A
female
age
26-29,
anonymous
writes:I have been struggling with my weight for a while now, and for around about a year or so I have been trying to find effective ways to help me shed a few stone. I have always eaten rather healthily, and back less than a year ago I was rather content with my weight and was sliming down, due to going out a lot and doing a lot of walking and eating the right foods. However as it was going so well, I ended up being put on some certain pills to help me manage a mental health problem I was also diagnosed with last year. These pills were awful, they made me constantly tired which meant me going out each day, completely stopped as most days I was to tired to even attend college. They also effected my hormoans which made me put on weight and made me extremely hungry all the time. I put on three stone while I took them, but thankfully I am no longer on them anymore and now I am tasked with losing this weight. I have tried many things, and I have finally managed to get back to eating healthy but I haven't lost much weight due to me not having a form of exercise mixed in with the healthy eating. I have tried gyms, but I felt self concious and couldn't deal with some of the people in there who would sometimes look at you like you were a strange creature they had never seen before, simply because you were fat and in a gym, I tried running but the self concious bit got me again :L, I tried home workouts, but I often found they were too hard and very un-enjoyable, I then tried walking which was going great, however as you can imagine the weight was taking a huge amount of time to drop off, so the results weren't quick enough for me. The only thing I do like, is cycling :) So I used all my summer money last week and bought myself an exercise bike, and I am immensly enjoying it and have had it fully opperational for 2 days now. I've done a total of 80 minutes and have biked 25 miles already, and I am very proud of myself. However its now got to the third day, and my muscles and bum are sore, so I couldn't manage anymore than 3 minutes. And I am thinking every third day I should maybe take a break from cycling? Basically my question is how many days a week would you say is healthy to cycle? And for how long each day? For me anything lower than 25-30 minutes makes me wanna push myself, so even if I say i'm gonna get off then I end up pushing myself to do more. But yeah, what would you think is a healthy amount to cycle? P.S I also have gotten the all clear from my local doctor to exercise and diet.
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male
reader, Mark1978 +, writes (28 August 2014):
 Im so glad you have had a positive change in your life. Sounds like your doing really well!
keep it up - I haven't done much cycling lately as ive started working again but went out with a friend and we did 31 miles....nearly killed me! Last year that was nothing for me, easy peasy, but now I thought I needed a defribulator and morphine after about three miles.
They way you are going you could do the famous Lands End to John O' Goutes route! For those unfamiliar - lands end is the most southern tip of the UK and John O'Groutes being the most Northern point. I forget the distance but its over 1000 miles anyway. I might do it myself if I have an afternoon free ho ho
I need to get back on the saddle. Epsecially before the dark nights come. Might see you on the roads, im sure you will bomb past me. If you see a guy in his 30s gasping for breath, with oil on his pin stripes and sobbing for his mommy going up a steep hill in Staffordshire, it will be me. So give me a wave.
All the best
Mark
A
reader, anonymous, writes (27 August 2014): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThank you Tisha! I know I am addicted to caffeine which is one of the reasons I drink them, I know they give me nothing in the terms of nutrients..however my caffeine addiction is something I am looking to sort out in the foreseeable future.
I do think at this moment in time the balance I have is working fine, I know I may have to swap things around in the future.
A charity walk/run is on my things to do list! I have been planning to do something like that from the moment I started losing weight. However we have recently had a race for life in my local town so I think I will wait until they do the next one to join in :)
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reader, Tisha-1  +, writes (27 August 2014):
 Sorry, hit 'send' too soon, my bad.
You've lost a whole size in clothing which must feel amazing! Well done.
Keep on finding what motivates you and look for the healthy choices. Sometimes a healthy choice is to have a piece of chocolate. Sometimes the healthy choice is to forgo the fizzy drink.
As you progress in your fitness and health goals you'll find out how best to motivate yourself.
Have you signed up for a charity race or walk yet? I'm thinking that may be a nice goal to set.
