Losing Weight on Bicycles; Watching the Weight Drop. Finally!
In the last two weeks I dropped 3 pounds. Per week. Six pounds, gone, in two weeks.
I’ve been riding big miles for five weeks now. Meaning I went three weeks before the needle moved… down. I actually gained a pound in the first three weeks. Then all of a sudden, BAM!
It would have been very easy to give up hope and opt for drastic measures but I felt that if I just hung in there, good things would happen, and they did.
Dropping six pounds off of my current 16.8 pound bike would cost…. um, carry the one…. About $15,000. The cost of a brand new, top of the line, H1 Trek Emonda – one of the lightest production bikes available at a shade over 10 pounds (minus pedals and cages of course).
I’ve been managing my weight for six years on two wheels and I thought I’d present some of my experience in the form of little nuggets.
- Losing weight in the first two or three years is easier. Once my body got used to the mileage I put on it, it became more efficient at the exercise.
- Age sucks… The older I get, the more carefully I have to manage my diet.
- The bike makes it more fun. I’d ride a leisure bike if I had to but I wouldn’t like it as much as what I ride today.
- I ride the bicycle equivalent of a McLaren and it is good.
- Cycling hard enough to really burn the weight is more enjoyable on a bike I respect and love to ride.
- The faster I am willing to go, the easier the weight slides off.
- It took three years to get my cycling legs. Three years and more than 15,000 miles of busting my butt on the road before I really felt like I could be comfortable putting in big miles on both weekend days (50+ a day).
- Unfortunately, when I got my cycling legs, losing weight became a little more challenging.
- My bottom line has always been, ride hard, ride happy. Riding slow burns half the calories.
- I don’t count easy effort calories against my diet. I ride so much I have to use active recovery rides to keep from burning out. I don’t count them.