The road to 115kg

[Melony]

Hey guys,
After being in the wilderness for about 15 years off the bike for most of that time I have started my journey from 163kg to my target of 115kg or less. I purchased a Scott scale 960 that I have been riding about 30 to 45 min every second day. On the other days I am walking uphill for 1.8km and than back usually a 30 to 40 min walk.
I have changed my diet to a target of 1500 cal per day cut out all junk food, soft drink and sugar. My diet also consist of mostly white meat, maybe red meat once a week, eating one or two pieces of fruit a day and trying to drink 1.5 litres of water a day.
I started on the 16th march weighing 163kg, on the 13th of April I am down to 156kg with a body percentage change of 3.4. Easter was a slight blow out even after asking for no chocolate.

One area of input that would be appreciated is with weight training as most of my exercise is cardio I think I need to start muscle building if anyone has any ideas that would be great.

I should add I am 34, 185cm tall and of large frame structure, and using myfitnesspal to track all my diet and exercise history.

I am doing this for my 18 month old son, wife and 2nd child on the way. One day I might get back to racing as I did from age 7 (BMX) to 18 (MTB, ROAD,).

 

[Giantrider]

Mate good to hear you're on a program and tracking things! It certainly is an encouragement for me to hear as I only started on a program yesterday (the first part of my program was to buy a bike on day one - check) and I'm already keen to give up haha! However I have a lot less to loose - wanting to go from 120-105kg.

The worst thing is going from no fitness and trying to get some fitness. I find i can hardly ride 200m up any hill without needing to stop...

Anyway, keep us all posted! You've made good progress so far! And think in a few years you and your son can go for rides together!

Cheers,
Hamish

 

[driftking]

Definitely if you are medically cleared to do so, do weight training. You don't need to be doing a bulk as you are losing weight your body is aiming for a catabolic state (breaking down) when you build muscle you want to be anabolic (building) this is why bulking you eat more calories and can put on some fat.

So add the weights but keep your focus on maintaining the muscle you have. This should ensure that your body knows you need this muscle so it will avoid burning the muscle and it will focus on maintaining it.
So add weights but don't look at bulking just look at challenging your body, you'll find you will still gain strength but you don't need to be focusing on muscle building.

If you don't do resistant or weight training as mentioned above your body puts muscle down the list if importance, muscle is very much so use it or lose it, and the body can use it as fuel, so by adding resistance you help maintain your muscle, aside from strength the benefit here is two fold.

1.Weights thrash your body in a way cardio does not and it adds another form of energy requirements for your body, it is now using energy to also maintain your muscle after workout.It also puts you in Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC)
EPOC is dependant on the Intensity and duration of exercise but it canast anywhere from 15min to 48hours. It essentially burns calories as your body is catching back up to and recoverying, the EPOC effect is only minor but its still a step towards burning calories.

2.muscle mass is part of what dictates out Basic metabolic rate, so the more muscle you have the more fuel you burn just doing nothing, so you can see that if you only so cardio, you body starts adaption to that and dropping muscle is one of those adaptions so as your trying to lose weight you lose muscle and then your metabolism gets slower, so you need to workout more, by adding weight you maintain muscle mass you keep your metabolism steady and in the long run is more ideal.

I didn't add types of exercises or any form of routine because ever one is massively individual and not been qualified I try to steer clear of giving out routines. If I was to say anything on the subject, it would be to add resitance where you can with weights, but as for specifc weights stick to compound movements, and make sure you have correct form.

Disclaimer:I am not trained or qualified in this area at all so all the information is what I understand from personal research. Use it a your own risk

Good job making the move to dropping the excess kg.

 

[Harold]

Hi Melony,

That is really good progress. I need to improve my diet to look more like yours! My only suggestion is to not only weigh yourself but to also measure. It can get a bit depressing if you aren't loosing weight, but it feels much better if your measurements are dropping.

Harold

 

[eyes]

+1 always impressed at boss' droppn weight. AND committing by starting threads - so post results bud. Great move. You'll never look back. You kiddo will probably never get around to thanking you, but thanks would be well deserved when you're showing him the trails one day.

 

[Melony]

Thanks guys for the encouragement and tips, I started to take the little fella out with me last week and damn stan pushing 15Kg uphill for 1.8km is bloody hard, but have made a change this week and extended the walk to 4.5 km and usaly a 60min session, the bike has been upgraded as well it now sees a session of 60 to 75 min.

Giant rider, I was flat out riding 200 meters as well, but slowly I have increased it to where I am now, focus on the benefit of what you want to archive, the only limits are yourself.

Tony