Weight Loss

Agree with Cassiel, might be an idea to try to design a 10 mile loop to work (indeed or more, as I know if you don't _have_ to do it every day, you won't.) Personally I get a lot of cycling in with extended loops to and from work, as well as lunchtimes.

Regarding motivation, it is easier if you are doing it regularly I find.

Also look at the diet, it is generally easier to lose weight through diet than exercise (excercise is of course important too, for other reasons.)

Good advice above - make the cycle to work a 10miler. View it as functional training as you'll be killing two birds with one stone - commuting and training.

Secondly, your diet is obviously out of balance. You are putting on weight because you are consuming too many calories, not because you are not cycling to work. The cycle was probably offsetting the excess you were consuming plus a bit extra, which = weight loss. The fundamental issue re: your weight will be your diet.

Have a look at what you eat on a daily basis - keep a little diary for a few days and it will probably become obvious where you can make improvements.

My advice would be this:

1) Weight loss is 20% exercise 80% diet, so concentrate on the diet first.

* GI Diet is a very good start
* Eat frequently - 6 times daily, good breakfast, mid morning, lunch, afternoon and dinner
* Dont eat after 8pm
* 50% of plate fruit & veg, 25% protein, 25% good carbs
* Dont eat white bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbs
* Avoid calorie containing soft drinks and additional sugar in tea & coffee
* Dont drink excessive amounts of alcohol

2) Keep the exercise simple, I suggest daily walking of 45minutes at a moderate intensity. This is best done first thing in the morning. But dont worry if you dont fit it in first thing, just be sure to do it at some stage during the day.

Cycling is great but as you say getting preped for a spin takes time so do it when you have time and keep other days simple so you stick to it.

The most efficient way of losing weight is to watch your heart rate as you go. I don't have the figures to hand, but keeping your heart rate inside of a certain range will maximise weightloss. Once you go above that range, your body focusses more on muscle building and you'll see very little weight loss for the effort you're putting in.

So when cycling, focus more on rhythmic spinning and moving at a relaxed but decent pace, rather than hammering as fast as you can go and sprinting up hills. I know it feels great to hit the top of a climb, thighs burning and your heart pounding in your ears, but unfortunately it's not the best weight loss method.

seamus's advice is generally right, although it's not so much that you won't burn more calories if you train harder, as you will. You'll even burn more fat. But it will be a lot more difficult and you won't be able to do as much of it. There is an optimum range where the percentage of calories burnt coming from fat is highest and where you will see the best results for the effort being put in. (Generally around 60-80% maximum heart rate.)

The point about muscle building offsetting weight loss is of course also perfectly valid but I don't think that is so much of a problem (just be aware of it- if your waist is shrinking while your weight is staying static you are doing OK.)

There are heart rate training zones that can be indicative of what type of training you are doing (e.g. aerobic - long duration rhythmical exercise or anaerobic - short duration all out efforts). They can also be indicative of what type of fuel you r body is using (e.g. fat or carbohydrate).

These heart rate zones are based on percentages of your maximal heart rate. There are two ways of calculating this:

1) Exercise at rapidly increasingly difficult intensities until you reach your max. This should only be performed in a lab under expert supervision.

2) Age related heart rate max. This is simply 220 - your age. If you are 30, your age related HR max would be 190. This is best method for the vast majority of the population, provided they are fit and healthy and free of any cardiovascular disease.

So, once you have your HRmax - we'll use 190 as an example - you simply work out a give % of this. So working at 60% HRmax would equate to a heart rate on the bike of 114BPM. For general aerobic fitness and weight loss I would recommend working in the 60 - 75% zone. For our theoretical 30 year old, this would be 114 - 143BPM.

There is no problem if you go above this during a session - it is just a guideline. Try to keep the HR above 60% during the session and you will see improvement.
Basically, the best advice is just to get out there and cycle & have fun. The weight loss will happen provided you exercise and eat sensibly.

Note - cycling may not elicit a true max HR in experienced cyclists, so don't worry about not hitting the 220-age. You may even exceed it