How much weight do you lose on a ride?

CleeRider

Bear with me on this... Some of you may find it interesting, especially if you're trying to lose weight.

I only started cycling 6 weeks ago but I do a 20 mile ride every 2 days with 770ft of climbs and don't take a water bottle because it's only 1hr 15mins.

When I return, I'm nearly 1kg (2lbs) lighter.
I then drink 1ltr of water to replace lost fluids and end up putting 1.2kg back on.
The next morning however, having let nature take it's course and gone for a big wee I end up having lost half a kg (1lb) overall.

This equates to losing around 1 stone per month if I maintain my weight on my rest day.

I've used this to great effect in getting me down to my 'healthy weight' of 69kg for a 170cm tall male and it now means I can eat what I like on my rest day knowing full well that it will come off the next day.

Just another bonus to cycling!

JamesB5446

Is that CleeRider as in Cleethorpes?

I'd take water with you, as you've said you're mostly losing water weight, and this will have some impact on your performance.

But yeah, regular riding will obviously help you shift a bit of weight.

MattC59

Pedantic, I know, but water weighs 1kg per litre, not 1.2kg (well, 999.1g at 15c )

CleeRider

MattC59 wrote:

Pedantic, I know, but water weighs 1kg per litre, not 1.2kg (well, 999.1g at 15c )

Yes, my 1ltr was a bit of an estimate, must be a little bit more

Mikey23

I would question whether rides cause weight loss. Years of running and riding have never done this for me. I would assume that all your weight loss is fluid and will be replaced as you rehydrate. The effect of cycling in increased metabolic rate and a healthier lifestyle will probably do that for you over time. If think I would encourage yourself to drink even on shorter rides as is 'good practice' I'm a UKA coach btw

CleeRider

Mikey23 wrote:

I would question whether rides cause weight loss. Years of running and riding have never done this for me. I would assume that all your weight loss is fluid and will be replaced as you rehydrate. The effect of cycling in increased metabolic rate and a healthier lifestyle will probably do that for you over time. If think I would encourage yourself to drink even on shorter rides as is 'good practice' I'm a UKA coach btw

Good point - I'll try taking water with me to see if it helps. I have, however, consistently weighed myself in the morning and lost half a kg after an evening bike ride with no weight loss after a rest day.

StillGoing

I think you're confusing water loss and weight loss. Fat doesn't evaporate overnight and the complex workings of the human body rely on correct hydration. There's no quick fix to losing weight; eat less than you expend and you lose weight. Take in less fluids than you need and the scales may indicate a drop in weight, but it isn't fat loss no matter how hard you pedalled up that hill.

CleeRider

philthy3 wrote:

I think you're confusing water loss and weight loss. Fat doesn't evaporate overnight and the complex workings of the human body rely on correct hydration. There's no quick fix to losing weight; eat less than you expend and you lose weight. Take in less fluids than you need and the scales may indicate a drop in weight, but it isn't fat loss no matter how hard you pedalled up that hill.

Ok it's obviously what I'm eating and then burning then

amaferanga

For 20 miles on the flat you'll be burning 1000kCal maximum. That's less than a third of a pound so this amount of riding will not lead to a true weight loss of 1lb per ride. Sorry.

CleeRider

amaferanga wrote:

For 20 miles on the flat you'll be burning 1000kCal maximum. That's less than a third of a pound so this amount of riding will not lead to a true weight loss of 1lb per ride. Sorry.

Cool, I've never seen calories being converted into weight loss before. Never understood calories before and always ignored them on my iPhone GPS cycle app.

Wish I had never started this thread now lol At least I've learnt something.

trv75

Someone helpful linked this before, got a lot of good info/calculations if you follow the links

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

unixnerd

I believe the rule of thumb is that you need to expend 3600 calories of work to lose a pound of fat.

briantrumpet

unixnerd wrote:

I believe the rule of thumb is that you need to expend 3600 calories of work to lose a pound of fat.

