Trying to lose weight-distance or speed?

sampras38

emx wrote:

you will shift more weight through changing your diet, although in principle the harder you ride, the more calories you will burn. IME, low intensity 'fat burning' rides are largely a myth, although I expect someone will be along to disagree shortly....

It's not quite a myth, but perhaps moreso than a lot of people believe. Although, you will use more carbohydrate for energy if you ride too hard. Personally I would suggest a calorie controlled diet and a mixture of hard and soft rides. And don't overeat on the bike when you don't need to. Just be careful what you eat off the bike and make sure you've got enough energy in you to get through your rides. Do that and the weight will fall off. Biggest error I often see is riders taking on too many calories while riding when they really don't need them. A decent breakfast and you've got 1.5 to 2hrs riding on you without the need to eat anything. Just stay hydrated.

P_Tucker

neilr4 wrote:

Tell me something Alex. If I consume a meal of patatoes, veg and lean chicken breast, how am I to measure how many calories I consume?

Weigh the ingredients, then find somewhere that gives calories per gram of foodstuffs - there are plenty online. Obviously you'll need to use a bit of common sense if you're roasting the potatoes in goose fat etc.

nmcgann

SBezza wrote:

...

Just be realistic of what you think you burn whilst cycling, it isn't that high.

It is intensity-dependent though - my 70-min-ish evening training loops burn about 1100kcal (actually kj on the powertap). That is at a steady, but moderately hard tempo pace.

I'd opt for mostly tempo intensity if I were looking to lose weight - it's not so hard that recovery becomes a massive issue, but you don't need to do huge volume either. ( It's a time-efficient intensity to improve general cycling ability too.)

sampras38

Brommers76 wrote:

Hmmm, all those overweight cyclists from my local club doing 80 miles on a Sunday at some rediculously easy pace would seem to suggest that long rides are not the answer. IME cycling can be a poor weight loss exercise unless you ride often and at times hard and restrict food intake.

Running is far better as you can't eat on the go and generally the intensity is higher.

I mentioned this on another thread and nearly got my head bitten off..;-)

I just said that I was amazed at how many overweight club riders I'd seen on long sportives such as the Dragon and whenever I have been out on club runs of 50-80 miles or so I'm always suprised at how overweight a lot of riders are. I just think that many of them think they're burning more calories than they actually are..or most probably don't give a monkeys and just enjoy the social aspect of the club runs. Each to their own but that's not my bag. I always want to be as fit as possible.

SBezza

nmcgann wrote:

SBezza wrote:

...

Just be realistic of what you think you burn whilst cycling, it isn't that high.

It is intensity-dependent though - my 70-min-ish evening training loops burn about 1100kcal (actually kj on the powertap). That is at a steady, but moderately hard tempo pace.

I'd opt for mostly tempo intensity if I were looking to lose weight - it's not so hard that recovery becomes a massive issue, but you don't need to do huge volume either. ( It's a time-efficient intensity to improve general cycling ability too.)

It is power dependant in fact (as you well know ), now you are likely to put out more power for shorter intensities, but you can't keep up the high power for longer periods. Just think for slightly less power a 2 hour session would have burnt alot more calories, or even the same power for 2 hours

You and I both know that 1,000 calories per hour takes some effort, and a gentle ride will not burn this much, even less if you do a gentle ride in a group. Some people think 1,000 per hour is the norm, but it is more like 600 at best, and that is a good figure to work on, if you use more than that it is a bonus.

Again a mixture of intensities is best, but it does depend on what time you have. This week in training I will burn probably 3 times as many calories as last week, even though the intensity will be alot lower. I will just be on the bike for a fair few hours instead. Hard tempo rides are very good, but you still need to mix it up a bit.

ColinJ

I've found that I burn approximately 1 pound of fat on a century ride and 1.25 pounds on a 200 km audax. That is when I eat and drink just enough on the rides to avoid bonking and after I have made up any fluid losses over a day or two.

If you use cycling as an excuse to take in lots of extra calories then it isn't going to help much to shift weight.

If you control your calorie intake then it can help but it is much easier not to eat/drink the calories in the first place than it is to burn them off later!

rls

i'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to weight loss, but in the last few months I've lost about 6lb by simply cutting out the bad food in my diet. I do between 100 and 150 miles a week and seem to recover quickly. I eat 4 meals a day (7am breakfast, 11am small lunch, 2pm second small lunch, 6pm dinner..generally) and have pretty much got here by simple trial and error. I weigh myself regularly on the same set of scales and if I'm putting pounds on and think that it's fat I just check what I'm eating. I can usually tell if it's fat or muscle due to what I'm doing.

A good example is that when I started cycling again in February I lost 6lb in about 6 weeks. My weight then stabilised to my food intake. Recovery wasn't an issue and I felt fine, so I knew that I wasn't under eating. In the last few weeks I've actually started putting on a little bit weight, but this is coming from muscle that is going onto my legs due to the cycling.

What I'm saying is that do you really need to track every mouthful and count caleries when it can be fairly obvious just by being aware of what you are eating, what exercise you are doing and keeping a regular eye on your weight? My personal view is that it is very easy to make this too complicated when it is a pretty basic equation.

Generally I stick to a few rules:

1) Try not to over eat in a single sitting (hence 4 smaller meals per day)
2) Try not to get too hungry as your metabolism slows down (it's also very easy to then break rule 1!)
3) Don't eat too much junk in a day. My guily pleasure is usually a packet of crisps (per day) and the occasional bar of chocolate
4) Don't always stick to the rules, they are a generalisation and should occasionally (once or twice a month) be broken, especially when confronted with a particulalry delicious looking dessert!
5) Don't weigh yourself immediately after cycling, you will always weigh a few lb less due to dehydration so it doesn't count.

Sorry for rambling on, hopefully there is something of use in there!!!