Losing the belly?

ben306

Got back into the biking about 3 months ago and currently up to about 50-60kms a week usually quite intensive XC (or at least it is in my eyes) with plenty of big/steep/lung bursting climbs (I live in the Pennines).

It usually consists of a larger ride at weekend with a shorter night ride in the week.

I initially got back into just to try and get fit again, get shot of the belly.

Now with the new year I want to take it up a peg or two, I have been reading some of the articles in MBUK mag and will be concentrating on a few of these. But what else can I do to help get shut of the belly.

Im not expecting to lose loads as I know Ill never be small.

Im currently a 46 chest, 38 waist, tad over 17 stone and 5'10", my diet is probably my biggest issue as work doesnt help with that, im out the house at 5.30am and Im lucky if Im home for 6.30pm

So suggestions, advice, whats worked for other people?

topo

Diet is one of the most important things to address first.
Seems as though you are quiet active anyway.
Maybe try doing a few weights, see if you can shift some pounds and replace with some muscle.

But diet is most important thing first of all, you wont see any benefits from excersies unless your putting in what your body needs.

The Northern Monkey

Just been revising obesity for my degree

Its weird, stats these days say that its not to do with diet (Gluttony) as the amount of food that is consumed has actually decreased.
Nowadays its mainly to do with people being sedentary.. so i would say good man for starting exercise

However, to increase your health status and lose some weight, you def need to work on your diet.
Reduce fatty foods, especially fast food as it has a very high energy density for its weight. a balanced diet is very important.
The whole "2500 calories a day" thats recommended by the government is a load of bullcrap. Personally 'd have to force myself to eat that much on a daly basis (i'm 6ft 2 and weigh about 16.5st)

If you stuck to a healthy diet, no snacking or healthy snacking (fruit etc), reduced alcohol intake and keep the same exercise intensity/increase it, your weight should start to drop off

Remember that Energy Intake = Energy Expenditure +- Stores
so if you have a high energy intake and low expenditure, you will have high fat store.

Any questions you have just ask and i'll get back to you asap... i'm training to be a dietition/nutritionist so this is also helping me

B

redddraggon

I'd suggest doing decent mileage on the road, probably at least 60miles on top of the XC you do now.

Extra Road mileage + Decent diet should drop a lot of your weight off.

Perhaps try commuting to work by bike?

S1eepless

watch your diet, avoid booze, cross train more. i lost 4 stone in 2008 following these rules, plus ran the Brathaymarathon in 4h 30. so it is possible.

redvee

If you lose too much and need some more belly, I've got some going spare you can buy off me say £1/1lb

whatgearyouusing

Hi mate

Im 5' 11" and weigh 14st 7lb and I think thats too heavy for me - too much Xmas pud :oops:

Im no racer by any means but the past two years Ive entered the GMBC and needed to lose weight.I found that at first, say the first 4-6 weeks of training I didnt really lose much weight at all, if any, and then I noticed it started to gradually drop off - say 2-3 lbs per week.I agree with all the other diet comments on here and I think you should have a look at what youre eating, as I do/did a similar amount of miles per week to you.One thing that helped me understand how much I was eating was when my missus bought me a GPS.It tells you how many calories youve burned off on your ride and what surprised me was that when I thought I had done a reasonably good workout for me I might have only burnt off 900-1200 calories or so.Thats when I realised I needed to go a bit further/harder - Cos I eat like a pig

Also, may I suggest that you change your way of thinking? If you tell yourself that you wil never lose loads and youll never be small then you wont be.I would also set yourself a goal (my goal was to get fit and beat me mate at GMBC) Whatever you do dont give up,if what youre doing isnt working try something else.Good Luck

Steve_F

I was more of less at the same statistics at the start of last year then dropped down to just over 16 most of the year (and nearly back up to 17 when I checked this morning after xmas even with biking every 2nd day).

I find that longer road biking trips move the weight much quicker. Be careful with the weights as muscle does weigh more than fat. I'm hoping a lot of my xmas weight was due to the fact I've started lifting weights every day again.

Biggest problem I find with the winter days is there is so little chance to get out. Road biking doesn't interest me with icy roads and I work Monday to Friday. Have you tried night riding? With the shifts you mention I'm not surprised you can't face anything through the week.

Bring on summer!!

Surf-Matt

Very hard to target just your stomach.
Lose fat and it will go away.