Sorry, I don't understand. Could you convert that into raisins?

BelgianBeerGeek

OP - good advice here. You do have to look at your cycling in the round, as you have to look at fluid/food intake. Losing weight through fluid is never a good idea. If anything, it must be increased.

me-109

briantrumpet wrote:

unixnerd wrote:

I believe the rule of thumb is that you need to expend 3600 calories of work to lose a pound of fat.

Sorry, I don't understand. Could you convert that into raisins?

Here you go:
I believe the rule of thumb is that you need to expend 3600 calories of work to lose a pound of raisins.

Donkeywings

A small box of raisins (14 gram) is 42 calories.
1 pound of fat will come from 3600 unused calories - equivalent to 85.7 small boxes of raisins over and above your requirement.
Cycling ~15mph for a 180lb bloke (me) will burn around 800 calories/hour (taking into account also what you burn just by being alive)
So, eat 19 small (14 gram) boxes of raisin while riding 15mph for an hour, if you weigh 180lbs then you should come out evens from a calories expended vs taken point of view. Your *weight* though will vary (at least for a while) depending on how much you sweated vs how much you drank.
:-)

saintly_jim

Going by the calorie consumption estimates from my Edge 200, I think a ride of about 40 miles will translate into a weight loss of about a pound, although this probably depends on how fast you're riding and how much weight you have to lug around with you.

t.m.h.n.e.t

saintly_jim wrote:

Going by the calorie consumption estimates from my Edge 200, I think a ride of about 40 miles will translate into a weight loss of about a pound, although this probably depends on how fast you're riding and how much weight you have to lug around with you.

Not even close lol

saintly_jim

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Not even close lol

Like I say, depends on your weight. I'd hazard a guess that my 17+stone body needs more effort to move around than yours. "lolz"

StillGoing

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

saintly_jim wrote:

Going by the calorie consumption estimates from my Edge 200, I think a ride of about 40 miles will translate into a weight loss of about a pound, although this probably depends on how fast you're riding and how much weight you have to lug around with you.

Not even close lol

+1 :roll:

BowtomePhil

I rode 46 miles Saturday, weighed myself before and after and lost 3 pounds, I know it was water loss. But if you are sweating you are burning fat. I also rode 156 miles in one week a few weeks back and lost .5 of a pound.

As somebody said you have to be negative on the week of 3600 calories to lose a pound. So if you eat your 2500 calories a day (men) and cycle and lose 1000 calories a day over 3.5 days, you will lose one pound a week.

I have lost a stone in the last 8 weeks just by watching calories, I don't count them, just cut out crisps, cakes etc.

And cycling is a great way to keep fit.

Crapaud

BowtomePhil wrote:

... I have lost a stone in the last 8 weeks just by watching calories, I don't count them, just cut out crisps, cakes etc. ...

But that's not true. You've been cycling for 6 of those weeks - something you didn't do before.

About 1lb a week sounds about right to me. I've lost 6 lbs over the last 2 months. Only quite a few to go until I'm back to my fighting weight.

BowtomePhil

Crapaud wrote:

BowtomePhil wrote:

... I have lost a stone in the last 8 weeks just by watching calories, I don't count them, just cut out crisps, cakes etc. ...

But that's not true. You've been cycling for 6 of those weeks - something you didn't do before.

About 1lb a week sounds about right to me. I've lost 6 lbs over the last 2 months. Only quite a few to go until I'm back to my fighting weight.

Cycling helps, of course, if I burn 1000 calories in a day, I still need to watch what I eat, if I eat 3500 calories in that same day, I lose nothing.

You can't just cycle and eat what you want.

Sesquepidilian

BowtomePhil wrote:

You can't just cycle and eat what you want.

To be honest, that's pretty much what I've always done and have lost about 4 inches from my waist, going off clothes size as I've never actually weighed myself untill recently. Did the same when I was into karate and was ripped but I was 20 back then; doubt I could manage that 11 years later.

