Best way to drop 12kg of fat = cycling or weight training 3x per week?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
Speaking from experience, if you want to lose weight, take up running to complement your cycling.
Start with running say up to 5k. Progress from there, the weight just dropped off.

I've been doing couch to 5k - on week 10 so far. Weight is still the same though :-(

To be fair, I haven't been out on the bike much though. Hopefully nicer weather and more free time is on the way :-)

My top tip for taking up running is ZRX (formerly Zombies Run). Instead of running, you are in a story which largely involves running away. For me, channelling my inner Rincewind is far more interesting that just jogging. ZRX have also done a deal with Marvel - I'm currently working with Thor and Loki, improving my fitness and also saving the realms (i've done the Zombie couch to 5k before, then stopped running, so I wanted a change). Couch to 5k also available with Hulk and a general Avengers themed one.

It's not free, but it is fun.
 

presta

Guru
IMO / IME weight loss is best tackled through diet - ultimately controlling energy intake. The only thing I've found that works is low carb; which (when I could stick to it) allowed me to lose around 0.5kg/wk. Ultimately I went from a high of 86kg to around 68kg over a period of maybe 2-3yrs doing low carb intermittently.. now life sucks I'm back to around 80kg but do have a bit more upper body muscle mass (however nowhere near enough to account for the extra weight) thanks to doing a limited weights routine whilst eating "normally" (rampantly binging on carbs).
I'm not convinced, my experience is pretty much the opposite.

Yo-yo dieters typically complain that dieting makes them feel miserable, and that's my experience: it feels like my body is trying to reduce my metabolic rate to match the lower calorie intake rather than burn fat to make up the deficit. This seems reasonable to me, in a time of famine, reducing your energy demand rather than burning up fat reserves would appear to be the better strategy for survival.

On the other hand, regular exercise is continually reminding your body that it needs its current metabolic rate as it is, and induces it to burn fat to fuel the exercise rather than trying to conserve energy. I note how many I've seen on TV who delight in the effortless loss of weight after taking up regular exercise.

In 2008 my weight had ballooned to 86kg, and all my attempts to reduce it had met with failure until I tried increasing my exercise level before reducing my calorie intake. Once I did that, the weight fell off without any difficulty, and I ended up at about 69kg

A year after I quit cycle touring in 2011 my weight was virtually unchanged, and yet my xylophone rib cage had disappeared under a thick layer of fat. AFAICT the weight of that fat had been offset by a loss of muscle, and that in spite of a large reduction in calorie intake. Twelve years on, my weight still is about 70kg, but it's been up to 80 and back down again since then, and again I got nowhere stopping the weight gain without some increase in exercise to go with the calorie reduction.

I eat a low fat diet, mainly because that's what healthy eating advice usually recommends, but I've noticed that my cholesterol levels seem to correlate better with exercise level than dietary fat though.

I lost about 18 kg (from 93 to 75) in 7 months......I simply balanced calories in vs calories out.
If you lost 18kg in 7 months your average daily calorie intake must have been about 660kcal less than you burnt.
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
what gets my blood boiling is personal trainers saying cardio doesnt make you lose weight compared to weight training , " you get enough cardio from doing heavy sets ". Of course more calories out than in is a given .
They obviously havent done a proper cardio session in their life and would pay to see them actually try say a sub 3.30 hour 100 km bike ride or a sub 45 min 10 k run and then let them come back to me
 
What's worked for me ???

Slimming world. Sure it's £6 a week for little more than getting weighed - but that weigh in keeps me focused.

I have also altered my diet - my everyday breakfast is 50% fruit

My default snack is an apple.

I only very rarely have milk in my tea - the vast majority of my teas are herbal or roibios

I don't eat after 8pm

Being doing this for 18 months ....12st 6 when started now 11st....
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
having a "discussion" with someone advertising a drink on facefluuf local group thats supposed to let you eat what you like, im asking for independant clinical trial result for this drink and im still waiting having pointed out all the ones i have ever seen have been proved to to be a con and can be dangerous to your health , ohh and he looks about 30 stone .
 

siadwell

Guru
Location
Surrey
I haven't looked at this in detail, but they play this guy's videos in the gym and there seems to be some good stuff in there.
https://builtwithscience.com/
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
I haven't looked at this in detail, but they play this guy's videos in the gym and there seems to be some good stuff in there.
https://builtwithscience.com/

be careful im 145 lbs 5 foot 7 and its trying to recommend all sorts of stuff that i dont need for weight loss at a discount price of $67 or $119 premium for programs i can find for free anyway.questionaire questionable as it doesnt fully explore your goals and just assumes everyone is after a shred 6 pack or lean look without consideration of sporting ambitions
 
Last edited:

Tail End Charlie

Well, write it down boy ......
worth a watch , i know its long but its broke down into sections
basically try to avoid ultra processed foods as they do not fill you up properly , you dont need extra protein for 95% of the population including body builders and eat more fibre

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XrntcEUjLM


Absolutely the most important thing is for people to eat more fibre. I have a book - The High Fibre Diet book by Andrew Stanley, first published in 1976, which is like a Bible to me. Dental health, obesity, diabetes, gallstones, bowel cancer, they all come back to the need for more fibre. It's not a diet book as such, more a way of life, which, for me, is crucial.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
It always boils down to calories in v calories out = calorie deficit.

How you go about it, is varied.

You could go low fat or high fat diet based, increase protein to help lean mass.
 
Top Bottom