Weight loss through biking

got an email from a friend the other day giving me an update on what she's doing with her summer. She has gotten really into spinning classes, going a couple of times a week and then some various exercises on other days (weights, etc). But one of the last things she wrote was that despite all of the exercise she's doing and being conscious of what she's eating that she has been gaining weight.

I then thought about some of the mountain bikers I know, and a lot of them while they are faster and stronger than me, do not have the thin athletic body type.

So my question: Is biking actually a good form of exercise for weight loss? Is it the kind of thing that will bring you down to a certain point, but then you have to try something else to get those last few pounds gone? Or is it just the mtn bike vs road bike thing? Mtn biking just not giving as good a cardiovascular work out?

note- I love to bike, and I don't really need to lose weight, this is just something I started thinking about because of my friend.

Boy, there are a lot of unknowns. For starters - muscle weighs more than fat. A body composition test is more accurate for fat loss - which is what most people are striving for.

How old is your friend? Past age 40, things slow down (or in my case, metabolism goes backwards!) so we have to be very conscience of what goes into our mouths.

Aerobic exercise varies. The LSD type (long slow duration) is said to burn fat and intervals burns carbs. While that's true, intervals generally burn more calories because of the afterburn effect - you continue burning calories after you quit exercising. Plus, you burn more while you're at the higher end of the aerobic zone, although you can't hold onto that heart rate for a long time.
A heart rate monitor is very helpful for this.

And yes, mt biking requires more upper body strength - although I don't see it as necessarily a body building exercise. For me, road biking is much more aerobic - but I'm still a bit of a chicken off road! I've been a roadie for a long time & need to get the mantra "skidding is bad" out of my head!

I do spinning when I can't ride & see people barely breaking a sweat. Is your friend really working during spinning class? There should be a puddle of sweat underneath her bike.

I'd agree with Dogmama when she says that body fat is probably a better indicator rather than overall weight.

Over the last few months I've been doing plenty of cycling as well as spinning and other gymn stuff, and from just going by the fit of my clothes and which bits I can or can't grab on my bod, I would say I must have lost weight. But when I weigh myself on the scales my actual weight hasn't really changed greatly.

I think there's been some muscle gain in my legs but apart from that I think it's just the wobbly stuff has tightened up!:p

I lost thirty pounds nearly 2 years doing spinning and weights. I also paid attention to what quantity I ate, but didn't cut out anything specific. I'd love to lose another ten, but it's not worth actually dieting over.

I too see a lot of women not really working in spin class - doing more chatting. A heart rate monitor can really help.

Veronica

I find that if I ride an hour per day (or about 7 hours per weeks), I can eat whatever I want (love that chocolate!) and not gain weight. If I don't ride, I gain as much as 1 pound per week. I've just started riding again 12 days ago after almost 2 years of not being able to ride after neck injury and I'm already losing weight! I've lost about 2 pounds (my clothes are already fitting better) so far. (I gained about 20 pounds pretty rapidly after I had to stop riding, before I managed to cut my food intake enough to stop the gain.)

I'll third the "heart rate monitor" in spin class. It really opened my eyes as to work load and input/outpur.

I think that to really loose weight cycling, you hvae to put in a lot of road miles. That's a comment from my old body building days when I would ride 100 road miles a week.

nowadays, I'm just really happy when someone comments on my biker legs or how strong a rider I am.
Irulan.

Thanks, my friend is really into the spinning right now, a heart rate monitor sounds like the kind of thing she'd be interested in.

As for good weight vs bad weight I'm sure that if it was muscle weight she had gained she wouldn't be complaining. Her quote: "I
should be super huge by now, but instead, I am super HUGE (ie: not the good kind)". She's been doing weights a few times a week along with the spinning.

While I'm sure she hasn't balloned out in size, I think that she would like to get the most out of her exercizing. I think the heart rate monitor would be the best tool for her to optimize her spinning classes. When we get back to school in September I'll get her to go out and do some out doors riding, and when it gets too cold I'll go indoors and do spinning with her.

Thanks for the replys!