Cycling more - but not losing weight?

dcurzon

consume more calories than required = weight gain
consume less calories than required = weight loss

google search a BMR calulator or 3, take the average BMR. This will give you an approx amount of cals you require to maintain bodyweight, factoring in your exercise level.

Start reading the calorie contents of what you consume. Aim for a couple of hundred less cals per day than your BMR. If you dont see weight coming off after 2 weeks, reduce the daily intake by another couple of hundred cals.

suzyb

roger merriman wrote:

London_Nick wrote:

I'm not overweight, I just want to lose my beer-gained (small) middle tyre. I guess I need to do weights or some crap to lean up my stomach!

MTBing I don't mean ride around RP but at north downs/swinley it uses your upper body, partially on a hard tail.

on and get to buy more bikes! ;-)

Very true. My back was aching after MTBing on Sunday

Headhuunter

SimonAH wrote:

London_Nick wrote:

I'm not overweight, I just want to lose my beer-gained (small) middle tyre. I guess I need to do weights or some crap to lean up my stomach!

Try doing the plank a couple of times in the evening too - tightens up the stomach muscles really well (which, correct me if I'm wrong) cycling isn't very effective at.

How many middle aged shaven legged roadies do you see out there with stringy tendony obviously strong legs, and a bit of a belly fighting the lycra?

The plank and abdominal exercises will not help you remove a spare tyre, you may end up toning your core and abdo muscles but the fat will remain. Doing abdo and core exercises does not guarantee you to lose weigbht around your middle. If the fat is there the muscles may be toned but they simply will not be visible.

Unfortunately that little bit of flab below the belly button is usually the last bit to go. Men naturally hold onto fat around their guts as well as upper backs and round the kidneys (women round the ass and thighs). You simply need to reduce your calorie intake.

Unless I have missed a bit you haven't mentioned what you are currently consuming on a daily basis. If you're ploughing through lots of bread, toast, sandwiches loaded with mayo (as they mostly are from commercial sarnie outlets), pasta, fats/fried food and snacky stuff etc you will gain weight.

You are cycling 12 miles per day but at what intensity? To burn calories to any degree on a short ride like that you need to hammer it. Get your heart rate up, get your legs up to the point where they are burning with lactic acid and when you arrive you should be dripping with sweat. The thing about cycling is that it's possible to do it at very low intensities and burn very little, unless you push yourself you won't burn anything meaningful. Running is high intesnity however you do it.

Butterd2

+1 on HH above.

I have been commuting (14 mile round trip) for 3 years now, last year I went to the Alps weighing in at 17.5st and it hurt!
This year I'm back to the Pyrenees c2c and not wanting the shame of getting in the van again have been making a serious effort to up fitness and to especially loose weight for those climbs.

I have been taking on some long w/e rides (120 miles last w/e) missing breakfast weekdays and buying a couple of rolls from tescos and putting some lean ham in them and cutting down on the beer. This has got me down to 15.75st.

What I learnt from this is that I could have commuted from now til retirement and still been 17+st. Even giving it the beans, when according to my HRM I burn 450 cals over the 7 mile route, this is still only a couple of pints and I may as well not have bothered.
What always catches me out is just how much easier it is to take in calories than burn them. I rode to Chichester from Charlton on Sat (88 miles), burnt 5,500 Cals but that's still less than a night on the razzle and a Kebab on the way home.

Keep at it, keep going with the exercise but you have to balance both sides of the equation.

ride_whenever

cjcp wrote:

I'm not convinced that balls-out all the way every day is the best (alhough I don't deny it's great fun. ), in the same way no-one trains balls-out all the time.

Balls out all the time is the best way to train if you don't have the time to hit overtraining. I really really don't buy into the whole massively structured training thing unless you're training in excess of 6 times a week which (IME) is the turning point for most people.

If you're only riding a little bit then you'll get faster by thrashing yourself every time you go out, once you're commuting, training after work/early mornings, and most of the weekend, then you need to start thinking about these things but before that point, if you can train harder do...

DonDaddyD

It takes time:

First you ride a fair distance and you immediately eat everything in sight. Then you/your body learns how to better process food, you may eat more healthy, you lose a bit or weight. Then you start to ride further or faster on less food/fuel. Then your muscles develop to better handle the increased physical exertion. Then you get heavier wider due to being more fit/stronger - This is where I was pre-and upto the London2Brighton. Then with your body physcally ready to handle the fuel consumption and physical demands you start doing sportives and long weekend rides and your body starts to burn off excese fat. - This is where I'm at.

