Biking to lose weight?but not!

TavistockToad

ladydeathstar66 wrote: »

I get you're saying eat less. If I eat three very small meals a day without exceeding 2,000 which seems like not much to me. I'm STARVING by the evening and I've already met my calorie count for the day. I couldn't imagine eating less than that lol

For the third time... are you weighing everything you eat?

Less than 2000 cals could be 3 meals of 600 cals... That's not really small?

Or a small breakfast and lunch of 300 - 400 cals each and 1000 for tea...

snowflake954

ladydeathstar66 wrote: »

I get you're saying eat less. If I eat three very small meals a day without exceeding 2,000 which seems like not much to me. I'm STARVING by the evening and I've already met my calorie count for the day. I couldn't imagine eating less than that lol

You have to eat the right things to feel full and not starving--everyone is different there, so you have to experiment. It's important to have a digital food scale and use it to weigh everything you eat. The trick is to eat as much as possible and still lose weight. If you aren't losing, you're maintaining, so you have to cut something.

livingleanlivingclean

ladydeathstar66 wrote: »

I get you're saying eat less. If I eat three very small meals a day without exceeding 2,000 which seems like not much to me. I'm STARVING by the evening and I've already met my calorie count for the day. I couldn't imagine eating less than that lol

If 2000 cals is 3 very small meals, you're doing something seriously wrong. Make smart choices and you can eat mountains of food with 2000 cals.

cwolfman13

ladydeathstar66 wrote: »

I have no idea what this calorie deficit stuff is all about.

So, you burn calories 24/7...you burn a lot of calories just existing...you burn more calories going about your day to day...you burn even more calories with additional activities such as exercise.

For myself, I cycle quite a bit and do some lifting and through the course of a day, I burn around 2800-3000 calories. If I eat 2800-3000 calories per day, I'm going to maintain my weight regardless of the fact that I cycle quite a bit. If I eat 2300-2500 calories (less than I'm burning) I will lose about 1 Lb per week.

Note that even with a relatively small deficit, performance will suffer to some extent...the bigger the deficit, the more you're going to see performance issues...but some loss of performance just comes with the territory.

capitan66

My question is this what is your fat to lean body mass ratio? Too many people are fixated with total body weight......you may be just great the way you are. So it is not about total body weight it is about lean body mass....more muscle less fat......if you are fixated with weight loss eat less and don't exercise you will loose muscle body weight and fat....What do you want to weigh and why? Answer some of these questions? And you can come up with a conclusion. Personally my body weight is 215...Weight watchers tell me I should weigh 174 lbs. Cycling is a great exercise...however if you are not working at intensity you will burn less energy and not loose weight...that is if you need to...I think not....

NorthCascades

ninerbuff wrote: »

Exercise is for fitness and health.

That's honestly a limited way of looking at it. For the OP, exercise is for getting to and from work. And exercise is probably for saving boatloads of money on a car payment and insurance.

On top of all that, it sounds as if she's maintaining her weight - without the exercise she'd be gaining.

HonduranHaze

I'd be interested in seeing what kind of food you are eating. Enough healthy fats and healthy carbs? Cutting out sugar?

I am eating about 1200-1500 calories a day. I feel like I am always eating just to get in that many calories. Protein, veggies, healthy fats like avocado, and small amounts of fruit have helped me lose about 9 pounds this month.

Also, I am very erratic with exercise. Some weeks, I can ride 80 miles on the bike and the next week I don't ride. LOL

I hope you find what works for you!

Cocoa1020

before i started MFP, i would work out for an hour to two hours a day 3-4 times a week. I had a very active summer once where i would go to the gym, do cardio for an hour, strength train, go bike to the park, play sports with my friends, bike again (my main form of transportation at the time). The scale never moved.
You really need to be more mindful of what you eat and how much you eat. buy a kitchen scale. start measuring. its annoying at first but it gets better since you build up a little list.

You really can't outrun (out bike) a bad diet :P

TimothyFish

Cycling is a great way to lose weight while eating normal sized meals. But you do have to make sure that your meals are actually "normal sized." I maintain my weight on about 3,000 calories per day because of how much I ride my bicycle. If I were trying to lose weight, I could be eating the 2,000 calories per day that the average person needs and I'd be losing two pounds per week.

However, what usually happens when people ride a bicycle is that they feel hungrier after their ride so they eat more. If you don't feel hungry for part of the day, you aren't losing weight.

JetJaguar

Add me as a friend if you want an example to follow. I'm a cyclist returning to the sport after a couple of years. During my break I gained 35 lbs, and now I'm riding while losing weight. Your body can't serve two masters, you need to focus on one primary goal. So while I've been improving (really just regaining some of the base fitness I had before), my first goal is to get back to my riding weight. Once I'm there, only then will I resume training for performance.