ne of my reasons for getting involved in riding was to loose weight, my Garfield. Bicycling can be good for this, along with developing a good level of fitness. The purpose of this posting is to draw together the resources out on the web that provide good advice on weight loss and riding and developing good bike fitness. Hopefully it will be useful to you as it has been to me. If you have suggested links please post a comment.

Bike Fit

• The Cyclefitcentre.com has some interesting articles on bike fit via the menu item, “Further Reading.” The articles do change, so it is worth keeping an eye on the page.
• Palm Beach Bike Tours (blog) has an interesting recount of a bike fit. It gives a good idea of what one should expect. - Added December 11, 2008.

Nutrition and your Ride

• Protein and Post-Ride Recovery - BikeRadar.com has an interesting article on the important aspect of post-ride recovery, muscle recover that is. To quote from the article:

Eat the wrong foods after training and you’ll end up exhausted with sore, aching legs. If you eat right then your body will get stronger, fitter and recover faster.

• Natural energy boosters - Fuel you body with premium - BikeRadar.com has an interesting article on the importance of boosting our energy levels.  To quote from the article:

Don’t expect to feel great if you’re running on empty. You need a nutrient-rich diet with regular meals and snacks. Eliminate ‘empty calories’ such as confectionary, pastries and fast foods and focus on wholegrains, nuts, seeds, fruit, veg and high quality proteins.

• Seven Health Eating Resolutions for the New Year - MapMyFitnes.com has some good old basic tips on healthy eating. - Added December 18, 2008

A nutritious diet can help you fight disease, increase your energy level, and help you lose weight. It is also an essential partner to physical activity when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Training

• Four-week “Build-up Programme” - Training programme for new cyclists - Bicycles Network Australia.

• Home brew fitness testing - BikeRadar.com has an article on how to benchmark one’s fitness. Then one can go and compare times in the future to get an indication of improvement.

So how can you really know the answer, without investing in expensive equipment?  Simple. Go and find a hill to climb. Ride up as hard as you can and time yourself.

Weight Loss

• How to Burn Fat Better - BikeRadar.com - An interesting article on maximising burn up of our own fat stores whilst riding. It makes suggestions about the timing of meals in respect to when we ride. To quote from the article:

Take a rider with bad meal timing; lack of consistent riding, who’s training too hard and fat use will be very poor. However, if you leave two hours between eating and riding, train fasted up to two hours once a week, keep in your steady riding zone (60 to 80%of maximum heart rate) most of the time and stay consistent, then you will be a good fat burner.

Tags: Nutrition,Training,Weight Loss
Categories: Bicycling
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