So I’ve been on a quest to drop the extra weight I had packed on over the past few years.
I was 6’0 220lbs at the beginning of May. By being a bit more cautious about my diet and trying to keep me calorie intake around 2000-2500 calories a day, and mountain biking 3-4 times a week for at least an hour at a time, I had gotten to 200lbs by the beginning of July.
I still have some extra weight to lose. I’ve been watching my calories a little tighter and keeping them around 2000 now (with a day with a small slip-up here and there), but I feel like I have hit a wall. I am still exercising the same, if not more as my rides are going longer and are well over an hour 3-4 times a week, yet I have not lost any weight or seen any visible improvement since the middle of July. The only thing I notice is that lately my endurance and strength are way up when riding, but I have not been losing weight.
I’m looking to get down to 180lbs in a healthy manner and I don’t want to be taking supplements to do it. What can I do in conjunction with my trailriding to get me to that point?
There are always “beginner gains” or “beginner loses” when it comes to excersizing, and that’s what you experienced. Accomplishments are always consistent and exciting a few months after you start, but they eventually taper off. During that time is when you come to realize that really getting in shape is “work.”
You aren’t losing weight because the exercises you are performing are bringing your heart rate up way too high. To lose fat you need to do cardio for longer periods of time, with a slower heart rate. I won’t bore you with all the scientific terms, but that’s the jist of it. Think about what the cardio machines say in a gym… they have a graph for heart rate vs age, with a positively increasing line breaking the chart into sections… the lower heart rate section is defined as fat loss, etc
It’s great you are still eating 2000, and you shouldn’t adjust that any lower than that at all… but perhaps you should further refine your diet. If you want to post up what you eat normally, myself or someone else will critique it for you
I am 5’10" and got up to 185 in the winter. those who know me know I should be a pretty skinny guy.
I cut out french fries, fried foods, pop, etc. I still drink a ton of beer, and some pizza once in a while, but noones perfect.
I play hockey, (both forward and goalie) typically 5 times a week, but as much as 10 or 12 if I’m playing a camp, which I’ve done 2 of in the past month and a half. I ride a bicycle 8 to 10 miles a day, every day.
I’m currently down to 160, look better, have more endurance, etc. I just got a bench so I can start lifting, and I’m hoping to do a lot of that over the winter months.
Run. Eat smaller, more frequent meals, eat less carbs.
I hope you aren’t drinking soda or if you are it’s of the diet variety.
Get some upper body exercises in. Whether that is at the gym or what but it’s important.
[/quote]
No offense Matt, but wrong (in my opinion)
Running will raise your heart rate too high.
Upper body muscles aren’t big enough to promote a substantial amount of fat loss alone ( besides the back ). Squat three times a week. Legs are the biggest muscle group in the body, and building THOSE muscles will definitely help promote fat loss.
Or just do the three core exercises. Or just do bodyweight exercises. But not just upper body. But at least squats.
Doing ANYTHING is better than nothing though… and if you don’t follow any of the advice here, you’ll still lose weight, it’ll just be slower because of the plateau.
Muscle burns calories. The more muscle you have, the more you burn.
Biking is cardio, you gain no muscle mass in this manner. You may have hit a plateau because the carlories you take in may just be the amount your body expends, thus you have 3 options.
A) Consume less calories then what you currently are to create a deficit (worse option, but mathematically correct). The problem is, when you lose the weight, you will be satisfied and up your calories to a more comfortable level. Weight will come back. This is where dieters fail.
b) Exercise more, expend more calories.
c) Gain muscle mass. Start lifting, ease on your cardio. Do this for 4 weeks, focusing on weight gain (muscle), eat ALOT of calories (I’m currently on a 3700 cal/day weight gain diet, 45% protien, 35%carb, 20% fat. When you go back to cardio, you will shed pounds like no tomorrow.
Edit: Those three things are in a “nutshell”, cardio does create muscle, but in a different manner that equips the body for endurance ( compare the legs of sprint runners to marathon runners). A lower cal diet than what you are on is not a good idea, it will decrease your metabolic rate at rest, which is where you burn the most calories ( the calories you live by day to day).
No soda. Ever. I only drink water, and the occasional lipton green tea as they are so delicious, but I try to stick to just water to avoid the extra calories from drinks.
Good point on the upper body. I have done very little in relation to upper body workouts. I should get in on that. I could stand to work on my core and abs too. I did pilates one day and suffered greatly for the next 2 days afterwards as my abs were so sore. So i think I still have a fair amount of area that could stand to see muscle development.
