[Closed] Weight loss and cycling

11st 8lb isn't thin, it's a healthy weight for an average height chap. So unless you are freakishly tall I'd really not worry.

When you say "eat more" do you mean you've been eating more since April? Any other changes - alcohol consumption for example? Funnily enough your timing coincides with mine. I retired in April and have been out riding (and hill walking) several times a week. I've lost about half a stone which doesn't sound a lot but I was already under 10 stone and yes, even I feel thinner.

Mind you other things have changed. My diet has been healthier, more fruit, veg, no snacking, bacon butties and danish pastries at work. Quite a lot less alcohol. Though with the approach of winter I am reverting to stew and dumplings.

You seem to be losing about a kilo every month or so. Provided you haven't changed anything else, that amount of exercise, and that amount of weight loss seems entirely normal to me

Most people only comment that others look thin when in fact they are fat themselves, they are just not really aware of it

Most people only comment that others look thin when in fact they are fat themselves, they are just not really aware of it

You should point it out to them, they will really appreciate your honesty.

I think that amount of riding would create to quite a large weekly calorie deficit, so unless you really pig out once or twice a week that amount of weight loss seems inline IMO.

How tall are you and whats your BMI? While BMI is not a great measure its a decent one.

Give me your problems 😜

Sounds ok btw. Eat to stabilise.

You're probably just slimmer rather than 'thin' unless you're well over six foot tbh. Do you feel weak or compromised by your weight loss or it just aesthetics and the negative nuances of being called 'thin'. If you reframe 'thin' as 'slim' does that feel better?

If you ride a bike you will lose weight. It's the rule of road cycing. It's actually quite hard to replace all the calories you burn, so your body has reset to a new equilibrium. I burned 2500 calories last night on a ride. I need to eat 10 days of food a week. I'm 11 stone and 5'11.

Wait till you start feeling the cold!

I do more miles than that, at way higher intensity, and am obese, so I guess we're all different.

Surprised you're seeing that sort of weight loss to be honest, have you just started cycling so are seeing a big training response? Long slow distance is indeed the classic recipe for weight loss, but 60 odd bimble miles a week is tiny really.

60 odd bimble miles a week is tiny really

Yeah, OP - ya fat, slow, lazy git. 😆

Any advice?

Write a book?

Yeah, I'd not say you're thin - I'm 5'10" and 11st 11lb and could still stand to lose a bit more but I'd say I'm about right for someone my height and shape. I'm broad shouldered and am unlikely to get down to 11st with the amount I like to eat. I do 80-90 miles a week all on the mountain bike or on gravel type stuff, a lot of it at a decent pace, and have stayed the same weight for about 18 months when I stopped trying to lose weight.

Most people only comment that others look thin when in fact they are fat themselves, they are just not really aware of it

You should point it out to them, they will really appreciate your honesty.

rhyswilliams3 is right though, the new 'normal' in society is quite far above what 'normal' should actually be. I believe this because I lost weight recently, still have some way to go but have been advised "not to lose too much" & "you're looking really thin". Nope i'm not, according to BMI <insert separate argument here> i'm still overweight. The manner in which you advise people they're fat is a different matter though 🙂

 It’s the rule of road cycing. It’s actually quite hard to replace all the calories you burn,

Not for me 🙁🙁

I'm 12 stone 7 a smudge under 6ft and medium build - people at work tell me I look thin yet I have paunch and am on the route to losing 2.5kg more for bike racing.

Even my wife says "your not as fat as your were on our wedding day" 😀

I suspect your thinner than people are used to, but as a rough guide if your BMI and caloric input is reasonable unless you have some flesh eating disease you are fine.   Your speed likely indicates you're cycling in the "fat burning zone" which is why you've lost the weight.

Thin? You want to try being 9 stone.

I'm 6ft and 13 to 13.5 stone.

People say I look skinny, I was about 15-16 stone before I upped my mileage some years back.

It's not just people themselves, the general population tends to be overweight, so people consider this normal - although I've noticed when women lose weight there is a factor of their fat mates telling them they look great but only until they get thinner than their mate, when they're suddenly dangerously thin...

FWIW, my weight plateaued after about 3-4 months, I assume your experience is/will be similar.

LOL cracking... i dream of being sub 14st... let alone something closer to 10 than 15... .

I could do with losing a couple of stone, are people saying long slow rides are better than short fast ones? Also how do you measure slow? I went out with a friend the other day and went as hard as I could and he said it was the slowest he’d ever done it, so I went slow????

Nothing wrong with your weight OP, but that does sound like a lot of weight loss from what could be as little as two 20 mile rides a week. You may just be lucky and the weight falls off as soon as you exercise, but I think I'd try taking it easy for a bit and keeping an eye on your weight. Most people would need to do a lot more than a couple of hours of exercise a week in order to drop the best part of two-stone.

Wait till you start feeling the cold!

Im a smidgen under 14 stone, but was quite a bit heavier. Im already feeling cold!

I dont think Id ever worn my softshell jacket on a serious ride untill this year, now its my default!

My target for next year is 75kg/11stone11lb (another 2 stone) which would give me a bmi bang on 22.5 (i.e. supposed average). I guarantee the current comments of "you look healthier" will turn to "you look ill". I can already see ribs!

Also how do you measure slow?

You need to work out your maximum heart rate and then your heart rate zones. Fat burning occurs in the lower zones so you need to ride to HR rather than speed on the road.

I could do with losing a couple of stone, are people saying long slow rides are better than short fast ones? Also how do you measure slow? I went out with a friend the other day and went as hard as I could and he said it was the slowest he’d ever done it, so I went slow????

All intensity all the time isn't sustainable - you'll get ill, and if you really over do it you can put yourself in a hole that takes a long time to climb out of (overtraining).
OTOH you can do massive amounts of zone 1 / zone 2 stuff which is great for losing weight (so I hear). Takes ages on the bike, but then it's zero impact which is also great for avoiding injury.

Did someone mention being cold!

I'm 6ft - 10st 2lb and always feel the cold. This week has been particularly chilly with numb fingers and toes. Being in my 70s, with no fat & umpteen layers, isn't very helpful on heating the body 🙁

I went from ~95Kg in June 2016, when I simply became ruthless at cutting down snacks (but not altogether) for the rest of the year while doing "bimble" commutes to drop to ~83Kg, to then drop another ~10Kg in 2017 by August after I started cycling for fitness.

Think I lost ~6" from my waist and felt so light on my feet compared to how I'd been since around 1998, bar a brief spell of being lighter and fitter around 2004 (albeit then I dropped to ~83Kg).

Most of my 2017 weight loss came from really quite intensive rides, extending my commutes home and going out on my days off to typically do approx 45-75mins of mostly local sub 180-foot hill climbs (ranging from approx 8-20% peak gradient) and then recovering on the descents. There's multiple routes up to the Witts Hill plateau in Midanbury and on the Harefield estate, so I didn't have to choose doing the same hill time and time again.
Looking at my season heart rate charts on https://cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ (free site that links to Strava for lots of interesting data on your rides), my dynamic heart rate zone hours during the first three quarters of 2017 were approx...
Z1 55hrs
Z2 43hrs
Z3 37hrs
Z4 50hrs
Z5 48hrs

The relative numbers are very different these days, at times I had seriously heavy legs due to overtraining in 2017, these days a much higher proportion of time is spent in Z1/2.

My downfall seemed to happen when I got the road bike and started doing longer rides, not eating enough during these 2+ hour rides up in the South Downs hills and then "emptying" the cupboards and fridge when I got back. Then I started eating cold cross buns at work far too regularly, in more recent times chocolate raisins, which in combination with less long outdoor rides this year (injuries and illness) resulted in me going back up to 84Kg during October before dropping to 80Kg this last week.

Hoping to get back down to sub 75Kg over the winter and try and threaten to break 300W FTP from 95% of 20min efforts, something I came so close to back in March this year before things all started going wrong.

Going for long slow distsnce rides is probably the best way to burn off the most calories if you are a pro needing to shed some winter lb's. It works because you burn off the maximum number of fat per hour and do a lot of hours. And you're fresh enough to repeat it day after day.

For us mortals with day jobs its not so easy, we cant head out and do a 5 hour z2 ride every day for 2 months. We've got maybe a weekend ride and a couple of evenings a week. In which case as long as you feel like youre resting enough between rides then going out and smashing it a couple of times a week also works.

There's a difference between skipping z2 rides because youre having a day off (fine, just don't binge on calories), and skipping z2 rides because you're doing a z3 or HITT style ride (not fine if youre not recovering between rides or taking a week off them occasionally).

For me I tend to find the more I ride the fitter I get (fairly obviously) so if its been a few months off the bike then a 'steady' ride might be my hard ride for the week. 2 months later its my social recovery ride and the midweek evening ride becomes the faster one.

It does depend why you ride though, some people want the maximum training bang for their buck and will happily skip group rides if they dont fit a certain schedule. Whereas others (me) ride almost purely for fun and just manage the number of hard rides in a week or on back to back days.

