Is weightloss possible from riding alone?

[jayjay]

LOL

Bounceswoosh -- very geeky origin -- Back in the day, my Everquest character used to do the following when fighting:

Weylin bounces!
Weylin swooshes!
Weylin (says) Pa Pa Pa POW!

... so then some of my in-game friends started calling me bounceswoosh, and it kinda went from there.

"oooh shiny" is ... hrm ... just me trying to capture my adoration for bike parts and, well, frankly, all things material. But especially bikes; I see a bike and I'm fascinated like a crow finding a shiny object.

I see, wow, very interesting. Crows and raccoons ! Raccoons are known to grab something shiny and not let go... sounds like some of us cyclists.

[F8th637]

I've lost some weight from riding without really making significant adjustments to my diet but the scale hasn't budged in a while HOWEVER I am back to wearing older, smaller clothes so that has to account for something, right? Food and I have a torrid love affair. If I could find a jersey that said, "I ride to eat!" I'd be ALL OVER that one.

[Red Rock]

Well, my experience with cycling and weight loss is this...

I pulled my bike out after ten years of not riding. My husband and I started at the same time. I was 140 or so and knew I needed to loose the weight. So on I went to my bike. After work we would do something like 6-10 miles. everyday or so. Then on the weekends, I would go for a longer length ride with no particular specified milegage. At the time, I did not have a cyclometer so I went by how I felt and how my body changed. In a few months I ended up loosing 10 or more pounds.

I have been very active my whole life as well. Now I am reaching 40! Yikes. So I make an effort to ride, or hike, or somesort of exercise as best I can do with school, work, and some sort of family life. The exercise part has been a struggle!

Red Rock

[jayjay]

I've lost some weight from riding without really making significant adjustments to my diet but the scale hasn't budged in a while HOWEVER I am back to wearing older, smaller clothes so that has to account for something, right? Food and I have a torrid love affair. If I could find a jersey that said, "I ride to eat!" I'd be ALL OVER that one.

I'd buy that jersey too, and it would have a big slice of chocolate cream pie on it, with a steaming cup of espresso..... rather like a WayneThiebauld painting ! I can picture it " I brake for food " and the jersey sponsor pix can be all those lovely pastry, desert, & coffee companies like Hostess, Peet's Coffee, Ben & Jerry's Icecream, etc....

YUM! Lets get a team, and train together nationwide as The BonBon Babes !!!

[indigoiis]

Last year this time I weighed 140 lbs and intended to lose 15. I did that but at the same time started cycling more seriously. After I lost the 15 I ramped up my cycling to train for a century and by the time of the century I was 135. Over the winter I kept riding and eating about the same. Now I am 140 again, but my body is definitely different. My legs are muscular and my rear doesn't "seem" fat, although I am back to wearing 8/9 pants because the 5/6 pants that fit me at 130 stopped fitting over my upper legs, which are more muscular now. It seems like the newer fashion pants - the skinny pants - don't work on my bicycle legs at all.

But I am happy with the weight because I know a lot is muscle and it's really all about if you're happy with what is in the mirror. And I am. Plus I eat whatever I want. Let the scary-skinny girls wear the new fashions. I'll be voluptious and strong in my 8/9 bootleg jeans.

[TahoeDirtGirl]

Hi there...Bounces- what a crack up- I'm like that with bikes too..oohhh shiny!

Anyway, here is my weigh in (ho ho ho) on riding and losing.

I started out at 270 lbs. and lost 70 lbs riding a Specialized. It wasn't real easy but I wrote down everything I ate and tried to stay within specific calories (you can find calorie calculators or use a sports nutrition book to find out what you need to take in). But after riding for hours on end, I got so hungry I had to eat back some calories, so I would eat back about 1/3rd and that seemed to work.

I dropped another 30 lbs after getting my Ellsworth. BUT then I moved to the East coast from Tahoe for a while for work, and this winter, I put 20 lbs back on. How depressing. The only difference is I wasn't riding. I have about 40 lbs to go including the 20 lbs to get to the magic 155 lbs. I am supposed to be no bigger than 140 lbs but I'll see when I get there. I am pretty muscular and I can't imagine weighing less than that.

So I guess you really need to watch what you are eating. I wouldn't go splurging like mad if you rode a couple of hours, that and I stopped eating out but once a week (which I think has alot to do with gaining weight!) and eating packaged foods. Right now, just to change things, I snagged a Weight Watchers kit that has the calculator and books to do the Points deal. Yeah yeah, but you know what, it's so much easier than fiddling with all the calories and it's actually kind of fun. And more mindless. I'm losing about 2 lbs a week and I ride about 3 hours a week. I'm starting to commute back and forth to work (32 mi round trip got sidelined with a kidney infection) and when that starts it just will drop off. I think the key is doing something that is built in. I did that last year and it just dropped faster. Good luck!

[Crankin]

Not sure what the props comment was.

All I am saying is that you CAN do it. It may be slow, but the weight comes off. It takes a lot of self discipline. I know because I gained 25 lbs. when i got out of college. It took my dad telling me I looked like a fat pig to start exercising and eating right and I haven't stopped since then. It took me a year to lose the weight, but I think doing it slowly kept it off and gave me time to adjust to new habits.