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reader, Tisha-1 +, writes (27 August 2014):
Great job, you have done so well! No diets with the word "strict" in them are sustainable. So well done for not depriving yourself.
The key is to find balance. Enough exercise and activity and the right amount of food with the nutrients that will build health.
Fizzy drinks I know are hard to give up but they give you nothing at all in terms of nutrients....
How about you try some sparkling water with a spritz of lime or lemon or other fruit?
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reader, anonymous, writes (27 August 2014): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionUpdate! Hey guys, like I said I have popped back to let you guys know how I am doing. I am proud to say in this month I have almost dropped a whole stone and am about 2-3 pounds away from being 12 stone which I hope to lose this week. I have also dropped a dress size and am now a size 14, and I can actually manage to get into a size 12 as well :). First of all i'd like to thank you for the support you gave me when I posted this and let you know about this journey I have been through this month. I first of course took your guys advice and done it every other day, it was hard at first but I managed to do more and more time every day...eventually however I kind fell out of sync..some days i'd do too much and it'd put me out for the next..so then I was doing a routine which was all over the place, i'd do 3 days on, then 2 days off, or 1 day on and 5 days off. I also noticed when I had a day off i'd find it harder to motivate myself to get on it the next day, and I also found if I had too long off, I would fall into depression slightly, and not want to do anything. I have decided now to bike every day, even if its just for 10 minutes, I bike every day with the exceptions of whole days where I am not at home and Sundays. It might change when I go to college, I might have the whole weekend off but i'll see how I feel. On an average day I can do 15 miles, on a day where I really wanna push it I can do up to 40 miles. This month I have probably biked around about 150 miles in total. My endurance has gotten better, my mind has become clearer and I am not bored of it in the slightest, I also use music as a motivator which really pays off. As for eating, I first decided to put myself on a strict diet, where I tried my best to not consume anything fattening...but I found myself munching out..then feeling guilty about it and eating more food to make myself feel better. So I started to compromise. I calorie count everything, and I can gladly say that as long as I don't go mad and look for the right kinds of foods, I can still have chocolate, I can still have the occasional bag of crisps and I still have a fizzy drink almost every other day....simply because i've swapped every fizzy drink with low fat and no sugar alternatives. I can't remember the last time I had a full fat drink, or even a coffee with sugar in it..the amount of water I drink has risen to about 4 bottles a day, I consume more fruit than ever and I feel healthier. I have learnt being to strict on myself doesn't benefit me, having the occasional take away is fine, as long as you don't go made, get anything over the top and as long as its occasional. I have also cut down the amount of snacks I eat and my portion sizes. Also for some of you who said biking wouldn't be enough, and I needed to go to a gym, you are completely wrong. From just biking and staying active in the day, I have lost weight from every part of my body, even my arms as I move them when I bike and have taking up going to more places and doing more things. My legs are getting toned, and even a tad muscular, my podgey belly has shrunk, and my bum is looking pretty god damn good! I think the best part though has been the weight loss from my face. During all of this, I have been able to realize that due to my current weight, it was making me depressed and taking the me away from me. Back before I had this weight gain I used to dress up nice, go out, wear make up I liked and really had my own style, but i'd noticed due to the weight gain all of that had been taken away. I'd started shutting myself indoors because I was so self concious I didn't want to go out, I'd stopped making an effort completely because I felt it wouldn't take the fact away from my weight, i'd started wearing plain bland clothes which simply hid the fact I was bigger. I'd lost myself. Now things have changed however, I have found my confidence, I have been able to be confident in being me and being different. I have started to take care of myself, change my style and be confident knowing that I do actually look alright :) I've been more out-going and yesterday I even managed to buy myself a top which had a kind of corset into it, I look great in it, and I can actually wear it in confidence without constantly worrying about people thinking i'm too big for it. I've even attracted some male attention which is nice as people are actually noticing me! Thank you all! And I am going to carry on losing weight and being confident and i'm just so happy that this hasn't just had a positive effect on my body, but on my mind too.