E.g. tuesday is a fast mtb group, Wednesday is a variable cx group, thursday is a variable road group. So depending on how hard wednesday is i might skip thursday. Or if im flagging a big with a cold ill skip wednesday and hope for an easy thursday.

Thanks for all this, some good info, not sure who to reply to? LOL.

I am 5ft 11ins so its looking ok. Just done my BMI on the NHS site, 22.6

I have been cycling a long time, but its never been consistent and it varies massively in time and distance etc.

Its funny I have never really felt the cold, but I am now, I guess fat is insulation!! lol.
I have been looking at winter warmer jerseys too!

I have been trying to keep it all consistent and easy going, doing fast rides play havoc with my sleeping, which I am sure is down to lack of fitness as its causes stress on the body.

My goal at the moment is to get to rides (comfortably) to 50 miles and I know that's not a big number, but it is for me.

My goal at the moment is to get to rides (comfortably) to 50 miles and I know that’s not a big number, but it is for me.

My suggestion with these things is don't overthink it and just do it. Take a bit of food and some jelly babies and head off for ~5 hours with the intention of keeping moving. 90% of it's either a limit in your head, or fueling. If you're riding 2-3 times a week then a single 5 hour ride should be fairly easy (unless you're planning it in the Lakes or somewhere like that).

I was an overweight 86 kg and drank to much, and rode the bike once a month tops.

Gave up boozing, changed my diet and started cycling 100 mile a week at a steady pace. Weight literally dropped off..21 kg in 18 months.

I got to the point where I thought something was wrong as I was getting a bit thin. So I gave up cycling for 2 weeks and ate shit. Surprise surprise I put weight back on again

I started thinking about calories. If you are cycling 6 hrs a week and not eating anymore than you did you'll easy lose a lb a week...that can add up to fairly drastic weight loss.

People will comment on rapid weight loss cos we associate it with illness. Don't worry about it.

It’s the rule of road cycing. It’s actually quite hard to replace all the calories you burn,
Not for me 🙁🙁

I drink less than five units a week. I think alcohol is a huge hidden caloric intake, particularly after our Tuesday night club ride. Currently on 250-300km/week/ When it goes up to 400/week the carb cupboard gets raided at every opportunity and I still lose weight. Race weight is 67 kilos, below that I get ill.

Even when off the bike for extended periods, I only gain about 4-5 kilos, so I guess I'm lucky. But I live by my Rab micro gilet!

I wish I had your problem. I was 89kg and now down to 86kg in 4 weeks but I really have to try hard, like really hard, to keep weight loss going despite training over 8 hours a week and cycling to work everyday. My body seems to default back to 89kg which is strange as I can literally eat whatever I want, whenever I want but I don't seem to go above that weight despite my calorie in take suggesting that I should gain weight quite quickly. I could jump back from 86 to 89 easily within a few days but then it just stops at 89. I'm trying to keep weight loss slow and steady this time around as I'm fed up of going up and down now. My fitness is way up at this point and I'm fitter than I've ever been, ftp at 278 so I really want to get the weight down over the winter to capitalise on my fitness and keep improving.

I think alcohol is a huge hidden caloric intake

I love a bottle of St Austell Brewery's ale Proper Job. Then I found out that a 500ml bottle contains around 560 calories. So one of those every week night with my dinner was an extra day's worth of calorie intake.

I love a bottle of St Austell Brewery’s ale Proper Job. Then I found out that a 500ml bottle contains around 560 calories. So one of those every week night with my dinner was an extra day’s worth of calorie intake.

I always knew that beer was fairly calorific, but got a bit of a shock looking through a Wetherspoons drink menu that lists the calorie content of everything!!

I've not read all the replies but anecdotally i#m 180cms tall and 18 months ago weighed 13 and a half stone. I wasn't fat but I'd started to get a belly. I've been riding about 4-500 miles a month since then, done a few hill climbs and currently sit at 11st 2lbs. I'm feeling fitter and better than I have in 10-12 years. I personally wouldn't sweat it.

@Mister-P you sure about that...? From memory, Thornbridge Jaipur was ~275 calories for a 500ml bottle and they're about the same ABV.

BMI on NHS website is bollox doesn’t take into account muscle mass etc, back when I was a student at 6ft & 85kg would be classed as overweight even though had a 6pack because was going to gym lots & windsurfing loads a PT did a proper BMI test at gyms beginning of Jan when after Xmas & New year & had BMI of 10 not 25 as claimed by NHS site.

@k1100t I had a calculator fail, I multiplied by 10 when it should have been 5. So I can drink twice as much as I thought. Great!

https://www.staustellbrewery.co.uk/proper-job

St Austell tribune - 125 calories
Banks Bitter (my favourite) - 150 calories
Greene King IPA - 155 calories
Less than a chocolate bar!