You need under 12%bf if you want a six pack!

stevieboy

Slightly different starting point for me, but I've gone from 12st 6lb to 9st 10lb @ 5' 6" in around a year, all through biking between 40-100 miles a week. I wasn't aiming to loose weight though, but I wanted to get my six pack back like when I was 16.

The best way I found was to just enjoy the biking and not get hung up about weight loss and how my tum was developing. If I did I would have given up after a few weeks.

As for dieting, personally it doesnt work for me, i've modified my eating habits by eating more at meal times so that i'm full enough throughout the day, saves snacking etc.

When you finally get what you want the sense of achievement will be huge, making every last sweat of effort worth it.

bexley

ive just returned to cycling after 1 year and 6 days of the bike i use to weigh 12 st 6 lb now i weigh 16 st i have cut down on the junk food and after 3 weeks of cycling have lost about 10 lbs i have enjoyed the cycling on country roads,and finding the hills a bit of a challange,i curently ride about 20 miles every day

GTi-R23

stevieboy wrote:

When you finally get what you want the sense of achievement will be huge, making every last sweat of effort worth it.

Totally agreed, I'm in a similar boat, the last 6 months or so I've readically improved my diet, lots of fresh fruit, low fat foods, eating little and often etc, also started exercising much more, play football, weights, obviously lots of cycling or I wouldn't be on here, which all in all is a big effort to maintain, but stick at it, the satisfaction is immense, the bigger the hardship to achieve something, the greater the satisfaction in my experience. Don't know exactly how much weight I've lost as I don't use scales, but I've gone from a 36in waist to a 32in, and I just feel so much more healthy and positive, I now enjoy physical challenges where as to begin with it was such a chore getting on the exercise bike and doing an hours hard graft.

Moral of the story, stick at it and be disciplined and you will reap the rewards.

Surf-Matt

Trouble is that it's hard to know when you've "got there"

Get fitter/bigger/whatever and you want more.

reppohkcor

Surf-Matt wrote:

Trouble is that it's hard to know when you've "got there"

Get fitter/bigger/whatever and you want more.

Too right mate! I can finally do the toughest ascent in my area quite easily and i'm now looking further out for bigger hills/steeper slopes now!

With belly fat it's different for everyone. Some people may have less or more fat in various places. I'm about 14% yet a six pack is only visable 'in the right light' :P

Surf-Matt

reppohkcor wrote:

Surf-Matt wrote:

Trouble is that it's hard to know when you've "got there"

Get fitter/bigger/whatever and you want more.

Too right mate! I can finally do the toughest ascent in my area quite easily and i'm now looking further out for bigger hills/steeper slopes now!

With belly fat it's different for everyone. Some people may have less or more fat in various places. I'm about 14% yet a six pack is only visable 'in the right light' :P

Indeed - some people that appear "skinny" still struggle because of odd fat distribution. Slightly depends on your body type.

Kiblams

I have recently started cycling to get healthy and for a fun hobby as through 'socialising' (studying) and working I have been doing no excercise and have grown to a rather podgy 16st 10lbs.

Not been able to do much off-road so far as the only easy access I have is a bridleway, as only limited day-time light before/after work. I have been doing 16miles, 4-5 times a week for the past 2 months, and while I have only dropped a few lbs in weight, my trousers are consideratly looser. I can even fit my arm to the elbow down my trousers that were tight a few months ago!

I say just get out there and definatly have a goal/benchmark of some kind for motivation. For me personally I want to be able to but 34" waist trousers again and my benchmark is simply timing myself each day and seeing if I can equal/better it the next ride.

sampras38

ben306 wrote:

Got back into the biking about 3 months ago and currently up to about 50-60kms a week usually quite intensive XC (or at least it is in my eyes) with plenty of big/steep/lung bursting climbs (I live in the Pennines).

It usually consists of a larger ride at weekend with a shorter night ride in the week.

I initially got back into just to try and get fit again, get shot of the belly.

Now with the new year I want to take it up a peg or two, I have been reading some of the articles in MBUK mag and will be concentrating on a few of these. But what else can I do to help get shut of the belly.

Im not expecting to lose loads as I know Ill never be small.

Im currently a 46 chest, 38 waist, tad over 17 stone and 5'10", my diet is probably my biggest issue as work doesnt help with that, im out the house at 5.30am and Im lucky if Im home for 6.30pm

So suggestions, advice, whats worked for other people?

