Small pot

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

All three ;-)

How much time do you have to ride? Ride as hard as you can manage for
the time you have available, and don't have second helpings at teh cake
stops.

...d

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

Cycling is a horribly ineffective way of
losing a belly.

Pretty good for everything else.

DAMHIKT

BugBear

Following on from D.M. Procida's message. . .

Quoted message said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

Daniele

Your ultimate aim is to lose weight and the method you've chosen is to
exercise and burn calories. OK then, what is a good way to do this? By
doing a lot of feeble exercise or a lot of tough exercise or a little
tough exercise? Obviously the second option. But your whole body (and
possibly your mental outlook to some extent) are not prepared for loads
of heavy exercise any more than you're ready to jump up from in front of
the telly and run a marathon.

What you have to do is *build* your body's capacity to do work both in
the duration and toughness departments. This takes perhaps a month from
scratch and will continue to improve. It's a matter of keeping at it
and not overdoing things. You will find after a fortnight that your
speed, endurance in legs and lungs and body generally are improving.
Occasional sprints, occasional days rest, occasional push further than
before even if it *temporarily* knackers you all go to improving
'fitness' and making cycling more interesting.

Reading a book or two on exercise should alert you to the pitfalls and
don't forget you're not training to be a TdF athlete just a fit cyclist.

If you're particularly shape-conscious then beware: You may lose one
pot but you'll acquire two thighs!

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the submarine business went under
[email hidden]
www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

Daniele

start doing crunches each day, about 200 or 300 should be about right.
Or, go swimming a few times a week. Cycle to the swimming pool as well.

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

You should get yourself a Thys Rowbike, I guess will be the best way

http://www.rowingbike.com/main.php

That may not actually be that practical for you. However, I would
concur with other suggestions that doing some sort of exercise which
exercises your belly more than cycling will tighten it up much more
effectively. This is what Roos assures me, often combined with a
suggestion that I'd look better if I did lots of crunches and situps...

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

Daniele

Most of this is culled from "The Long Distance Cyclist's Handbook", but
ties in with what I've seen from many other sources:

If you go for short duration, high intensity exercise, you are running
mainly on glycogen (short term, easily available fuel, stored in
muscles and the liver).
If you're going really hard, your body can't provide fuel to your
muscles as fast as you're burning it off, so you can keep going until
the glycogen is exhausted and you fall over with the bonk.
Alternatively, your heart, lungs and circulatory system can't keep up
with the demand for oxygen, and you fall over gasping for breath.
After you stop, you replenish the glycogen from the food you are
digesting (hence eating somthin sugary asap if you begin to bonk), and
to a lesser extent from fat stores.

At a slower pace, you start off burning glycogen as before.
As the level of available glycogen drops, you body begins to convert
stored fat reserves into fuel for the muscles, and you begin to burn
off your belly - yay! Keeping the intensity lower means that your body
can keep your muscles supplied with fuel and oxygen a rate suficently
high that you don't go into bonk or red-faced, gasping collapse.

The change over from running on pure glycogen to beginging to
metabolise fat is supposed to kick in after 45mins to 1hour during
mode exercise.

FWIW, I've seen it suggested several times that even low levels of
caffine (2 or so cups of "real" coffee before setting out) can cause
the metabolising of the fat to kick in sooner.

So broadly speaking, longer rides and lower intensity rates are best
for pure weight loss. The intensity is often measured as as % of peak
heart rate, but that's a PITA to measure and check on constantly. I
had a HRM with upper and lower limits, but found the thing sucked all
the fun out of cycling, so I gave it the boot.
If you keep it so you're face isn't red and you can still hold a
conversation without gasping constantly, that's probably about right.

In terms of diet, I didn't do anything special beyond eating breakfast
every day ( I would often have skipped it before), and cutting out
snacking outside the three-meals-a-day.

Following this advice got me down from 15.5 st. in January of this year
to 13.5 st at the begining of May, most of the weight being lost from
my beer-belly.

hth,

bookieb.

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

Daniele

I too have a bit of a tum. I don't understand it; I cycle 20 miles a
day minimum. Having seen a few "older" riders at audaxes, I'm beginning
to worry that stick thin with tum is what happens if you ride too much.

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest ...

Cycling is not very good for removing this.

Look on the bright side, why not enjoy a few more cakes and convert it
into an aerobelly for that recumbent you've always wanted ;-)

John B

Nick Kew said:

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly

Cherish it, and you can have a paunch of distinction.
That third course at lunchtime certainly helped with mine,
during my time in Italy with a rather decent staff canteen
at work.

Ah yes. I remembered my 20 miles a day cycling but had forgotten my 40
miles a day worth of eating. That would explain it all.

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

I'd like to get rid of this thing, but I don't want to start watching my
diet or taking special exercise. What I would like to know is what style
of cycling will help me achieve this fastest - should I get on the bike,
and pedal as hard and fast as I can until I can't manage any longer, or
go for leisurely 20km rides, or drag myself up the steepest hills I can
find, or what?

As it's over a year, you can rule out pregnancy, I guess.