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reader, Tisha-1 +, writes (31 July 2014):
Sounds like you have a plan! By the way, you can do weight training with an implant. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=158156963 is one discussion I saw on this. Lots and lots of women exercise with the implant. Don't let that be an excuse not to try! ;)
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reader, anonymous, writes (28 July 2014): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThankyou Mark and Cindy for both of your suggestions. I love the whole idea of the dance classes and all of that Cindy, I would love to go to a Middle Eastern or Latino dance class however there is a slight problem there.
I live in one of the most culturally deprived areas in Britain :L So when it comes to different cultures there aren't many. Which means there aren't a big variety of dance classes. I have already checked at my local sports centre and all they do at the moment is Yoga, Belly Dancing and Zamba (I think its called that)but if I ever hear any I will save up and go to one, i've always liked street dancing, but I know you have to be reasonably fit to join that in the first place, but I will take it on board!
Also I have to agree music makes everything better :) You are right there Cindy, and I listen to music everytime I go on my bike. And the music is normally the reason I end up pushing myself, it gives you that extra bit of get up and go, i've set a personal challange to list to go through my entire MP3 player (350 songs) by the end of this month while i'm on my bike :)
And Mark thank you to for your feedback. I know 3 miles and even 10 miles isn't actually that far, however I am still really proud with doing 25 miles in 2 days, as I see it as half of 50 and as it was the first time on a bike I think I did pretty well, but I know you have to build it up! And unlike a lot of exercise, with biking I enjoy it so much that I am happy to push myself each day. I'm aiming to do atleast 5 minutes more than the day before until I go back to college, and then i'll probably be able to do maybe an hour each day, maybe more on some days if I finish early.
And I know that you will lose more weight when you are on actual terrain, and I do plan to maybe get a real bike for my birthday which is early next year, the reason why I went for an indoors one was exactly due to the reason you said, cars, people, rain, snow, stuff like that :L I am so un-coordinated that I don't think I could be trusted on a road, I once went on a quad bike and crashed 15 times, the average amount to crash was 5 times :L And I live in a dead end town, which means you can only bike like 5 miles to the sea front and then theres no where to go, if I biked further away from my home town, i'd kinda be worried if I had to bike back in the dark, and I don't have anyone to go with me at this moment in time.
I'm also one of them people who like to exercise at ridiculous times at night so its even handyier that its indoors. i'll probably plan to bike 4 times a week, and if i'm feeling good and the pain starts to get easier to deal with some weeks i'll try and do five days. Also well done on your weight lost, 575 miles is heck of long distance. I am also slowly cutting out them foods, of course its early days as of yet, but I am mainly focusing on healthy foods, like fruit and veg and protein :) And if I for example do slip up in the future and want something like a bag of crisps or a fizzy drink (which I am hoping to cut out almost completely) I will go for the healthier version such as no sugar or baked crisps, and I know it might only be slightly better, but i'm not perfect and I know when it comes to exercise its kind of trial and error, and you keep on trying until you get up, and slipping up is okay sometimes, but i'm sure i'll get better as time goes on.
P.S I also forgot to mention in my last update I did really want to do weight lifting, I need to lose some arm fat, but I can't because I have a contraceptive implant, and there is a risk it could break, and even though I am not having sex so to speak, I can't take it out because it would effect my mood, and make my mental health disorder worse, and for that reason I am not gonna even bother risking it.
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reader, CindyCares  +, writes (28 July 2014):
 Sorry, OP, I posted before seeing your update so I had not realized that money is an issue.
Well.. start saving up, OP:). It may really be worth it.
And, get proactive - check. Check on line, or non profit associations, local councils, colleges, voluntary organizations, churches.... You may be lucky, some places offer very low cost classes- or even free classes.