Lots of great advice in this thread to get you started. I'd like to add that I've gone from a muscular 15st 10 at 6ft, to a lean 13stoner in about 6 months. I've always been heavily into training from a young age, so I was able to use a few quite simple techniques I've used over the years. I've never had a problem cutting things out of my diet so it really wasn't that difficult for me.

My 2 main sports over the years have been weight training, the odd bit of mountain biking and tennis. I gave up the heavy weights to concentrate on the tennis, and then a year ago got back into road cycling proper. Over the last 6 months I've really ramped up my training and diet, and I'm now doing 50-70 mile rides every weekend at average speeds of 17mph and Turbo work in the week, in training for my first sportive in June (Wales Dragon 189km).

I'm not doing anything clever, apart from cutting the bad fats out my diet, no booze, hardly any sugar, and good quality carbs and protein. That's it really, and lots of bike riding.

My stomach muscles are back and I think i'm the fittest I have ever been.

I'm 38 by the way.

sampras38

whatgearyouusing wrote:

Hi mate

Im 5' 11" and weigh 14st 7lb and I think thats too heavy for me - too much Xmas pud :oops:

Im no racer by any means but the past two years Ive entered the GMBC and needed to lose weight.I found that at first, say the first 4-6 weeks of training I didnt really lose much weight at all, if any, and then I noticed it started to gradually drop off - say 2-3 lbs per week.I agree with all the other diet comments on here and I think you should have a look at what youre eating, as I do/did a similar amount of miles per week to you.One thing that helped me understand how much I was eating was when my missus bought me a GPS.It tells you how many calories youve burned off on your ride and what surprised me was that when I thought I had done a reasonably good workout for me I might have only burnt off 900-1200 calories or so.Thats when I realised I needed to go a bit further/harder - Cos I eat like a pig

Also, may I suggest that you change your way of thinking? If you tell yourself that you wil never lose loads and youll never be small then you wont be.I would also set yourself a goal (my goal was to get fit and beat me mate at GMBC) Whatever you do dont give up,if what youre doing isnt working try something else.Good Luck

Hiya,

You do realise that the stats on calories burned from GPS's are very inacurate? My garmin says I'm burning about a 1000 every hour, but in reality it's more like 6 or 700.

Furkuk

Try to eat less processed foods. Eat more fresh foods. The amount of rubbish in processed foods is frightening, our bodies are not designed to eat it. I have cut it out and have lost over 2 stones since January.

Tino4444

ben306 wrote:

Got back into the biking about 3 months ago and currently up to about 50-60kms a week usually quite intensive XC (or at least it is in my eyes) with plenty of big/steep/lung bursting climbs (I live in the Pennines).

It usually consists of a larger ride at weekend with a shorter night ride in the week.

I initially got back into just to try and get fit again, get shot of the belly.

Now with the new year I want to take it up a peg or two, I have been reading some of the articles in MBUK mag and will be concentrating on a few of these. But what else can I do to help get shut of the belly.

Im not expecting to lose loads as I know Ill never be small.

Im currently a 46 chest, 38 waist, tad over 17 stone and 5'10", my diet is probably my biggest issue as work doesnt help with that, im out the house at 5.30am and Im lucky if Im home for 6.30pm

So suggestions, advice, whats worked for other people?

Hi,

I got into cycling last September to try and loose weight and get fit. However, the plain and simple rule to losing weight is to try and burn off more calories per day than you actually consume.

I have a similar problem to you in that I am in work early & not back in till 6pm every night, plus the kids are waiting for me when I get in (not much time for excercise). My diet used to consist of cereal or bacon butties on a morning, subway or Mcdonalds at least 3 days a week and then a hearty meal every night with snacks in between.

My weight during this period was 17 stone, I am 6ft and I was heading towards a 40 inch waist trouser and my work shirts had an 18 inch collar!!

Since September I have changed my diet and excercise to the following:

* Cycling 3 to 4 times per week (22 mile commute to work & back 2 to 3 times per week depending on my tasks at work and the weather, then a ride out on Sunday morning of approx 40 to 50 miles).
* My diet has now changed too. I have substituted my subway sandwiches with soup and bread every day, and my snacks are now fruit. I still have a large meal most evenings but have porridge for breakfast).

The above changes have made a considerable difference to the way I look & feel, and I am now in a 34 inch waist trouser and weigh 13.5 stone.

