A mountain biker said this to me the other day:
"Wait a minute! You guys have been cycling a while. I've read cyclists need to eat more to avoid losing too much weight. In my 2 months of riding Millsborough Loops, a hour, three times a week I've lost a lot of weight, so much so, that I've been trying to eat more than I want to eat to slow the weight loss... "
"But you guys are writing as if some cyclists have to limit their food intake?!?! I'm confused. "
People go through various stages as they exercise more. This not only involves eating but sweat and odor production as well and other aspects of our bodies.
Let's start with someone who has never exercised before.
The first stage is going to be the hardest. It's best that you do not plunge into heavy exercise, follow the artcle I have on Cycling for fitness , Start out riding slowly on some flat road, Airport to Port Royal and back is ideal, no hills and a complete loop is 10 miles.
In stage two, you start riding a little faster and do a greater distance. At first, your appetite will drop due to the heavy load placed on your system. It really doesn't matter at what level you were, the increase is what brings about this change.
In stage three, you have now become accustomed to the new exercise load. Now you find yourself terribly hungry and wanting to eat as much as two or three people. To some extent, the body is playing catch up, but you are also having to eat to create new muscles. your weight continues to drop. This is my condition on the second week of hard training.
In stage four, the muscle growing process has largely stopped; you have stabilized at the new level. Your body continues to fine adapt however, and you begin to feel less hungry. Now your weight has become stable. I reach this stage in the third week or so of hard training.
In stage five, assuming that the cyclist continues exercising at the same rate, your body continues to become more efficient. Now the cyclist is eating not much more than he was before he started training. At this point, he can actually start putting on weight if he continues to eat.
In addition, age, time of year, sex, and body type all enter in, so one cyclist will have a greater tendency to gain than another, even though they are cycling just alike.
Someone else might ask, what's the sense of exercise if you're going to eventually have to watch your weight anyway? 1) The cyclist is now thinner, stronger, and healthier than before, so it's not a case of no gain, and 2) the battle of the pounds is going to be both easier and less important than it was before.
Of course, another problem is that the cyclist might not ride all year long; so, during the down season, she might have the same weight problems as ordinary mortals.
"Wait a minute! You guys have been cycling a while. I've read cyclists need to eat more to avoid losing too much weight. In my 2 months of riding Millsborough Loops, a hour, three times a week I've lost a lot of weight, so much so, that I've been trying to eat more than I want to eat to slow the weight loss... "
"But you guys are writing as if some cyclists have to limit their food intake?!?! I'm confused. "
People go through various stages as they exercise more. This not only involves eating but sweat and odor production as well and other aspects of our bodies.
Let's start with someone who has never exercised before.
The first stage is going to be the hardest. It's best that you do not plunge into heavy exercise, follow the artcle I have on Cycling for fitness , Start out riding slowly on some flat road, Airport to Port Royal and back is ideal, no hills and a complete loop is 10 miles.
In stage two, you start riding a little faster and do a greater distance. At first, your appetite will drop due to the heavy load placed on your system. It really doesn't matter at what level you were, the increase is what brings about this change.
In stage three, you have now become accustomed to the new exercise load. Now you find yourself terribly hungry and wanting to eat as much as two or three people. To some extent, the body is playing catch up, but you are also having to eat to create new muscles. your weight continues to drop. This is my condition on the second week of hard training.
In stage four, the muscle growing process has largely stopped; you have stabilized at the new level. Your body continues to fine adapt however, and you begin to feel less hungry. Now your weight has become stable. I reach this stage in the third week or so of hard training.
In stage five, assuming that the cyclist continues exercising at the same rate, your body continues to become more efficient. Now the cyclist is eating not much more than he was before he started training. At this point, he can actually start putting on weight if he continues to eat.
In addition, age, time of year, sex, and body type all enter in, so one cyclist will have a greater tendency to gain than another, even though they are cycling just alike.
Someone else might ask, what's the sense of exercise if you're going to eventually have to watch your weight anyway? 1) The cyclist is now thinner, stronger, and healthier than before, so it's not a case of no gain, and 2) the battle of the pounds is going to be both easier and less important than it was before.
Of course, another problem is that the cyclist might not ride all year long; so, during the down season, she might have the same weight problems as ordinary mortals.
The bottom line is..... None of us are Tour de France cyclists, to stay healthy, we need to ride our bikes, vary the intensity, watch what we eat and just plain enjoy ourselves doing it.
