Makes no sense: uneven eating, magic bike???

Maybe because I rode a lousy, but magic bike with imperfect gearing or maybe it was what I ate for 15 days while visiting family and close friends in Toronto: have not gained any weight. Incredible and puzzling to me.

During that time:
*Cycled 60% less than what I normally have cycled daily in past 5 months. But during visit, managed to cycle daily 15-30 kms. Last 3 days there was no cycling. Substituted with just 1 leisurely 1 hr. walk on flats.
*Cycled on routes with far gentler hills in Toronto daily than what I do daily in Vancouver. But in Toronto on lousy bike, I had to grind up harder.
*I increased caloric intake of breakfast & at least 1 social meal daily –by 500 more calories or WAY more, per meal than what I have been eating at home in past 5 months. Estimate calories per day: um…2,500- 3,500. (I did pig-out at 4 different functions.)
*Following day after pig-out day, I didn’t bother to drastically adjust meal size, etc. Just forgetful I guess. :o I just moved onto the next scheduled social meal.
*Did begin eating supper usually by 7:00 pm, but usually earlier.
*Some days I had 2 filling social meals within 3-4 hrs. apart.
*I tried to make 1 meal (lunch or supper) deliberately abit lighter daily, but only reached that goal 80% of time. :rolleyes:

Some luxurious/calorie decadent meals included a blend of calorie-high dishes and healthy food. Most days I felt abnormally full of good food.

Lousy, "magic?" bike (which used to be my bike that I rode and toured for 9 yrs. before giving it away to sister) actually helped me maintain some cycling fitness. Gears are old and in need of tuning, include chain. Today after returning home in Vancouver, and back on my regular bike, I found myself flying over hills. Abit strange but maybe Toronto bike was just so lousy that it required more effort.

Lousy bike, shorter rides and lots of good food with a lot less caloric vigilance and less daily cycling mileage.

These habits during 15-day visit, don’t make a lot of sense to me for weight maintenance.

It also happened with cycling on same magic bike and same sort of careless eating pattern in my last visit over 2 yrs. ago for 2 wks. also. :confused:

Ever experienced this at all, where you expected to gain noticeable weight but didn't?? :confused:

I believe in magic.


A visit to my family could possibly create enough stress to burn more calories than I could ever eat.

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Originally Posted by malkin

I believe in magic.


A visit to my family could possibly create enough stress to burn more calories than I could ever eat.

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:rolleyes::D Would like to think it's happy stress...and it was 90% of the time. Oh well. I consider it pretty good if the other folks I've sometimes heard, who won't even visit hardly anyone in their family for a variety of good (or illogical) reasons. It gets better each time....used to be 75% good.

I realized that during those 2 wks. I also was staying in 2-level houses where I did have to walk up and down several times/day. Our condo is only 1 level with an elevator in the high rise. Maybe that helped on fitness a tiny bit??? :confused: Toronto does have a more hyperactive city pace ..at least in the downtown core compared to Vancouver. Every time I visit, it takes me a few hrs. to readjust...to a city where I lived and worked for 2 decades before moving.

your body works hard to maintain the weight that it is used to. in your case, that means staying skinny. It is HARD to gain weight if you don't have a weight problem!

Shooting star - My mother has magic asian genes. She's had 5 kids and maybe weighs 100 lbs. You may also just have magic asian genes.

You can take her to a buffet and she'll happily polish off 5 huge plates of food - but she doesn't ever gain weight.

She walks a couple miles a day. She owns a shop where her customers are mostly old ladies who bring in cake or donuts whenever they come in, so she snacks on that with them.

She is a busy person who doesn't sit still - but she does eat her dinner in bed every night watching tv.

Much to my regret, I didn't inherit those magic asian genes.

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Originally Posted by Catriona

Shooting star - My mother has magic asian genes. She's had 5 kids and maybe weighs 100 lbs. You may also just have magic asian genes.

You can take her to a buffet and she'll happily polish off 5 huge plates of food - but she doesn't ever gain weight.

She walks a couple miles a day. She owns a shop where her customers are mostly old ladies who bring in cake or donuts whenever they come in, so she snacks on that with them.

She is a busy person who doesn't sit still - but she does eat her dinner in bed every night watching tv.

Much to my regret, I didn't inherit those magic asian genes.

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I have a great-aunt at age 80 who is something like your mother. She had 7 children. But she might be eating more carefully now and doing stuff with friends makes her just abit more active at her age.

Unlike yours, mother had 6 kids but she gained over 30 lbs. and it has stuck around. She has had high blood pressure for past 2 decades which she does take medication. I noticed after child #4, weight did not slide off that easily and probably due to alot of stress and not setting aside time for herself. Each woman is different.

For many older women, and it's been discussed in a different TE topic thread a few months ago, that to "look" weight-healthy now requires me to engage in 4x amount of vigorous exercise (compared to my 20's when I didn't even cycle at all. I just walked because I didn't drive. That was the only exercise at that time.) and severely curtail white rice and white bread consumption. My metabolism has slowed down. I do gain weight after nearly every winter...usually 5-6 lbs. which is not much but still requires annual spring, etc. work. Like raking piles of sludgy old autumn leaves in spring, that one forgot earlier. :)

Catriona, I bet your mother has a sort of excitable, nervous energy about her...but then I don't know her. That also can burn abit more energy in general. Has she given up riding a bike?..you mentioned this several months ago.

I've experienced this phenomenon, also. I go away, exercise some, but not as usual, eat a lot, and come back the same weight. Sometimes I think it's because I am usually walking a lot on a vacation, and maybe a little bit of riding.
On the other hand, I gain weight just looking at food when I am at home.