of my riding time at a fairly low intensity (zone 2) where my body is burning fat rather than glycogen.

Leisesturm

I'm throwing in with the calorie reduction advocates, and we're right by gum. Running at 60 anything is asking for serious injury. Rowing Machine, Elliptical, even Treadmill is better than running on asphalt. But these are Cardio workouts, as in for your heart. You can't spend enough time on a Rowing Machine (500C+/hr) to make any dent in a calorie surplus. I can slam down an entire hour of Rowing Machine effort in less than 5 minutes at the dinner table. If you are overweight, it is NOT a lack of Cardio Exercise that got you there, and it is not what is going to get you out. BTW there is never any need to set the resistance of a Rowing or Elliptical Machine past level 4. On a Treadmill a light jog at 8:00 to 10:00 per mile is just fine. Incline at 0%, 2%, 3% max. You're not trying to prove anything.

When we bought a house in our 60's it was just too much to fix it up and keep normal life going. My DW has a disability so the cooking and etc. falls to me and the house was a rental for several years before we bought it. Something had to give. We set up a Factor account where they send you ready to eat meals in pre-packaged portions and damn those portions are small. But you know what? Those portions are what we should have been eating all along. We are already gym rats so nothing changed there. But the pounds came off. I had some to spare but DW did not.

If you can swing it, one of the best moves you could make is to do three to six months of a Factor type regimen and DON'T CHEAT. They factor (heh) that in. You will look and feel much better for it and there is no danger of tripping over a downed tree limb in the twilight and tearing your meniscus, which will definitely put a hitch in your spin. No more argument. I get it. The need to keep eating like you always have is terribly powerful. You need to believe that with enough cardio you can burn off the excess and NO it doesn't work that way. We're not teenagers anymore. The metabolism of a Boomer is low enough to gain weight on less than 1600C/dy. And most of us are over 2000C/dy. Some of us over 2400C/dy. https://www.factor75.com/

boozergut

I ditched alcohol last year, sweets this year, Ill keep cutting things until I get where I want to be.

Jughed

Yep. I was very heavy - got out of control with food, drinking, medicines that helped me get fatter...

Lost a ton of weight by cutting food - had to go keto to control my T2 - and cycling.

Got stuck at 225# - couldn't drop a pound on 2 meals per day, no carbs, limited calories. Weekend drinker - weight loss was flat out stuck.

Cut out alcohol 1.5 years ago - currently sitting at #191 and dropping. I'm even adding meals/food and still losing weight. First time in my life as a non clyde.

For those of us that gain easily - diet is 90% of the equation. I can't out cycle a bad diet.

Road Fan

I just signed up for Optavia, a 1000 cal/day plan.

No, I don't know how it feels or tastes because I just ordered the stuff today. I won't receive the box of foods to love for at least a week.

beng1

As long as your insurance will pay for knee and hip replacement go for it.

masi61

I hear ya! But dumb me, something in me still wants to run. Maybe on grass?

Mtracer

I’m a little late to this party. But as I’ve heard said “You can’t outrun a fork.”

Everybody is different, but for me, also 61 years old, I have to monitor what I eat else my weight creeps up. There are many food logging tools available. Weight Watchers happens to be what works best for me. Using food and therefore effectively calorie logging, you can find those foods that really work against you in controlling weight. No big surprise, the more processed the food and the more added sugars and fat, the worse it is for trying to control weight.

I think if you simply add more exercise, without monitoring your food intake, you’ll end up eating more and won’t lose more weight.

Wanderer518

I've been thinking of this quite a bit lately, obviously you can't "out run or ride a bad diet," but I'm curious does running complement cycling or vice versa? I haven't ran since my teens, well over a decade ago, my knees are pretty much shot which is why I've taken up cycling but I'm tempted to try to get back into running as well for those "lazy" days where I don't feel like pulling my bike out or in bad weather - I can just throw my running shoes on, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and go.

Clyde1820

The cardiovascular component of running can indeed aid in cycling, particularly in high-output periods that tax the cardio.

Of course, with "shot" knees, any pounding-type exercise can be a very real risk. Can get that cardio push via swimming, rowing, floor exercise done in a circuit (to keep the heart rate up).