I've since decied I'd like to get back into the Twelves which means losing another stone so I've put more effort into diet. Also found I suffer far less lethargy if I eat nolater than about 7pm, which usually means having an evening meal at about 5pm with my schedule, or not at all sometimes as I find I don't miss it.

awsm

I find whatever I weigh after a long ride is rough indication of hat I will likely weigh after 2-3 days as long as I don't gorge

Grill

amaferanga wrote:

For 20 miles on the flat you'll be burning 1000kCal maximum. That's less than a third of a pound so this amount of riding will not lead to a true weight loss of 1lb per ride. Sorry.

Yup. I actually burn about 350 cals if I'm pushing it (close to TT pace) over a 20 miler, but if you trust Garmin/Strava/BR then I will have burned more than twice that amount.

SPOC

saintly_jim wrote:

Going by the calorie consumption estimates from my Edge 200, I think a ride of about 40 miles will translate into a weight loss of about a pound, although this probably depends on how fast you're riding and how much weight you have to lug around with you.

Damn, I wish I lived in a world where this was true

I've ridden 100.5 miles, climbed 4500 feet and 'only' burned off 3400 calories, not even quite a pound of fat. I'm 5'8 155lbs.

I've not been reading this forum long, but some of the calorie estimates I read of people thinking of what they have burned off is scary, especially for people trying to lose weight.

Joeblack

Sesquepidilian wrote:

BowtomePhil wrote:

You can't just cycle and eat what you want.

To be honest, that's pretty much what I've always done and have lost about 4 inches from my waist, going off clothes size as I've never actually weighed myself untill recently. Did the same when I was into karate and was ripped but I was 20 back then; doubt I could manage that 11 years later.

I've since decied I'd like to get back into the Twelves which means losing another stone so I've put more effort into diet. Also found I suffer far less lethargy if I eat nolater than about 7pm, which usually means having an evening meal at about 5pm with my schedule, or not at all sometimes as I find I don't miss it.

Calories are basically the energy produced from food so if you eat less than you expend you'll lose weight - As previously stated however you can't just eat what you want you need to think about other things rather than just weight loss, starving your body of essential nutrients is very unhealthy, you might lose weight eating only 1500calories from twinkles (google Twinkie diet) however you'll be damaging your body, also I generally ignor scales as they can be very unreliable, if you really want to have a healthier lifestyle and want to track weight loss then you need to count, calories, carbs and fat intake, and take mesurements of key areas to keep track.

Balance your food groups and eventually you'll find a healthy balance you can live with because after all diets are useless lifestyle changes are where it's at

Hth

thegreatdivide

SPOC wrote:

saintly_jim wrote:

Going by the calorie consumption estimates from my Edge 200, I think a ride of about 40 miles will translate into a weight loss of about a pound, although this probably depends on how fast you're riding and how much weight you have to lug around with you.

Damn, I wish I lived in a world where this was true

I've ridden 100.5 miles, climbed 4500 feet and 'only' burned off 3400 calories, not even quite a pound of fat. I'm 5'8 155lbs.

I've not been reading this forum long, but some of the calorie estimates I read of people thinking of what they have burned off is scary, especially for people trying to lose weight.

This.

I rode 84 miles and climbed 3089 feet today at an average of 17.4mph into a headwind or crosswind for a big chunk of the way and burned 2551 cals. I'm 66kg and 171cm.

I also did a century last month (109 miles to be precise) with 6493ft of climbing and burned 3519 cals

Also, I've mentioned this before but mobiles running Strava and Garmin type devices without an HRM are way, way off when it comes to cals.

jameses

So what are Garmin/Strava/Bikeradar etc. basing their 'calories burned' info on? Always taken them with a pinch of salt, but seems odd that they would bother putting out that measure if they've just plucked a number from thin air.

thegreatdivide

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/2095 ... alculation