500+ miles!

Quoted post said:

Congrats and keep up the good work.

I find that mountain biking is more enjoyable for me when the weather turns sour. Since you don't go as fast, there's less wind chill, and the trees block some of the winds you'd get out on the road. The chance of encountering black ice is also greatly reduced.

Plus it's a lot more fun than a stationary trainer.

CrippledCheatah said:

A year ago i weighed 280+lbs, had a heart rate just over 80, and was found to be diabetic....
well 6 months of cycling... 500 miles.... and i'm down to 235lbs, lost 5" off my waistline and have a heart rate of 65! this puts me within 10lbs of my first goal of reaching 225. Just had a physical earlier this week and got my test results back, doctor said the results looked great.Overall, i am pleased the results i have gained since i started cycling, and especialy the loss of weight. Unforunately the weather has turned cold, and i am back to traveling extensively. i think a pair of under armour sweats are in order if i plan to ride during the winter months.

brrrrrr
😎

Nice work🙂 . How did you lose the weight though? I have been cycling since Aug and have done over 1000 miles, including 2 centuries, and haven't lost any weight. My body shape has changed, but no loss of weight. I am currently at 290 and want to get down to 240 by spring. Any special diet?
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks

cali-largeguy said:

Nice work🙂 . How did you lose the weight though? I have been cycling since Aug and have done over 1000 miles, including 2 centuries, and haven't lost any weight. My body shape has changed, but no loss of weight. I am currently at 290 and want to get down to 240 by spring. Any special diet?
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks

I think I can tell you why you have not lost a huge amount of weight. 1000 miles since august is simply not enough.

You need to do 150-200 miles a week, to really notice a big drop.

In terms of diet. Just eat in moderation. Low fat foods, dont go crazy on the carbohydrates and stay clear of soft drinks unless they are low cal. The weight will drop off in time trust me.

MPCRUSHER said:

I think I can tell you why you have not lost a huge amount of weight. 1000 miles since august is simply not enough.

You need to do 150-200 miles a week, to really notice a big drop.

In terms of diet. Just eat in moderation. Low fat foods, dont go crazy on the carbohydrates and stay clear of soft drinks unless they are low cal. The weight will drop off in time trust me.

Oh, i must have read his post wrong. He must have meant 500+ miles a week/month. I do long rides every saturday, 50+ miles, and am sporadic about during the week due to time/weather/kids/etc etc. Thanks for the tips. Any good books that you know of that deal with cycling and weight loss. I got the Chris Carmichael " The Ultimate Ride" but I feel it is more geared towards racing.
Thanks

cali-largeguy said:

Oh, i must have read his post wrong. He must have meant 500+ miles a week/month. I do long rides every saturday, 50+ miles, and am sporadic about during the week due to time/weather/kids/etc etc. Thanks for the tips. Any good books that you know of that deal with cycling and weight loss. I got the Chris Carmichael " The Ultimate Ride" but I feel it is more geared towards racing.
Thanks

I really dont think you need a book. Just do as many miles as you can on a small gear. Spin spin spin.

Treat your diet like a budget. Dont cosume more calories than you burn.

A handy tip when you have kids or a wife that wants you to take her out on the weekends.

Tell your wife to meet you somewhere for a picnic. You ride there and she drives. She takes spare clothes for you. You can leave two or three hours before she does and there you have it you can potentially get a four hour ride done and still make her happy.

Oh and another thing. I have been told this a number of times. I dont know how accurate it is but apparently the first two hours of a ride you burn glycogen (I think thats how you spell it), after two hours you get stuck into the fat stores. I find I loose more weight when I can throw longer rides in at the end of the week. I try and do a long ride on Saturday and Sunday.

Oh and one more thing. Dont kill yourself. Ride to enjoy. Spin a gear that is comfortable.

Enjoy the scenery and remember not to freewheel down hills, upgear and continue to spin. I too often notice bike riders freewheeling down hills. Why not go for a ride half the distance and ride down the hills, as you would get the same benefit.

