What is a healthy amount of cycling in a week’s span to lose weight that will not cause future health problems?
Joel Sherman wrote an article about NY Yankees catcher Jorge Posada cycling this past winter 50 miles to lose weight. He does not say what Posada use to weigh, nor how he accomplished 50 miles, whether in a week’s span or month. But I would like to lose weight and enjoy cycling but fear any future deterioration to my body
Cycling is very good for you body and without the knee damaging effects of jogging or running. It’s a cardiovascular exercise that you can do every day and as much as you like. The amount of cycling you can do in the week will increase as you get stronger. Everyone has to go through butt training to get use to the saddle so you want to take short 20 min rides at first and work your way up to 30, 40, 60 min or more.
Start out with a very easy 10 min warm up rude. After the warm up you want to pedal at a high cadence 70-90 rpms with a lite pedal pressure. That uses your slow twitch muscles that burn fat as a fuel and can go for a very long time. If you need to catch your breath or your legs start to burn drop down a gear or two and keep going. A heart rate monitor will allow you to see how hard you are working. Your resting heart rate is a good indication of you fitness level.
You want a good quality bike that fits you and is designed for the type of riding you want to do. A department store bike is heavy and has low end components. You want something that is fun to ride. If you are riding to lose weight diet is more important then cycling, but doing both you can lose a lot of weight, it just takes several weeks to where you are really burning the calories..
DMR
It would be nice if he clarified it for you, but to give it some perspective. My daily weekend ride is 42 to 50 per day. During the week I get at least one or two in the 20 mile range, and one day of about a 7 to 12 mile ‘sprint’. One of those sprints in up a very steep hill twice.
Depending upon heart rate, you burn about 35 calories per mile. So if you go on a good diet, and ride an hour each night you will lose some weight! Say, you start out at 10 mph thats 350 calories per day, plus get some real milage in on the weekends! That is big time…. but, you gotta watch the calorie intake.
As for deterioration, cycling is a low impact sport. Won’t damage the knees. hips, or ankles. I have real bad knees,but use cycling as my main training system. I have been cycling for as long as I can remember!
Now your butt and legs will feel it for a while. Nothing you can do about that except to keep riding. Get padded cycling shorts, and a wicking jersey. That will minimize the butt pain, and make cycling more comfortable.
Enjoy!
Soccerref
In order to lose weight, cycling alone will not take care of your weight issue. What you eat and how much of it, also has to be taken into consideration. However, as a basic understanding in order to lose water, fat, then to gain muscle tonage, one would have to increase the amount of exercise per days of week in the direction of losing weight. Riding a distance of a one time 50 miler on a bike, will not help you to lose weight (that is if you are seeking to lose more than just several pounds here and there). Losing weight is a committed to dedicated lifestyle choice if you are one who is solely concerned about the appearance of your body. Using myself as an example, if I am feeling well, I usually try to put in 2-3x a week of cycling riding at 20+ miles at a time with land grade variations.
Cut your daily cal intake to 2000 and cycle 4 days/week for an hour/day. You’ll lose weight.
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