turned 40 last month and just got hooked cycling :)

I have just started cycling and i am addicted!
I have been biking at the local mission in california where i live and its roughly 2.2 miles and i have been biking that 3 days a week for the last month...until yesterday.
I biked a round trip of 28 miles. ok granted it was road biking and not dirt or mountainy type ( btw, i am still earning the terms, vocab etc etc) but it was thrilling!
Ok so i need advice. I am 40 like i mentioned, and I am 5'7" weigh around 136 lbs. What is "ideal" for me to bike, so i don't loose too much weight, but enough to gain strength and muscle tone.
My cardio has improved greatly, just need to have my legs catch up.
I know I sound so 7th grade, but i am looking up to my ladies for advice.:D

add some weight lifting , weight bearing, and resistance training along with a bit of core muscle training to your exercise routine. If you want to build mileage or weight, add no more than 10% per time and make sure you can then handle that weight or distance before increasing.

Biking is great for a non weight bearing and cardio especially if you add some speed inter vals, but probably not for weight loss. Adding some significant weight and resistance will add lean body mass/muscle weight to make up for fat weight loss, plus it will help you look and feel better.

welcome to the addictive world of biking and exercise- gotta love that natural seratonin rush.

marni

It seems to me that most people don't lose much weight from cycling, because it makes you so hungry. So, you can ride as much as you want, but back off if anything starts to hurt, and eat more if you get too thin or weak. To me, the "ideal" is the place where I feel great, where nothing hurts, and it's fun to get on bike. Usually, if I ride too much, I feel fatigued, and if I ride too little, I get moody.

In my case, I'm the opposite. I'm doing Jenny Craig to loose some residual x-mas gained pounds but also started cycling as well and IM ADDICTED!!! So since I still want to loose 5 to 8 pounds before summer, the days that I ride my bike I have to eat at least 300 additional calories to avoid hitting a plateau. I'm 5'8 -153 pounds (not for long!)

Bike enough that it feels good and you're not burning yourself out. Add other things in there--some kind of weight-bearing cardio, weights (still trying to work that one out), some kind of core work, yoga--whatever sounds appealing to mix it up. That way your muscles get a different kind of work out, and you don't get burned out on one thing.