good workouts for losing weight

[ribbit_zap]

After I stopped rowing I packed on a few pounds that I desperately want to get rid of. Are there any specific bike workouts that work especially well for losing weight? Unfortunantely I will probably be on the trainer for at least the next couple of weeks. I live in California where we get really whimpy winters compared to other parts of the country, but I have asthma that is REALLY sensitive to the cold and wind (and that is what we are getting...well cold for California )

Any good suggestions for good trainer workouts for losing weight? Thanks!

[han-grrl]

For good lasting weight loss you need to combine good eating as well as exercise including cardio and possibly weights, depending on what you are training for. moving is better than not moving in the grand scheme of things, but how much you move really depends on your fitness level.

what are you doing right now?

you also need to think about your eating and drinking habits. you can exercise all you want but if you are eating cr@p you will just end up sabotaging your weight loss.

Smile

Han

[KSH]

For good lasting weight loss you need to combine good eating as well as exercise including cardio and possibly weights, depending on what you are training for. moving is better than not moving in the grand scheme of things, but how much you move really depends on your fitness level.

what are you doing right now?

you also need to think about your eating and drinking habits. you can exercise all you want but if you are eating cr@p you will just end up sabotaging your weight loss.

Smile

Han

I would like to "ditto" what she said!

During the summer I was riding an average of 100-130 miles a week. After I would ride my 40-60 miles on a Saturday, I was starving, so I would stop by Taco Bueno and load up on crap.

I was also swimming, along with the cycling.

I figured I was doing enough cardio to allow me to eat out at lunch during the week (only 2 days a week), and to eat out all weekend long.

WRONG!

I gained 10 pounds over the summer. Even with all of that exercise.

Now, I follow a diet of 1800-2200 calories a day and I eat every 2-3 hours.

I run 8-10 miles a week, swim 2500 yards a week (one workout), go to spin classes, and get on my bike on the weekend. I eat out only a couple of times of week, and that's it.

Doing this has helped me maintain my weight loss. To lose weight, I had to eat 1600-1800 calories a day.

It's all about what you are eating... and drinking. Exercise will allow you to eat and drink more, but that alone won't help you lose weight.

Good luck!

[Bad JuJu]

It's all about what you are eating... and drinking. Exercise will allow you to eat and drink more, but that alone won't help you lose weight.
Good luck!

Rats! I was afraid of that. I was wondering why my weekly mileage of 50-60 miles wasn't making any difference in my weight. Guess I've gotta start eating right too--double rats. *sigh*

[Offthegrid]

I'll second the weights. I've lost 35 lbs. since Oct. 1, and I always notice the weight is hesitant to come off until after a good weight lifting session. Of course, this is based on absolutely nothing scientific.

But in any case, as others cautioned, don't be lulled into thinking that because you worked out a lot, that you can eat what you want. People vastly overestimate the calories they burn during exercise.

[RedCanny]

I'll chime in here on the eating-right thread. I lost 20 lbs last year, and one of the keys to it was decreasing my caloric intake- and to do that I recorded all my calories eaten and burned. My gross caloric intake was similar to KSH's: around 1600 to lose weight, and now around 2000 to maintain it. I learned a lot about portions and the nutritional values of different foods, by doing this.

The other key was to keep my cardio work long and easy. i.e. I kept my heart rate around 125 or so, for at least 45 minutes, 6 days a week. This was hard to get used to, as I really enjoy hard cardio work. And I'm still stunned that I lost weight doing it.

Good luck!

[Eden]

To address your original question - I understand the best exercise for weight loss is actually fairly moderate, but steady exercise. Did you use heart rate zones for rowing? I'm not sure how different your cycling zones would be, but zone 2 is supposed to be good for weight loss - the thing is that at high levels of exercise you burn lots of carbs and less fats, at the slower, steady levels you burn more fats, resulting in more weight loss. The caveat - we are all very different with different metabolisms, so this is really really ballpark unless you go and have some sophisticated metabolic testing done.

[equus123]

After I stopped rowing I packed on a few pounds that I desperately want to get rid of. Are there any specific bike workouts that work especially well for losing weight? Unfortunantely I will probably be on the trainer for at least the next couple of weeks. I live in California where we get really whimpy winters compared to other parts of the country, but I have asthma that is REALLY sensitive to the cold and wind (and that is what we are getting...well cold for California )

Any good suggestions for good trainer workouts for losing weight? Thanks!

To add to what's already been mentioned - If you're trying to lose weight, I assume you mean lose body fat. Is this correct? (hope so ) Okay...when getting a VO2max text done, one of the graphs that prints out after the test is the measure of your heart rate plotted against energy stores (i.e. fat and carbohydrate stores in your body and muscles).

Switching gears. You hear everywhere that the "best cardio exercises" (i.e. running, spinning, stairmaster, etc.) are done at low to moderate intensities. Why? Because on a scale of low to maximum intensity efforts, the body uses fat as the primary energy source at lower intensities. High intensity efforts use primarily carbohydrates as the energy source. So it makes sense that a low to moderate effort is the best "fat burning" exercise program to use to "lose weight" and drop body fat. As an example, my max HR is 202 bpm. On the graph printout from my VO2max test, it showed that 153 bpm is the heart rate at which my body burns the highest amount of fat, right before it starts switching over to carbohydrates. 153 bpm is considered a 'Zone 3' (or 'Tempo') effort. Does this make sense?

