Cycling

GuessWhoEh

Hi all.
Was wondering if anyone can give me pros and cons of cycling for losing weight.
I'm buying a bike next week and I've set myself task to go cycling at least 3 times a week. I plan on downloading apps and decent music.
Any advice would be helpful.
I would love to hear some stories. I'm not a gym lover. I prefer to be out-doors, walking and I think cycling with just be something fun to do. A nice little hobby after work.

TommyKnocker

Cycling can help burn calories, but whether or not you lose weight will be mostly down to your diet.

GuessWhoEh

TommyKnocker wrote: »

Cycling can help burn calories, but whether or not you lose weight will be mostly down to your diet.

I'll be taking that into consideration as well. Started to make weekly food plans so the next step is to have a new hobby and cycling has been on my mind for ages

uck51js9zml2yt

The cycling forum would became good place to go.
Make sure you go to a bike shop that can do a fitting for you.

Slydice

I found cycling to be fun to get into for burning calories.

It doesn't burn as much as running does for the distance/time I put in.

Cycling does have the advantage of not banging your feet/legs off the ground as much so I feel like it has a less chance of injury. To my understanding, swimming has the least chance of injury but I don't know how it compares for calorie burning.

Another thing I'd have preferred to know at the start is that the main thing for burning the calories was the distance/time put in. Not the "I'm really strong, look at me wear myself out really quick" thing I tried at the start.

Macy0161

Cycling is low impact, but I found it didn't really give me bang for my time buck for fitness/ calorie burn, and I incorporated running. Now I do a mix of the two, but there's no doubt that running is harder on the body.

I did find cycling easier to incorporate into my day by parking up the car, and cycle commuting the last (at the time 10km) bit into work. It was actually a time saving over the winter (when it was harder to get out/ be motivated to get out after work).

I did switch more to running, but have come back to the bike for a couple of sessions a week, as I am moving towards maintenance, as I just enjoy it more.

I have started swimming (pretensions of attempting triathlon!) - it may be low impact, but I'd question the calorie burn, unless you're a strong/ technically correct swimmer. In my experience so far, most of my out of breathness(?) is to do with my technique rather than me being physically pushed! I would've had myself, and others to be fair, as an alright swimmer before I started.

The Davestator

GuessWhoEh wrote: »

Hi all.
Was wondering if anyone can give me pros and cons of cycling for losing weight.
I'm buying a bike next week and I've set myself task to go cycling at least 3 times a week. I plan on downloading apps and decent music.
Any advice would be helpful.
I would love to hear some stories. I'm not a gym lover. I prefer to be out-doors, walking and I think cycling with just be something fun to do. A nice little hobby after work.

Podcasts are great for cycling too.
Also - DO NOT BUY A MOUNTAIN BIKE!
Almost every beginner buys a mountain or hybrid bike and you just cant get into cycling or cycle any distance on them.

terrydel

GuessWhoEh wrote: »

I'll be taking that into consideration as well. Started to make weekly food plans so the next step is to have a new hobby and cycling has been on my mind for ages

If you are doing long spins, whether or not you change your diet you will drop weight.

micar

And don't buy a hybrid.

You really shouldn't be listening to music/podcasts . You need to always aware of what's around you. You can't really afford to be distracted.

RebelButtMunch

terrydel wrote: »

If you are doing long spins, whether or not you change your diet you will drop weight.

Not if you're eating more than you're burning.

terrydel

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

Not if you're eating more than you're burning.

You'll still be burning a hell of a lot more calories doing long spins than you previously were, even if your diet doesnt change one iota.

j@utis

Slydice wrote: »

<...>
It doesn't burn as much as running does for the distance/time I put in.