A few years ago I went to an ongoing Scottish dances class... in the basement of our local Presbyterian Scottish Church. It was totally free ( and btw they gave you free tea and juices at the end of the class. And then they say that Scottish people are tightwads !:)
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reader, Mark1978 +, writes (28 July 2014):
Loosing weight by cycling takes time and a lot of effort. Last year I started cycling to loose a stone which I achieved but it took months and around 1500 miles. Cycling is good exercise BUT its an efficient form of transport. So doing 25 miles by bike sounds a lot, but in reality it isnt actually that far at all.
I rode to my local village and back (3 miles) and it exhausted me. I thought I had rode an epic journey. Soon that was nothing and I built up to 10 miles within a couple of weeks or so. From there it built until, on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year, I cycles up the canal from my house to Derby and back...62 miles. A long way on a mountain bike on a bumpy towpath and searing heat.
I was cycling five or six days per week with varied routes of between 14 and 50 miles. I started from scratch in May and finally saw weight drop off me in October. For the record I was 35 at the time, 10.5 stone (now 9 and a bit) and other wise fit and healthy.
Real cycling is better as indoor bikes can become boring when your doing it regularly and doesn't tone the body in the same way as holding your balance on a real bike does. Also in real world cycling you stop, start, shout abuse at ignorant car drivers, swerve to avoid wild tigers and bounce over silly children and pensioners. That adds to the effort and uses different muscles and puts your heart rate up and down rather than a steady rate. That builds fitness and burns more fat.
I found I needed to eat MORE to sustain my cycling to loose the weight. Its a balancing act. Cutting out junk is a must! A slice of cake or a bag of crisps or some sweets (candy) contain so many callories you would have to ride for several miles up a steep hill to burn it off.
I was unemployed so had the time to do it. three or four times a week is good and aim for plenty of miles. Better to go for a long steady ride than a quick intense one as your less likely to fall off, injure yourself or pant like a weirdo!
The advantage of an indoor bike is that you don't get hit by cars, can do it when its raining and if you watch tv or listen to yoru favourite motivating music you can get into it.
To start do alternate days. Give your legs chance to recover. Once you get used to cycling you can do it more frequently. Ive done 575 miles in a month with only 9 days off. But to start with its best to build up from three times a week to four, to five and then go for longer distances and fewer cycles until you can do five days a week (if you have time) and pretty decent distances.
Mark
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reader, CindyCares +, writes (28 July 2014):
Ok, this has got nothing to do with cycling and it's not what you have asked, but I am throwing in my suggestion , thinking of how I was / and am : your ultimate couch potato who dislikes anything that makes you sweat, makes you pant or makes you sore. What helped me in my battle against extra weight, which I tend to gain very easily, and to make it a victorious battle for long time ( less so now, but ..age is age :) was dance. Come on , everybody likes dance. How can you not like dancing- dancing is feminine, is fun !, is expressive, is liberatory, is mood enhancing. It also burns a lot of calories and tones most of your muscles. And no, I do not mean, sign yourself up for some fancy modern dance or ballet classes where everybody is slim , sleek and wears elegant,skimpy leotards. You'd feel conspicuous and uncomfortable, and you'd feel bad that everybody is twisting themselves into pretzels while you can't even touch your toes.
Wjat I mean, is something low key, fun, non competitive, non fussy , non cool - "blue collar " type of thing.Some Arthur Murray type classes for ballroom dancing, older people goes there too, so even if you aren't in the best shape, you don't have to worry too much about competing with the other " girls ". Or some hi-jinks, let's -just- blow -steam -off- all together , salsa and other Latin or AfroCaraibic dances. And if you happen to find a class in a Latin neighborhood, you'll see how a few pounds , or a few stones, more , never prevented any Latina from dancing beautifully, having a lot of fun, and looking sexy in the process .