In my experience it does not take long to loose your gut but 75% of the work needs to be done in the kitchen.

Good luck,

Tino.

Nik_B

I'd like to ask a few questions regarding this subject also and would appreciate some advice. Both my wife and I drink and while we're cutting down we still drink nightly. I would say an average night would be half a bottle of wine for my wife and I also ahve half a bottle of wine plus 3 or 4 bottles of beer. Now I know alcoholic drinks are very high calory and I'm not daft but I wonder if it is possible to lose belly fat without cutting out drinking all together. I do suspect this is wishful thinking however there are one or two things I'd like clarification on.

The first is that the general rule is to burn more calories than you use but I suspect that by drinking at night and therefore consuming 400-500 calories of basically sugar (similar to eatting a largish chocolate bar each night) the body realising goes in to fat storage mode as it is not requiring energy while being sedentary and obviously one normally goes to sleep after a few drinks. Therefor does this rule of thumb not apply in this case? I am sure we dont consume that many calories per day but most of our intake is in the evening a reasonably healthy meal at 7-8pm and then the aforementioned booze.

We're both middle aged and have noticed that we've both started putting a little fat on which neither of us are used to since we've allways been slim. We are now getting out 4 times a week and riding 11 miles each time over 1 hour. We've only just got back in to riding after the winter so its very early stages but I want to know if this will be enough?

In a nut shell...

Can we continue to drink adn lose belly fat providing we drop calorie intake and start exercising more or will the evening drinks put hard to shift fat on us regardless?

Does 4 x 11 miles (1 hour rides) per week constitute as reasonable exercise or is this not enough?

Many thanks in advance for any replies

Tino4444

Nik_B wrote:

I'd like to ask a few questions regarding this subject also and would appreciate some advice. Both my wife and I drink and while we're cutting down we still drink nightly. I would say an average night would be half a bottle of wine for my wife and I also ahve half a bottle of wine plus 3 or 4 bottles of beer. Now I know alcoholic drinks are very high calory and I'm not daft but I wonder if it is possible to lose belly fat without cutting out drinking all together. I do suspect this is wishful thinking however there are one or two things I'd like clarification on.

The first is that the general rule is to burn more calories than you use but I suspect that by drinking at night and therefore consuming 400-500 calories of basically sugar (similar to eatting a largish chocolate bar each night) the body realising goes in to fat storage mode as it is not requiring energy while being sedentary and obviously one normally goes to sleep after a few drinks. Therefor does this rule of thumb not apply in this case? I am sure we dont consume that many calories per day but most of our intake is in the evening a reasonably healthy meal at 7-8pm and then the aforementioned booze.

We're both middle aged and have noticed that we've both started putting a little fat on which neither of us are used to since we've allways been slim. We are now getting out 4 times a week and riding 11 miles each time over 1 hour. We've only just got back in to riding after the winter so its very early stages but I want to know if this will be enough?

In a nut shell...

Can we continue to drink adn lose belly fat providing we drop calorie intake and start exercising more or will the evening drinks put hard to shift fat on us regardless?

Does 4 x 11 miles (1 hour rides) per week constitute as reasonable exercise or is this not enough?

Many thanks in advance for any replies

Hi,

There is roughly 630 calories in a large bottle of wine and 150 calories per bottle of lager.

Therefore if you are consuming half a bottle of wine and 4 bottles of beer per night, then just from the drink you have consumed approx 915 calories.

If you then consume between 2000 & 2500 calories per day in food (rda) then your daily calorie intake is between 2915 & 3415. A lot of cycling is therefore required to burn this off.

I would say that if you are wanting to loose weight and body fat deffo cut out the drink.

Tino.

Surf-Matt

Nik - I have a can of lager and often a glass or two of wine most nights but do a lot of exercise and bu66er all fat. Look at the Royal Marines, Paras, etc - they all drink a lot but stay in shape due to the exercise they do.

I'd say a little is fine (and your intake sounds okay to me) and you are doing a decent amount of exercise - maybe just up the pace a bit?

I can't stand those that bleat on about not drinking anything. You can be superfit and drink a bit.
Or you can witter on about how awful any booze and wonder what that perfect glass of grand cru Bordeaux WOULD have been like with that leg of lamb, dream about how that glass of Sancerre COULD have gone perfectly with that seabass or question whether missing that gin and tonic on a hot Summers day MIGHT have been perfect.