Cycling does have the advantage of not banging your feet/legs off the ground as much so I feel like it has a less chance of injury. To my understanding, swimming has the least chance of injury but I don't know how it compares for calorie burning.
<...>

if you push hard on the bike, you'll burn a good bit of calories too. I hate running myself. I find it psychologically hard - I keep looking at the watch every two minutes, and stop usually around 20mins but I can cycle for an hour+ and love every minute of it. I burn about 10kcal/minute on the bike (small female).

re swimming: only if you're a good swimmer i.e. you swim with our face down under water and your back is straight. A lot of people are swimming with their heads up and thinking their doing a good job for the backs when the opposite is true.

The Davestator wrote: »

Podcasts are great for cycling too.
Also - DO NOT BUY A MOUNTAIN BIKE!
Almost every beginner buys a mountain or hybrid bike and you just cant get into cycling or cycle any distance on them.

yeah! I agree 100% I know two members of my family who gave up cycling just couple of weeks after getting their hybrids. go for road bike, they're lovely.

davmol

If you go along flat roads then its not going to tax you that much.Add in some sprints on the bike.Find a spot ahead and race towards it as fast as you can.Or find a nice hill or mountain and go up hill for extended periods,all this will increase calories burned.

dastardly00

terrydel wrote: »

If you are doing long spins, whether or not you change your diet you will drop weight.

Eh....first of all you should probably define a "long" spin.

PartyBanners

davmol wrote: »

If you go along flat roads then its not going to tax you that much.Add in some sprints on the bike.Find a spot ahead and race towards it as fast as you can.Or find a nice hill or mountain and go up hill for extended periods,all this will increase calories burned.

So for overall fitness are you better off doing long runs or short sprints??

Zillah

PartyBanners wrote: »

So for overall fitness are you better off doing long runs or short sprints??

Mix and match. The important thing is that you feel challenged. If you're making your way without feeling like it's very difficult then you've hit that groove of high efficiency, which would be great if you were trying to get from A to B as efficiently as possible, but not so good if you're trying to improve fitness.

mollser

The Davestator wrote: »

Also - DO NOT BUY A MOUNTAIN BIKE!

:eek:

Start with spinning classes for 6 months, build up a decent base level of fitness and then get a good MTB and explore the never ending trails around Dublin/Wicklow/Ireland.

You will never be bored, will become addicted and your all round fitness will improve greatly as you need a bit of upper body strength going down hill, as well as the serious leg strength and fitness gained by continuous climbing of mountains!

Road bikes are great, but can be a bit monotonous for some...:P

Anyway, get out there on your bike, of whichever variety, and have some serious good fun exercising - you'll never look back

roosterman71

mollser wrote: »

get out there on your bike, of whichever variety, and have some serious good fun exercising - you'll never look back

^^^^
this

arybvtcw0eolkf

Dante Shrilling Bench wrote: »

T
Make sure you go to a bike shop that can do a fitting for you.

One of the best pieces of advice given in this thread.

If you get a bike which doesn't fit you're not going to enjoy it, and you're not going to ride it very much.

Find a shop which will do a bike fit for you, a simple fit should be free in a reputable shop or at at come at minimal cost and will be money well spent.

If you're not going to go on the mountain then don't buy a mountain bike, seriously mostly they're a waste of time and money (for commuting and training). If you're looking at mountain biking you're looking going to a specialized shop who can advise you on specific mountain bikes.

If you're commuting then a hybrid is the bike to look at.. Faster than a mountain bike, and more comfortable than a road ('racer') bike but a little slower.. Unlike a road (racer) you won't require special peddles and shoes (for the hybrid although you can get them).

I guess between a hybrid and a road bike which a lot of people over look is a cyclocross (CX) bike.. Sort of a cross between a hybrid and a road bike. It'll have drop bars (racer bar) a rugged frame and wheels, slightly fatter semi-knobbly tires than a hybrid & road bike. It'll also be more rugged than a road or hybrid bike.

One massive advantage the hybrid and CX will have over a road bike if you're going to cycle all year long is that they can both easily fit mud guards ~ essential in Irish winters (and most summers).