Middle Eastern dancing is good too for overweight people- it's very easy on your joints because it's low impact, or, no impact actually, yet it is a complete workout, you work out isolatedly every muscle, including muscles you did not even knew you had.
You need to exercise, but you need to do something that's not mind numbimgly boring,- dance means MUSIC, how boring can something with music be ?.
Plus, you might have an added benefit you were not even looking for. In case your mental health problems include depression and / or anxiety, dance is good to get all that serotonin and good endorphines flowing.
Give it a thought will you ? I think that it would be a good idea for a girl who has the problem of feeling ... too visible. Chose a school or class or gym where " regular " people go to have fun and not to flaunt their perfect bodies... and as a matter of fact you might end up with the advantage of your young age over the other students, and you may end up feeling lke a fresh sexy rubenesque BEAUTY.
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reader, anonymous, writes (28 July 2014): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThankyou for all your great responses! I would like to first say that as for the gym, its a no. I know it would probably help me lose weight faster if I joined a gym, but firstly I simply don't have the money to go to one. (the only reason I went to a gym in the first place was because I was able to go for free due to me being a member of a certain college, I have now left that college) However I am joining a new college, which does have its very own gym which is actually on the college campus so once I start again in September and settle in I might give it a go :) Swimming is something I am interested in, but at my current weight I do not feel comfortable enough with getting into a swimming costume, which is why I brought the bike :) I am hoping once I lose some weight I will be able to get into more sports, I have always liked roller skating, i've been interested in maybe taking up some kind of dancing class in the future (maybe) and I am interested in yoga but i'd prefer to do it from home. I do try and walk somewhere atleast once a day and I will look up some maybe little ten minute or so work outs to do at home. The problem I did have with the video work outs was i'd normally attempt to do one which lasted for around about an hour and I just couldn't keep up and sometimes found the fact in some of the videos you couldn't stop and take a rest when you wanted too much. Also Tisha, I done it in 80 minutes due too the fact I peddle quite fast and I normally have it on the highest difficulty, and it is an exercise bike :P I know if it was on terrain it would take waaaay longer to bike 25 miles. So from reading all of this my conclusion is that I should either bike every other day and basically build up my endurance and do what I can manage. Which sounds like something I can do! I think one of the reasons why I can do quite a lot of biking already and the reason I enjoy it is because I used to bike loads when I was younger, and I do pride myself on having strong legs :L Also thank you all for suggesting other activities I could do, and I will probably take most of them up when I build my endurance up a little or have lost a certain amount of weight to feel confident enough to go swimming and join classes and things like that :) I also have a friend at the moment who has lost 2 stone in the last 4-5 months from simply biking, walking and joining a healthy eating program, so I know biking doesn't do the full shabang, but I know it makes a difference, and at the moment thats all I want to happen before I go and throw myself into doing all these other activities. I will try my best to put up with the muscle pain, and I know it gets better the more you exercise, I may also invest (when I get some money as due to the bike I am skint) in some padding for the seat or something to make it a bit easier on my bum basically -_-. I will also look at the link you sent Tisha, and I may look it to some things like Advil. I will get back to you or post an update telling you how i'm doing! Thank you all for your kind words, you have erdged me to keep on going and atleast I know I am doing well for a beginner at this early stage. :)
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reader, So_Very_Confused +, writes (28 July 2014):
 Congrats to you for being so proactive and taking care of yourself.
if you are that sore then take a rest day.
I give myself a day off from walking and yoga every few days if I feel like it.
My doctor has told me that my exercise is like a second job... 6 hours a week. so that's about 45 minutes a day.
If I walk for 20 minutes at lunch and do a bit of a workout when I get home that covers it.
some days I skip the workout.. some days I start and do 10 minutes and realize that I'm just not going to make it and I stop... other days I do the full workout and I want to do more so I do more....
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reader, Tisha-1 +, writes (28 July 2014):
Hi, it all depends on you and your body and your level of readiness for a particular exercise. You are new to this so may not realize that muscle soreness is usual after starting up a new exercise. The key is to not worry about it unless you feel actual pangs of pain.
