Question for overweight or obese people

[jimboalee]

I'm 5'8". I'm 14st 2lb. Obese?

My fat percentage by Slimguide calipers is just under 20%. Still obese?

What is my ideal Fat% for a fifty year old? 16% according to US Navy.

So I'm 4% overweight with a bodyweight of 198lb. Round it up to 200 lb and 1% is 2lb. 4% is 8lb !!!

I should be 13st 6lb.

Two years ago I was 13st 3lb when I started the Land's End to John O'Groats. I was wearing 32" waist trousers and 42" jerseys.
Today, I'm in 34" trousers.

My BMI is 30. Yes, I'm obese, CLINICALLY OBESE.

Strange how a 'clinically obese' fatso can ride the Solihull 100km Micro Rando in 4 hrs 22 mins !!!

 

[eldudino]

I've also passed the point where I see every commute as a potential personal best.

I'm still at that point! PB'd today by maintaining an 18.5mph on the way to work (via the 14mile flat route) and a 16mph ave on the way home over 4 miles uphill. I agree that the intensity is hard to keep up but I think I'll end up going to days where I do and days where I don't.

As for the OP, cycling's become such a large part of my life now that I don't think I'll give it up again. I resent paying tax and insurance for the car when it just sits there depreciating and corroding most of the time. As for using cycling as a weightloss technique, my diet revolves around limiting calories and it's working fine with or without the cycling but I really do enjoy the level of fitness it's given me. I'm still a bloater but not as unfit as I was, thanks to the bike!

 

[Fab Foodie]

I'd ride more. It's more fun when I'm thinner. I don't ride to get thin, because as every egg-shaped audaxer will tell you, that doesn't always work

Absolutely.
I'm now the fattest I've ever been, a nads away from obese and better on the bike than I've ever been in many respects, but this weight takes the fun out of hills and rapid acceleration. After 3 days riding across Lancashire and Yorkshire including grinding my way up Tan hill, I've finally come to the realisation that my next and biggest challenge is my weight.

 

[TheDoctor]

A year ago I was 10kg lighter and I did Ventoux.
I'm not sure I could do it now, or at least it wouldn't be fun.
I need to lose some!

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Some compelling stories in this thread .. why can't more people see that it's the way to go to get fit? Probably because they're the same as what I was before I started .. just can't see what fun it all is. I've become a bit of a bike to work evangelist, I'm afraid.

Anyway, I'm a BMI of 29 and a (fairly big) bit so right up the top end of overweight. In fact, a weekend on the beer or a couple of pies too many or a few days off the bike can put me just over BMI30 and so into obese.

I've not especially lost a lot of weight over my last year and a bit of commuting but I have redistributed it, converted some wobbly bits to firm bits and generally toned myself up. Also gone a few notches the right way on my belts. And my peak flow exhale (mildly asthmatic) has improved considerably. So I'm a happy camper.

Me and Mrs-LC always used to do plenty of walking, with the in-laws. Then the Little-LCs came along and while it's fine in the early years (shove them in one of those back carrier things and off you go) there comes a point when they want to walk themselves and so that limits your range and speed. And up went my weight.

However, they are now old enough (6 and 8) to do some bigger walks: our current record is 8 miles over flattish ground locally and 6-7 miles in Snowdonia last year (up and down Cadair Idris).

Plus, they can ride as well so we've started to improve our range there: we managed to do the Forest Way from Groombridge to East Grinstead a few weeks ago, stopping overnight at East Grinstead before returing the next day. That was 15 miles each way and the 6yo amazed us by doing the whole thing under her own steam. It took a while, and is small beer to an adult of course, but we were pretty happy with her. Now we want to work on improving their speed and range and build up to a "proper" family tour sometime in the next few years.

Anyway, waffle over: I'm sure that if I were when I get lighter I will continue to ride - the commute has got easier and easier over the last year so I'll keep pushing that .. plus I've got to stay ahead of the family!!

 

[MancRider78]

Damn everyone is saying 17stone.... I'm 20st 11lbs. Damn Damn Damn.... guess my 15.5 mile a day commute ain't gonna cut it. But I ain't gonna rush into anything, my weight seems to be comming off even after a week but no point in rushing things

 

[peanut]

Damn everyone is saying 17stone.... I'm 20st 11lbs. Damn Damn Damn.... guess my 15.5 mile a day commute ain't gonna cut it. But I ain't gonna rush into anything, my weight seems to be comming off even after a week but no point in rushing things

I guess its all relative

i often think damn everyone seems to be 14 stone flyweights , am I ever going to be lighter than 16st 10lb
You've made the first and most important move you just need to keep motivated . Its so easy to give up at first when every slight incline seems like a mountain and hurts like hell.