Your last choice is a road bike, faster and lighter than the hybrid or mountain bike ~ much faster, esp compared to a mountain bike. Harder to fit mud guards to (but not impossible), harder to carry luggage and less comfortable than all the bikes above but if you really are thinking of spending more than an hour in training and covering more than 40-50 km probably a better option all all the others.. Although if you look in the cycling forum you'll see people who have regularly cycled 100-200 sportives on hybrid bikes.

Regardless, whichever bike you decide upon try get a bike fit done.. It really, really is the best way to start.

NiallBoo

How important these are depends how overweight you are - these are more aimed at a heftier person. Generally the less overweight you are, the more good options you have.

Good:
-Easy to get the right level of intensity (running etc. can be just too much exertion)
-Easy on your joints.
-Convenient - starts at your door (or get a turbo-trainer and catch up on tv)
-Uses a lot of your bigger muscles - good for burning calories.
-Useful for getting places
-lots of clubs about

Bad:
-Sore àrse
-doesn't work your whole body
-Lycra
-possibly cost
- that moment when you accept that the horrible Lycra gear is a good idea

Also:
As mentioned above, eating is more important. Imo, you should generally tailor what you plan to your level of motivation - don't plan to do an amount/ intensity that'll have you hating it and break your will in a few weeks.

Macy0161

Kaylee Helpful Karaoke wrote: »

Unlike a road (racer) you won't require special peddles and shoes (for the hybrid although you can get them).

No reason you can't put flat pedals of a road bike! You can put on flats and just use trainers.

After that, my personal recommendation is a Road bike if you plan to use it on the road, and a mountain bike if you plan on hitting trails. Mountain biking does burn more than road biking, and is more time efficient in that respect unless you're doing specific intervals.

My recommendation is to think second hand first. I got a second hand mountain bike of biking.ie a few years ago as that's what I was into at the time - turns out I didn't have the bottle once I hit "natural" trails, and switched more to road cycling (that bike still does me for the "built" trails that I'm happy on though).

I did the bike to work on an "endurance" road bike, and tbh I kinda regret blowing the B2W on that now. Love the bike, and there's no doubt it's comfortable, but a year on I'd kinda like something racier!

If you plan on using it on the road, get a road bike. You can get "road" models that will take mudguards, and there's mudguards options for one's that won't!

arybvtcw0eolkf

Sh*t, the OP was buying a bike "next week" back in September 2015 lol.

*Note to shelf* ~ don't get caught like that again.

jive

Macy0161 wrote: »

No reason you can't put flat pedals of a road bike! You can put on flats and just use trainers.

After that, my personal recommendation is a Road bike if you plan to use it on the road, and a mountain bike if you plan on hitting trails. Mountain biking does burn more than road biking, and is more time efficient in that respect unless you're doing specific intervals.

My recommendation is to think second hand first. I got a second hand mountain bike of biking.ie a few years ago as that's what I was into at the time - turns out I didn't have the bottle once I hit "natural" trails, and switched more to road cycling (that bike still does me for the "built" trails that I'm happy on though).

I did the bike to work on an "endurance" road bike, and tbh I kinda regret blowing the B2W on that now. Love the bike, and there's no doubt it's comfortable, but a year on I'd kinda like something racier!

If you plan on using it on the road, get a road bike. You can get "road" models that will take mudguards, and there's mudguards options for one's that won't!

Yeah I've a road bike with normal pedals and mudguards. Purchased second hand for €350. Commuting for last 8 months, saves me in the region of €25 a week on public transport.

I'd also recommend a road bike over a hybrid. Hybrid is slightly more comfortable but inevitably when you start to enjoy it, which pretty much everyone does once they do it regularly, you'll want to go further and you'll want a road bike. A road bike will also hold it's value well so if you decide it's not for you it will be easy to sell and buy another bike which you might prefer...or just pack it in altogether :pac: