How to Lose Weight Cycling: The Essentials

February 23, 2020 by Sarah Lauzé

Your bike, when put to good use, may just be the best tool you have to lose weight. Whether you’re just starting out and looking to cycling as a means to a healthier lifestyle, or are a veteran cyclist, there are a lot of reasons you may be looking to lose weight cycling.

Shaving off the pounds can make you faster, boost your confidence, and impact almost every part of life. Just make sure you are putting your well-being first. If you are working towards a weight goal, ensure that is it one that will actually improve your overall health and fitness.

Why Cycling?

So, why chose to lose weight cycling over other means? Running is known for being on of the more effective way to burn calories, but is also a high impact sport. Especially if you live in a city and are running on roads, each step sends impact through your feet, ankles, calves, knees, and onward. This can make it a difficult activity to start if you have previous injuries, and you can be at risk of overuse injuries (which increases the heavier you are).

Cycling, on the other hand, is a low impact activity that like running, you can do almost anywhere. It’s also a ton of fun! Biking is all about the legs, but it’s also a cardiovascular exercise that burns a ton of calories. Weight loss comes down to burning more calories than you are taking in, causing your body to use energy stores. Plus, as you strengthen your muscles cycling, you’ll also be building up oxygen delivering capillaries. With oxygen running through your body at a faster rate, your metabolism will speed up and start to eat away at fat cells, resulting in weight loss.

Steps to get started

Make a plan not a goal

Goals can be a great motivating tool, but without the plan to get there, they will remain out of reach. You need to get specific and lay it out in a way that makes sense to you. This could be a simple as riding your bike to work three days out of the week or putting in a couple hundred miles.

Be realistic with yourself and your schedule. If your plan is too demanding in the start, you probably won’t stick with it, but if it’s too easy you won’t see results. Can’t find time to commute or ride in the evenings? Try a lunch hour spin class. For more information check out this article: The Benefits Of Having A Cycling Training Plan.

Find your moderate base pace

Starting out you will want spend most of your time on the bike at 68-79 percent of your max heart rate. If you don’t want to fuss about measuring it with a heart rate monitor, then aim for a pace that leaves you out of breath, but still able to carry on a conversation (no gasping). Great, now hang out there.

You shouldn’t be so drained at the end of the ride that you won’t want to head out again, enjoy it! Once you’ve established your base, then you’ll want to introduce some variety to your rides in the form of intervals or high intensity sessions.

Diet

Your diet is the sum of the food you consume, and as you probably already know it is a huge factor in weight loss. Ignore what the latest fad is, it all comes down to nutrition and fueling your body with the right amounts of the right things. Just because you are going for ride after work does not mean you should carb load.

Carbohydrates need to support your cycling routines, not hinder them. The reality is that too large a portion can lead to peaks and dips in energy that can actually leave you feeling lethargic. A good rule of thumb is to aim to eat a fist-sized portion of low-glycaemic carbohydrates to ensure that you get a steadier release of energy as you ride.

Weight loss is a simple concept: More calories out than in. So, keep your diet simple. Eat a balanced, healthy diet, control your portion size, and cut out unnecessary snacking and you will be well on your way.

Don’t fear the hills

Going up a hill takes a lot more energy than riding on a flat surface. This will cause you to use up extra calories in a shorter period of time. So, hills are actually your friend!

Embrace the cycling community

Accountability is important for everyone, but it’s not something you should dread. Finding a cycling partner or joining a weekly group ride not only ensures you show up, but it’s also a great way to meet people. So, head down to your local bike shop and find out how you can get involved.

Enjoy it!

Cycling is fun above all else, so make sure you keep it that way! Think of it as a part of your day you’re looking forward to, rather than something you have to do to lose weight. The more you enjoy it, the more likely you’ll be to stick with it for the long haul.

Battling the Holiday Weight Gain with Cycling

December 29, 2016 by Josh Friedman

The end of the year is a time of revelry, and with that revelry comes indulgence and over-consumption. The weather is turning for the worst too making riding a bit more difficult because of condition and not wanting to suffer through bad weather. Devising some tactics to deal with holiday weight gain can keep you happier and healthier along with maintaining your fitness through this season that is fun and fraught at the same time.

