Beginner Question

[Chambers625]

Hi all,

Im new to the forums and wanted to say Hi and ask a question. I've been researching plans for people getting into road cycling and making strides towards improving and I've gotten a lot of different answers. So I thought I'd ask for some advice here.

A little background on me. I'm 28 and about 60lbs overweight. My main reasons for biking are losing the weight and getting into better overall shape (and I'm enjoying it). I started mid August. Last month I did 100 miles and it was great. I lost 8lbs without eating that great. This month I want to do 150 and get the diet under control.

My question is, for someone in my position and with my goals what is better for me- focusing on miles/time on the bike or doing HIIT/Tempo workouts I see on a lot of the articles I'm finding.

 

[Sharky]

My unqualified advice would be do everything gradually. Eat less and exercise more, but whatever you do, it needs to be consistent and a complete life style change and one you can maintain forever, including the next Christmas festivities.

As to "bike" fitness, you don't need to think about any special workouts. Just ride and if you feel like sprinting up a hill or for a signpost, do it.
In terms of mileage, you are making a good start. Keep it up through the winter months and aim to increase in the spring.

 

[matth411]

Build up time and miles gradually but sort diet out asap. Every fitness fanatic will tell you that their "gains" are made in the kitchen.

As Sharkey says if you feel like sprinting up a hill or anything, do it. Its a great feeling when you set yourself that little goal and smash it. Just dont put too much pressure on yourself and demotivate yourself.

Be consistent in what youre doing too. I spent too long off the bike eating junk again and now I am back to needing to lose a few KG.

 

[alicat]

Focus on enjoying your cycling, building up the miles and work on the reasons why you eat too much. That way it will be a longterm fix.

 

[si_c]

Don't worry about HIIT specific workouts and so on at this point, just get out on the bike and ride. The further and longer you ride for the more calories you will burn.

What I would say is useful is to track what you eat and your calorie burn, I use MyFitnessPal and Strava together, and lost well over 60lbs that way. Use the exercise to let you eat more so you're not massively hungry all the time.

It took me a couple of years to lose that weight though, so bear that in mind and don't get disheartened when you.dont lose it all in six months.

Good luck!

 

[Racing roadkill]

Concentrate on enjoying riding first. Aim to get a regular pattern of rides done first. Then increase the KWh ( Kilowatthours, a measure of how effective your rides are, by balancing effort made, with time ridden ). Then start to think about technicalities like Intervals / HIIT. You can increase the KWh of your rides, quite easily, by routing a few inclines into your rides, to start.
Good luck with it all, it sounds like you're off to a good start.

 

[Crackle]

I would take the advice of people like si_c, as he's been there and done that, he's also quite quick on a bike these days. Good luck and stick at it.

 

[MichaelW2]

Before you can use a bike as a fitness tool you have to get fit enough for riding a bike. This means conditioning through just riding along, adapting and adjusting to the riding position and also working on bike handling skills and roadcraft.
It will probably take about 3 months to get bike fit.

 

[bpsmith]

I would also say don’t wait to do the hills, by thinking that you will build up to it from extra flat miles. I soon found out that you can only do Hills, by actually trying to do hills. I waited and wish I had started tackling hills from the start.

Yes, tackle the shallower ones first, at a comfortable pace, but don’t just stick to the flat.

Overall, enjoy yourself. That’s the real gain, with the extra miles naturally flowing from not wanting to get off the bike.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Riding a bike is a great way to get / keep fit, and keep / get in shape.
For example.

Here's me, in about 2008. I primarily played Rugby, and rode bikes to get around, do Cardio stuff, commute to work, short leisure rides and the like, as I had done for most of my life. It was relatively low mileage stuff, and included a fair bit of short, off road / MTB type rides. The Rugby was my main focus. I was forced into kicking the Rugby into touch, by injuries. So I decided to change my activity focus to mainly bike riding. I started concentrating on mainly road riding, and changed to much bigger distance / endurance type rides, interspersed with some club / sporty type rides, and didn't do so much MTB / off road stuff.

And this is the result.

I'd get killed in a scrum now, but a long distance road ride is far more comfortable.

 

[Bollo]

Any +1 to @si_c 's advice. Tracking what goes in is probably more important than what's going out. Some form of calorie tracker (MyFitnessPal is the most common and free if you can put up with the ads). A half decent bike computer / Strava will give you a *rough* estimate of calories expended based on your weight, but these can be out by quite a way.

Steady and sensible is the way to go for both food and exercise. You'll burn more calories doing an hour of steady cycling than 5 minutes of banzai HIT stuff, and you'll be less likely to injure yourself.

 

[nickAKA]

Kudos, 100 miles a month from nowhere is a great achievement.
This is a bit of a ramble but stick with it...
I lost about 6Kg without noticing it very much over a few years by doing fun/family bike rides & thinking about what I was eating during the working week, but I was still 'cutting loose' at the weekend and I didn't torture myself with daft diets or put pressure on myself with any kind of goals.
For context, like a lot of people the spread set in as I got older (similar to your age I suppose) & acquired a dodgy back plus I quit a 40-a-day smoking habit.
When my daughter was born (I was 40 at the time) I reassessed my lifestyle and decided to do something positive so I might be around when she got older; I bought a cheap wristband step counter, put a fitness app on my phone & bought some 'connected' scales. We'd never had a set of scales in our house and I've never been a gym bunny of any description, but just being able to SEE how I'm doing has been a massive encouragement to improving my overall fitness.
Having shed enough weight to feel better about myself & to know I'm heading in the right direction, I bought a road bike, put a GPS on it and downloaded strava & mapmyride to track what I do. My aim is to be a 'normal' weight (in the medical sense) and to be reasonably fit without feeling like everything I do is a gigantic effort. I don't really have the time or desire to do competitive riding but those 2 bike apps have helped me set some goals and to 'compete' in a manner that isn't an all-consuming obsession.

TL;DR - don't kill yourself trying to be Bradley Wiggins; take your time, enjoy it, change for the better, remember nobody is perfect.

Hope this helps (from one newbie to another)

 

[Cycleops]

The great thing about cycling you is can do it at your own pace. Sounds like you’ve got the eating under control so just cycle whatever makes you comfortable. Don’t knock yourself out.

 

[bpsmith]

I particularly like the ever so slightly smug grin in that second photo @Racing roadkill.

 

[BurningLegs]

I lost 16KG in about a year by increasing my riding and paying a little attention to my diet. On the riding side, I would say just do what you enjoy at this point, and as much of it as you can find time for.

There may be some quick and easy "wins" that can be made in the kitchen - for me, these were:
1. Significantly reduce alcohol intake
2. Start the day right - it sounds boring, but I now eat the same breakfast each and every day. I know it gets me through to lunch time and I know that it is low in calories so gets my day started well
3. Eat until you don't feel hungry anymore, rather than eating until you feel full