Hiya.
I'm 18.5 stone and riding my bike to lose weight though I'm having a world of fun doing it and will carry on riding when I've lost the 6 stone I'm hoping to shift. It's working, I'm losing inches if not weight.
What I wanted to know was, a lot of people here seem to ride every day. And I can't. Even if we ride every other day, the power in my legs seems to decrease on a half life thing, and by the 4th ride there's nothing left and I feel terrible. Conversely, if I wait 3-4 days between rides my legs feel fully recovered.

So, which is better, getting out and riding to burn the fat regardless, or should I be waiting for muscles to recover, and will this recovery time get shorter as I get fitter and smaller?

Wait for muscles to recover, in theory you should burn more when you're working more efficiently. You can do other things in between though. Swimming, rowing machine….

Don't forget that a healthy lifestyle is just that, not just the cycling. Walk instead of driving, use the stairs instead of the lift etc etc.

Yep, the wait periods will get smaller and smaller as you get fitter and your body improves it's fitness levels.

If I get out on my bike today, that will be my 5th day in a row that I'll have ridden 35-45 miles. My legs are starting to complain though. 😉

Good luck!

Every 2 to 3 days worked for me when I started getting fitter. Once the fitness improved I ran on day 1 and cycled day 2 and slept like a log every afternoon for an hour 😀 (You need to be government sponsored to manage the sleep).

If you are taking 4 days to recover you would proabbly be beter off doing slightly easier/shorter rides more often.

It's working, I'm losing inches if not weight.

This is great!! Try not to get hung up on weight – weight is irrelevant, the important measure is how this weight is made up. That is, proportion of fat versus muscle. I'm guessing you want to shift fat? The fact you're losing inches but not stones is because you're gaining muscle. This is good as it will raise your metabolism and help burn the fat just by existing. There will come a point whereby you will slow doen gaining muscle and start to lose fat. Sort of like your body shifting priorities. Hang in there and it will happen.

Even if we ride every other day, the power in my legs seems to decrease on a half life thing, and by the 4th ride there's nothing left and I feel terrible. Conversely, if I wait 3-4 days between rides my legs feel fully recovered.

The theory behind training is best covered in the principle of overload. Basically put, you need to do more than your body is comfortable capable of for it to "realise" that it needs to make adjustments to perform this work. That is, improve your fitness. So, when you're riding every 3-4 days and feel fully recovered this is because your body is already capable of performing at the level you're asking it to. I would suggest that any medicaly well person (i.e. assuming you haven't any other health issues, and Dr is happy with you exercising etc.) should perform directed exercise (over and above your normal daily routine) at least every other day. I think the World Health Organisation recommends 5 times per week of at least 30 mins duration.

If you want to email me I can cover stuff in a lot more detail, but otherwise I would suggest speaking to a personal trainer or someone who knows you and your lifestyle.

The fact you're losing inches but not stones is because you're gaining muscle.

Not wishing to be too negative here but there's a limit as to how quickly the human body can lay down muscle fibre, and AFAIK it's a LOT slower than how quickly it can lose fat. But you can re-shape yourself by a little exercise – it pulls muscles back into shape and nips things up without changing composition. Don't fall into the trap of assuming it's going on as muscle as fast as it's coming off the fat – this road leads to disappointment.

The Colgan Institute of Nutritional Sciences (located in San Diego, CA) run by Dr Michael Colgan PHD, a leading sport nutritionist explains that in his extensive experience, the most muscle gain he or any of his colleagues have recorded over a year was 18 1/4 lbs. Dr Colgan goes on to state that "because of the limiting rate of turnover in the muscle cells it is impossible to grow more than an ounce of new muscle each day."

And that's from a body building perspective, not quite on the same level of muscle growth as you'd expect a cyclist to be.

At the end of March I decided to ride a minimum of an hour a day, and kept it up for 50 days.

I didn't do it for weight loss or fitness specifically (although at 99kg, BMI of 29.7 and age 56, I might have been forgiven for doing so) and I found it really enjoyable.

My average daily ride was 89 minutes. Some long, some 60 mins dead, some easy and some hard. Whilst my normal riding is done singlespeed, I put gears on for most of this.

I know what you mean about empty legs. I was really needing a rest at the end – not because I was tired but because I had lost the ability to really get out of the saddle and slog hard. However after 50 days I took 4 days off, apart from riding to the shops etc., then went for a 5 hour hard ride in the Lakes, took another day off and had a really hard 2 and a half hour singlespeeding ride on Cannock Chase.

Overall, it's improved my fitness and leg strength. But if I wanted to train for fitness I'd do a long high-intensity ride on Sunday, a medium low-intensity ride on Tuesday and a short high-intensity ride on Thursday.

