Mrs M
Guru
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Glad to be of some help, bike looks very nice!. Let us know what you decide on.
Obese guy - recently started cycling - need advice
- Thread starter callummac
- Start date
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Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Oh God…... not another fat bloke who has a young kid who realises he might die prematurely and not see his sprog grow up because of his terrible unhealthy lifestyle thread.
You don't need a bike with all the gadgets, etc. stop spending! It's just like your food addiction. To feel good you feel you need to fill your mouth. You don't. Drastically cut your food intake, just eat half what you eat now, cut out the takeaways and fast food, buy a pair of trainers and go running for one hour everyday and run hard incorporating some interval training, press ups, squat thrusts, chin ups - basic warm up exercises. Maybe do some swimming as well and a bit of cycling to break up your new exercise schedule. To really lose weight from cycling you have to ride regularly, hard and far which I suspect you will be unable to do at this stage as you are still too big and unfit. Don't eat late at night. You might not like my advice, infact the trolls won't, but it is my advice and good advice.
You don't need a bike with all the gadgets, etc. stop spending! It's just like your food addiction. To feel good you feel you need to fill your mouth. You don't. Drastically cut your food intake, just eat half what you eat now, cut out the takeaways and fast food, buy a pair of trainers and go running for one hour everyday and run hard incorporating some interval training, press ups, squat thrusts, chin ups - basic warm up exercises. Maybe do some swimming as well and a bit of cycling to break up your new exercise schedule. To really lose weight from cycling you have to ride regularly, hard and far which I suspect you will be unable to do at this stage as you are still too big and unfit. Don't eat late at night. You might not like my advice, infact the trolls won't, but it is my advice and good advice.
@Crankarm - Whilst your response does have a few assumptions, such as my being fat because it was a way to make me feel good (I never felt good at any point eating crap). My road to weight gain started after a Rugby injury. Whilst laid out I never adjusted my eating appropriately, this led to fat gain ans this fat gain turned into depression which led to me withdrawing from doing about anything and throwing my time into gaming which I ended up addicted to. Whilst I won the depression fight, I was still addicted to the gaming. My little one helped me quit my gaming addiction and as such I have now had time to reflect upon my decisions. They were bad and I unlike many who dont realise this till too late, have the opportunity to do something about it.
I agree with you on much of what you have said, I try to do 10 miles per day (bout an hour), 5 times per week and a longer 35-40 mile run at the weekend (3 hours).
I will be joining a gym, but the reason I chose cycling was that it is a sport I enjoy, and is that not a large bit of the battle?
Anyway, I asked for the help, some hard truths need to be said so I thank you for your honesty.
I agree with you on much of what you have said, I try to do 10 miles per day (bout an hour), 5 times per week and a longer 35-40 mile run at the weekend (3 hours).
I will be joining a gym, but the reason I chose cycling was that it is a sport I enjoy, and is that not a large bit of the battle?
Anyway, I asked for the help, some hard truths need to be said so I thank you for your honesty.
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Donger
Convoi Exceptionnel
- Location
- Quedgeley, Glos.
Well done for taking action. You certainly seem to have a plan. I agree with what @BrumJim says. Now you need to start enjoying it and making it a way of life. I did what he is advising and I got into countryside rides, charity rides and audaxes. I rode with riding buddies as much as possible and used all my solo rides as practice towards taking on rides that would gradually start challenging me more and more.
When I started riding I weighed over 21 stone and was very chubby and obviously overweight (even for someone of 6 feet 6) and unfit. I've been riding for nearly 6 years now, and it is starting to take over my life. I've done 6 audaxes of over 100Km, 5 charity rides, including London to Brighton Overnight, and I've started taking on the big hills. I always take my bike on holiday with me and have done my first Alp (the Col de l'Epine near Annecy) and Britain's biggest climb (Bealach Na Ba) within the last year. I've recently joined a local cycle club who go out every Sunday morning and I'm loving it. I may still be just under 20 stone, but the numbers don't really matter. My legs now sink like a stone when I go swimming, and I feel great. I am living proof that people of any size and weight can take to cycling and use it to get themselves fitter than they ever thought possible.
I don't know about you, but I've never got on with jogging, and swimming bores me, but cycling allows you to go wherever you want and get right out into the countryside, and is just so rewarding. Make it something you can look forward to and you won't have to worry about your fitness. That will take care of itself.
When I started riding I weighed over 21 stone and was very chubby and obviously overweight (even for someone of 6 feet 6) and unfit. I've been riding for nearly 6 years now, and it is starting to take over my life. I've done 6 audaxes of over 100Km, 5 charity rides, including London to Brighton Overnight, and I've started taking on the big hills. I always take my bike on holiday with me and have done my first Alp (the Col de l'Epine near Annecy) and Britain's biggest climb (Bealach Na Ba) within the last year. I've recently joined a local cycle club who go out every Sunday morning and I'm loving it. I may still be just under 20 stone, but the numbers don't really matter. My legs now sink like a stone when I go swimming, and I feel great. I am living proof that people of any size and weight can take to cycling and use it to get themselves fitter than they ever thought possible.
I don't know about you, but I've never got on with jogging, and swimming bores me, but cycling allows you to go wherever you want and get right out into the countryside, and is just so rewarding. Make it something you can look forward to and you won't have to worry about your fitness. That will take care of itself.
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I think you're taking this WAY too seriously. First of all, speak too Gaz (someone will tell you his user name), he was twice your weight when he started (literally) so stop beating yourself up. Secondly, ditch your cadence and heart monitor, Garmin and scales and just get out there and enjoy yourself. You will soon find the weight is dropping off, especially if you cut out the snacks and food which is obviously high in fat. You don't have to do all this cadence monitoring listen to your body instead. 10 miles is 10 miles, whatever cadence you do it at. Just let the weight drop off naturally and then when you're fitter and stronger you can reattach the gadgets and start training like a pro
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Keep up the good work @callummac!