Its a process.

But you also need to conciously help the process. Eat the right stuff and the right amount, yesteday I had grilled chicken breast. Last year that would have been 2 grilled chicken breast with garlic bread and potatoes.

Today my lunch consisted of:

Homemade breakfast bar - bound with soya milk with all ingredients to help lower cholesterol.
Brown bread sandwich: turkey, spinich and only one slice of bread buttered
Rice cake/buscuit thing with peanut butter - for the ride back.
Satsuma
Banana

I was eating that when I did a 7mile commute. My commute is now 22miles each way and with that in my stomach I feel fine. It may seem a bit much but I've also got to a days work as well before another 22miles ride back. I don't need to be any stronger so now its a matter of pushing myself and conditioning my body.

To tone the core you need to do just that. Sit ups and stuff. I find cycling doesn't really strengthen the core.

SimonAH

@HH

You speak the truth - however I'd say that there is another angle to this.

Correct, you will not convert fat unless energy expenditure exceeds energy intake, and some bits are tougher than others. The thread is about losing weight, however when people talk about losing weight generally what they mean is looking like they've lost weight.

Flabby core muscles let your belly hang out, with the fat hanging on the outside.

Tighten up the stomach muscles and it pulls everything in - plus provides more support for the body.

Ergo - the cycling will start to trim off the easy fat, the stomach will pull in the stuff that's really hard to shift so that it's less noticeable and at the same time give you a little extra injury protection from minimal additional work.

The whole nutriction / exercise / training plan needs to be taken as a unit, but you gotta love the plank.

ride_whenever

I agree with the core principle wrt keeping the belly in check, not to mention preventing doming of the abs caused by shoddy crunch technique but the plank....

It's tedious, once you've got a decent level of core strength you can hold it for ages. Active core stuff is far more useful IRL as it trains you to respond to and control external influences.

Agent57

Kettlebells.

Nuff said.

Wallace1492

I believe in body shock. Change what you do each day/week. Your body becomes used to the daily commute and acts accordingly, settling down into a routine. To progress, you need to change what it does - double your distance some days, go running, go to a circuits class or take up another sport.

Anything that changes and increses the exercise, don't let your body rest, shock it!! A good variety of exercise is a must, you can cycle too much, so do abs, weights and running.

I am almost 2 stone lighter than I was in February, and on Sunday I saw 11st something on the scales for the first time in about 15 years.... 8)

Butterd2

DonDaddyD wrote:

It takes time:

First you ride a fair distance and you immediately eat everything in sight. Then you/your body learns how to better process food, you may eat more healthy, you lose a bit or weight. Then you start to ride further or faster on less food/fuel. Then your muscles develop to better handle the increased physical exertion. Then you get heavier wider due to being more fit/stronger - This is where I was pre-and upto the London2Brighton. Then with your body physcally ready to handle the fuel consumption and physical demands you start doing sportives and long weekend rides and your body starts to burn off excese fat. - This is where I'm at.

Its a process.

.

I think I was slowly coming to that conclusion but not in as clearly structured a way as you have set it out.
I used to take 3 or 4 gels on a 50 mile sportive and still bonk. My 88 miles on Sat was on a bowl of porridge and a pasty and coffee half way (well it was raining).
I think I can now maintain a reasonable pace at a level of exertion (c.140bpm) where my body is able to process fat to derive energy where as before it needed sugar (and lots of it).

tailwindhome

DonDaddyD wrote:

It takes time:

First you ride a fair distance and you immediately eat everything in sight. Then you/your body learns how to better process food, you may eat more healthy, you lose a bit or weight. Then you start to ride further or faster on less food/fuel. Then your muscles develop to better handle the increased physical exertion. Then you get heavier wider due to being more fit/stronger - This is where I was pre-and upto the London2Brighton. Then with your body physcally ready to handle the fuel consumption and physical demands you start doing sportives and long weekend rides and your body starts to burn off excese fat. - This is where I'm at.

Its a process.

.