Less than a chocolate bar!

Yes but rarely would you eat 6 chocolate bars in an evening... along with 2 bags of crisps and some salted peanuts 🙂

Yes but rarely would you eat 6 chocolate bars in an evening… along with 2 bags of crisps and some salted peanuts 🙂

Speak for yourself!

People have called me skinny in the past but I'm 9 stone 10 and 5ft5.

BMI on NHS website is bollox doesn’t take into account muscle mass etc, back when I was a student at 6ft & 85kg would be classed as overweight even though had a 6pack because was going to gym lots & windsurfing loads a PT did a proper BMI test at gyms beginning of Jan when after Xmas & New year & had BMI of 10 not 25 as claimed by NHS site.

"Overweight" by the slimmest of margins though. 84kg is would be a BMI of 25. It's a measure that's accurate at a population level, there are very few people who have a BMI>25 or <19 who would be described as healthy. You can pick examples, but they tend to have job titles like "international tight head prop" or gold medalist track sprinter".

What do you define as a "Proper BMI" test? if such a thing exists. Or are you confusing BMI with BF%?

People have called me skinny in the past but I’m 9 stone 10 and 5ft5.

As long as you're a 12 year old girl that's fine

My target for next year is 75kg/11stone11lb (another 2 stone) which would give me a bmi bang on 22.5 (i.e. supposed average). I guarantee the current comments of “you look healthier” will turn to “you look ill”. I can already see ribs!

I know I'm hitting my target weight when my MiL says I look ill 🙂

Ha, I can beat that. 5' 7" and 9 stone 10ish for years up until earlier this year when I cut down of snacks and booze. Currently 9 stone 4.

@thisisnotaspoon
Well the PT called it body mass Index, was done 20yrs ago at gym when I was applying for PT jobs they measured height & weight & took various body fat measurements from between shoulder blades & other places on body to measure your body mass because if your lifting weights surprise surprise muscle is heavier than fat so a standard BMI test is inaccurate. & not don’t have to be a bodybuilder to prove its inaccurate.

When you say "took various body fat measurements" do you mean using callipers? If so that's body fat percentage not BMI.

Well was 20yrs ago but yes must be body fat percentage which was low so does that mean having a BMI of 25 & only 10% body fat make me overweight?

A BF% of 10% would be consistent with a 6-pack.

A BMI of 10, even if you could subtract all the extra muscle and fat would be impossible, your skeleton, internal organs and blood would have a BMI around that!

surprise surprise muscle is heavier than fat

Surprisingly, not by as much as most people think. It's just that fat tends to collect around places people measure. A volume of muscle is only about 10%-15% heavier than a volume of fat.

Yes but rarely would you eat 6 chocolate bars in an evening… along with 2 bags of crisps and some salted peanuts 🙂

Lightweight 🙂

I guess I think body fat index is more accurate. Anyway I know I will never have the figure of a cyclist, equally if a cyclist turned up as your PT you wouldn’t be too happy as he would look a bit wimpy to be a PT

Transition 1, my old trainer was a tri-athlete. Very skinny bloke. He was very good, former Royal Marine. Takes all sorts.
I hear what you’re saying though, but BMI is a general populous tool, not intended to account for the 0.5% of the population whom lift weights. I was 95kgs at 5 foot 8 and always between 7 and 10% body fat. I’m now just under 70kgs. My wife met me when I was a Rugby League player and thinks I look weird now, I’m constantly getting remarked on how unhealthy I look. Wife won’t allow me to go lower than my current weight.

Woodster your PT as ex Marine would def know his stuff despite being skinny & that is some impressive weight loss & body transformation & yes if playing rugby league most of those guys are big but trim. I need to loose the fat now that was once muscle 😂

I guess I think body fat index is more accurate.

A more accurate measure of actual fat yes. 10% would put you in the athlete category.

10% would put you in the athlete category

Years ago when I was a gym rat I got my body fat measured at 8%. My body looked great..my face however looked like I had some horrific wasting disease

St Austell tribune – 125 calories
Banks Bitter (my favourite) – 150 calories
Greene King IPA – 155 calories
Less than a chocolate bar!

Kronenbourg / San Miguel - 250 calories per pint
Brewdog Punk IPA - 270 calories per pint
Guiness - 200 calories per pint
Goose IPA 200 calories per 350ml bottle

Good to hear everyone's stories here, I'm one of those in the process of trying to lose a bit of timber.

