Advice for losing weight (or not gaining) while cycling

[lovelygamer]

Hi ladies. I'm new to actually putting some thought around riding my bike. I bought it last summer and commuted now and then with it. Nothing serious, but I always knew I wanted to do it more and learn more about the sport.

Thing is, I'm heavy. 215 pounds of heavy. I'm not all flab because I do have a gym membership but I don't work out regularly enough to stay fit year round. I also have a ten year old hip replacement so I can't be Lance Armstrong, realistically. I doubt I will be doing many century rides and I know I can't mountain bike (impact).

This month, I've been pushing myself and tracking my miles. I have commuted 95 miles in three weeks. You can see my progress in my signature. Some days, I can hardly walk at night from the soreness in my joint and/or thighs. Since I'm commuting, I'm carrying additional weight on my bike in "stuff" I need for work or wherever I am going.

I can tell cycling makes me hungry and I haven't ate perfect but I'm trying to keep aware of it. I'm going to search the forum for healthy snack ideas.

Do you have any other advice for a new cyclist like me who doesn't want to gain weight and/or might like to actually lose some? I've quit working out at the gym while I'm commuting every day because frankly, I don't have the energy. I stretch and do arm weights at home every day.

I would be happy to hear anything you can throw at me. I don't know any women I can talk to face to face about this.

[goldfinch]

Some thoughts:

--As Muirenn says, track what you eat and calculate the calories. Sites like http://www.livestrong.com/myplate/ can help you with this.

--Figure out roughly how many calories you burn a day, your resting metabolic rate plus a guesstimate of your activity level. Here is a calculator: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php Keep in mind that this is only an estimate and may not be correct.

--Eat 500 calories less than what you burn a day and you will lose a pound a week. This is a good amount to lose.

--Vary the biking with weight training. Weight training helps you preserve muscle while losing weight.

--I find it helpful to eat after I exercise. It helps with the appetite. You can time your meals to eat that way. Or, spare some calories for a snack. My favorite post ride snack is chocolate whey powder in milk. 240 calories worth. Other people like chocolate milk. Or maybe some tuna or cheese.

--Listen to your body! If you can hardly walk in the evening maybe you are pushing it too hard. Maybe commute every other day? And weight train on the non-commuting days, maybe twice a week.

--Be sure to take a day off once a week to recover.

--Above all, have some fun with the biking. Fun will get you to ride the next day and the next day thereafter.

[Irulan]

What she said. If you have a smart phone, there are some terrific apps out there that will help you immensely ( if you use them ) It can be very educational and in some cases mind blowing to see how what you eat stacks up against your base nutritional needs and how exercise affects the whole equation. While approximate, an app like MyFitnessPal ( for pc or phone) can help you to determine your base calorie need for the weight you want to lose, and then help with the exercise portion. You can eat more when you exercise harder, but it has to be quality food, and it has to be within the range of what you "earned" by exercising, without going over.

[ny biker]

I've found Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook to be very helpful.

http://www.nancyclarkrd.com/books/sportsnutrition.asp

[lovelygamer]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the advice. I had myfitnesspal once and forgot to continue using it. I will go back to it. I get frustrated sometimes with logging food, but I know it helps many people stay straight.

I found an afternoon snack thread with some good advice on it too.

Goldfinch, I do take breaks now but they are often on the weekend. I would like to add longer recreational rides on the weekend and cut back the commutes. I feel that the weight I am carrying in supplies is making it harder to get around.

I appreciate the input!

[Reesha]

I use Livestrong sporadically, but ultimately only when I'm feeling really super quantify-ish. Otherwise I get lazy.

Lately I've been riding TONS. I've been losing good fat and maintaining my bikey muscle mass. Basically I keep my meal portions reasonable and then fuel for the ride just before, during, and after. If you are riding fewer than 20 miles and pretty leisurely you will probably be ok with just a pre-ride banana and a post ride 8 oz chocomilk or yogurt or something. It's easy to convince you that you need loads of food the dinner before a ride or the lunch after, and I just don't think that's true if you fueled during your workout, especially if you are trying to burn fat.

Intervals are good. Ride for 2 telephone poles hard, then rest for 4 telephone poles. Or go for loooong leisurely rides. Enjoy yourself. And try not to convince yourself that you can pig out when you've been riding, but make sure you've given yourself enough to get you through the ride itself.

[leah]

I really like the book Ride Your Way Lean by Selene Yeager.

I was surprised when she said you don't really need a post-ride snack if you are riding for less than 90 minutes. That advice has helped me cut a chunk of calories out of my diet and I am none the worse for it

[ny biker]

This month, I've been pushing myself and tracking my miles. I have commuted 95 miles in three weeks. You can see my progress in my signature. Some days, I can hardly walk at night from the soreness in my joint and/or thighs. Since I'm commuting, I'm carrying additional weight on my bike in "stuff" I need for work or wherever I am going.

So how long is your daily commute? Is it into DC -- mostly downhill in the morning and uphill at night? If it's in a different direction, how hilly is it?