Can't speak to the aspects of strength and how limber a person "should" ideally be with respect to cycling, and how other activities can inhibit or limit one's cycling performance. (I'm sure the pro's and their kinesiology/training staffs know all of this.) Years ago, I ran significant distance weekly along with cycling nearly everywhere.

Example -- Surly's Bridge Club frameset, which lists both the steerer (1-1/8") and the required upper+lower headset components:

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/bridge_club

rumrunn6

that's like 2 donuts

rje58_too

<emphasis mine>

THIS!! I love to hike, ride my bicycle and kayak. I love to be active, and outdoors. I don't particularly enjoy strength training or stretching, but I force myself to do it. Yes, I'm still over 200 lbs, but I'm a work in progress. I have good cardio, flexibility and general conditioning for someone of my age - and weight.

I quit running for exercise when I was about 25. I have a LOT of friends and some relatives who ran long after I quit. Most of them have had knee replacement surgery... This, however, proves NOTHING. It is just my personal experience. But for me, I'm really glad I stopped running - and I'm going to keep hiking, cycling and kayaking for as long as I possibly can!!

beng1

I saw a guy running on a state park I was riding my bicycle around a few days ago. He was running with his toes pointed outwards, so he was heading for trouble. I was going to yell something at him about keeping his feet straight etc. but I am pretty sure he would not have cared to hear it.

When I was younger my knees hurt and I noticed the inside of my shoes was wearing way more than the outside, and I walked with my toes out too. So I made a conscious effort to keep my feet straight and put my weight on the outside of my shoes, and my shoes started wearing evenly and my knees quit hurting. I was in track in H.S. and did not think much about it, but after I noticed my bad form and fixed it, I only ever ran on grass or sand and never anything harder.

I have not run for a long time now due to heart problems and other health problems, it was fun while it lasted though. I do walk a lot, and I think it is better than running, you can walk fast enough to breathe hard, which is what loses weight because your body converts the fat to CO2 and you breath it out, most people do not know that. So if you live by any hills you can walk briskly, lose weight and never have any knee or hip problems as long as you have good form. I make sure and keep my stomach and hip muscles tight while walking so the muscles are doing a lot of the work and not the socket so much. Also you can work on back posture and many other things while walking. The people who just plod along with their feet toed out and let their hip sockets take all the weight may not be much better off than if they were running. Lots to think about, you can try anything you want as long as you change something if you feel any pain and be smart about it.

dieselgoat

I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said, but I just turned 60 and it has taken me damn near all of those years to figure out that cardio is not the best way to lose weight. It is waaaayyy more about what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. Cardio has a role, but weight lifting is more important than cardio. Just my observation. Take it for what it's worth.

Black wallnut 

Running is good if you can do it. It can complement your cycling. It is a more time efficient exercise than cycling. My thoughts are that the more you can increase your fitness the better your body will respond to small diet changes. Good luck on your efforts.

WarrenR

The only way exercise helps reduce weight is you generally don't eat while you're doing it.

Clyde1820

Well, there is the considerable benefit of improved musculature and inducement of the heart to strengthen, along with the related requisite improvements in vascular capacity, VO2 capacity, the body's ability to repair, etc. Which all takes energy to accomplish and maintain, far beyond the specific times of exercise.

Mtracer

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you literally mean not eating while exercising, or just in general that you do not increase your eating when you add exercise to your lifestyle?
Obviously exercise will cause you to lose weight if it is increasing your calorie expenditure and you do not increase your calorie consumption to match.

But another thing is if the exercise increases your muscle mass, your basil metabolic rate (BMR) or how many calories you burn just being alive, will increase as well. So, you will increase calories burned beyond the excess used during exercise.

I also believe, that in general your metabolism will burn more calories at rest, if exercise is part of your lifestyle, as compared to not exercising. But this may be related to the increases muscle mass I mentioned above. Of course not all exercise increases muscle mass, at least not significantly.

However, I think many people, who do not look at the numbers, grossly over estimate the number of calories used during exercise. Like. "oh, gee I did a 30-minute walk, now I can eat a stack of Oreos." When in reality they burned the equivalent of 2-3 Oreos at most.

I'm honestly amazed at how little we really need to eat to do things like 4-hour bike rides at a moderate to high intensity. I realize it is a few thousand calories, but it doesn't take that much high calorie dense foods to equal that. I guess that;s a good thing we don't need to drag a trailer full of food behind us to do a long ride.