Newbie wanting to lose weight

sancho1983

I've nearly decided which road bike I will be buying in the next few weeks. I've been cycling for years (my dad used to do cyclocross pretty competitively a long while ago so has been encouraged) but never really with any purpose or drive.

I'm 28 now and would like to do a bit more. I'm a reasonably big bloke, 6ft 5 and 17 stone (2 of which I would like to lose)

I know "just get out there and do some rides" is the best method, but I would quite like a 'goal' and a way of achieving that goal. I don't want to enter races, I don't want to be incredibly fast - I would like to be fitter and lose weight, as well as enjoying going on rides.

Last summer I used my mountain bike a lot more and did a 17 mile circuit (road) nearby weekly for the summer and a bit. I could probably do 20-25 miles if I pushed it and would like that figure to rise as I would quite like to eventually do longer rides.

Sorry for the ramble, but basically what's the best way to go about improving fitness and losing weight efficiently? Do I need a heart rate monitor? Am I better off doing a 10 mile ride 4 times a week or 2 20 mile rides?

Any input would be really gratefully received.

Thanks

sungod

ride regularly, good diet, not too much fat/alchohol, don't increase food intake

many short/hard rides, fewer longer/easier rides, both have their benefits, so mix it up for variety, i'd start with the longer/easier

for a target, figure out a safe circuit c. 20 miles - it could be a shorter one that you do several laps of - do it to set a time, set yourself a target to beat the time by 10%

you need a route that's not dangerous or too congested, ideally one with a hill or two that will be a reasonable challenge (long+gradual is better than short+steep), then you can also check how long it takes you to get up the hill(s)

no need for an hrm etc.

once you've got into it, you'll probably find 25 miles isn't much of a challenge, but it's best to build up base fitness first, learn to pedal at a decent cadence, avoid dramatic increases from the distance you are comfortable with

some people enjoy club cycling, if that appeals, check out local clubs, most will welcome new blood and offer group rides at varying levels

sancho1983

Thanks, a club sounds quite scary! But possibly something for the future

The circuit I was doing was 17 miles ish, so might add a bit on to make it 20. It's very quiet and a nice ride, the only annoyance is a level crossing 6 miles in which I got caught at a couple of times.

Probably a really stupid question but when I rode with a friend he used to have the bike in a high (?) gear, and pedal quite 'fast' whereas I had it in a 'low' gear and pedalled 'steady' - is there a correct way?

shockedsoshocked

Have you got a smart phone? If di download an app called myfitnesspal. Really useful and you can edit all your diet goals.

simon_e

+1 to sungod's comments.

Cycling clubs are not like secret societies; they are invariably very welcoming places where you will find lots of friendly advice and company. Don't put off trying one.

For choice of gears, or your cadence (pedalling speed), there are no hard and fast rules, you should do what you find comfortable. However, there is merit both in learning how to spin the pedals more quickly and also being able to apply effort through slow pedal revolutions. IIRC the former works your aerobic system more, the latter helps with power.

While trying to improve your time on a regular course is good, don't forget there is also benefit to be had from finding new places to ride and enjoying the pleasure of being outdoors in the countryside. For rides up to 2 hours you only need a bottle of water; for longer you may find something to nibble on helps (dried fruit, cereal/muesli bar etc), though it's easy to consume more calories than you burn.

sancho1983

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Have you got a smart phone? If di download an app called myfitnesspal. Really useful and you can edit all your diet goals.

I have an HTC sensation so will check that out, thanks

sancho1983

Simon E wrote:

+1 to sungod's comments.

Cycling clubs are not like secret societies; they are invariably very welcoming places where you will find lots of friendly advice and company. Don't put off trying one.

For choice of gears, or your cadence (pedalling speed), there are no hard and fast rules, you should do what you find comfortable. However, there is merit both in learning how to spin the pedals more quickly and also being able to apply effort through slow pedal revolutions. IIRC the former works your aerobic system more, the latter helps with power.

While trying to improve your time on a regular course is good, don't forget there is also benefit to be had from finding new places to ride and enjoying the pleasure of being outdoors in the countryside. For rides up to 2 hours you only need a bottle of water; for longer you may find something to nibble on helps (dried fruit, cereal/muesli bar etc), though it's easy to consume more calories than you burn.

Also thanks, I've got reasonably powerful legs, and a poor aerobic system, which would explain perhaps why I prefer 'harder' work

Pross

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Have you got a smart phone? If di download an app called myfitnesspal. Really useful and you can edit all your diet goals.

This is what I did (got down from 14 stone 4 to 12 stone 12 in about 10 weeks). It's a good way of logging what you consume and what exercise you do (note that the exercise section tends to over-estimate the burnt calories based on my experience against what my HRM was telling me). Be honest though, don't 'forget' things to make the numbers look better!

In my case I set the information to give me a calorie deficit for a 2lb per week weight loss based on my normal level of activity without any exercise (so for me sedentary as I'm office based) and then aimed to hit this by reducing calorie intake alone (very hard!!) or by deducting my burnt calories. With regular riding, mainly a 18 mile each-way commute, I found I could pretty much eat at normal levels on those days or even have a calorie deficit that could be used towards a weekend treat. In fact, in my experience the occassional treat is essential to keep your will power levels. After about 6 weeks I got to know roughly what I could eat each day depending on how much exercise I did and no longer had to meticulously log everything I ate but it certainly helps at the start - it can be quite scary when you see the details of everything you have eaten in a day!!

shockedsoshocked

Pross wrote:

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Have you got a smart phone? If di download an app called myfitnesspal. Really useful and you can edit all your diet goals.