Take a look at this bike which caught my attention a couple of days ago. It has the advantage of rack and mudguard fixtures and should be good for many different types of riding.
As for the fizzy drinks ... do what I do and add some fruit juice to chilled sparkling mineral water. Obviously you should try to make the water to juice ratio as high as possible to keep the calories down. I mix it about 2:1.
Take a look at the fasting thread to see how many of have been doing with it. I am nearly 5 stone lighter after 2 years of it.
Take a look at this bike which caught my attention a couple of days ago. It has the advantage of rack and mudguard fixtures and should be good for many different types of riding.
As for the fizzy drinks ... do what I do and add some fruit juice to chilled sparkling mineral water. Obviously you should try to make the water to juice ratio as high as possible to keep the calories down. I mix it about 2:1.
Take a look at the fasting thread to see how many of have been doing with it. I am nearly 5 stone lighter after 2 years of it.
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Actually ... that Cannondale does look rather nice too!
I have an older Cannondale road bike and love it.
I have an older Cannondale road bike and love it.
jdtate101
Ex-Fatman
- Location
- Boring Birmingham
As someone who was pretty much exactly where you are now (19.5st, 6ft1 and 37 at my heaviest), I started to just go out an cycle the local canal towpaths on my old clunker steel mtb. The weight started to drop off after about 2 weeks of regular outings of about 10 miles a time. Once I was down to about 16.5st I moved over to a road bike, which then helped me up the duration of rides to get down to 12.5st I am now. As others have said, you don't really need all the metrics right now, just concentrate on getting the miles in and do so religiously. Using a tracking website (Strava, mapmyride etc..) is a good way to keep an diary of your distances and also will help you see improvements in speed. One way to do this is to set yourself a test route that you can do often, so you can see your progress as you get faster.
I found that trying to restrict what you eat/diet didn't help as you just end up craving what you can't have, and are therefore more prone to slip up. Portion control, on the other hand, DID work well for me. I had what I liked, just much less of it, and snacked on fruit and water in-between meals to make me feel "full" and less likely to raid the fridge.
Keep up the good work, and trust me, you will start to see the rewards. Only downside is you will need to buy a whole new wardrobe, but that can be a great thing too.
I found that trying to restrict what you eat/diet didn't help as you just end up craving what you can't have, and are therefore more prone to slip up. Portion control, on the other hand, DID work well for me. I had what I liked, just much less of it, and snacked on fruit and water in-between meals to make me feel "full" and less likely to raid the fridge.
Keep up the good work, and trust me, you will start to see the rewards. Only downside is you will need to buy a whole new wardrobe, but that can be a great thing too.
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Fine. Talk is cheap, action is where it counts. Only you can do it. When you do get down to 12stones your success will be even sweeter, but you have to remain at 12 stones and not relapse so you shouldn't just call it quits. You are fundamentally changing your life - a whole new mindset of healthy eating and exercise.
The advice below of the ex-fatman JDTate is good as well.
Good luck.
Big_Dave
The unlikely Cyclist
- Location
- Alfreton, Derbyshire
we are talking beginners level not expert cyling as I said earlier the 220-age is inaccurate, as you will know british cycling use totally different traning zones, even if you put your max HR and resting HR into garmin it will not work out the zones to british cycling zones, if you want those zones you would have to manual input those and to be honest if a beginner followed british cycling zones they would have a heart attack.
As I also said the garmin uses your age/weight on initial set up for heart rate zones and calories, it will work out your max and resting, the max hr being 220-age (I do not know how it works out the resting) yes this is inacurate if you know your exact max and min, if you do know you also have the option to put in your own values if you wish to do so for more accurate hr zones, read the user manual!!
subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
ignore the bickering about HRMs . you don't need one. get on the bike and ride. don't buy upgrades , ride UP grades
fab foodie gave the best answers so far.
it is what I did back in 2010. ( and i am back trying to do after stopping commuting by bike earlier this year as job changed)
the more you ride and exercise the better. there is a really simple formula of
daily make sure calories consumed is equal to or less than calories burned .
if you eat more than you burn you get fat - simples. as a rugby player did you like a few beers or 10
I did. cutting down on the beer helped me a lot. no weekday drinking and a couple of glasses of wine ( maybe bottle shaped) on a friday and saturday.
somebody here told me that alcohol inhibits the bodies ability to burn fat/carbs /whatever efficiently
and WELL DONE for what you have done so far
fab foodie gave the best answers so far.
it is what I did back in 2010. ( and i am back trying to do after stopping commuting by bike earlier this year as job changed)
the more you ride and exercise the better. there is a really simple formula of
daily make sure calories consumed is equal to or less than calories burned .
if you eat more than you burn you get fat - simples. as a rugby player did you like a few beers or 10
I did. cutting down on the beer helped me a lot. no weekday drinking and a couple of glasses of wine ( maybe bottle shaped) on a friday and saturday. somebody here told me that alcohol inhibits the bodies ability to burn fat/carbs /whatever efficiently
and WELL DONE for what you have done so far
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
If you miss the fizz of drinks try a bottle of soda water, after my injury booze was off the menu (30mg Codeine x2 four times a day) Soda water gave me that 'Mouth feel'
Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
The cyclocross bike looks good but you don't need to restrict yourself to this type. Anything with 28c + tyres will handle tracks and trails fine. So you can also consider something like this http://www.konaworld.com/honky_tonk.cfm
Don't discount steel frames, they can be more comfortable than Ali and give a better ride.
Well done on the fitness front. All you really need to do is cut out fat/oil, sugar and beer. Keep it up.