Burning Fat

Stoo61

Whats the best way to utilise my bike for burning flabby bits? For a good while now ive been cycling 25-30 miles about 3 times a week and less than that for another 2 days.

On Mondays I cycle a 14mile round trip to get to 2 hours of football training and 45 mins of indoor football. Its difficult but I love it.

I do start to get muscle fatigue through the week but my legs are getting very strong. However I'm not seeing the flabby bits around the stomach reducing as I would have liked.

Am I doing too much or something? Is there certain types of cycling that are better for this?

asdfhjkl

Look at what's going in your mouth rather than the amount of exercise you're getting. Unfortunately nutrition has a much, much greater impact than exercise, regardless of how complex the exercise is. Which sucks because the food part is the hardest of the two...

If you're eating healthfully and still can't get the fat to shift, try shorter and more intense exercise. Interval training is a good way to go. It should also have a great impact on your level of fitness as well as hopefully torching bodyfat.

Be sure to get lots of recovery in between sessions though.

Good luck

mea00csf

i thought long and slow exercise was best for fat burning?
Agree tho that the healthy diet bit is the most difficult out of diet and exercise! I'd definetly recommend keeping a food journal for a week and writing down everything that you eat, it really helps to see what your missing and what you're eating too much of. I found it particularly helpful as it showed that some of the meals that i had previously assumed were good, despite still being healthy packed in a frankly shocking amount of calories (salmon with pasta, pesto, mushrooms, olives and pine nuts with veg)

Stoo61

It starts this week, will tell you how I get on.

hoponbaby

sounds like you are over training and not eating the proper nutrition..break down the nutrients you have into carbs protein and fats..throw out all your tinned foods quick meals etc..fill your fridge with chicken eggs yoghurts fish vegetables fruit..not forgetting pasta olive oil and nuts etc..
from experience high intensity cardio has done more for me fat burning wise than slow (dull boring pointless) cardio ever could..now steady state cardio thats a different matter its good for building endurance..
have you thought about different types of cardio? skipping..rowing..and what about weight training? buy a kettlebell and you can get a good conditioning routine done in 20 mins all in the comfort of your own home..how about doing burpees against the clock guaranteed you will get your heart racing after doing 10..

just a few helpful ideas m8..have fun..

The Northern Monkey

slower pace + longer duration for fat burning... something like 60%Vo2 max workout... but don't quote me on that figure as I can't actually remember lol.

Chrissz

Ideally you need to be doing 1hr+ per session to effectively burn the fat. It takes roughly that long for the fat-burning processes to fully kick in. Post ride try t avoid any big eating for a couple of hours - your system will still be operating at a higher rate and you want to persuade it to burn off reserves rather than feed it new stuff (does that make sense???).

After exercising for long durations you will find that your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) remains high for quite some time afterwards.

hoponbaby

you tap into your fat as soon as you start exercising!!! proper fuelling before during and after training is key..cut out carbs at night time..have a look at the muscletalk website they have a very good section on diet and nutrition and cardio fitness..

Chrissz

hoponbaby wrote:

you tap into your fat as soon as you start exercising!!! proper fuelling before during and after training is key..cut out carbs at night time..have a look at the muscletalk website they have a very good section on diet and nutrition and cardio fitness..

True - but bear in mind the advice is aimed at bodybuilders - who generally tend to avoid CV work.

Also, yes, we start to burn fat soon after commencing exercise (not immediately!!!) but EFFECTIVE fat metabolism takes a while to get going.

asdfhjkl

The whole idea of there being a "fat burning zone" is a myth, and if fat loss is the goal then longer periods of low intensity exercise are just inefficient. The metabolism is elevated for much longer after shorter periods of higher intensity.

Although I suppose the key is activity - interval training might be great, but if you can't be bothered to put the hard work in, then low intensity is better than nothing. :P

Good nutrition is always going to beat exercise though. A lot of people seem to think putting in more miles is the key, when really the biggest changes you can make will come from changes to the way you eat.

Ch3rryGh0st

asdfhjkl wrote:

Good nutrition is always going to beat exercise though. A lot of people seem to think putting in more miles is the key, when really the biggest changes you can make will come from changes to the way you eat.

+1

Having lost an awful lot of 'flabby bits' in the last two years through a combination of cycling and better nutrition (but *not* dieting), there's no doubt in my mind that what I ate was the most important aspect of it. The exercise helped, of course, but no matter how many miles I did on the bike, if I wasn't eating correctly, I didn't consistently lose weight.

johnboy183

How about cheating? There are several products out there from reputable companies that offer "fat burning products". Anyone know if they work? I do know that they all say as part of exercise programme/diet etc

Stoo61

Well a couple of years ago a pal and myself set a challenge. We had both been at the same uni for 2 years and were worse for wear. So we dropped the drink, ate well and ran everyday (had no bike at this point). So ran about 7 miles a day ate very well and dropped about 2 stone in a couple of months.

