Gaining weight from Cycling - Depressing!

Ky Abu

Hey all

Just a question on the fitness side of cycling. I weighed 16st 4 when I got back cycling 2 months ago. Im heavier now! Took up cycling July last year to improve my fitness levels, loving it since.

Have been cycling every Sunday for the last 2 months. doing on average 35miles each time, playing soccer for min of an hour Thursday nights and usually get a cycle 15-20 miles in one other evening. My diet would be quite good. Dont eat junk, fast food, maybe an ice cream as a treat once a week.

I have improved greatly at the cycling in the 2 months, average speed is well up from the first day out.

I have read in a few places that people convert Fat into Muscle. Does the Weight eventually drop?

A few people have said iv toned up, but the scales gives the wrong answer! haha

Thanks for the help everyone who replies..

TinyExplosions

I found for the first while my weigh stayed pretty much the same, though my waist dropped a few inches, as muscle is put on instead of fat. Keep at it, and you may well find the weight goes down too

bcmf

as far as I am aware muscle is heavier then fat. You may be losing fat but gaining muscle. Playing footie and cycling means you are working a wide range of muscle groups.

morana

I bet your are like me...eat like a bastard when you come in.....

My weight is not an an issue I am just too big.. I have a 2 week block of heavy training comeing up and I will be hoping to come down a few kilos in that time.

The best advice I can offer is prepare your post race meal before you hit the road. Hopefully you wont be hungry before the spin so you will be sebnsible preparing your post ride meal!!!

mloc123

You are not gaining weight from cycling, you are gaining weight from eatiing too much... maybe due to cycling.

Canis Lupus

bcmf wrote: »

as far as I am aware muscle is heavier then fat. You may be losing fat but gaining muscle. Playing footie and cycling means you are working a wide range of muscle groups.

It's not. A tonne of feathers weighs the same as a tonne of granite :P Muscle is denser though.

Cycling however won't particularly bulk you out and all you're doing is working your legs primarily. Whilst you don't say how much you've put on if you're GAINING weight (and it's significant)then you'll need to look again at your diet. (although also depends when you weigh yourself, if you've just drank a load of water and had a meal earlier on it'll affect your results compared to weighing yourself when empty and dehydrated off a cycle for example)

Maybe you're not really eating a good diet. I remember one person in the fitness forum thinking chicken fillet rolls from a Centra counter was healthy because it was chicken and a roll...

Maybe you are eating alright food but perhaps you're eating too much? Portion size matters loads. How's your snacking as well?

Finally how are your clothes fitting, when my trousers start getting snug I know I'm eating too much and not exercising enough, when they get loose I start buying in the Ben and Jerrys :P

EDIT: as people have already said when I'm training hard my appetite goes way up and you can easily eat more than you burn. I've often been at my fittest cardio wise when doing a tri and also been quite chunky cos I've been eating all round me.

Slydice

my best guess is that you're eating too much

delta_bravo

Personally I find cycling is not great for losing weight. I weigh more than you but I find that I lose much more weight jogging. I did 2 20 mile cycles last week, I don't cycle much anymore but my body felt alright after it bar my legs and I wasn't too tired after them. But if I run a 10k I will really feel it.

You say that you have increased your speed in cycling. Maybe your body is finding this cycle quite easy now so you wont burn as many calories. I would suggest you try a bit of jogging during the week, even a 5k every few days and you should see results

kennyb3

What was your waist when you started and what is it now?

Thats the way to check if its fat going to muscles, otherwise your deluding yourself.

murph226

OP, why not try getting out more on the bike, fine long evenings there now!
Also, I wouldn't get so hung up on weight, especially if people have mentioned that you've toned up!

My Missus just told me I'm after losing a load of weight and that my arms are now like hers:o

My diet is crap and I'm 85kg, suppose I'm just not doing enough upper body exercise since I took up cycling, my thighs are coming on nicely though!

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Simple sums will tell you. If your calorie intake during the week is much higher than calories burnt then you are facing a loosing battle. I do buy that muscle is heavier but if you are already overweight and the sums do not add up then you are kidding yourself.
You say the diet is decent how much on average are you taking in a week. Sorry to sound harsh but i was told this when i was overweight and i when i totalled up my weekly intake it was scary.

Ryder

delta_bravo wrote: »

Personally I find cycling is not great for losing weight. I weigh more than you but I find that I lose much more weight jogging. I did 2 20 mile cycles last week, I don't cycle much anymore but my body felt alright after it bar my legs and I wasn't too tired after them. But if I run a 10k I will really feel it.

You say that you have increased your speed in cycling. Maybe your body is finding this cycle quite easy now so you wont burn as many calories. I would suggest you try a bit of jogging during the week, even a 5k every few days and you should see results

Did an hour and twenty mins cycling yesterday incl 3 by 10min inervals and Im shattered. Did a 10k run earlier in the week but while my legs felt it, the cycling was more intensive. Its easy to sit on a bike and coast, but you get out of it what you put in.

To the OP, look at clothes fit etc. This is prob a beeter indicator than weight alone. Water retention, muscle etc will inflence weight. If you feel you need to lose fat try monitoring waist circumference

Dubba

Fat doesn't turn to muscle but you can lose body fat while building muscle so you might not see weight loss straight away.

If you gradually upped your weekend spins to 3+ hours you'd be burning a lot more calories than keeping it to 35mile cycles once a weekend.

Also commuting is a good way to up the weekly millage and burn the calories.

blorg

As others have said watching your diet is essential for weight loss. It is just too easy to overcompensate by eating too much because you feel hungry/justified from the exercise.

Lumen

You can't expect major weight loss from only 80km a week.

That's probably less than 2000 calories extra, which is about 10-15% of what you'd consume normally.

Ride more, eat less.

Ky Abu

Thanks for all the replies.

My weight 2 months ago is basically the same as now as I look at the figures. 16st 4/5

I would love to do much more cycling during the week but im in a very demanding job and cant make the time for more. Going to cut down on the food this week and see what happens.

Thanks again for the replies

jimbobaloobob

OP make one change at a time

This week don't cut down on eating. Sign up to a calorie counter like myfitnesspal.com eat and exercise as you normally would and note the calorie intake you have daily for a week along with all exercise you do.

Then based on this make some changes to diet if they become apparent from it next week.

Often weight loss is t noticed on a scales until an 8-12 week duration. Also the scales alone isn't a good measure of change. Look at waist line, speed etc ( asyou said yourself your faster and more comfortable) focus on the positives and leave the scales aside for a while.

Keep us posted