I'll avoid the lycra... for now...

Buceph

I'm just a week and a half after getting surgery. The doctors and nurses were all very nice people, looked after me great. One of the doctors did give me a "serious talk" about my fitness/weight. Suffice to say, I'm a big dude. I've already addressed what I'm eating and a dietician says I'm doing ok. I've lost 10kg in three weeks, yet I look the exact same (to give a measure of how big I am.) But despite the eating being taken care of, I still need to get some exercise. The doctors said give it eight weeks before I do anything, so I've spent the past few days considering what I would do. About eight years ago, when I was doing the leaving cert, I'd go to the gym, and I could put in ages on the exercise bike, with the resistance near the top and keeping the RPM at 120. I also cycled to work every day, with three small but steep hills. I figure I'll get back into the cycling once the doctors give my wound the all clear.

So... What is recommended for someone to lose weight/increase aerobic fitness with cycling? Starting off small is the obvious thing, but I need to build a training regime and work to it. I've looked at a few books on cycling regimes, but they're all aimed at people who are relatively fit anyway and want to get ready for racing. I'm only going to be going with my extremely cheapo bike I bought eight years ago for getting to and from work (I'll get it looked over at the bike shop.) I'd just like some advice on what kind of cycling to do. How fast do I go, how far do I go, how many hills do I take (at least one seeing as I live on top of one, even if I have to walk it), how many sprints do I do, do I go full pelt, do I take it easy, how long do I take it easy for, etc? Are there any websites or books aimed at people doing this kind of thing?

HivemindXX

Pick a sportive to do next year. There are plenty which are directed more at the casual rider. Most people won't start training until Spring next year and if you start now you should be in condition to follow their training plans come March.

If you wanted to splash out on a heart rate monitor this would allow you to ensure you keep within your own ideal range. The speed you should do with vary with hills, wind and your fitness level but your heart rate should indicate the amount of effort you are putting out regardless of those conditions.

Recording your cycles on a web site like www.ridewithgps.com will allow you to see how much you are improving and it will also discourage you from skipping a week since your shame will be recorded forever in the stats.

Lumen

Just cycle for enjoyment. If you're going to focus on anything numerical, focus on time or distance per week on the bike.

Your biggest threats to success are either getting injured or getting fed up, so rest well and have fun.

As far as diet is concerned, there are loads of previous threads on weight loss and cycling. My favourite extract is this (hope mloc123 doesn't mind)...

mloc123 wrote: »

I have lost 7 stone over the past 16months or so. My advice is keep it simple, more calories out than in. Work out your daily requirements, the 2500 figure giving for an average man is too high imo. Cycle, run... do something you enjoy.

Each day work out how many calories you have eaten and how many extra you have burned through excercise and aim to come in 500 under. Give it time, you'll have good weeks/months and bad weeks/months but if you stick at it..

mloc123 wrote: »

To back up my keep it simple approach, here is a before and now. Now taken a few mins ago as I'm getting ready to head out... still a bit to go, if only the last stone was as easy as the first to lose

stevie_b

move more, eat less


.

mfdc

Just go out and ride your bike You don't need to do any kind of specific training, just get miles in the legs and enjoy yourself. Start off a couple of times a week with whatever you can do, and then up your mileage by a little every week (no more than 10%). As said, pick out a sportive next year to aim for and work up to that.

Before you know it you'll be knocking out 100km+ rides each weekend and stressing over what pair of aero wheels would look best on your bike.

Buceph

mfdc wrote: »

Before you know it you'll be knocking out 100km+ rides each weekend and stressing over what pair of aero wheels would look best on your bike.

Jaysus I hope so. Especially as I'm a gear nerd. I picked up a cycle computer in Lidl the other day and am having dreams of excel spreadsheets and maps. I love building PCs and am into photography, so cycling looks well able to handle itself with the amount of bits involved. I think the only way I could make it worse is if I went towards scuba diving (gear-nerd heaven is that hobby.)

(Hopefully this enthusiasm lasts the eight weeks before I can hop on a bike.)

petethedrummer

Cycling is easy to incorportate into your lifestyle. Start commuting to work and to the shop. Also get a cycling buddy if possible.

http://theamazing39stonecyclist.wordpress.com/

mfdc

Buceph wrote: »

Jaysus I hope so. Especially as I'm a gear nerd. I picked up a cycle computer in Lidl the other day and am having dreams of excel spreadsheets and maps.