Now I'm guessing it was so easy because that weight really wasnt meant to be there so it dropped off quickly. I got down to 13stone 12 but didnt really keep it up. I'm now the lightest I've been in about 5 years (13st 11) but weight isnt really a big deal for me, I peaked at over 16 stone at the end of 2005 (what a year )

Anyway, this is sort of a different kettle of fish now but i will add the diet to the exercise as I have been doing for a whole 2 days, its difficult when your craving but I'm going to stick to it. Its just the flabby bits really.

As for the pills or whatever....why bother when you are doing the good diet and the exercise?

Ch3rryGh0st

Stoo61 wrote:

its difficult when your craving but I'm going to stick to it.

Yes it is, I can relate to that, but if you can stick with it for 2 - 4 weeks, and find healthy and tasty replacements for the less healthy food, you'll hopefully find the cravings decreasing and disappearing. That's how it worked for me, anyway.

Stoo61

Ch3rryGh0st wrote:

Stoo61 wrote:

its difficult when your craving but I'm going to stick to it.

Yes it is, I can relate to that, but if you can stick with it for 2 - 4 weeks, and find healthy and tasty replacements for the less healthy food, you'll hopefully find the cravings decreasing and disappearing. That's how it worked for me, anyway.

Yeah I have, having done it before I know a few good tasty meals. Salmon, mackeral and such like. Lean poultry etc. My tea last night was the best I can remember for a while but for some reason I just want to keep on eating. :roll: I'll be fine ha.

asdfhjkl

johnboy183 wrote:

How about cheating? There are several products out there from reputable companies that offer "fat burning products". Anyone know if they work? I do know that they all say as part of exercise programme/diet etc

The numbers are just an analogy and aren't meant as anything more than an example, but suppose you're already eating well and getting some good exercise; then diet will account for say 85% progress, exercise will account for something like 10%, and the remaining 5% will come down to stuff like adequate rest, supplements.etc Yes, some of them will work, but you'll be paying a lot of money for just a small part of the equation. The benefit does not outweight the cost.

johnboy183

Didn't realise that diet alone would account for such a high proportion of progress. I guess I always thought that it would be a more even split given that the best advice is always diet AND exercise.

By the way ASDFHJKL what happened to g??[/quote]

Stoo61

John boy, he said the numbers were just to help the analogy.

hoponbaby

chrissz you really need to do your research before you start typing such s##t..
resting metabolic rate is higher for longer after doing hiit cardio..meaning you burn fat for longer through the day..
dont know where you get the body builder reference from you must be the type that thinks 'if they lift weights they must be body builders'.get up to date man!!
body builders use steady state cardio for getting ready for a competition..

having been an overweight lorry driver for 13years i now train mma,olympic lifting and gymnastic strength as well as mountain biking..went from 83kg down to 75kg strength and fitness is now through the roof..
found the muscletalk website really useful taught me alot about proper nutrition the owner of the site being a sports nutritionist..

Chrissz

hoponbaby wrote:

chrissz you really need to do your research before you start typing such s##t..
resting metabolic rate is higher for longer after doing hiit cardio..meaning you burn fat for longer through the day..
dont know where you get the body builder reference from you must be the type that thinks 'if they lift weights they must be body builders'.get up to date man!!
body builders use steady state cardio for getting ready for a competition..

having been an overweight lorry driver for 13years i now train mma,olympic lifting and gymnastic strength as well as mountain biking..went from 83kg down to 75kg strength and fitness is now through the roof..
found the muscletalk website really useful taught me alot about proper nutrition the owner of the site being a sports nutritionist..

I don't actually recall anyone mentioning resting metabolic rates! Post-exercise metabolism hasn't (to the best of my knowledge) been mentioned anywhere in this thread as yet - I was under the impression that the thread was about fat burning DURING exercise??

I also do not recall stating that weight lifting = bodybuilders - however, I have had plenty of experience working with bodybuilders and my comments regarding their aviodance of CV exercise stands - many still feel that it 'burns muscle tissue'.

Carry out a little more research yourself mate - you will soon notice many articles that conclude that endurance trained athletes/performers burn fat more readily than non-trained performeres and that their BMR returns to normal levels faster than in untrained performers.

Nutrition advice for someone wanting to perform in a gym should be (and is) dictated by the type of exercise performed and is therefore going to be different to that presrcribed for someone intending to perform CV work.

Stoo61

A wee update then, since the new diet I've gone from around 14stone 1lb to 13stone 7lbs (in the morning) but it goes up and down throughout the day which is a little weird. Generally happy with the weight loss, its the lightest ive been in about 5 years.

Flab is shifting too if quite a bit slower. Done some research n discovered I almost definitely have Gynacomastia (sp?) just on the areola which suuuuuuuuuuucks hugely will pluck up the courage to goto the doctors eventually but no doubt he will tell me to live with it.