[lovelygamer]

Negative on the DC. I live on the Eastern Shore (near Ocean City) where it's totally flat and sea level. I bike between 6 and 12 miles a day. I'm working to increase it to be at least over 10 every day I bike because eventually I'd like to be able to join a ladies group there that bikes once every week at 13-20 mile routes. I take off one day a week.

I don't snack pre or post ride, yet because my rides are short (30 mins or less). I do take water and drink that while I'm out.

I used myfitnesspal today. I did 12.5 miles, burned 750 cals and ate 1600 cals. According to them, if I did that every day I'd be in good shape.

I really need to increase my mileage. I live within five miles of everything so commute miles only aren't going to get me there.

[ny biker]

Negative on the DC. I live on the Eastern Shore (near Ocean City) where it's totally flat and sea level. I bike between 6 and 12 miles a day. I'm working to increase it to be at least over 10 every day I bike because eventually I'd like to be able to join a ladies group there that bikes once every week at 13-20 mile routes. I take off one day a week.

I don't snack pre or post ride, yet because my rides are short (30 mins or less). I do take water and drink that while I'm out.

I used myfitnesspal today. I did 12.5 miles, burned 750 cals and ate 1600 cals. According to them, if I did that every day I'd be in good shape.

I really need to increase my mileage. I live within five miles of everything so commute miles only aren't going to get me there.

Oops, I thought I saw "Bethesda" as your location. (I guess I'm hallucinating... )

If you keep riding often, it will definitely get easier and you'll be able to do longer distances.

I've never been to Ocean City but I've ridden the Eastern Shore around Easton as well as the Sea Gull Century (Salisbury/Assateague). There seemed to be lots of low-traffic roads, at least on weekends, which should make it easier for you to do longer rides.

[leah]

ny biker, I'm the one in Bethesda

As a total aside, not to hijack - I just spent the weekend in Bethany and rode Rt 1 to Ocean City, it's a 32 mile round trip. Going there was fine, but on the way back I had a fierce, and I mean fierce, headwind the whole way. I thought I would never make it back.

[ny biker]

ny biker, I'm the one in Bethesda

As a total aside, not to hijack - I just spent the weekend in Bethany and rode Rt 1 to Ocean City, it's a 32 mile round trip. Going there was fine, but on the way back I had a fierce, and I mean fierce, headwind the whole way. I thought I would never make it back.

Glad to know I'm not completely crazy.

I think wind is generally the challenge on the Eastern Shore. I personally prefer hills to headwinds, but either one will make you stronger.

[withm]

ny biker, I'm the one in Bethesda

As a total aside, not to hijack - I just spent the weekend in Bethany and rode Rt 1 to Ocean City, it's a 32 mile round trip. Going there was fine, but on the way back I had a fierce, and I mean fierce, headwind the whole way. I thought I would never make it back.

Continuing the hijack - I live in Bethany, and am very familiar with the wind situation on Rt. 1. Since that is the only way to get to different towns, we always have to deal with wind. It may have been Lance Armstrong who coined the phrase "Hills make you strong, but wind makes you mean!"

[OakLeaf]

I used myfitnesspal today. I did 12.5 miles, burned 750 cals and ate 1600 cals. According to them, if I did that every day I'd be in good shape.

Are you talking about your estimated total calorie burn for the day? Most calorie counters way overestimate your burn for "exercise" activities. I think a more realistic count for most people would be 2-300 calories per hour for a cruise, up to maybe 500 calories per hour at a hard recreational pace.


Also - just my opinion - while it's true that you don't need a recovery snack if you haven't depleted your muscle glycogen (i.e., gone hard for over 90 minutes without taking in any calories), I think it's a good idea to get into the habit of having a recovery snack. If you don't need extra calories, move them from another meal/snack rather than adding them in. Once you're in the habit, then it won't be such a struggle to force yourself to eat when you do start going long and hard enough to need it. The #1 impediment to portion control IME is not replacing glycogen when I need to (within 30-100 minutes of the end of a long moderate to hard effort). If I don't force myself to have a recovery snack immediately after a long effort, I'll be ravenous for literally days. Establishing the habit now will make it easier for you to do when you really need to, when even the idea of food seems nauseating.

[Eden]

Are you talking about your estimated total calorie burn for the day? Most calorie counters way overestimate your burn for "exercise" activities. I think a more realistic count for most people would be 2-300 calories per hour for a cruise, up to maybe 500 calories per hour at a hard recreational pace.

Keep in mind weight matters - the calorie counts you list are close to what I burn - at 5'0" 103 lbs for that amount of exercise (my 50 min commute comes to around 400-450 depending on how hard I work...) so I don't think it is too off base to expect the OP to be burning more.

Unlike some I've been finding Myfitnesspal to be pretty accurate. It agrees pretty well with my Garmin, but strangely enough if I *do not* use the hr monitor. If I use the hr monitor the Garmin cuts the calorie count by about 1/3.... which I know is wrong!! I'd be dying of starvation if I used those numbers... I've been keeping my calorie count 100-200 under what it says I've burned and I've been losing weight slowly - around 1/2 lb a week or so, which seems right on base to me.