You're in the right sport so Keeping a spreadsheet is a good way to track progress, or if you get yourself a GPS and there's graphs and charts galore to be had with stuff like SportTracks, it's data nerd heaven. Also for the gear obsession, I'll direct you to this thread.

langdang

Fair play lad, hang on in there and keep at it. If you already have a smartphone with GPS, download imapmyride or mytracks - you can keep track of your times, routes and distances very easily. A basic heart rate monitor would be a worthwhile investment just so you know if you should ease off for a while (I have a basic Sigma one for about €50, a basic model Polar would also do)*

I'd just pick a loop, (be a bit conservative the first time out!) and do that a few evenings, then look to add more to it or do more laps of the same. Just normal cycling awhile. You'll really feel the weight on the hills, just be prepared for that. If you just slowly work more hills into your routes I don't think you'll have to anything more technical than get out and ride. Best of luck!


*for all out gear nerdiness, the Garmin Edge is hard to beat HRM,GPS,Speed,cadence all in one!

Icyseanfitz

Buceph wrote: »

Jaysus I hope so. Especially as I'm a gear nerd. I picked up a cycle computer in Lidl the other day and am having dreams of excel spreadsheets and maps. I love building PCs and am into photography, so cycling looks well able to handle itself with the amount of bits involved. I think the only way I could make it worse is if I went towards scuba diving (gear-nerd heaven is that hobby.)

(Hopefully this enthusiasm lasts the eight weeks before I can hop on a bike.)

id be into the old pc tinkering myself and i have to say that if you get into cycling its even more nerdy with all the different things you can buy and upgrade

mloc123

Didn't expect to see myself in here when I clicked on the thread

ednwireland

Buceph wrote: »

Jaysus I hope so. Especially as I'm a gear nerd. I picked up a cycle computer in Lidl the other day and am having dreams of excel spreadsheets and maps. I love building PCs and am into photography, so cycling looks well able to handle itself with the amount of bits involved. I think the only way I could make it worse is if I went towards scuba diving (gear-nerd heaven is that hobby.)

(Hopefully this enthusiasm lasts the eight weeks before I can hop on a bike.)

keep going, i started doing 10 k spins( all i could manage about 3 years ago done the tour of sligo twice since (7 hours)
i'm still a lard arse and going to so get my butt kicked in the TT tonight

as for computers

Garmin edge 500

heres my desktop
http://connect.garmin.com/dashboard;jsessionid=C1D76D8D477A6BCEA4EFD79E1F60D922?cid=6496287

ciotog

Lumen wrote: »

Just cycle for enjoyment. If you're going to focus on anything numerical, focus on time or distance per week on the bike.

Your biggest threats to success are either getting injured or getting fed up, so rest well and have fun.

As far as diet is concerned, there are loads of previous threads on weight loss and cycling. My favourite extract is this (hope mloc123 doesn't mind)...

I'm with Lumen on this; enjoy cycling above all. I'm guessing the fact that you will be getting exercise is going to be a big thing in itself, so pushing too hard will lead to the problems mentioned above. I'm in the relaxed/utility cycling camp and started it (~3 years ago) mainly for mental health benefits as well as hoping to lose some weight. I've lost some weight but haven't really fixed my diet. On the other hand I absolutely love to cycle, sleep and feel better and can run around at hockey for an hour without being completely wrecked. I do track the distances I cycle as I also like numbers. However, it's from a looking at where I've come from (so to speak) perspective.

bcmf

Tons of good advice on here as usual.
As per Lumens first line: enjoy it. This is critical.
The first few kgs will fall off you. This is the easy part. Its when you start to get into the stubborn fat that it be harder to shift. This is where resolve and willpower comes in.
Set yourself a goal. A sportive. Put up a seperate thread asking about sportives and what you would hope to achieve.
Get a good heart rate moniter and use it ( there is one in Lidl tomorrow.If you wanna get started). One that gives you a calorie burn readout. This will give you a good idea about what you are burning then you can adjust what you eat to that.
Never ever feel put off or put down because at least you are doing something about it.
Why dont you set up a training log on here. You will get loads of feedback and tons of encouragement.

langdang

bcmf wrote: »

Get a good heart rate moniter and use it ( there is one in Lidl tomorrow.If you wanna get started). One that gives you a calorie burn readout. This will give you a good idea about what you are burning then you can adjust what you eat to that.

Not knocking ya for trying to help a fella out but my own take on this is - I've not had great experiences with the Lidl/Aldi HRMs, the bottom of the range Sigma/Polar would be worth it for a few euro more. Even on these, the calorie info is taken with a bag of salt. Possibly the Garmin Edge might give more accurate calorie info, maybe...

Hail 2 Da Thief

How much weight did you lose in total mloc123? Just curious.

cython

langdang wrote: »

Not knocking ya for trying to help a fella out but my own take on this is - I've not had great experiences with the Lidl/Aldi HRMs, the bottom of the range Sigma/Polar would be worth it for a few euro more. Even on these, the calorie info is taken with a bag of salt. Possibly the Garmin Edge might give more accurate calorie info, maybe...