Indulgence and Holiday Weight Gain

There are sweets at work. There is alcohol at the party. There is a feast at your family’s house. It is hard to handle all the indulgence. Find some strategies that work for you to enjoy yourself but also to keep holiday weight gain to a minimum.

It is okay to have treats and delicious food. Make sure whatever you are consuming is really worth it and increases your enjoyment of the moment.
Before going into a situation, set limits for yourself. An open ended commitment to eating and drinking will not end well.
Be honest with yourself when you are full or you have had enough to drink.
If there are a lot of options, take small portions so you can get a taste of everything you might enjoy. Then you can make a decision about what you really like and go back for more (if you are not violating the previous point).
There is no obligation to force feed yourself. Remember that peer and societal pressure is a thing, even when you are an adult and make a conscious decision to ignore the pressure.
Choose to fill up on the healthier options on offer – vegetables, fruit and other non-processed and less calorie-dense foods. It will make you feel fuller without dropping a calorie bomb in your gut.
Hydration levels affect your perception of satiety. Make sure you are well hydrated while partying the month away. An additional bonus to good hydration is that it will help you cope better with alcohol in your system.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line to battle holiday weight gain is to keep pedaling or staying active in some way. If you are already riding regularly, find a way that you can continue even as the daylight fades, temperatures drop and precipitation increases. A good set of lights might help to keep you on the road in the dark; nothing beats them to see or be seen. All the high visibility colors and reflectors do nothing compared to active illumination.

When the weather is sure to make you uncomfortable, set up a space indoors that you can ride in on a trainer or rollers that will keep you motivated. You will need a fan and some sort of entertainment. Staring at the wall or your bike computer the whole time sets you up for failure. Music, movies and friends make the time go by much faster.

Prepare a manageable schedule for yourself that you can stick to for your rides. A commitment will keep you on the bike and keep the holiday weight gain at bay. The more you ride, the more you can indulge, within reason of course. If you are lucky enough to have a schedule that allows you to ride more than usual at this time of year, the easier it is to burn off those treats. But beware – those treats do not provide optimal fuel for training.

Other Activity

The winter is also a great time to throw in some other activities to your exercise program to stave off holiday weight gain. Find something that is interesting to you that you may not get to do when it is nice out and you are more committed to riding. Again, make a regular schedule so you can stay fit and keep burning those extra calories you may be eating. The activity could also be a nice mental break from all of the riding; when you come back to riding, it will be fresh and exciting again.

You Already Know

You are already aware of what the end of the year can do to your body. It is hard to handle the indulgence and holiday weight gain if you do not have a plan. Make a plan and try to stick to it. You will be even more committed to the plan if you write it down and tell others about it – this works for anything. This will lead to a happier and healthier season, and that is what it is all about, right?

Pedal Away The Pounds E-Book – Just Released

July 17, 2016 by Adam Farabaugh

The modern day lifestyle is largely built around working too much, not having enough time to do the things you love, and stress from those two that leads to eating foods that aren’t always the healthiest. All of this on top of not exercising as much is just about the perfect recipe for being heavier than you otherwise would like to be.

There are a lot of diet and exercise plans out there to get you to lose weight but they don’t always focus on the right things and, let’s be honest, aren’t always the most fun or appetizing. The key to losing weight and keeping it off is to do it in a way that is fun, manageable, as well as tasty. This approach then isn’t something you just do for a period of time and go back to what you were doing originally. It is an approach that creates a healthy, balanced lifestyle that leaves you feeling great, doing the things you love, with the body you want.

Riding a bike is one of the best ways to increase your activity level and lose weight for a number of reasons:

It is soft on your joints (a potential issue if you’re carrying a few extra pounds).
Gets your heart rate up.
Can promote muscle growth.
Overall is just fun to do because you’re traveling at speed covering more ground exploring more places.
Additionally, it is also something you can easily do with others which has even more benefits.

Combining the benefits of riding a bike with eating the right foods at the right time will give you the body you want as being active and eating certain types of foods was what nature intended and have you ever seen a fat wild animal?