PS - I don’t belong to a gym, and have no desire to join a gym. I’m much more of an outdoors exerciser. I get WAY too bored with inside workouts and would never be able to maintain that type of routine.
Dude, honestly, besides sports and exercising ( mountain bike riding etc ) you shouldnt even touch weights. You should stick to body-weight exercises like pullups / pushups / lunges / dips / squats until you build a solid muscular base. Otherwise you are just ASKING for trouble.
Please just be consistent with the calories and try varying your activities. Get your BF% checked with calipers or preferably in a pool, as THAT is more important that your actual weight.
Dude, honestly, besides sports and exercising ( mountain bike riding etc ) you shouldnt even touch weights…Otherwise you are just ASKING for trouble.
…
I could go on forever, but only will if you want.
[/quote]
please do so. Why would one be asking for trouble? I’d like to learn something new every day.
Edit: I don’t belong to a gym either, but I can thank RyanMcCell for his $75 Olympic set some 2 years ago Also, if your goal is to lose weight, and you hit a plateau, why avoid something that’s mathematically correct?
i’m in the same spot, lost 30 lb’s in 2 months by not drinking beer and watching what i eat… i just about hit a platou and now i have to start working out… which i am never motivated to do… been trying to swim more… we’ll see I got 60 more to go though :blolated:
Upper body muscles aren’t big enough to promote a substantial amount of fat loss alone ( besides the back ). Squat three times a week. Legs are the biggest muscle group in the body, and building THOSE muscles will definitely help promote fat loss.
Or just do the three core exercises. Or just do bodyweight exercises. But not just upper body. But at least squats.
Doing ANYTHING is better than nothing though… and if you don’t follow any of the advice here, you’ll still lose weight, it’ll just be slower because of the plateau.
[/quote]
Running DOES help you lose weight because you are still burning calories. If your burned calories (basil metabolism + exercise) is greater than your intake of calories, guess where the rest of the energy needed is coming from? That’s right, fat. The more you run the more calories you are going to burn and it will also raise your metabolism to burn more calories overall. Weight training is better than running for raising your metabolism and I would recommend upper body because you are already getting your legs exercised enough. Pull ups from a tree branch or set something up in your basement will help. Push-ups push-ups push-ups. Try them normal or with your legs elevated to get more weight on your chest. Start with say 40 per 3 days and then move up to 80 per 3 days and change it up as to where your feet are in terms of elevation.
A little off topic but… where I grew up we had a park that has like 30 stations set up to do different work outs. Example station 1 was stretching, and it would say something like “walk briskly to station 2” and then station 2 would be jump rope and give another suggestion on how to get to station 3…and so on. Is there anything like that around here? I would do this every other day in the summer time and be in great shape for soccer and stuff back when school started.
You just hit a plateau, you cant do the same thing forever and expect results.
Try something besides biking, get a gym membership and go use the oliptical,treadmills, and other cardio machines, start lifting some weights and turn the fat into muscle. If youve never lifted before almost all gyms have a personal trainer on staff who can help you develop a routine.
as far as diet, grilled chicken,tuna, fruits and vegetables,oats among other things (just research a bit) are good things to eat on diets, and cut out everything but water or low calorie drinks (propel,that fruity water shit, diet anything) smaller meals 5-6 times a day boost your metabolism. not full meals but like a small breakfast, then a snack 2 hours later of two pieces of fruit, then a small lunch then another small snack, light dinner, then a small snack 1-2 hours before you go to bed. Also a bottle of water before each meal fills you up and reduces your hunger. Fad diets are horseshit, always remember that, just moderation and healthy eating are the best for long term results.
Keep your body guessing, just dont do the same thing over and over or esle your body will just get used to it and you wont see any more gains.
please do so. Why would one be asking for trouble? I’d like to learn something new every day.
Also, if your goal is to lose weight, and you hit a plateau, why avoid something that’s mathematically correct?
[/quote]
I really don’t know bigairskier, what type of physical condition he is in, what experience he has lifting, or anything about him. All I know is that he said he was really out of shape, so in an effort to be more healthy and lose some weight, he modified his diet and started doing non-traditional cardio.
