To far out of shape?

Eddy32

First of all, I'm not sure this is the right spot for this post.

I wondering if I'm to far out of shape for biking?

Some back story. For the last 16yr's I haven't been active at anything outside of walking 1mile every other day. My daily routine is wake up drive to work sit for 8hr's, come home sit for 7hr's > sleep repeat. I've always been on the heavy side around 200lbs 5'9" @16yr's old. Now I'm 280lb's 5'10 @32yr's old.

Looking to lose some weight get more active I bought a mountain bike recently, thinking back on when i was 16 and younger I remember effortless bike rides for hr's. To find out I can't even ride more then 1-2 blocks without butt pain/sore legs/legs totally giving out.

Day1 I bought the bike I rode 1 block before my legs(top of thighs where on fire) and i was unable to push on, I came back to my house went to get off the bike and my leg gave out, to the ground I went. I got back up put the bike in the garage and called it a day.

Day2 eager to push more I rode around the block 2 times and all was fine besides my legs where slightly tired no more top of thigh fire, my butt hurt pretty bad. After about a hr I went back out and rode around the block once more and my butt was way to sore to push on.

Day3 I tried to straddle the bike and my butt hurt to bad, so I decided to just rest for the day.

Day4(today) I went out legs slightly sore, saddle was fine for the first 5min's/1block. As I went around again I got major seat pain and decided I was going to cut threw a field to shorten the distance coming home. Half way threw the field my legs gave out, I fell to the ground, as I went to get up I couldn't my legs where jelly, I tired again 2 more time and nothing. I sat in the grass for about 5mins before trying again, I was able to get up. As I walked the bike home in shame.

I beginning to wonder if not doing any basic daily activity's outside of walking Is the issue or is it possible that the seat is cutting blood or some circulation off overall and causing my legs to give out? All the riding I've been doing has been in the saddle, standing and peddling feels unsafe since the front fork tensions up and down between strokes, as I'm still trying to get a feel for the bike.

imposter2.0

I would prioritise diet over exercise initially, before you get to the point where you can comfortably do both. If you haven't already been to the GP for a health check, I would do so and explain your intentions - there may even be some support or a referral available.

diamonddog

^^!00% this

Thigh_burn

You're definitely not too far out of shape and you can lose weight, get fitter and go cycling if you want to. But I definitely agree with Imposter, go to the GP first.

fenix

FFS you're only 32 man. That's no age - and your weight isn't that much.

If you want a change you can do it - but its up to you to stick with it,

You've been overeating for years and you can't change all of that overnight - but you can start to make a difference and again over time you will be able to see a big difference. There are a lot of inspiring stories out there.

http://www.steveway.co.uk/?page_id=2


Diet is the key to get the weight off. If you have the weight off it's easier to exercise.

Research how many calories you're taking in per day. Check the size of your portions. Weigh your food if you need to.
Its so much easier to eat 1000 calories less than it is to try to burn off 1000 calories.

Sort out your diet and just move more. Ride the bike more, walk more,

Alex99

Keep at it, but keep safe. You can't keep falling off every time or you'll hurt yourself! Do you have the option of a static bike to supplement your outdoor riding?

Reading what you've done, looking at it positively, you increased your distance by 2-fold in two days. The flip side of being so out of shape is that you can see huge improvements, which can be very rewarding.

mrfpb

Find someone who knows bikes to check your saddle height as that will help with your legs and butt. Get some padded shorts, this will also help with your butt.

Walking is good exercise, so if you can increase that and alternate between walking and riding days you may get less butt pain and exercise different muscle groups.

Keep going.

keef66

I've found it is a thousand times easier to lose weight by controlling food intake than by exercise, and obviously doing both is even better.
Tried following a reduced calorie diet many times, but I cannot do it 24/7; I just get bored and revert to type. I'm a glutton and eat to excess if food's available. I also suffer low moods and comfort eat at times. I recognise I have an unhealthy relationship with food; it is a kind of eating disorder. So the solution is entirely psychological...
What I have discovered is intermittent fasting, popularised as the 5:2 diet. Mondays and Thursdays I eat nothing till my evening meal, then it's just a snack. The idea is to restrict intake to just 600 calories on fast days. The other 5 days I eat normally.
I thought it would be tough, but I find because I'm busy at work I can easily eat nothing till the evening. And I don't give in to temptation if food is around because I know I can eat the next day. Doing this I lost 18 pounds over 3 months, which may not sound much, but at 5'6" it was over 11% of my body weight. And it's staying off because I now eat this way all the time.

First thing you need to do is complete a food diary for a week. Include everything you eat and drink, and weigh / measure it all to avoid under-estimates. You may be surprised by the total calorie count; you don't get to be the weight you are without consuming a lot more calories than you're expending.

And as you do start to lose weight by modifying your food intake, the exercise will become easier and less painful.

You're certainly not too heavy to benefit from riding a bike. This guy started out over 550 pounds

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/recre ... -s-Story-0

Would it be practical for you to cycle to work maybe 1 or 2 days a week? That's a good way of fitting in the exercise without it seeming like an extra chore.

Eddy32

I been semi dieting the past month, before I'd eat a decent lunch and overeat(2-3 plates) at dinner.