A new one, perhaps, but the older model Garmins have been shown to overestimate the calories consumed by significantly more than the Polars of the time. I think someone on here might have suggested that Garmin might even have bought/licensed Polar's algorithm for calculating calories consumed for their more recent models, due to their own older one being so far out?

smacl

langdang wrote: »

I've not had great experiences with the Lidl/Aldi HRMs, the bottom of the range Sigma/Polar would be worth it for a few euro more. Even on these, the calorie info is taken with a bag of salt. Possibly the Garmin Edge might give more accurate calorie info, maybe...

Don't think the HRM hardware makes a whole lot of difference, it either gets your heart rate right or wrong, and most new ones are mostly right. I've an older Timex one that throws up a few spikes, but not enough to make much of a difference on calorie counting. Calories consumed are at best a guesstimate based on setting up your weight, age, average heart rate, resting heart rate and max heart rate correctly. As you say, to be taken with a pinch of salt...

bcmf

langdang wrote: »

Not knocking ya for trying to help a fella out but my own take on this is - I've not had great experiences with the Lidl/Aldi HRMs, the bottom of the range Sigma/Polar would be worth it for a few euro more. Even on these, the calorie info is taken with a bag of salt. Possibly the Garmin Edge might give more accurate calorie info, maybe...

I would argue to the contrary (without trying to get into an argument) Any time I used my aldi one ( before I lost the manual and couldnt reset it after a battery change) gave almost identical readings when I compared it with a colleagues Garmin.

doc1976

stevie_b wrote: »

move more, eat less


.

Very helpful. Why even bother comment, smartass.

Bunnyhopper

Lumen wrote: »

…(hope mloc123 doesn't mind)…

Chapeau mloc123

I hadn't seen that picture before so thanks for posting it, Lumen.

mloc123

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

How much weight did you lose in total mloc123? Just curious.

At my heaviest I would have topped out near 18.5 stone, my lightest was a smidge over 11 stone at the start of last years season.

Little heavier at the moment after a pretty poor winter of training, should hit 11 or hopefully a little under again for next season.

dazed+confused

stevie_b wrote: »

move more, eat less

doc1976 wrote: »

Very helpful. Why even bother comment, smartass.

Move more eat less is about the best advice anyone can give. How many €3000 carbon bikes (complete with the full Sky or Garmin getup) are getting dusty in sheds while the beer belly is growing in front of the TV?

Too many people spend too long researching their routines and too much money on the kit. To the point where they get so fed up with it all that they just chuck it in the shed out of sight.

stevie_b

doc1976 wrote: »

Very helpful. Why even bother comment, smartass.

Calm yourself princess. The o.p. was asking about weight loss - what i posted is the basic principal of weight loss, which a lot of people overcomplicate.

gombeen99

1. Get a decent pair of bike shorts, wear them under other shorts or a tracksuit if u don't feel comfortable wearing them in public.
2. Get a helmet.
3. Take it very easy the first few weeks or you'll get disillusioned.
4. Enter a sportive so you have a fixed & real goal - it'll help motivate you to get out cycling when you'd prefer to stay in bed.
5. Don't treat it solely as exercise, consider your cycles as chillout time & enjoy them!

Fair play to you & best of luck.

HivemindXX

dazed+confused wrote: »

Move more eat less is about the best advice anyone can give.

No. It's crap advice, easy to dispense and typically designed as a put down given by smug gits.

The original poster asked for specific advice about the "move more" part of the equation.

doc1976

HivemindXX wrote: »

No. It's crap advice, easy to dispense and typically designed as a put down given by smug gits.

The original poster asked for specific advice about the "move more" part of the equation.

Correct.. To many people on this seem to enjoy the smugness and obviously live in their own very perfect world. Any idiot could have said that.

FISMA

Buceph wrote: »

So... What is recommended for someone to lose weight/increase aerobic fitness with cycling? ...

Buceph,
What is needed is the same as always; exercise and a balanced diet.

Whatever you do, you must do it for ten days.

Ten days is a critical time here. If you can eat right and exercise every day for ten days, your brain tends to get over the bad old habits and start with good new ones.

After ten days you'll hopefully get addicted to those good chemicals being released due to exercise. Then, you'll feel bad those days you are not on the bike, getting your "fix."

Slan

dazed+confused

doc1976 wrote: »

Correct.. To many people on this seem to enjoy the smugness and obviously live in their own very perfect world. Any idiot could have said that.

Nothing perfect about my world buddy. Everyday is a constant battle to eat less and move more!

blorg

smacl wrote: »

Don't think the HRM hardware makes a whole lot of difference, it either gets your heart rate right or wrong, and most new ones are mostly right. I've an older Timex one that throws up a few spikes, but not enough to make much of a difference on calorie counting. Calories consumed are at best a guesstimate based on setting up your weight, age, average heart rate, resting heart rate and max heart rate correctly. As you say, to be taken with a pinch of salt...

The Garmins before the 500/800 don't take HR into account at all in their calorie calculations. This is for patent reasons as suggested.