I wrote a lot but then realized I was getting extremely preachy. In edit:
It’s really easy to get injured when lifting, especially when you aren’t strong enough in the beginning to perform the movements correctly. Additionally the body itself needs to get used to lifting… not just muscles, but tendons, ligaments, etc. Do you remember the first time you went out and did BB curls? The next day you could probably barely bend your arms at the elbow as they just weren’t prepared for it. Essentially the idea is that you just really need a solid foundation before trying to anything more elaborate.
Lowering his calories any further is just ridiculous and will undoubtedly lead to further muscle catabolism. Upping his calories without excessive lifting is gonna just make him put on more fat. Excessive lifting without a proper base is going to get him injured or will slow his progress
If he is already obese, trying to just put on muscle without cardio will just take too long to get the results he need. Cardio is his friend right now… just slower and longer. Incorporating a few bodyweight exercises with some moderate walking and occasionally mountain biking is undoubtedly what will help him the most right now. That along with a consistent diet ( i still suspect 2000 cals is probably too low )
Also getting his BF% again is more important than anything.
Running DOES help you lose weight because you are still burning calories. If your burned calories (basil metabolism + exercise) is greater than your intake of calories, guess where the rest of the energy needed is coming from? That’s right, fat. The more you run the more calories you are going to burn and it will also raise your metabolism to burn more calories overall. Weight training is better than running for raising your metabolism and I would recommend upper body because you are already getting your legs exercised enough. Pull ups from a tree branch or set something up in your basement will help. Push-ups push-ups push-ups. Try them normal or with your legs elevated to get more weight on your chest. Start with say 40 per 3 days and then move up to 80 per 3 days and change it up as to where your feet are in terms of elevation.
[/quote]
Running will make you lose weight, you are right, but it will be muscle. Not fat. Over a specific heart rate your body will pull fat last. The reason lifters do slow and long walks on an incline treadmill is because the body is more prone to rely on fat for energy than muscle.
And your legs are NOT exercised enough. The wrong fibers in the muscles are getting worked. I’m not getting into it, but only by heavy lifting / bodyweight squats / lunges will the proper muscle fibers be exhausted.
I agree sureshot, but the misunderstanding is when you compare bodybuilding to building muscle and laying a foundation, which is what I’ve implied and just about everyone agreed on. It wasn’t suggested he body build, but to consider building muscle. Yes, he can overdo weight lifting, but no more than one can over do a cardiovascular workout. If you lift and are hurting the next day, even starting out, it’s a good implication you need to start doing it more often. Again, laying a solid foundation first.
Well calorie intake I am aware of the negatives of going too low and causing a “starvation metabolism” so i am careful in that regard. And I have a good diet in regards to protein and carb intake while staying low-dat.
With MTB-ing I get a pretty good leg workout strength and muscle-wise. It’s different from road biking in the sense that there is a lot of weight bearing and heavy load put on your legs when you are really cranking on the pedals. My leg muscles are solid, and very well defined from this.
I don’t have very high upper body strength, I will admit that. My upper body sees VERY little action, and I know my core has a lot of underdeveloped muscles. So I’m going to try to work on those areas in conjunction with my current routine and see what happens from there perhaps?
Running will make you lose weight, you are right, but it will be muscle. Not fat. Over a specific heart rate your body will pull fat last. The reason lifters do slow and long walks on an incline treadmill is because the body is more prone to rely on fat for energy than muscle.
And your legs are NOT exercised enough. The wrong fibers in the muscles are getting worked. I’m not getting into it, but only by heavy lifting / bodyweight squats / lunges will the proper muscle fibers be exhausted.
[/quote]
Compared to the rest of his body, his legs are exercised enough. Running will help you burn fat as long as you eat protein to keep your muscle mass the same which is why I said to get an upper body workout as well as running.
Everyone is somewhat knowledgeable in this thread, so I’m sure bigairskier will be capable of determining what will work and not… if he needs more assistance I know he is aware of the plethora of websites/forums that have extremely experienced people on them who have already provided the answers he is looking for.
That said, I just want to hammer home 2 points.
Slower and longer cardio, for example incline walking at a moderate pace, is going to burn fat a lot faster than running or any other exercise that leaves your heart rate extremely high
Get your bodyfat % taken so you know if you are making good gains or not. You may weigh a lot less than you did 3 months ago, but if you are just burning muscle you aren’t really making progress. If you only lost 5 more pounds in the next 6 months but lowered your bodyfat% by 5%, now that’d be serious progress.
Also, if your goal is to lose weight, and you hit a plateau, why avoid something that’s mathematically correct?