500 miles a week/month?!?! yikes! on a normal day, i would normally ride 10-12miles, about an hour ride. rarely have i done 20+ mile ride (only when i get lost...). but i do eat healthier now, no junk food, just about everything i intake is sugarfree, medium carb, high protien. the only thing i like snack on is chips n salsa now😎

[font=Times New Roman]Congratulations on the achievements! I too am diabetic and lost about 60 pounds since last Dec. It took me about 6 months. There does not to be many diabetics on this site. It would be nice to have a thread on that topic though. I was on oral meds and through diet and lots of riding I am off of them all, including BP meds as well. I find my blood sugar levels stay too low with several hard rides in a week. I have also crashed a few times while riding(diabetic crash that is). Be sure to either carb up well b4 your ride and/or carry gels, cliff bars, a banana or some form of carb-snack with you. [/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Fortunately for me we don't have snow down here in the New Orleans area so I can ride pretty much all winter. We are however plagued with inept government, empty promises from the feds, an Army Corp of Engineers who spends more time on lunch than levee maintenance, a jackass for a governor, and nasty hurricanes. But the cycling is great![/font]
[font=Times New Roman]-Gawnfishin[/font]

CrippledCheatah said:

500 miles a week/month?!?! yikes! on a normal day, i would normally ride 10-12miles, about an hour ride. rarely have i done 20+ mile ride (only when i get lost...). but i do eat healthier now, no junk food, just about everything i intake is sugarfree, medium carb, high protien. the only thing i like snack on is chips n salsa now😎

cali-largeguy said:

Nice work🙂 . How did you lose the weight though? I have been cycling since Aug and have done over 1000 miles, including 2 centuries, and haven't lost any weight. My body shape has changed, but no loss of weight. I am currently at 290 and want to get down to 240 by spring. Any special diet?
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks

I lost about 60 lbs a couple years ago, before I started cycling regularly. Went from 220 to 160. At the time, is was not even my goal to lose weight. It just happened. I started lifting weights (mostly heavy sets) about 4-5 days per week. I did modify my diet and can say that a low-carb diet most definitely works... for me at least. After about a year or less in the gym, I was down to my current weight. Strange that I dropped weight when my goal was to build muscle, but whatever.

I've slowly gone back to a more normal diet (i.e., eating pretty much whatever) and have not gained any weight back in the three years since I stopped lifting. I did put on about five pounds over the last three months, since I've been completely side-lined, but that'll be gone again in a couple weeks. Anyway, I'd agree that you ought to build up your miles (...or more importantly, time), as you're probably already doing. You're averaging about 60 miles per week, which is great, but see if you can get that up to 100-200 miles per week. Do that, and watch the carbs, especially sugars, and I'll bet the weight will come off.

There is no secret. As other have already said; you need to consume less calories than you burn. I used to cycle over 100 miles a week for a couple of years but did not lose any weight as I ate and drank for Britain. I was fit in that I had a low resting HR (48), but I was still overweight.

I decided to change a few things back in the summer as I had reached 225 pounds. I cut out the booze and have made a big effort to eat less, i.e. no snacking between meals and a little restraint at meal times. I have also increased the amount I exercise to about 5 hours of hard cycling a week. The weight is slowly coming off at about 2 pounds per week. I am now below 200 pounds.

I have found that my weight loss is more dependent on what I eat and drink rather than how much I exercise.

Hope you find this useful and good luck

Congratulations on your weight loss!!

I was 330+ when I started the low-carb diet and it really worked in getting the weight off. The only issue I had was on a couple of rides in the mountains I bonked. This created me to eat more carbs than I was used to. With that leading me to think because I was riding, I needed the carbs, I’ve gained around 35 lbs. This has been over time, but now it’s time to loose it.

I also would like to loose that extra weight. A friend of mine has talked me into the California Death Ride, and I need all the help I can get.