A proper spreadsheet showing progress, Zwift, less beer, extending the dog walks and healthy breakfast has been good for me so far, 7.7kg/17llbs down.

Still a bit further to go and expect to fall back a bit over xmas.

Just catching up with this thread after getting in from work - very interesting. I've lost about 10 kg in the last 18 months or so, partly because of diet changes partly because of an increase in the amount of riding I've been doing. I'm now just under 67 kg, BMI 21 (5' 10"). I've lost track of the number of people who've asked me if I'm alright because I look thin (especially in my face. Edit: as tpbiker said). When I look at family photos from the 70s, everyone is basically the same body size as I am now - no-one though it worth any comment then, so I guess what is considered normal has changed. Thing is, I feel good - and that's what I keep focusing on.

When I was 12.5 stone (6'2") I was bang in the middle of my BMI.

People said I looked gaunt and my family said I looked like I was from a concentration camp.

The problem wasn't me (I felt great) - the problem is in a country where 70% of people are fat bastards then anyone of normal weight looks skinny.

Quick trip to Europe and you'll feel normal, come home and watch the lard-arses.

@Mounty_73 (OP): good on you - enjoy being able to but low cost stuff on Ebay and cycling websites (I recently bought some 30" waist drainpipe cords - would've been laughable a couple of years ago).

Interesting thread. I believe general weight loss for most adult males would be restricting to 2000cal a day maximum, cut out all forms of sugar and mild exercise.

Anyone lost a decent amount and managed to maintain drinking alcohol at the same time ? ... yes that old problem 🙂

'If exercise was a pill' etc...

Yes but rarely would you eat 6 chocolate bars in an evening… along with 2 bags of crisps and some salted peanuts

You clearly haven't seem me after a few pints.

Coconut, I did when younger, when I got into my early 30s I had to be more careful with the alcohol.
I’m now 47, still drink once a week, but do approx 8.5 hours of training each week, plus walk the dog for 3 miles every day. Weight is stable at just under 70kgs. But my main vice is chocolate biscuits!
I know at my age now, for me to lose weight my diet would have to be very clean. Can’t get away with it like I used to.

Weighed myself last night, 11stone and 5lb, so I have just polished off 2 very nice croissants as a treat! 😉

6' 1" and gone from 91kg to 75kg (not by choice), got back on the bike for the last couple of weeks and surprisingly my fitness is almost back where it was already but I guess the weight reduction helps!
On the flats im as quick (or quicker) than my mates but the climbs are hard work although that is improving.
Do I feel fitter in myself for losing the weight? I think so but that's hard to answer.
BMI is spot on but I'd like to get up to 80kg, serious eating and exercising again has got me back to 77kg so not far to go now.
A few people have said I look thinner but nobody has suggested I look ill...... yet.

I am 5ft 11ins so its looking ok. Just done my BMI on the NHS site, 22.6

Sounds about right to me.

Adding 40 miles a week commuting to my usual exercise ( which probably dropped a bit) I lost over 2 stone in a year.

5'6" when I played rugby properly just shy of 13stone but could cover 100m in give or take 11s so the bulk was muscle.
Now 68kg to be fair it's 15 years later. Apparently I'm still overweight although 30" trousers are hanging off me now. It's all a bit horses for courses but most folk could do with "cut down on you pork pies and get more exercise" it's what I've been doing recently.

For me, this has turned out to be an interesting thread.......

Tinas - I have seen someone with a BMI of 11 still walking around. Very much an outlier tho

the other failure of BMI is that its best on average height people as it does not account for the greater mass of tall or the lessor mass of small people properly

Its a very blunt instrument but its an easy thing to measure and compare

Body fat % is much more accurate but callipers only give an approximation - you need to be weighed underwater to get a true body fat % and as for the machines that do it by electicity - not worth a fig

Anyway I know I will never have the figure of a cyclist,

Barring disability then that's Only because you choose not to. Targeted training , a proper diet and hardwork would do it.

But many people do use the * I lifted weights /played rugby /wrestled * line to justify carrying weight into middle/old age.

I've had a couple of DEXA body scans which use low dose x-ray to differentiate between fatty tissue, muscle, bone etc and work out percentages/mass of each component. About as accurate as it gets.

The guy who ran it said despite people often claiming to be sub-10% body fat, from the 1000's of scans he had carried out he had rarely come across anyone who was truly under 10% body fat.

MTBTomo, you could be correct. I just use the BodyTrax image scanner.
No idea how accurate it is, but can't imagine it being massively incorrect. Happy to share my stats, shows loads of good info, not just body fat, but muscle compostion, water, bone weight, internal fat etc - really useful info.