The only way that you will lose weight is the
obvious -- you must consume less calories than you use. Simple to
say, very difficult to do, for most of us, because when we are older, there are
hormonal changes, and our metabolism slows down. It's harder
to lose weight, and harder to maintain the weight you want, after you
lose it.
Some things that help are what we've been
told forever -- keep portion sizes small, eat more slowly, eat plenty of
fiber, drink a glass of water before meals. These things will make
you "feel" full and you'll eat less. If you stuff your face quickly,
especially with calorie-dense foods, you can pile in a lot of calories
before you know it.
Maintaining a desirable weight can
be easier than losing weight, if you're able to discipline yourself.
To lose weight, you have to take in less calories than you NEED,
fairly consistently. The way to lose weight and keep it OFF is
to change your eating habits .... not easy to do. I know what to do, and
haven't been able to lose the weight I want to!
OK, Jon, we all hear that to lose weight
you eat less and exercise more. Yet you are saying that endurance riding
and marathon running does not help one that much to lose weight. Cutting
way back on intake merely tells the body that it's starving, so it goes into a
preservation mode and works harder to preserve fat. So what DOES one do
to lose weight?
First, weight does not equal
calories. For example, I worked with a human ultramarathon runner
during his assault on the 24 hour world record. He lost no "weight"
during 24 hours of continuous running. And perhaps somewhat
disconcerting for those who think they will lose a tremendous amount of fat
by working out, he burned less than 2 pounds of fat in 24 hours. I'll
save you the calculations but its right, trust me, its my job. Humans
by and large are very poor at using fat compard to species like dogs, rats,
and horses. However, sweat loss can be pretty substantial in terms of
weight. We can sweat anwhere from perhaps 0.5 to well over 3L/hour,
but the later only if you are really BIG. Over the course of 15-18
hours of riding, perhaps losing 0.5L/hour and then replacing only a portion
of that a 4 pound weight loss due to water would not be out of the ordinary.
I am assuming that your "gain" of 5 pounds was repalcing the 4 you
lost during the ride and 1 more for good measure. Lets say you
go to the gym, pound the treadmill for an hour and "lose" 5 pounds.
You'd be dillusional to think you just burned over 17,000 calories of
fat, since an ultramarthon runner used only about 5,000 running for 23 hours
longer......its mostly water loss & your loss gain/ was/is mostly fluid
loss.
Jon K. Linderman, Ph.D.,
FACSM Associate Professor of Health and Sport Science University of
Dayton
Susan
<glenn218@xxxxxxxxx> Sent by: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
04/10/2006 10:19 AM
To: ridecamp
<ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> cc:
Subject: Re: [RC] Calories
burned riding--advice
I did the Sunflower Classic 75 this weekend in 10:42. I felt
great all day and even felt pretty good Sunday. For grins and giggles,
I weighed myself Sunday AM and had lost 4 pounds. This morning
(Monday) I weighed again and had GAINED 5 pounds. This is typical for
me. So...what's going on? What can I do to stop the gain and
keep losing the weight?
Susan [Young], The
Princess of Pink Semper Obliquo (Always aside)
Glenndale Grace
Farm, Ft Gibson, Oklahoma U.S.A.
"Ride on! Rough-shod if need be,
smooth-shod if that will do, but ride on! Ride on over all obstacles, and
win the race!" - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