A flat spinny ride every so often will do you good, google for 'recovery ride' and factor them in to your schedule.

Or alternately don't worry about it too much, just start with 3 sessions a week if thats what you can manage comfortably and build slowly, the load is probably a bit excesive if you're starting from near scratch.

A road bike is a good way of fitting in extra time in the saddle but more controllable in terms of effort I find (and less hassle to nip out for 30 minutes therefore more likely to be used), dare say you can pick one up cheaply 2nd hand.

Reading the initial question again:

Wait till you feel quite recovered, but not fully so. You will probably find that even though your legs feel stiff at first, after 5 mins warm up you will feel fine.

Yes, as you get fitter the recovery time will reduce – but you have to be patient.

We have one riding buddy who's quite young and healthy, but for some reason he couldn't manage more than 1 ride a week, or he'd go backwards.

But now his body has adapted and he's improving. Took about 6 months to happen, though.

Ride every two days, but make alternate rides really, really easy?

If your starting from scratch, I think your body will tell you when your ready to ride again, I would take the side of caution to start with rather than saying I must go out every 2 days etc, even once a week is going to help initially.

Diet is just as important, but DONT cut your diet too much, unless your really eating too much currently. Still have the nice stuff, theres no point being slimmer and more miserable.

However what I would say, is if your looking to loose weight quickly, then running will be much better for you than cycling as you use every part of your body and you burn calories much quicker. Its also much more time efficient, you can go for a 20 min run where as you would need to go out on a bike for an hour or so to get the same affect.

IMO it's also important to vary your riding. This tends to not only increase weight loss but also improve all-round fitness. E.g.

4-6hr endurance (decent pace without being full on)
2-3hr spin (faster – using lower gears to get revs up, i.e. spinning)
2-3hr roll (possibly fater – using higher gears)
2-3hr hills (decent pace – with as many climbs as reasonably possible)
2-3hr interval (decent pace – sprint at various intervals including shorter climbs)

Mix those around and you'll find sometimes you'll need 3-4 days recovery, other times you can head out the next day. We all have different lives and priorities, but the above generally works for me when I keep at it.

Remember to work on your diet as well though …

Ooooh, lots and lots of helpful stuff.
Diet: Definitely getting better. Much less chocolate and fatty foods, much more slow burn carbs like porridge, pasta etc. Occasional falling off the wagon, but overall I'd say I can hold my head up high on that one, but it still needs work.
Exercise: I think varying intensity and listening to my body seem to be the general summary. Which is helpful – going for a blast on the flat is very different to a slower but more technical and yet longer ride in terms of energy for me, though both are just as fun. So I try and mix things up, that should help.
Thanks guys.

(not read all the posts) – does it not make a difference wich fat to burn?
short bursty rides are good fat burners but long steady rides are not good fat burners?
If so maybe a short ride every other night is better?

Going off to hide now..

long slow rides are the best fat burners.

Coffeeking, muscle growth, yes, if you're talking about the actual increase in muscle fibre. I was more speaking in layman's terms about increase in fibre recruitment, increase in blood flow and generally getting used to using muscles that may feel like they haven't been used for a while, if at all.

Having said that, if LouLouk is 18.5 stone of not a lot of muscle, and he/she is regularly carrying that amount of weight around for any period of time, then I wouldn't be surprised if there is a dramatic increase in muscle. For a good example of this, have a look at the calf muscles of anyone who used to be big and fat but has took to exercise (particularly running). Their calves are usually muscular, well out of proportion to the rest of them. That's because they've been pushing a big old weight around!

I'm interested to know if the subject's of Colgan's study were athlete's or sedentary etc.

DO ride nearly every day ie at least 6 out of 7 and the weight will drop off you, if you can commute to work- (at least 30 minutes each way at 65-80% intensity) this will help with weekday motivation 🙂
Do longer rides at the weekend with your mates.
your legs will hurt every day in the beginning but that will subside once you have been doing it for a few weeks.
you will soon be very fit and fast(if you are bothered about that) and be down to your target weight in a matter of months.
FYI I have lost 9 kilos in the past 3 weeks since I started following this regime with 100 minute commute every day and at least one 2.5 hour plus ride at the weekend.I still drink beer and wine excessively and eat well 😀

IMO one thing to bear in mind is that our bodies are different in that some of us need to work on our fitness/shape/weight/etc and some of us don't. One of my best mates, whom I used to play Saturday football with (when we were in our early to late 20's) could drink 50 pints/week plus shorts and eat all kinds of sh1t (inc those late nights Chinese', kebabs, KFC, etc), but he rarely had a hangover and always performed on the pitch. He was always in shape (even if his body was somehow hiding its stresses internally and therefore creating a legacy for later life). None of us could figure out how. It's just the way we are …