Please help me choose,Rollers or t/trainer?

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tigger

Über Member
You would probably have lost weight quicker than half a pound a week if you upped the intensity a bit. Riding at 70% HR on a turbo is a waste of time, IMO.

Nah, I've not been on a constant diet or low intensity training for 2 years. You have to lose weight in chunks, stabilise it and enjoy life, do some seriously hard riding for your fitness and then try and lose a bit more. When I'm losing weight I'll typically lose 3-4 kg in a week without too much hardship. Have a search on the web for "heart rate zones" and you should find plenty of info on how your body burns fat in low aerobic zones, not anaerobic zones. Basically, it's pretty difficult to lose weight during hard training stints. You'll lose weight instantly through fluid loss, but for most people high intensity just burns carbs which naturally need replacing, so you just eat more. You may also have seen this weeks's Cycling Weekly talking about Team Sky's nutrition? Alex Dowsett specifically says, "If you're trying to lose weight, don't try to lose weight and train. If you're trying to lose weight go through a phase of light training so you're not compromising either one."

Anyway, it works for me. Low intensity training won't make you a strong cyclist, but it will help make you a lighter one if you follow the right diet. (It may also improve your stamina on long rides too as your body will learn to tap into the fat stores more easily during the easy sections and save your glycogen stores for the hills / hard pushes). IMHO anyway

Oh, and the beauty of the turbo trainer for me is that I cannot ride below 70% max hr on the roads. A) it's dull and B) its impossible in the Peak District!
 
Nah, I've not been on a constant diet or low intensity training for 2 years. You have to lose weight in chunks, stabilise it and enjoy life, do some seriously hard riding for your fitness and then try and lose a bit more. When I'm losing weight I'll typically lose 3-4 kg in a week without too much hardship. Have a search on the web for "heart rate zones" and you should find plenty of info on how your body burns fat in low aerobic zones, not anaerobic zones. Basically, it's pretty difficult to lose weight during hard training stints. You'll lose weight instantly through fluid loss, but for most people high intensity just burns carbs which naturally need replacing, so you just eat more. You may also have seen this weeks's Cycling Weekly talking about Team Sky's nutrition? Alex Dowsett specifically says, "If you're trying to lose weight, don't try to lose weight and train. If you're trying to lose weight go through a phase of light training so you're not compromising either one."

Anyway, it works for me. Low intensity training won't make you a strong cyclist, but it will help make you a lighter one if you follow the right diet. (It may also improve your stamina on long rides too as your body will learn to tap into the fat stores more easily during the easy sections and save your glycogen stores for the hills / hard pushes). IMHO anyway

Oh, and the beauty of the turbo trainer for me is that I cannot ride below 70% max hr on the roads. A) it's dull and B) its impossible in the Peak District!

I'm fairly familiar with HR zones. The fact is that you burn fat and carbs pretty much in equal measure all the time. It's true that at low intensity you will burn fractionally more fat than cals, but the percentage is so small as to be insignificant. Obviously at higher intensities, you will burn greater amounts of both, which is why if you spent an hour on the turbo at a higher intensity (like 75-85% of MHR), you would be able to burn a greater percentage of fat within the same time frame - and see more worthwhile gains in your aerobic fitness.

Either way, the reality is that diet control is by far the most effective way to lose weight - not sitting on the turbo at 70%.
 

amaferanga

Veteran
Location
Bolton
I suspect what Dowsett is getting at is that if you're trying to lose weight and therefore restricting calories then recovery is slower and it's consequently much harder to do repeated hard training days. If on the other hand you do a bit of 'just riding' then it's easier to rack up the hours on the bike and burn more calories (NOT more fat).

Please try not to perpetuate the fat burning myth - it's responsible for all the fatties strolling on the treadmill at the gym and burning virtually no calories.
 
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