How cycling changes your body

[Alisha]

So...Ive gained some weight. By some, I mean about 25 pounds. I went back to college after a two year hiatus and holy crap. But seriously, how does cycling change the body? Its a cardiovascular exercise, so to burns calories...but does that mean I will be all leg and no muscle anywhere else? Does it mean Ill lose weight everywhere (the good parts and bad?). I do some occasional cycling around town, but I want to start going the distance. Let me know what you guys have experienced if you do rides 50+ miles.

[MCAP]

I've lost size all over, have gained muscle in my legs, core, back, and arms, have gained lung capacity, and made my heart stronger. Road cycling is awesome exercise and makes me feel like I can rule the world.

[GLC1968]

I started cycling almost 6 years ago now and in the first 4 years, did nothing but gain weight. I fell so in love with cycling that I dropped all my other activies in favor of it (weight lifting, other cardio, etc) and managed to gain 30 lbs in the first three years.

Just be warned that 1) you cannot out ride what you can eat and 2) multi hour rides do not justify multi-hour meals!

[limewave]

Just be warned that 1) you cannot out ride what you can eat and 2) multi hour rides do not justify multi-hour meals!

So true! I started biking 7 years ago. And gained 50 pounds (there were two kids and 2 major surgeries in there too).

And now that I've lost all that weight, the comment I get most is "wow! you must have a strict workout routine!" But my workout routine hasn't really changed all that much, just my diet No one likes to hear that though.

[indysteel]

As others have suggested, cycling can only do so much for you if you're unwilling to modify your diet. Endurance activities are tough in that you generally have to eat something before and during in order to fuel them. Plus, they tend to enhance your appetite. So, finding that balance can be tricky for some. I, personally, have mostly maintained my weight through cycling and my other activities. I've lost a few (and gained a few) pounds, but that's about it. I am absolutely ravenous most of the time when I up my mileage. From that standpoint, I actually think shorter, more intense rides are better for weight loss. Still, it's all about calories in versus calories out. There's no magic bullet.

I would strongly urge you to get engaged in a variety of activites in addition to cycling: walking (or running) hiking, kayaking, Pilates, yoga, strength training. Especially if you're worried about whole-body muscle development, it's good to balance cycling with other pursuits. Balance and flexibility are also important.

Good luck!

[limewave]

I will add, that I LOVE my legs now. Very muscular. And my hiney is getting smaller. I like the toned look that cycling and running helps to achieve.

[Becky]

I would strongly urge you to get engaged in a variety of activites in addition to cycling: walking (or running) hiking, kayaking, Pilates, yoga, strength training. Especially if you're worried about whole-body muscle development, it's good to balance cycling with other pursuits. Balance and flexibility are also important.

+1. I recently started yoga classes, and they're making me painfully aware of how unflexible I am and how weak my core is, despite being a dedicated cyclist (road and mountain). No wonder I deal with hip and knee injuries...

As for body changes: I'm the same size (more or less) that I was 10 years ago, but I weigh more due to increased muscle mass, and I think I look better. Healthier, stronger, more fit.... It's all a good thing in my book

[kfergos]

I would strongly urge you to get engaged in a variety of activites in addition to cycling: walking (or running) hiking, kayaking, Pilates, yoga, strength training. Especially if you're worried about whole-body muscle development, it's good to balance cycling with other pursuits. Balance and flexibility are also important.

This is a bit after-the-fact, but I second this comment. I spent the last year commuting 40 miles/day by bike and was too tired to do any other activities. Now I'm having to go to PT to deal with back pain that developed as my core strength decreased. Biking is a great way to get out and burn some calories, but you definitely need more variety than just biking to be healthy.

[ny biker]

Its a cardiovascular exercise, so to burns calories...but does that mean I will be all leg and no muscle anywhere else? Does it mean Ill lose weight everywhere (the good parts and bad?).

The answer in part is that it depends on your body type. I do not have huge leg muscles. When I lost weight I lost it from the top down, because I have a tendency towards being pear-shaped.

As others have mentioned, merely exercising was not enough for me, and I had to cut my food intake to see real weight loss. I never starved myself, though. I just stop eating when I start to feel full so that I don't overeat.

I stopped training for centuries because I was gaining weight. The really long rides made me very hungry for days, and also too tired to do any exercise for days. So now I generally limit my long rides to 40-50 mile rides, with a few 60ish-mile rides each summer. This way I'm able to remain consistently active instead of seesawing between huge bursts of activity and couch potatodom.

BTW, I highly recommend Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook. I really like her approach to eating for weight loss.

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


Also, I agree with indysteel's advice about the importance of a variety of activities for overall good health. But, you gotta start somewhere, and you have to find activities you enjoy if you're going to keep at it. So go ahead and start cycling, with some stretching on the side to help prevent injuries. Once you get into a routine you can look into other activities for whole-body fitness.

Good luck!

[DarcyInOregon]

I stopped training for centuries because I was gaining weight. The really long rides made me very hungry for days, and also too tired to do any exercise for days. So now I generally limit my long rides to 40-50 mile rides, with a few 60ish-mile rides each summer. This way I'm able to remain consistently active instead of seesawing between huge bursts of activity and couch potatodom.

BTW, I highly recommend Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook. I really like her approach to eating for weight loss.

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

NY, thanks for the link.

What you were saying about training for the centuries being hard on the body weight, I agree with you. What you say makes sense. I was thinking along the same lines for my 2011 cycling goals, to back off on the miles and keep the long rides to 40-50, with a few charity metric rides, and focus on shorter rides with some having difficult climbs, and get in more diversity of cardio with other activities, along with the core/weight workouts. Some people have no problem with body weight in training for the distance rides, however for some of us the training does something to how our bodies can burn fat, and we end up stalling on the weight loss or perhaps gaining a bit. I want to take 2011 and see if backing off on the miles will enable me to get rid of the last few percentage points of excess body fat that I have.

However, I want to add to the discussion because the question was what does cycling do to our bodies, and what I was surprised to discover is how the cycling fitness translated over to other cardio activities for me, some good and some not-so-good. I guess the good is I found I can run, and if I don't mind going slow I can jog 10 miles and not even feel winded; this doesn't mean I am turning into a runner, just that I know I can run 10 miles to save my life if I had to do so. The bad is walking is no longer cardio for me, even hiking up steep mountains because it doesn't get my heart rate into the lowest cardio zone. The good is I can do amazing things on the elliptical at the gym, upper ramp levels only, resistance set higher, totally hands off the side rails and I can really go fast, for whatever it is worth. Essentially I love how cycling increased my fitness so that I am able to be good at other activities.

For the comments on the calories, especially the calories consumed while on the bike, I have seen some strange things. I've learned to keep my mouth shut because cycling friends don't want to be told not to eat. But OMG, cycling with someone who is already up 20 pounds, and who has to stop at every rural grocery store on the route, and then comes out with a big bag containing nothing but sodium and fat over 2000 calories per stop, when the entire ride is no more than a 2000 calorie ride, so the person is consuming 6,000 to 8,000 calories and only burning 2,000, oh boy but I have to zip my lip. For some people, honestly, they get it into their heads that they are burning calories while cycling and so they can just eat whatever they want to eat, and there won't be any consequences. Now me, I record every #### calorie I consume in a food diary and that helps a lot. It is real hard to keep the calories down and under control on the rest days and I can't do it unless I keep the food diary.

[Jiffer]

I seemed to lose inches all over. After a few years of cycling, a friend of mine says to me out of the blue, "So, how much weight have you lost?" I was a little puzzled. I had just recently lost a few pounds that I had previously slowly put on, but pretty much weighed the same that I had been for a few years. When I said a few pounds, she said, "No! You've lost way more than that! You've lost like ten pounds!" I could hardly convince her otherwise, and couldn't believe she really thought I had lost ten pounds. I started thinking about it and realized that my clothes did fit looser and realized I might not have lost pounds, but had definitely lost inches. Among other areas, my butt was a noticeable difference.

As for toning up other areas, you'd think your arms wouldn't get much of a workout on a bike, but I did find that when I was in more serious training mode last summer, my arms were looking much more toned. Standing on the bike makes you use your arm muscles, for one. My husband rides a ton, races and climbs way more than any human should. His arms have continually developed more muscles and gotten stronger and leaner. He is pretty muscular all over just from riding. His gut is his only trouble spot, yet they say a stronger core makes you a better rider. But that means doing exercises off the bike, and that just doesn't happen for me!

[Jiffer]

By the way, I know a lot of female cyclists, and none of them have huge quads! Their bodies are proportionate. I think it depends some on your body type. Some people might bulk up more in some areas more than others, but even so, I still can't recall seeing a female cyclist with huge quads.

[Eden]

I know some female cyclists with big quads.... interestingly all of them came to cycling from skating sports - 2 did inline competitively and one did roller derby

[bluebug32]

I know some female cyclists with big quads.... interestingly all of them came to cycling from skating sports - 2 did inline competitively and one did roller derby

I bet they have trouble finding comfortable cycling shorts! I have muscular quads and many shorts are reeeally snug in the legs.

[Eden]

I bet they have trouble finding comfortable cycling shorts! I have muscular quads and many shorts are reeeally snug in the legs.

None of them are particularly petite overall.... I'd bet that they probably just order men's sizes