In article <[email hidden]>
Not Responding <[email hidden]> wrote:
<snip>

Quoted message said:

Having seen a few "older" riders at audaxes, I'm beginning
to worry that stick thin with tum is what happens if you ride too much.

It's not the miles that do that, it's the cake stops.

bookieb said:

At a slower pace, you start off burning glycogen as before.
As the level of available glycogen drops, you body begins to convert
stored fat reserves into fuel for the muscles, and you begin to burn
off your belly - yay! Keeping the intensity lower means that your body
can keep your muscles supplied with fuel and oxygen a rate suficently
high that you don't go into bonk or red-faced, gasping collapse.

OK, thanks, so long-distance rides for me then. Next question, how can I
tell the fat's burning off my belly? Do I smell different or get a
different taste in my mouth? And if I went for a really, really long
ride, could I get it all off at once?

Daniele

Squashme said:

Quoted message said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly

As it's over a year, you can rule out pregnancy, I guess.

I was able to rule out pregnancy straight away, believe it or not.

Daniele

D.M. Procida said:

bookieb said:

At a slower pace, you start off burning glycogen as before.
As the level of available glycogen drops, you body begins to convert
stored fat reserves into fuel for the muscles, and you begin to burn
off your belly - yay!

Quoted message said:

OK, thanks, so long-distance rides for me then. Next question, how can I
tell the fat's burning off my belly?

Not really true, that: there is no way to burn fat from a specific
area, your body will take it from where it can find it, although some
people are genetically predisposed to store/use certain areas first
(and there is a major M/F difference, as well).

Quoted message said:

Do I smell different or get a different taste in my mouth?

Your wee-wee will smell funny

sothach said:

Quoted message said:

OK, thanks, so long-distance rides for me then. Next question, how can I
tell the fat's burning off my belly?

Not really true, that: there is no way to burn fat from a specific
area, your body will take it from where it can find it, although some
people are genetically predisposed to store/use certain areas first
(and there is a major M/F difference, as well).

I meant, as opposed to buring off glycogen energy stores - I don't seem
to have fat anywhere else.

Daniele

D.M. Procida said:

sothach said:

Quoted message said:

OK, thanks, so long-distance rides for me then. Next question, how can I
tell the fat's burning off my belly?

Not really true, that: there is no way to burn fat from a specific
area, your body will take it from where it can find it, although some
people are genetically predisposed to store/use certain areas first
(and there is a major M/F difference, as well).

I meant, as opposed to buring off glycogen energy stores - I don't seem
to have fat anywhere else.

If your exercising for more than twenty minutes (depending upon
intensity), you are getting your energy from fat stores somewhere, cuz
you just don't have enough swimming around in your blood. But for
some reason, my body at least is very loathe to get rid of that last
bit of beer belly - it must have been very useful in the last ice-age
or something.

I wouldn't get too hung up on this whole aerobic/intensity
calculations, though, just go out and do as much, as hard and for as
long as you can without kaputting yourself out.

D.M. Procida said:

OK, thanks, so long-distance rides for me then. Next question, how can I
tell the fat's burning off my belly? Do I smell different or get a
different taste in my mouth? And if I went for a really, really long
ride, could I get it all off at once?

I did once manage to lose a stone in one really long ride, but I
wouldn't recommend doing it that way. I did the first 60 miles in 3
hours, bonked and did the next 40 in 4 hours. You can be fairly sure
you're burning some fat after bonking, even if eating two mars bars and
drinking a litre of coke every hour as I was. And before anyone says it
was just dehydration, it wasn't. I still wouldn't recommend it though.

--

JimP

Knee dye same ore.

D.M. Procida said:

In the last year or so it has become inescapably obvious to me that I
have developed a small but unattractive pot-belly (I look a bit like,
say, a stick with a pot-belly on it). For the first time since I was
about 19 I have clothes which used to fit me but don't.

It's your age.
And eating too much.
And lack of exercise to burn off what you have eaten.

Cut down on the eating, do half hour exercise a day, and it will slowly
go. I put on nearly 2 stone in the last 2 years, it is slowly coming off
now - I only eat fruit in the day time now, but still have my usual
curry and meat dinners in the evening.5 hours on the bike a week also
helps.
Cycling is [censored] at burning calories.A hours ride is roughly equivalent
to 15 minutes jogging.Probably a bit more enjoyable though - watching
the scenery etc.

Just relax, and realise that only a very few people can stay the same
shape for life, and when they get older, they look frail.
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

Quoted message said:

Cycling is [censored] at burning calories.A hours ride is roughly equivalent
to 15 minutes jogging.Probably a bit more enjoyable though - watching
the scenery etc.

Errr, cycling is pretty good at burning calories if you put some effort
in. If I average about 30kph I'm burning about 1000 calories an hour,
about the same as running 10km under an hour.
Road cycling just doesn't really target that pot belly, even pulling up
on the pedals only really works the hip flexor muscles. A good seated
sprint can really work your core, but it's not something I can do for
very long. Sit ups/crunchs and leg raises work best for that area of
your bod.

Laters,

Marz