Miles should I bike to lose weight?

lindssaurus

I want to mix it up this year and run AND mostly bike, my weight 182lb and wanted to bike about 10-15 miles on a flat asphalt a week and run 2-3miles. Not sure if that's too much or too little.

juggernaut1974

Do it if you have the time, enjoy it and it's not causing other side effects. It will burn some calories...you'll have to come up with a method of determining how many or at least coming up with a reasonable estimate.

As for weight loss, it comes down to what you eat vs. what you burn. You could bike 100 miles a day, but if you eat more calories than you burn, you won't lose weight.

Mr_Knight

lindssaurus wrote: »

I want to mix it up this year and run AND mostly bike, my weight 182lb and wanted to bike about 10-15 miles on a flat asphalt a week and run 2-3miles. Not sure if that's too much or too little.

Too much or too little for what, exactly?

Impossible to answer without knowing how much you're planning on eating.

Machka9

lindssaurus wrote: »

I want to mix it up this year and run AND mostly bike, my weight 182lb and wanted to bike about 10-15 miles on a flat asphalt a week and run 2-3miles. Not sure if that's too much or too little.

That's a good start ... for your first week.

I'd suggest adding 10% to whatever you do on your second week. So if you do 15 miles the first week, add 10% (1.5 miles) and do 16.5 miles your second week.

Then add 10% your third week ... up to 18-ish miles.

Then add 10% your fourth week ... up to 20-ish miles.

As you increase your distance, you might look into cycling events in your area. If you're in North America, there are often local century rides (100 miles in a day) run later in the summer or early autumn. You might be able to build up to something like that.

But do watch your calories, and know that MFP overestimates the calories burned while cycling. I go with about 400 calories per hour, and find that's about right.


Oh and aim to eat about half what you're burning.

lindssaurus

Thanks.