Feel the pain of overweight cyclists

I’ve dropped from 15st 5lb to
I’ve dropped from 15st 5lb to 13st 5lb. The fat loss is greater than that as I’ve obviously put muscle weight on.

To do it I’ve combined doing two hard shorter rides (Tues & Thurs) with a long tempo ride on a Sunday and eating sensibly without denying myself too much of the stuff I love.

One of the shorter rides (50km or so) I do in the hills. They are still hard but certainly quicker and I certainly feel the benefit on the longer rides.

Shorter climbs I’m happy to be out of the saddle but the longer & more challenging climbs I simply sit and spin. The rhythm of spinning suits me and leaves me plenty in the tank.

As a fellow cyclist who is
As a fellow cyclist who is also gravitationally challenged, the best way is to improve your power to weight ratio by getting fitter & losing weight.

On anything other than really short climbs, you are far far better to stick in a lower gear and spin up – Watch the climbers in the TDF, they spin when sitting. Will save muscle power & knees than out of the saddle climbing or mashing a big gear slowly. Climb lots as well

If you don’t already use Strava (can keep rides private) and you will see yourself improve over time, especially if you do the same segments frequently.

As the great Greg Lemond said, hills don’t get easier,you just get faster – it is true, and while you may suffer like you did 6 months ago, I bet you’ll be quicker.

Oh, and learn how to descend well, and laugh at the skinny kids on the way down!

Hi. I lost about 2 stone a
Hi. I lost about 2 stone a few years ago then took up cycling to help me loose more. The result was that I did not loose a single ounce over the next 2 years as I was just continually hungry. I recently adopted a Low Carb High Fat diet and have shed 10 kg in 2.5 months. I do fell hungry all the time and after a difficult first few weeks have now no need to eat carbs to fuel my cycling. In fact I now go out on the club runs without having anything to eat beforehand and just have a fry up or something when we stop. I would really recommend anyone to do the research and try it for themselves.

I haven’t read everything
I haven’t read everything written so far, so I’m sorry if I reiterate what someone’s said, but GCN did a video on losing weight by cycling not too long ago and I think it was fairly sensible.

A couple if subtler points from it (or somewhere else, I thi they’re good anyway) were to make sure eat on the bike, rather than solely off it; eat decent, mainly unprocessed food outside of big events; and throw in a bit of interval type stuff at the end of a longer ride.

On the first point, I find fuelling as I’m burning seems a much more natural way to regulate calories than trying to rely on theoritical numbers either side. Obviously, have a good carby (read: porridge or similar) meal before a big ride, and something proteinous (and some more carbs) at the end to facilitate recovery – but in terms of the calories you burn riding, try as have these as you’re riding rather than having your stomach telling you to ‘make up for it’ at the end.

Food-wise, most unprocessed foods have a harder time of cramming fat and sugar into tight space than their processed alternatives. They also are generally more nutritionally balanced as they haven’t had any one part of them (i.e. the sugary part) stripped away and eaten in isolation. Even from a pure cycling perspective, eating healthily has its performance benefits, and the less sick days you have, the more time you can spend riding, and the fitter – and leaner – you can get. I actually find this approach less restrictive, as I can eat what I want – so long as it isn’t junk – which means I don’t really feel I’m denying myself. Vegetables are also really interesting when you stop viewing them as the sad and wilted bits at the bottom of a ready meal.

The last point is a bit more tenuous than the first two, but I find throwing in a few bits of high intensity work at the end of a longer ride cause my body to kick into metabolic overdrive and believe it needs at the resources it can get, i.e. dipping into the fat reserved it holds so dearly. Of the three, it’s the most likely to have elements of being a trumped up old wives tale, but I do think that incorporating variety into one’s riding is a good thing regardless. You don’t just get better at climbing hills by just climbing hills, and by taking a broader view you may see improvements happen naturally over time as the result of different factors. If nothing else, you’re less likely to get demoralised if you’re aware that you have a range of options, and they’ll all help. Just go and ride your bike. 😉

Sorry if that was a bit long, I hope you find something in it!

Markus wrote:- Spinning in a

Markus wrote:

- Spinning in a low gear is all well and good. But you get faster by going faster. Try keeping it in the big ring as much as possible for a ride now and then and get up from the saddle in the hills. This builds morale, also strengthens your legs and hearth. (Don’t bust your heart, though. Or your knees. You’d might want to be further along your weight loss scheme for this.)

I disagree completely. When 110kg+ pedal mashing would have made my already tree trunk legs even bigger. Spin to lose weight, as a big guy your legs are already accustomed to carrying your weight up steps etc. and you’ll have plenty enough muscle for great performance when you lose weight. Big guys can sprint a bit too or squat a lot of weight so they have a lot of fast twitch, you can depend that they aren’t distance runners so what they need to develop is slow twitch and stamina. If you spin a fast cadence on your intervals and just put power down when seated rides you can get your heart rate up easily. Standing and mashing pedals when heavy just increases injury risk (Markus – I know that you did mention this) and develops a poor pedaling stroke. Standing is more efficient/necessary for light riders they need all their weight to put power through the pedals, big guys have enough mass to put power down without all their weight going through their feet

Spin yourself thinner by 10-15kg and the power you always had as a big guy will be plenty. Train away your weaknesses and they are almost certainly fat and lack of stamina not lack of leg muscle. The weight loss can be massively rewarding on the bike, it’s like your already training with weights and as you get lighter it gets easier.

You can do it! Just keep
You can do it! Just keep thrashing yourself, and as others have said I bet there’s little naughty things in your diet you can cut out/cut right down on. Crisps, perhaps? That last pint of the evening? Mid morning snack?

Suffolk Cycling wrote:redmeat

Suffolk Cycling wrote:

redmeat wrote:

That hill out of Bealings is not particularly difficult – are you sure you’re not tiring your legs prematurely in an effort to go so quick on the flat?

Probably, yes! But remember I only started a few months ago, overweight (obv) and with the fitness levels of a geriatric sloth. So that Bealings hill is tough for the likes of me. There’s only a few like that in the area that still have me blowing hard: the one up Playford, Sandy Lane climb up towards Woodbridge, Sutton climb out of Melton being the main culprits.

Thinking about it, just about every climb is hard, so thank God I don;t live anywhere too hilly!

The America Hill/Rose Hill combo back into town from Witnesham should get you going.