[teawoman]

Not sure what the props comment was.

It's a compliment: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=props (see last).

[extra-vert]

The hardest part about eating in this country is how sabotaged just about everything we eat is by corn. Whether our livestock was fed with it or it sweetens just about every processed piece of food we eat. So the challenge here would be to cycle as you will, eat as you will, but try to avoid the egregious yellow saboteur! TRY THAT CHALLENGE! One of my favorite dishes is a trout dish I make. Unfortunately, if it's farm raised, even it was fed a corn diet! But I could just about guarantee that you would drop and/or keep off the weight if you drop the HF CS - that's my guess, (I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, I just read a lot).

[MauiRockHopper]

Jay Jay, just found this old thread and wondered if you made any progress with the weight loss?

[indysteel]

I haven't lost a significant amount of weight from cycling, although like a number of other women here, my body shape and size has improved. As Oakleaf suggested, long distance cycling is great for burning calories. Unfortunately, it also provides a ready (and worthy) excuse to eat more. I'm FAMISHED almost all the time when my mileage is up. I don't miss many meals when I'm reading 150 to 200 miles a week.

I think it's possible to curtail caloric intake when you're riding a lot, but it takes a lot of discipline. You also have to be pretty careful to get enough calories, the right kind of calories, and at the right times of day to fuel high mileage. It's not easy. That heaping plate of pasta looks really good after a long ride.

I would encourage you to include some resistance training in your cycling routine. Cycling is great for your legs, but it doesn't do much to maintain or build muscle in your upper body or core. You might also keep a food diary to track what and when you're eating.

Good luck!

[Triskeliongirl]

I lost 35 pounds about 1.5 years ago (and have kept it off effortlessly with good diet/exercise habits). For me, what was key was:

1-Discovering that I undersecrete insulin and therefore need to eat a low carb diet to both normalize my blood sugars and body weight.

2-Get over the myth that we need to consume carbs and/or mass quantities in order to ride a bike.

I think that many women who gained weight when they started to cycle, also have problems with blood sugar control, especially if they also started eating more carbs as they upped their cycling intensity. In fact, that can even be the source of hunger many of you are commenting on is brought on by cycling. I would argue its not the cycling, its the hyperglycemic state some people enter if they consume too many carbs while riding.

I am not saying that carbs are not a good fuel source, in the right body of course they are. But if you have a body that is either hypoinsulinemic (like mine) or hyperinsulinemic/insulin resistant (a more common problem especially among heavier individuals), then carbs are not the best fuel source. Instead, I fuel my rides with protein (amino acid metabolism generates TCA cycle intermediates that can be used to generate ATP in muscle) and body fat.

As long as I eat the foods my body can process correctly, then my body weight really is regulated by the calories in/calories out equations.

I also noticed that when I was heavier and used to ride with other heavy women, most of them ate constantly on the bike. Now that I am lighter and can ride with light men, I notice they consume much less food on the bike. Yes, fuel on a ride is important, but the amounts and frequency is not as great as some people think, especially if the goal is to even partially utilize our fat stores as fuel when we ride.

So food is important, but folks that can't loose weight despite good diet and exercise habits, really need to explore whether there are underlying metabolic reasons that could be corrected by a modified diet.

[Veronica]

Jay Jay, just found this old thread and wondered if you made any progress with the weight loss?

JayJay hasn't been on the board since 9/14/08. It may be a while before you get an answer from her.

Veronica

[Miranda]

JayJay hasn't been on the board since 9/14/08. It may be a while before you get an answer from her.

Veronica

snork...

V... I thought that too as I was very intensely reading this thread and about to reply earlier. I think this lady (OP) got her answer basically and isn't coming back atm. HOWEVER... the continuance of conversation on the topic in general is quite interesting.

Oh, btw... my short answer is: "NO".

You can't just keep eating the frig clean, or MORE cuz you're working calories off riding, and lose weight. It's a package deal.

Now, one comment made by some spin instructors at my gym is that going anaerobic (vs aerobic) will make you crave more food/feel straved etc. to potentially over-eat.

In general, I think anaerobic gets more of a bad rap then it deserves. It does have it's place. But, I think there's some truth to it. Also, sometimes the sensation of thirst (or dehydration) can be easily confused with hunger...

That's an old school diet tip. Try drinking water first etc. and then re-evaluate. Proper hydration can be a challenge for many riders/exercisers.

[F8th637]

I'd buy that jersey too, and it would have a big slice of chocolate cream pie on it, with a steaming cup of espresso..... rather like a WayneThiebauld painting ! I can picture it " I brake for food " and the jersey sponsor pix can be all those lovely pastry, desert, & coffee companies like Hostess, Peet's Coffee, Ben & Jerry's Icecream, etc....

YUM! Lets get a team, and train together nationwide as The BonBon Babes !!!

Haa haa, a girl after my own heart, jayjay! The "I Brake for Food" jersey did cross my mind at one point as well. The BonBon Babes, I love it!