On Sunday I decided to go on a diet. Since Sunday despite cycling 390miles i've put on 3kg This diet is not going well!
Maybe you're over compensating. Are you eating more to replace calories burnt off exercising? Imho, the best way to loose weight is by mainly diet and not rely on exercise. It's sadly too easy to pile on weight after exercise simply because you're ravenous and want to eat. You have to be careful. Exercise is excellent for general health, not so great for weight loss!
My weight can fluctuate 1.5kg over the course of a couple of days. Depends on what I've been doing, eating and time of the day. I can well believe a weight gain of 3kg over 4 days.
A diet to loose weight should be a long term thing, not just a few days I think of it as a 6 week delay between what you do now and seeing a result, so don't give up if you don't see any results for several weeks the 3kg gain could be down to dehydration from your rides. If you dehydrate you body it will retain more water than normal for several days just incase you do it again. I would expect the additional 3kg will disappear in a few days
Good points, and agreed. 3 or 4 days is too soon to be seeing lasting results. As I said earlier, my weight fluctuates quite markedly, and I know I can be down a fair bit after a ride purely due to dehydration... and equally back up again once I rehydrate. But, also, do watch those post ride munchies!
I'm confused. Ignoring muscle growth I always assumed that, weight loss = calories in - calories out. If the answer goes into the minuses then you will lose weight. So if you exercise you should lose weight.
At it's most simplistic, it is as straightforward as that. What confuses the issue is that we believe we are burning far more than we actually are and then, after exercise, feel hungry and go and over fill. There is an argument for NOT exercising if you want to loose weight - simply because it becomes difficult to manage hunger. I'm not saying become a couch potato, you do need to have a level of general activity, but the high intensity exercise (gyms, cycling, jogging, etc) tends to destabilise the body, throwing it into a kind of binge/starve or wealth/dearth phases. This just confuses the body chemistry and it hoards in times of wealth to deal with the times of poverty. There are several dieticians that would go further than that, and debate the nature of the calorie consumed (not all calories are equal). We're told, for instance, to go for high carb snacks to replenish glycogen levels... but it is the sugars that spike insulin levels and cause weight gain. The more I read of this stuff, the more I realise it is a more complex equation than simply calories in and calories out.
hi john, a gain of 3kg in 4 days can only be water retention. dieting can cause this particularly crash dieting. also not to be crude, crash dieters may not move the bowels as often as before (less weight lost and a poop can weigh a kilo or 2 per day). bin there done that. also the body goes into survival mode as it doesn't know when the next meal might arrive. the easiest way is to whack in some massive miles regularly, but i know you do that already. cheers shaun
That concurs with my experience.After a week including some extra long rides I dont usually lose weight,then the following week i seem to lose more than I expect.
if you want to lose weight rapidly i would also suggest leaving the bike for just general fitness and enjoyment.. if you want fast weight decrease High Intensity Interval Training is ideal *But this can cause extreme fatigue and i wouldnt recommend without being sure you're body can cope with the stress*
Its taken me a year to lose about 10kg. I'm hugely fitter than I was, much more active, blood pressure and resting pulse improved, waist has shrunk a little too, but boy is it hard work. Massive leg muscles now mind (daily commute is 14 miles round trip, when I started it seemed impossibly far, now it seems quite a short ride!), but getting rid of the stomach bulge (and the other 20kg) is obviously going to take years, not the few months I first thought. Nige
Similar to my story that,nigel.1 year since i started cycling and i'm 10kg lighter and quite a bit fitter.Used to be really hungry after a ride,now I'm just eating normally each day and the weight is coming off nicely. Like you I still have plenty to lose(maybe 15kg) but that's not going to happen quickly.