In our Pedal Away The Pounds – A Guide to Cycling & Weight Loss E-Book we will give you the tools you need to first ride a bike whether you’re a first timer or have ridden before on a regular basis.We will then get into the basics of food and why you should know what things are and how your body reacts to them. Following this is a detailed look at exactly what we should be eating and how to prepare it as well as shop for it. Then we get into what to eat surrounding your ride because you can’t exactly have a full-course meal while out on a ride. This then leads us into alternative ways of eating and why they are good or bad. Summing up the book is then a chapter on the little things that contribute to your weight; things like sleep and addiction. Accompanying this book is also an 8-week training plan to get you rolling on the bike and burning more calories.

We hope you embrace our approach to weight loss and that it’s not just something you do for a set period of time but rather as a way to adjust your lifestyle permanently toward that of a healthy, enjoyable, productive lifestyle.

Where to Buy The Pedal Away The Pounds E-Book

33% Off The Cover Price Discount Code

Used discount code: startnow (all lowercase, all one word) to save 33% off the cover price of Pedal Away The Pounds through Sunday, July 24th.

Foods that Help Burn Fat

October 13, 2015 by Adam Farabaugh

Eating certain foods at certain times can, in a round-about way, help you burn fat. Food in itself will never directly result in your body burning fat. Your body simply doesn’t work that way. To reduce fat build up on your body, you need to burn it off.

Certain foods can help by giving you less energy, causing your body to need to burn fat stores to convert to energy. While other foods can increase your metabolism. Also certain foods will help you to feel more full causing you to eat less resulting in less calories being consumed, again resulting in your body to resort to fat stores for energy.

Fat Faux-Pas

Fat has received a lot of miss-press particularly that of being able to burn it with other food as well as that eating it causes you to get fat. Both of these simply are not true. In fact, not eating fat can help contribute to weight-gain due to you actually eating more food as a result. To burn fat you simply need to consume less calories than you burn along with exercising regularly. Exercise is an important element because it requires more energy to complete and fat can be burned to obtain this energy.

Fat, particularly in the 1990’s, was labeled as causing you to become fat so a lot of foods tried to drop their fat content. This would result in foods tasting bad, so to make them taste good again, sugar would be added which actually can make you pack on the pounds, particularly since these foods are often highly processed. Fat does have a higher calorie content per gram, nine to be exact, whereas carbohydrates and protein each have four calories per gram. The thing with fat however is that it makes you feel more full and satisfied so you don’t have to eat as much. If you were to just eat carbohydrates instead, you would eat more calories because it would take longer to become satisfied.

Foods to Eat to Feel Full

The trick to eating foods that help you lose weight are to eat those that cause you to consume less calories. This can be done in any number of ways, but the best is to eat a diet high in vegetables as there is a lot of bulk with fewer calories, helping you to feel full.

The second is to eat more fat, as fat has high satiety. You don’t just want any type of fat however but rather healthy fats. These can be found in foods such as nuts, olive oil, coconut oil, as well as in meats. Foods like eggs and bacon previously thought of as fat-causing and artery clogging are things of the past. Eating a balanced diet including foods such as these will help you to eat less while still having the energy you need to ride and perform your day to day routines.

According to Health.com – Certain foods have a very high thermogenic effect, so you literally scorch calories as you chew. Other eats contain nutrients and compounds that stoke your metabolic fire. Feed your metabolism with these:

Whole grains
Your body burns twice as many calories breaking down whole foods (especially those rich in fiber such as oatmeal and brown rice) than processed foods.

Chicken Breast
Protein has a high thermogenic effect: You burn about 30% of the calories the food contains during digestion (so a 300-calorie chicken breast requires about 90 calories to break it down).

Low-fat dairy products
Rich in calcium and vitamin D, these help preserve and build muscle mass—essential for maintaining a robust metabolism.

Green tea
Drinking four cups of green tea a day helped people shed more than six pounds in eight weeks, theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports. Credit EGCG, a compound in the brew that temporarily speeds metabolism after sipping it. To up your intake, keep a jug of iced tea in the fridge.