For the past 3 weeks I been doing like a 3 day routine I stopped drinking anything but water and a few beers here and there, day1 just lunch like a chicken salad. day2 just 1 plate of dinner, day 3 lunch + dinner(like above), then repeat. Since I been doing this I went from 307lb's to 281lbs. I always bounced around 275-285lb's but when i seen 300lbs mark I needed to make a change.

While it don't effect me while walking, I guess it could be affecting me while trying to ride(not eating properly). I also quit smoking 2yr's ago(smoked 1-2packs a day for 15yr's) It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done, but the change has been major. I just wish my legs/butt could handle riding better, I don't feel winded at all after riding just major butt/groin pain and moderate leg pain.

The seat height was "fitted?" at a local bike shop, I'm not sure how proper tho. He pretty much had me sit on the bike with the heel of my foot on the pedal, and raised the seat till my leg had a slight bend/knee not locked. All tho I did lower it about 1/4 inch after the 1st day and it made the front thigh burning sensation go away.

I think I should buy a new seat, maybe try a couple. The seat on it doesn't even have a name listed on it. The widest point in the back is 5inch's and looks like a plastic shell with a thick hard foam. I can feel it flexing under me and noticed it has a slight wiggle left to right after last night.

markhewitt1978

As for your riding, I think you're just getting used to it. I remember my first ride home from the bike shop (1/2mile) and my legs were like jelly. It just takes a bit of time to get used to it, and you can't force the issue because your body needs to adapt.

Just go for a short ride, have a couple of days rest then another short ride and see if it feels better repeat until it does!

mrfpb

Diet is important, and the key to weight loss, but easy to moderate exercise routines will help develop heart and lung health. That's a good thing for an ex-smoker.

A good exercise routine will also help the body to moderate it's appetite, possibly it's because the body gets a better sense of what it needs, but I don't think scientists have established why this is the case.

keef66

From your description I'd say they set the seat height about right as a starting point. Worth measuring it (centre of cranks to top of saddle) or marking the seatpost in case it slips down.

I went through a few saddles on my first bike and ended up with an old school Brooks B17 which I can ride all day. Not cheap, but worth every penny.

neeb

Keep going, you'll get there! You'll need to take it gradually at first and build up though. Don't do it every day to begin with, try every other day for a couple of weeks and then maybe take a week off. You need to give your body time to rest and adapt. It won't happen overnight, you need to be thinking on a timescale of weeks and months. But if you keep at it you will definitely keep on improving and it will get easier.

Get some decent padded shorts. Wear them underneath normal trousers/shorts if you don't want to be seen in them. Saddle choice can be difficult, it's worth trying some others out if you can. You want your weight to be supported where the bones in your butt are, not your groin. Might be worth going back to the shop and asking them to tweak the saddle position based on where you are getting pain. The saddle position backwards/forwards is important as well as up/down.

T C

Good on you mate.....keep it going.

kajjal

Keep going you will get there. As above every other day to give your body a chance to get used to it. And go for a walk on the other days to stretch your legs a bit.

The key thing really is to gradually adjust your diet by reducing portion sizes and cutting out sugary & processed foods. Even just stopping sweets and soft drinks will have a big effect. But do it gradually, starving yourself just makes it harder. Healthy food makes you feel better but you are not a rabbit!

Just keep going you are doing very well.

Eddy32

Thanks for all the inspiring post.

I've never been a fan of sweets, outside of maybe once a month. I'd say 90% of my liquid intake has been unsweetened tea/water for the past 10yr's or so. I might grab a 7up/sprite here and there at work since limited to vending machines.

I'll probably go seat shopping this upcoming week assuming the local bike shop has something I want. There hr's are strange to me tho 9am-2pm / closed fri/sat/sunday(pretty much always open when I'm at work/closed when I'm off). I'm kinda eyeing a Selle SMP TRK on amazon has a cut out and is 160mm.

The seat I have currently seems not wide enough like my sit bones are riding on the outer edges and pushing the high rising foam into my groin area, even higher with the raised compressing top foam into my groin even more.

I will keep pushing maybe aiming at the 1 day on/1day off. Just the weird feeling with legs going totally out(jelly mode).

twist83

If you can get somewhere that does Specialized saddles they have a pad you sit on and will give a decent idea of the saddle width needed. The Spec saddles are not horrific money either for the lower end ones.

I think a few others do a similar thing with saddles?

Don't be tempted to keep lowering the saddle. It makes it so much more inefficient if you go to low.

Good luck with the journey

NameTaken

How are you getting on?

Eddy32

Riding 5x the distance(and growing) vs the previous saddle, 7days a week now. Looking to expand outside of the neighborhood soon. The old/stock saddle was just to uncomfortable and possibly cutting some blood flow off to the legs/uh groin regain.

sungod

congratulations for keeping at it!

fwiw when i first got back into cycling after about 30 years it took a while to get used to the saddle again, you may find over time that you need to change/adjust it again as your body changes

diy

Put your stats in here: https://tdeecalculator.net/
and then look at how quickly you want to drop the weight. You should be looking to drop no more than 2-3lb a week. You need to gradually ease in to exercise, there is already a massive load on your heart due to your weight. You seem to be at the upper ends of class 2 obesity.

I'd look to have a deficit of at least 1,000kcal per day off your TDEE. Once you have your BMI under 30, then you can start looking at riding and exercising more. Right now 90% of your focus should be eating right.

If you live in the UK you probably qualify for entrance to some of the support programs via your GP.