This is what I did (got down from 14 stone 4 to 12 stone 12 in about 10 weeks). It's a good way of logging what you consume and what exercise you do (note that the exercise section tends to over-estimate the burnt calories based on my experience against what my HRM was telling me). Be honest though, don't 'forget' things to make the numbers look better!

In my case I set the information to give me a calorie deficit for a 2lb per week weight loss based on my normal level of activity without any exercise (so for me sedentary as I'm office based) and then aimed to hit this by reducing calorie intake alone (very hard!!) or by deducting my burnt calories. With regular riding, mainly a 18 mile each-way commute, I found I could pretty much eat at normal levels on those days or even have a calorie deficit that could be used towards a weekend treat. In fact, in my experience the occassional treat is essential to keep your will power levels. After about 6 weeks I got to know roughly what I could eat each day depending on how much exercise I did and no longer had to meticulously log everything I ate but it certainly helps at the start - it can be quite scary when you see the details of everything you have eaten in a day!!

Just recording what you eat and seeing it on paper is usually enough to get people to change. My first food diary was abismal, and I was actually quite embarrassed haha.

sancho1983

Food is a problem for me, I'm reasonably active at work; walking about, gardening etc. But I tend to snack often.

I'm not planning a crazy diet, just not to snack between meals and have smaller portions. I eat quite well, just too much!

From reading a bit I think I need to look at my cadence, I'm definitely doing under 60rpm.

Yesterday I went on a sky ride on my mtb, was 14 miles at a reasonably easy pace, when I got home I felt pretty good so went out and did another 16 miles, near the end my legs just stopped working, I wasn't out of breath, my heart rate wasn't massively high, but I was really struggling to turn the pedals dropping to probably 8-9 MPH with a head wind.

Perhaps I should do some shorter runs and try to spin more, as mentioned I'm pretty unfit but I should be out of breath more than have tired legs I'm guessing?

Plus my legs are starting to hurt now...

Pross

sancho1983 wrote:

Food is a problem for me, I'm reasonably active at work; walking about, gardening etc. But I tend to snack often.

I'm not planning a crazy diet, just not to snack between meals and have smaller portions. I eat quite well, just too much!

From reading a bit I think I need to look at my cadence, I'm definitely doing under 60rpm.

Yesterday I went on a sky ride on my mtb, was 14 miles at a reasonably easy pace, when I got home I felt pretty good so went out and did another 16 miles, near the end my legs just stopped working, I wasn't out of breath, my heart rate wasn't massively high, but I was really struggling to turn the pedals dropping to probably 8-9 MPH with a head wind.

Perhaps I should do some shorter runs and try to spin more, as mentioned I'm pretty unfit but I should be out of breath more than have tired legs I'm guessing?

Plus my legs are starting to hurt now...

Just build up slowly. If you managed 14 easily but 30 was a struggle try doing 20 next time. Once that is easy either try going faster or build up to 25 or 30. Do things progressively. I certainly wouldn't suggest going on a fad diet or drastically cutting down on your food but just keep an honest log of what you eat and the calories it contains (My Fitness Pal and similar apps make logging your food easy as they have lists of thousands of different foods and you just change the quantity to suit how much you had). You will be surprised how many calories can be in something you think of as being healthy (it possibly even is healthy, just high in calories with it). On hour of moderate cycling is likely to burn off something like 600 - 800 calories from my experience.

ozzy1000_0

do you have anyone to ride with?? if you do signing up for a short sportive together at some point in the future might be an idea. having a goal might motivate (scare) you into training more, also having someone to ride with helps keep the motivation running... there's a few guys i know locally who mostly had never ridden over much over 20miles, they created a facebook group/club and started going out for weekly rides together, the distances have grown and now they're talking about doing a few sportives...

also for the food eating bit; I was trying to loose weight last year, I found carrying a bottle of water around helped with snacking of junk, if i was peckish, I'd just down a load of water and that often helped... also (maybe further down the line) avoiding as much refined sugar as possible, if you snack on refined sugar your body ramps up insulin to deal with the sugar spike, which in turn means you're hungry 20 minuites later... and thus end up eating more trying to snack on bits of fruit or small amounts of other real food instead. over that last year I've got geeky about this kind of stuff. we have a fridge at work so I stock up on nice cheese and bags of rocket and leaves, piles of fruit and then I make my lunch at work, often I run over to M&S and get a couple of nice bread rolls and then make a huge plate of leaves with bits of cheese or chickien over it, chop up an apple or pear, and dressing and scoff the lot. that (with acouple of bits of fruit in the pm) leaves me full pretty much until dinner. The fat/protien in the chicken or cheese takes a while to digest so leaves you full...... some people try to cut carbs out... i tried it and lasted for about a week before i was exhausted, you can't cycle and not eat carbs, plus your brain needs alot so you can't think with out them.... basically eat shit loads of fruit and leaves and some meat and fat, these are things we've evolved to eat and if you eat them your body will thank you by functioning properly and leaning out... I read somwhere that the "5 a day" guidlines are massively conservative, that the guidlines should actually be about "9 a day" but that the british publics diet is so off piste that if the nanny state asked us to eat 9 a day everyone would just say bolloxs to that and not bother trying.. so five a day is just benchmarking the public in the right direction but still not ideal...


anyway ranty rant..

O

sancho1983

Thanks,

I have a friend who also rides a bit, he's a lot fitter than me so want to do a few more rides before I suggest anything to him.

We live not too far from peterborough and there's a 'green wheel' that goes around the outside of it, apparently 50 miles and relatively flat. Might 'book' that in to do with him at the end of the summer