Or you can do what all us 'larger' riders do and call yourself a sprinter

andy83

A lot of great points here

Plank on powerplates is awesome for strengthing core.

I also find the shocking the body is good, i like to throw in a hard hill session every week, sometimes on a fixie :shock:

It takes time and to be honest if your fitness has improved 6 miles is not enough to get your body working, it take me now at least 45 minutes to get going unless i just finished a 13 hour shift in which case i just want to get home!

also i did find myself having to eat loads when i was cycling a lot at first but seems my body is adapting now.

Also joined a gym to do different type of work fitness wise and time to cut up

I think it also helps to set yourself goals, I want to cut up to be able to TT's better next year and have told myself if i get to 13 stone something i can have a madone

andy83

TailWindHome wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

It takes time:

First you ride a fair distance and you immediately eat everything in sight. Then you/your body learns how to better process food, you may eat more healthy, you lose a bit or weight. Then you start to ride further or faster on less food/fuel. Then your muscles develop to better handle the increased physical exertion. Then you get heavier wider due to being more fit/stronger - This is where I was pre-and upto the London2Brighton. Then with your body physcally ready to handle the fuel consumption and physical demands you start doing sportives and long weekend rides and your body starts to burn off excese fat. - This is where I'm at.

Its a process.

.

Or you can do what all us 'larger' riders do and call yourself a sprinter

I had someone at work say "you see all these skinny cyclists, you would think with all the miles andy rides he would be stick thin" thanks done my confidence loads of good lol

cjcp

ride_whenever wrote:

cjcp wrote:

I'm not convinced that balls-out all the way every day is the best (alhough I don't deny it's great fun. ), in the same way no-one trains balls-out all the time.

Balls out all the time is the best way to train if you don't have the time to hit overtraining. I really really don't buy into the whole massively structured training thing unless you're training in excess of 6 times a week which (IME) is the turning point for most people.

If you're only riding a little bit then you'll get faster by thrashing yourself every time you go out, once you're commuting, training after work/early mornings, and most of the weekend, then you need to start thinking about these things but before that point, if you can train harder do...

+1 to not going with a structured training regime. Work and family prevent this.

I think it depends what you mean by "a little bit" i.e. in terms of mileage or the number of continuous days you ride. I can't do balls-out all the way both ways for five days a week. I also vary my efforts according to how my legs feel - depends on weather, backpack weight, time of day I'm riding (e.g. I'm generally a bit slow after 9pm). I might think I'm doing balls-out by Thursday or Friday, but muscle fatigue has set in by then and my speed and endurance starts to dip. My usual barometer is a short hill close to my home: by Friday morning, I'm struggling up it.

Realistically, I'd ride faster for longer on Thursday or Friday if I took Wednesdays off the bike. Fast chance of that happening!

Headhuunter

cjcp wrote:

ride_whenever wrote:

cjcp wrote:

I'm not convinced that balls-out all the way every day is the best (alhough I don't deny it's great fun. ), in the same way no-one trains balls-out all the time.

Balls out all the time is the best way to train if you don't have the time to hit overtraining. I really really don't buy into the whole massively structured training thing unless you're training in excess of 6 times a week which (IME) is the turning point for most people.

If you're only riding a little bit then you'll get faster by thrashing yourself every time you go out, once you're commuting, training after work/early mornings, and most of the weekend, then you need to start thinking about these things but before that point, if you can train harder do...

+1 to not going with a structured training regime. Work and family prevent this.

I think it depends what you mean by "a little bit" i.e. in terms of mileage or the number of continuous days you ride. I can't do balls-out all the way both ways for five days a week. I also vary my efforts according to how my legs feel - depends on weather, backpack weight, time of day I'm riding (e.g. I'm generally a bit slow after 9pm). I might think I'm doing balls-out by Thursday or Friday, but muscle fatigue has set in by then and my speed and endurance starts to dip. My usual barometer is a short hill close to my home: by Friday morning, I'm struggling up it.

Realistically, I'd ride faster for longer on Thursday or Friday if I took Wednesdays off the bike. Fast chance of that happening!

I pretty much go as hard as I can when I cycle anywhere. Whether it's the commute or over to the supermarket or down to the pub.... All out is the only way to go. Seems to work for me with regard to weight. I'm 80kg /12.5 stone and 6'3" and my weight barely fluctuates a single gramme.