Lentils
One cup packs 35% of your daily iron needs—good news, since up to 20% of us are iron deficient. When you lack a nutrient, your metabolism slows because the body’s not getting what it needs to work efficiently, says Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD, co-author of The Secret to Skinny.

Hot peppers
Capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their kick, heats up your body, which makes you melt additional calories. You can get it by eating raw, cooked, dried, or powdered peppers, says Lakatos Shames. “Add as much cayenne or hot sauce as possible to soups, eggs, and meats.”

Tips on Burning Fat

Along with eating the right foods to help you to feel full and eat less, riding and eating in certain ways can also help to spur fat loss. To burn fat more efficiently on the bike, start a ride without much to eat prior and only eat small amounts throughout as needed. Only follow this advice for medium to low intensity rides, if you are going to go for an intense ride make sure to eat enough food (especially carbs) to fuel you through the ride.

Everyone knows the Golden Rule of weight loss: burn more calories than you consume. Most people also know that riding at lower intensity is when you do burn fat and when you ride at higher intensity is when you burn carbs. So most people believe that in order to lose fat cycling they need to ride at lower intensities; unfortunately, this is not the case. Do you remember the Golden Rule? Well, if you ride at higher intensities you will burn more calories, so at the end of the day you will end up burning more fat.

Losing fat off your body isn’t easy and takes time, but with the proper know how you can start tackling your fat issues from the right angle. If you take the wrong approach, you’re not going to have the results you’re looking for.

Eat the right foods to feel full along with less carbohydrates on easy rides. And one thing to watch out for when you eat fat is not to combine it with simple carbohydrates and sugar as your body responds by converting these to fat on your body. These two combinations are not found in nature and release “feel-good” hormones in your body causing you to become addicted to them thus making it harder to get them out of your diet. Eat the right things and with will-power and sufficient riding your fat will burn away like you were eating something to get rid of it.

Does Cycling Burn Fat?

September 30, 2015 by U.M.

For many people, the main reason that they start any form of exercise is because they wish to lose a little bit of weight. Whether you want to shed pounds from your frame or just get rid of those pesky love handles, burning fat is often the main aim.

So how can cycling help? In short, cycling is one of the most complete body workouts, which means that you can burn fat from all over your body if you do it right.

How Does Cycling Burn Fat?

Cycling is a form of cardiovascular exercise, which means that as long as you cycle at a quick enough speed or on a steep enough gradient to get your heart beating faster, you will start to burn fat and lose weight.

Furthermore, because you are engaging so many different areas of your body, you will also find that you burn calories a lot quicker than you would with other cardio activities. After all, your legs, arms and entire core are constantly engaged whenever you head out for a ride, a combination that serves you well to burn more calories and help you get leaner.

How Much Fat Can I Burn?

A lot of it depends on the distance that you ride and the speed that you ride at. Furthermore, you will burn more fat riding uphill than you would on a flat or going downhill.

However, assuming a 185 pound rider riding at moderate pace for an hour the rider can burn approximately 654 calories. Upping the speed also ups the lost calorie count, so if that same rider starts to ride faster it is entirely possible to burn as much as 1,000 calories every single hour or higher. That’s not a bad rate for something that’s fun as well as healthy.

Calories Burned Biking and How It Compares To Other Forms of Exercise

Of course, there are many different forms of cardio out there, so if you are looking to lose weight quickly it’s only natural that you would attempt to search out the most efficient one. Here we’ll take a look at some other forms or cardiovascular exercise and how they compare against cycling.

Running – Assuming you are a male of about an average weight of 185lbs, you should be able to burn about 800 calories if you run at a constant speed of 6mph for a full hour. Of course, maintaining that kind of speed over such a long distance is taxing, plus those who are carrying a little extra weight may have to be wary about the effect that running can have on their knees in the long term.

Swimming – Heading off for a dip in the pool is often a great idea, as swimming is another form of cardio that requires your whole body to properly execute. If you swim for an hour with a moderately-paced free style stroke, you will find you lose somewhere in the region of 650 calories, with the numbers going up the harder the stroke. Interestingly enough, the temperature of the water will have a lot to do with how many calories you burn, the colder the water the harder your body is going to have to work to stay warm, meaning that you will burn more calories.