A 17 year old who hasn't exercised much will find doing 30 minutes of concentrated exercise more than enough for one day, while a 40 year old woman who has built up stamina and has been exercising for years will find 30 minutes not enough.
You have to build up to things. What works for you this month may not be enough next month.
As you are just starting out, I would say that you should try for 30 minutes every other day for a few weeks.
As for the speed, wow, you've cycled 80 minutes and logged 25 miles? It takes me 2 hours (120 minutes) to cycle 25 miles on gravel rails-to-trails type of surface. I'm not trying win a race, I'm trying to cycle for time. I don't have a road bicycle, it's more of a touring thing. Anyway, I googled some ideas for you. I remember when I did the 3 day breast cancer walk, walking 20 miles per day for 3 days, they had a training plan that I followed. You just follow their suggested workouts, which included walking plus other forms of exercise. There are lots of options out there for you if you take some time to google it. "Couch to 5 k bike ride" is one, there others which talk about going from "couch to century" which would be 100 miles in a day. That's probably a bit too much to take on at this point, so shoot for 25 miles every time you cycle and then start playing with time vs. distance.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/554000-couch-potato-to-bike-racer/ Ignore the road bike part, just look at the time suggested as well as the cross-training.
You've been cycling for a grand total of 2 days. Congrats on starting up! Now don't expect to be on that cycle every day for an hour or more, at least not now.
You have to build up your muscle mass and in order to build up your muscle mass, you have to fuel your body correctly.
You also have to give those newly worked muscles a chance to heal and recover from the new activity.
I cycle too so I understand the sore bum and sore muscles thing. The thing is that it takes me longer to reach that soreness level because I've been doing it a lot longer. If I'm going for a long ride, I have special padded underwear. As you are cycling at home, you can probably improvise that padding with something like a foam pillow. You may need to cut it down to size and wrap it in something so it keeps you more comfortable.
Just to reiterate, you shouldn't only cycle. There are some very simple exercise routines that take just a few minutes (so you won't have time to get bored) that will help build up your core strength and work all the muscles in your body, not just the ones you use when cycling.
Has your doctor cleared you to use some common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory over-the-counter type of simple pain relievers? I almost always use some Advil after a long ride or after a big workout of any other type. But that's okay for me, it may not be okay for you depending on your medications. You'll have to check with your doctor about that.
Just give it time, cycle only every other day for 2 months then check back in with us to see how you've managed.
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reader, anonymous, writes (28 July 2014): I'm no expert but do as much as you can manage and work up from there. I don't think there's any "upper limit" provided you're not making yourself ill or your doctor has said that you shouldn't.Pain (in the form of aching muscles) is often to be expected when starting a new exercise regime and part of the trick is learning to live with it provided it's not too excruciating.You managed 2 stints of 40 minutes which is pretty good going so that can be your ultimate daily goal but while you're working up to it, do a different type of exercise on the days that your bum won't take any more. Try going for one of your walks instead or do your exercise video.It might also be useful if you do some leg stretching exercises after you've finished your cycle. It might help stop them feeling quite so tight the next day.And remember - Rome wasn't built in a day.
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reader, anonymous, writes (28 July 2014): You need to change activities every day so your different group of muscles is used. Cycling every day indoors will stop being fun very soon, and you are using the same muscles over and over again. pick several activities tat you might enjoy, like dance classes, or yoga, or weight lift and do different kind every day. Walking and swimming are the best in my opinion.I used to do the same thing every day, an now I stoped doing that and do this; 2 days a week belly dance, 2 days a week weight lift, 3 days a week 5 km walking each.I picked a nice park and I really enjoy my walking mornings.The main part of all of it is not to stress out about any of it and enjoy your activities. just stay active as much as possible, and your pounds will shed fast
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