Dieting and Biking
November 27, 2008 by Phil Hodsdon
Filed under Uncategorized
Its Thanksgiving time and there will be lots of great food on the table. My wife is a fantastic cook and I know I can gain two pounds just breathing in the fresh aroma’s. This post is about losing weight and using your mountain bike to get to your goal weight.
Dieting is not easy. I don’t care who you take to or which Guru you listen to. I have a rather logical and scientific mind. Lets first look at the basics that will frame our understanding of how to lose weight. Just so you know, you MUST combine diet and exercise (bike riding) to lose weight effectively and keep it off. New habits must be formed.
Lets look at the math first. One pound of Fat on your body is equal to roughly 3500 calories. So, if you are going to lose just one pound, you have to go below 3,500 calories in the course of a week, 7 days; about 500 calories day. How many calories do I use a day just doing nothing? Assume you are sick in bed watching Oprah all day. There is a website that will calculate you daily calorie burn doing nothing all day. This daily calories burned calculator provides a simple estimate of your basal metabolic rate (BMR)
It turns out that my basic rate is about 1,800 calories per day; give or take a few. If I want to lose one pound a week, I must not exceed 1,300 calories per day. Now let me caution you that if you go below 1,000 calories a day, your body goes into “starvation mode” and secretes nasty metabolism slow-down hormones and really inhibits your long term weight lose trend. The long and short of it is that losing weight is a marathon, not a sprint.
So where does the mountain biking part come in? Well it turns out that Mountain biking, can burn a lot of calories; and since my Warhorse is 35 pounds I get to burn a lot of calories on the bike. The estimate vary depending on how vigorous your riding style is, but generally speaking, here are some sample estimates for an hour of continuous riding:
Cycling 5-6.5 mph 288
Cycling 6.5-8 mph 324
Cycling 8-8.5 mph 374
Cycling 10 mph 540
Cycling 12 mph 639
Cycling 13 mph 702
Cycling 14 mph 806
Cycling 15 mph 873
I am on my bike for 45mins to 1:15hour 6 days a week, so I know I can add up to 500 calories to my 1,300 that I am allowed and still lose weight.
I know some of the community may say, where is the proof. Well, in my case, I started this diet on September 1st of this year and now its November 19th. I have lost 15 pounds in these 6.5 weeks; that’s about 2 pounds per week and my calorie intake has ranged from 1500 to 2500 per day; less of the later and more of the former.
Jeff, my Winter Park Mountain bike racing buddy, and I discussed dieting this week. He remarked on how funny it was that some weekend bikers obsess over 100 grams of weight in a new shifter or a seat post. He told me that the best way for me to get a lighter bike is to lose ten pounds. You will be surprised how fast you can go up a hill. There is nothing like passing on Hills!!
Mike, my old college roommate, used to tell me that you can’t diet without exercise…I disagree, mountain biking isn’t exercise, its my passion! See you on the trails!
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This post was written by:
Phil Hodsdon - who has written 5 posts on Mountain bike product reviews, bike builds, trail reviews, forum, and tips – MTOBikes.com.
Phil is a 51 year old father of three lovely girls; married to a wonderful woman; has a great job, and is a mountain biking fanatic. You can see him on the trails inside Cherry Creek State Park, Winter Park, and Vail, Co. Phil aspires to ride the best mountain bike trails in Colorado and the World.
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