So What is Better Cycling, Running or Swimming for Burning Fat?

At the end of the day the best way to burn fat is doing whichever sport is the most fun and the one you are going to do the most! A good mix of the three, taking into account your own current health, is possibly the best recommendation. It is a good idea to mix things up and keep your body guessing.

Does Biking Burn Belly Fat?

Biking does burn belly fat, in fact, it burns fat from your thighs, your butt or anywhere you have it for that matter. As long as you have a calorie deficit fat is going to melt off! Aim to expend 500 more calories than you consume each day, this is a healthy weight loss plan and works out to approximately 1 pound each week. Hopefully that is 1 pound of fat, but remember you may not lose it that fast as you are simultaneously building muscle. But, muscle burns fat faster, so really it is a vicious win/win cycle when you bike to burn fat!

What Happens to You When You Stop Cycling

September 3, 2015 by U.M.

Cycling is one of the best forms of exercise around for boosting your overall fitness and dropping those extra pounds that you have been finding so difficult to shed. It is excellent for your cardiovascular conditioning and the fact that it is a low impact sport means that you don’t need to worry about suffering injuries in the same way that you would with weight training or running.

As the amount of cycling you do increases, your body’s fitness levels improve with it. As such, if you choose to stop cycling regularly you are going to find that everything that you worked so hard to achieve is going to come under threat. Here we look at just a few of the things that will happen to your body if you choose to stop cycling regularly.

Your Mood Dips

Every time you exercise your brain is improving. In fact, exercise is considered to be a key way of keeping the brain healthy and active even into old age. Exercise also triggers the release of serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant and generally keeps your mood positive. That great feeling you have after a good workout? That’s the serotonin at play.

Your body becomes used to having this shot of happiness on a regular basis if you are exercising, so if you suddenly stop cycling regularly you are going to find that your mood starts dipping as a result, making you even less likely to start exercising again.

Your Metabolism Drops

Exercise causes your metabolism to speed up, which is one of the key reasons why you can burn so many calories when you are cycling. In fact, it is believed that your metabolism works at five times the speed when you’re on the bike than it normally does. This accounts for about 400 to 500 calories every hour.

If you stop cycling regularly, your metabolism is going to stagnate and you are no longer going to lose weight if your diet remains the same.

Blood Pressure Rises

Cycling is an aerobic exercise, which means that it encourages your body to release hormones that keep your blood vessels in check and ensures that your blood pressure stays at a healthy level. Cycling on a regular basis has been found to lower your blood pressure somewhere between 8 to 10 points every single month, which reduces the risk of heart issues and other ailments caused by high blood pressure.

If you stop cycling regularly you lose all of these advantages very quickly, and you will find that your blood pressure starts rising again. It will start after about a week and in just a few weeks you will find it is back to the level it was at before you started.

You Might Put On Weight

It should go without saying that when you stop cycling regularly you are going to put on weight if every other aspect of your life remains the same. There is a misconception that the gains you have made will last a long time even if you stop.

In fact, that simply isn’t the case. As mentioned previously, your metabolism stagnates when you stop exercising, which means your body’s ability to burn fat is reduced. This means that if you stick to the same diet you are going to start noticing that your body is getting a little softer in areas that used to be lean and trim. Even if you reduce you calorie intake, you are going to notice your tone softening and your waistline increasing. Over time, the effects will only increase, so be sure to keep getting out there and exercising to keep yourself in top shape.

What To Eat On A Long Bike Ride

May 26, 2014 by Lee Agur

What To Eat On A Long Bike Ride

Interestingly, most people really focus on a training plan and often forget how important a nutrition plan actually is. When I first started endurance rides I had no clue what I was supposed to do, I ate when I was hungry and drank when I was thirsty, which inevitably was too late. Bonking is no fun for anyone but I did it on a regular basis, it was just a given, 3-4 hours on a bike was my limit! That was until I learned what to eat on a long bike ride.

What You Should Eat On A Long Bike Ride

Most of us already know the answer to this, it is carbohydrates, but why? Carbohydrates can be broken down quickly and efficiently into glucose, which is then used as energy. Proteins and fats can be broken down in to glucose as well; however, the process is long and inefficient.

