Losing weight by only cycling?

[zo1d]

How viable is this? How does it compare to a mix of weights and other cardio like I see other people mention a lot here.

I've been doing more and more cycling for the last few months and did the London to Brighton with some guys from work (cycled up Ditching Beacon but Im still a few stone over what I probably should be and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere just yet.

I tend to do at least 3 miles a day just commuting to work but also go out on evening and weekends for 1-2 hours 2-3 times a week too but Im guessing that isnt enough?

Also my diet probably doesn't help since Im too weak willed to be strict about what I eat lol

I'm no Nutritionist but my limited understanding is that the key to weight loss apart from the blindingly obvious of having to burn more calories than you consume is to keep your basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories required to sustain you while awake but at rest) as high as possible.

Generally eating allot of food will increase your BMR and contrary to what allot of obese people like to think studies have shown that obese people tend to have higher BMRs than skinny people, skinnier people tend to eat less (of course they are exceptions) and therefore the body lowers their BMR to compensate for the lower calorie intake.

Individual body types, how much muscle mass you’re carrying, amount of sleep, the amount, type, and time of food consumption all contribute to affect your BMR.

Cycling is an excellent exercise to lose weight, and from what you’ve said it sounds to me that you are doing enough cycling, 15miles commuting, aprox 4-6 hours of evening and weekend rides a week at a constant effort should be sufficient to shift the excess body fat.

Remember just gauging your progress by weight loss alone is not totally accurate, in particular cycling recruits the largest muscle groups in the body namely the quads, hamstrings and gluts, so while losing body fat you might also be gaining muscle mass in those areas and thus reducing the overall amount of weight loss.

If you’re still sure you’re not progressing then you need to seriously look at the amount and type of food, and times when you eat.
The obvious suggestions are to start by reducing some of the processed foods in your diet including sweets, crisp, sugared drink, take aways etc and to also look at the time you consume your food. It’s generally better to eat a larger breakfast, medium dinner, and smaller evening meal for example, and better still to spread out the meals into small snacks throughout the day. Remember diets don’t work and therefore any changes to your eating habits need to become part of your life style, I’m sure if you post more information you’ll get lots of good additional advice.