That's the technical understanding behind *how* to lose the most body fat/weight. I find that without understanding a concept, its impossible to implement it the correct way. Now for you - do whatever the heck you want and as long as you can get your heart rate to average a Zone 3 effort or to keep your heart rate in this range then you'll be burning the most amount of fat per intensity. I know that people also suggest spinning at a higher cadence (90-100 rpms) when you ride. This may mean that you use easier gearing but that's okay because instead of relying more on your muscles to produce power, you rely on your aerobic system to spin the pedals.

Hope this helps.

[han-grrl]

All three energy systems "happen" when you are doing exercise, that is fat burning, carb burning both aerobic and anaerobic. Which is doing "more" at any given time depends on intensity.

One of the reason the low intensity workouts or "fat burning" zones is actually useful for me and my clients, because it keeps then from feeling like failures. most studies have pretty much shown that if you have a short time to workout and do race pace type intensities, you can burn as many calories or even more than the lower intensities. BUT most people don't have the fitness for those hard workouts. So they might try on, and puke or feel horrible, and then quit. So thats when you introduce periodization, and working up to those types of workouts.

Don't worry about the number of calories from the total activity. the right workout is the one you will do. whether its running, or biking or a cardio class. the right time of day, again is the one that suits you. if you prefer mornings, great, afternoons are good too. no point in forcing yourself to do a workout and hate it. which will actually release more stress hormones and actualy prevent weight loss. your exercise shouldn't be work at all. it should be PLAY

Smile

han

[LBTC]

Thank you, Han! I love your response

The other girls have been dead on right about eating the right foods, but the cardio facts they cite have not worked that well for me.

In my various stages of fitness and activity over the years, I found that I had the best fat loss, the kind of fat loss that allows those pretty and strong muscles to show more easily on my frame, and the best loss of belly fat, from doing as many high intensity exercises as possible. At my fittest this was 2-3 one hour kickboxing classes a week, plus several mountain bike rides (if you only road cycle, think of mtb rides as being somewhat equivalent to doing high intensity intervals with unpredictable recovery times), plus walking to work and back about 1/2 hour every day, plus one lower intensity longer ride....it was a lot to fit in, but if I dropped anything because of time it was always the lower intensity workouts. If I weren't doing kickboxing, which has a high strength component, I would do a weight workout. Pushing your muscles does keep your metabolism high, your energy high, and burns more of those calories you eat.

Spinning on the trainer, I'd recommend working up to doing serious interval training. If you have limited time, this is also the best bang for your time....

As Han-girl said, though, if you don't love it - you won't do it. For instance, the only way that I really enjoy weights, is to use free weights, to multiple exercises at one time (i.e. walking lunges while doing shoulder raises), and changing it all the time. If it isn't complicated, I probably won't do it.... And I do hate sitting on the bike and spinning, but these days I have limited time and I'm trying to take a correspondence course. If I sit down to read the text, I fall asleep in 10 minutes, so, instead, I read while spinning. Not as intense as I like, but I do this on the recovery days from the new kickboxing classes. Works for me, because it gives me the time to do both things at once, and I don't fall asleep!!

Everyone is different. Go with what works best for you. Use the ideas we give you at your own discretion. And most of all have fun!!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[han-grrl]

Hi T

I always read while spinning too, it definitely makes the time go a little faster when i am scheduled to do a steady ride.

[annie]

Hi T

I always read while spinning too, it definitely makes the time go a little faster when i am scheduled to do a steady ride.

Do you have some sort of a stand to hold your book when you read?

annie

[han-grrl]

i just hold the book in my hands and lean on the handle bar or occasionally sit up

[ribbit_zap]

Wow ladies! Thank you so much for all your imput. I do lift weights, only problem is that I am used to lifting lots of weights...I put on bulk muscle really easily so I have to watch how much I use. All of your comments make sense and I really appreciate you all responding. I will definitely use all of your suggestions. To answer some of the questions...we never used heart rates in rowing because our coach thought that too much emphasis on heart rates was a bad thing when rowing. I am not sure what my fat burning heart rate is, but I will look into it. I have found in the past that lifting weights does help the weight come off (especially if you are sore) because you continue to burn calories as your muscles repair. Do you guys generally lift lighter weights for more reps or something to that effect? This transition from rowing to cycling is a little tough for me because of different target muscles and workout styles. Thank you so much for all your responses and all your help!!! It is greatly appreciated!!!

[LBTC]

Annie, usually I hold the book and sit upright. The Law text book is pretty heavy so it's kind of an upper body workout too. I did find that my yoga mat laid across the handlebar is a great bookstand, too.

As for the weight lifting questions, I'm certainly not trained in weight lifting, or anything, really, but I've tried lots of things over the years, so I'll still comment.

The general rule of thumb that I've learned is that light weight with lots of reps works on endurance and lean muscle, that medium weight and medium reps works on strength, and very high weights and very few reps works on power. I've done workouts that are pyramids - one set of each with each exercise, workouts that combine weights and cardio - ride the bike between exercises, etc, workouts with lots of reps and lowish weights. The most interesting thing from all of those different things is that I think my muscles learned from each experience and, even without continuing the same routine, my muscles seem to remember. The power workout was most interesting - I did it for only a few months in an effort to increase my explosive power on the bike. It did not lean me out at all but did improve my mtb climbing tremendously. When I switched out my routine to less weights, and sometimes no weights (I go through lazy and busy phases like everyone else), that power for climbing is still there, and the bulk I seemed had gained at the time did go away with other routines.

For best calorie burn, I've read that working out the biggest muscles groups - your legs and butt - is the trick. Lunges, walking lunges, all the different squats, one legged squats, sissy squats, etc. I always prefer upper body workout because I see the results so quickly, but I remind myself of the whole butt and hips thing and try to include it....

Anyway, hangirl is trained in this stuff, so I think she can probably tell you way more.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~