Factors Affecting Carbohydrate Intake

Multiple carbohydrates: The ability to digest and utilize carbohydrate is dependent on the amount and types of carbohydrate consumed. Individual carbohydrate sources have different transport mechanisms in the gastrointestinal tract which allow for different rates of absorption. There is good physiological data to support an upper limit in our ability to breakdown carbohydrate during exercise. However, the upper limit is increased if there are multiple sources of carbohydrate consumed. By selecting a product with more than one source (e.g. sucrose and fructose), you are able to absorb more than when you consume a single source (e.g. glucose only). Glucose, sucrose and maltodextrin are absorbed more quickly than fructose, galactose and amylose. –

Effort Level: At increased intensities the blood required to convert carbohydrates to glucose has moved from your digestion to your legs resulting in a less efficient conversion process.

Heat: As temperatures rise your body is not able to digest or absorb as much carbohydrates – even though your body requires more.

Info from: First Endurance

How Much Should I Eat On A long Bike Ride?

Truthfully, the better question is how much carbohydrates can I process? The answer depends on factors listed above, (and has little to do with how many calories you burn per hour) but it is anywhere from 45g to 80g of carbs per hour. If you have one single source of carbohydrate (e.g. glucose) then you are able to absorb a maximum of 60g of carbohydrates an hour. When you combine two different carbs, studies show that you are able to absorb as much as 90g of carbohydrates an hour. (I max out at taking 80g though).

So What EXACTLY Should I Eat and Drink Every Hour?

Aim to drink a minimum of one bottle of sports drink (500 ml – 32g of carbs – 130 calories) half a bottle of water 250 ml, and eat one gel (30g of carbs – 100 calories) every hour on the bike. If it heats up you will need to drink more. Remember that this is an absolute minimum at moderate intensity.

I often add half a banana (12g of carbs – 50 calories) and more sports drink to get up to 80g of carbs per hour. Be careful not to drink more than 1.5L/hr though as most people are only able to process between one and one and a half litres of water per hour. For better hydration guidelines read this post.

When To Eat?

Start eating and drinking within the first half an hour of your ride. You may not feel hungry or thirsty, but by the time you do it is already too late. Eating and drinking steadily is much better than stuffing your face all at once. Set a timer for every 15 minutes to eat and drink. One important consideration is if you are eating powerbars or gels, then wash them down with water (not sports drink) so they are easier to digest.

Can I Eat Too Much On A Ride?

This happens quite frequently, do you ever get that nauseous feeling or have gastrointestinal problems? It is likely a result of eating too many carbs. If you feel this way in a middle of a long race make sure to dilute the high concentration of carbs with water and eat less frequently. Slowing down, drinking more water and eating half a banana (instead of a gel) will often save a ride.

Some people have lower tolerances to the high carbohydrate concentration in gel’s and gu’s. It is important to find your individualized nutrition and hydration plan that considers how long the ride will be, effort level, heat and tolerances.

What If I Don’t Eat?

You will likely be ok for an hour to an hour and a half at moderate intensity levels, but anything past that and you will lose energy, strength and focus and it will seem nearly impossible to finish the ride. In other words you are going to bonk!

What Do I Eat After A Long Ride?

A 4:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein is a general guideline for efficient post-ride recovery. When putting together a meal or snack to help you refuel, aim for this 4:1 ratio by combining different food options listed here. It is important to eat within 30 minutes to an hour immediately following your ride for optimal recovery as those nutrients get “fast tracked”. The carbohydrates will replenish you lost glycogen stores while the protein will help rebuild the damaged muscle tissue.

Coles Notes

Eat carb rich foods – low in fats and protein.
Consider effort levels, heat, duration and tolerances when implementing a nutrition and hydration plan.
Eat and drink early and often.
Consume between 45-80g of carbs per hour.
Don’t drink more than 1.5 litres of water per hour.
Always wash gels and power bars down with water and not sports drink.
Don’t dilute sports drinks with more water as they are absorbed fastest with pre-mixed amounts.
Have a fun ride!

Did you know all of this? Share it with your friends below and comment on what works for you to help out the cycling community!