Are you keeping a food diary ? its surprising where the unseen calories sneak in. I was convinced I was on 1500 kcal a day . Turned out it was closer to 2000 .
A few tweaks and it was down to 1500 and I started losing some serious weight. 1 stone in 8 weeks.

15 miles a day is damn good when starting out . thats 75 miles a week , more than I do progress should be quite quick.

 

[Riverman]

Jimbalaoe, you're the same height and weight as me. I know how you feel mate.

According to the BMI I'm clinically obese, yet if you look at me I just look stocky with big shoulders. I don't look obese. A little fat yes, but not obese.

 

[Sittingduck]

Damn everyone is saying 17stone.... I'm 20st 11lbs. Damn Damn Damn.... guess my 15.5 mile a day commute ain't gonna cut it. But I ain't gonna rush into anything, my weight seems to be comming off even after a week but no point in rushing things

Don't worry about it. Think of the advantage you'll get on the skinny folk when you go downhill 15 and a half miles per day will see you drop if you watch the calory intake (which is where I fail)!

 

[MancRider78]

thanks people, think thats made my mind up for sunday, lang ride or gym for a gentle swim. Gentle swim saturday, after commute to and from work..and the real reason is spa and steam room!!! Then sunday some fun down a canal towpath I think, see how far to leigh I can get

 

[mad al]

I'm 5'8". I'm 14st 2lb. Obese?

My fat percentage by Slimguide calipers is just under 20%. Still obese?

What is my ideal Fat% for a fifty year old? 16% according to US Navy.

So I'm 4% overweight with a bodyweight of 198lb. Round it up to 200 lb and 1% is 2lb. 4% is 8lb !!!

I should be 13st 6lb.

Two years ago I was 13st 3lb when I started the Land's End to John O'Groats. I was wearing 32" waist trousers and 42" jerseys.
Today, I'm in 34" trousers.

My BMI is 30. Yes, I'm obese, CLINICALLY OBESE.

Strange how a 'clinically obese' fatso can ride the Solihull 100km Micro Rando in 4 hrs 22 mins !!!

Well I'm just a 1/2" taller than you and the same waist/chest size and weigh..................................10stone 12lbs , you must have a load of muscles or summat that isn't obviously seen

 

[TechMech]

Well just to add my 2p's worth......

I was 18st 7lb at the start of December, and it was only when I saw myself in a groupshot of office staff last Christmas, that I thought jezus i'm fat!!!

At 6' 3", my belly was starting to look like a beach ball, and my neck and head were merging into one! (And don't get me start on the jowels!)

So I started walking at lunch time, about a mile at first then up'd it to a 4 mile route 4 days a week, until February when I decided to purchase my Boardman Hybrid.

I start off doing an 11mile route using NCN77 and then did my first Scottish CC ride of 28 miles (which just about killed me). The I up'd the distance to 14-15 mile routes doing them two nights a week, with a 25 mile run at the weekend.

Now 15 mile runs are over too quickly, so it's 24-25 mile routes for the two week days and 35+ mile runs for the weekend (just done a 38 mile run today actually )

So around 700 miles later, i'm now 17st 2lb and miles (pun intended) fitter. Already i'm getting less problems with my knees and my back is now in much better shape, after suffering with back problems last year.

The target weight for me is 16st 7lb (which i used to be about 7 years ago), but if i can get down to 16st on the nose (or dare i say under?) by February next year i've promised myself a new bike, a proper (and my first ever!) racing one, and something with carbon fibre on it, hmmmmmmm carbon )

So stick at it guys, i'm with you all the way

 

[jimboalee]

Well I'm just a 1/2" taller than you and the same waist/chest size and weigh..................................10stone 12lbs , you must have a load of muscles or summat that isn't obviously seen

I was 10st 8lb on my wedding day 20 years ago.

I did a lot of running back then, which caused my cycling performance to deteriorate.

My new Brothers-in-law called me "Barry Belsen" because I was so skinny.

I joined a weights gym and got back on the bike. Stopped running distances and my weight increased by three stones. My fat % went up from 11% to 16%.
Work that out and estimate how much 'Lean mass' I gained.

1 stone of fat + 2 stone of muscle.

 

[Losidan]

Another one for the ride more vote...

I am ashamed to say I started out at 24 stone 18 months ago. First ride on the MTB I managed to get round the block which was 1.5 miles....Knackered afterwards.....The doc told me that I was in danger of becoming diabetic if I didnt stop putting it on. I was already on statins at 36 and had been for a few years

I got weighed last week at the doc's last week and I have so far lost 5 stone.

I find as the weight comes off and I see improvements in my riding I just want more.more. more

I find the more I loose the less my appetite is and I just have far more energy normal day to day....so again it just makes we want to do more.

I aim to loose 1 kilo a week which I think is healthy amount and not too much too quick

 

[Sittingduck]

Well done Losidan

Presumably you have altered your diet a fair bit too?