I want to lose some weight over a period, and I can ride an hour every day, maybe two at weekends. I live at the bottom of Holmbury Hill (Surrey), and in that time I can pick a route anything from 'up the hill, over, and back' with longer easier gradients, to a series of short sharp climbs with short descents in between.
For weight loss, what sort of effort level and route is best, and is it good to ride every day possible?
Max
a series of short sharp climbs with short descents in between
this on the days when you have an hour but with rest days and then longer lower intensity rides when you have more time.
I'd reallly think about contacting torq or whoever that can assess you and give you a tailored program, though.
For weight loss, what sort of effort level and route is best
Longer than an hour or two!
Do you already have decent base fitness? High intensity intervals are your best hope but not if you're starting from scratch. You'll also likely need very clear short-term goals else you'll get disillusioned pretty quickly (they hurt). You probably don't want to do more than 3 sessions a week either so do a longer but lower intensity ride on the weekend and have a rest day or two.
my advice would be go out for almost the whole hour on an empty stomach at a very leisurely pace. also have a black coffee to bring your metabolism up.
this is the only way i've managed to loose weight. i don't always do the coffee thing though. i'd also take some food just encase you bonk too. regarding doing it everyday - i do so fine (its my commute to work and back)
i'd heard this off a friend of a friend who when he joined a pro tour team had to go out every morning for an hour before everyone else so he could get down to the correct weight. i thought to myself why should it be different to anyone else, tried it, worked a treat.
good luck!
Longer, lower intensity rides are good for fat burning, but if the OP just wants to "lose weight", then any activity that uses calories will help with that surely.
Just make sure you're not eating more to compensate 
No real science behind it, just what I feel works quite well.
I would get out for a regular ride at a pace that is consistently hard. You don't want to choose a route with a couple of killer climbs that tire your legs so much that you can't put the effort in for the rest of the ride.
I guess I'd call it about an 8/10 pace and keep it consistent. Mix it up with a longer ride when you can and perhaps once a week or once every other week do something a bit different; some intervals perhaps?
I definitely notice the weight drop off if I get in a couple of regular, hard evening rides and they are normally about 22 miles or so at about 16mph average speed on my Inbred with slicks. You just have to make sure you don't feel all smug about the miles you are putting in and eat more to reward yourself....
For weight loss - diet.
Riding on an empty stomach does indeed work, you'll feel crap though!
As intense as you possibly can
Longer, lower intensity rides
As intense as you possibly can
So, somewhere between these two will do the trick 
If you've only got 2 hrs a week go as hard as you can, you'll burn more calories and build more lean muscle which will raise your basal metabolic rate. Slow and steady will only work for long rides, as in more than 4 hours.
This is based on nothing other than my own personal opinion and experience.
The Southern Yeti saidFor weight loss - diet.
I'd be inclined to agree. For me, diet = weight loss; exercise = fitness. Related, but not the same thing.
If you only got an hour a day, running will help you shed weight.
The low intensity black coffee thing would work, as would the interval training.
Regardless of what you do, if you live off cakes and chocolate then you will probably not loose fat.
My vote goes to a combination of both intervals and low intensity to see which you prefer (intervals hurt, low intensity is boring imo), combined with a diet that is just below maintainance calories (high protein, low carbs, medium fat etc)
I just look at it as to how many calories you can burn in an hour everyday v's how much you can lose by changing your diet, or really...
how much more efficient you can make your body at burning fat by changing your diet.
When exercising you burn carb stores before fat. You will burn some fat but primarily before the carb stores are gone they get used preferentially.
There is no specific 'fat burning zone' in terms of intensity. To burn the most fat it's about giving the greatest exertion you can before you have to stop due to fatigue.
Given an infinite amount of time to play with this would normally be at a lower intensity. As the maths means a lower calorie burn rate for longer gives a larger total of calories burnt than high calorie burn rate for shorter.
In your case though you only have short periods of time. Therefore go out empty and time you sessions such that you are almost reaching complete fatigue at the end of them.
This should get you close to the most calories you can physically burn in the time available.
phil.w's post started all waffely and hippy dippy, but finished quite concisely
well done 8/10
80% of weight loss is through diet, 20% is through exercise. If you're not taking care of the former, the latter ain't gonna make a lot of difference - which is not to say you can't be overweight and fit.
I'd agree with the 'steady on an empty stomach' thing, from experience. I didn't have a lot of spare weight but since starting to ride 1-2hrs most mornings I've dropped over 10lbs in 6 months. Steady, sensible and unintentional loss, I now eat more to stay where I am. My weekend rides have got longer, mainly as a result of being able to from the morning ride's benefit.
The thing that seems to have made the difference is riding early on an empty stomach with a strong black coffee (no sugar) before the ride - a blast up the hill on the SS then an easy spin with a few fun fast sections. It's not what I'd call a hard ride at all, more a 'nice to be out early and ride a few cheekies while they're quiet' ride. I feel like my endurance and ability to burn fat or maintain energy levels on a long ride is way better than it was a year or 2 ago, and the weight loss has helped my climbing.
I think the more regularly you ride, the more your base metabolism goes up too, even if it's easy pace riding.
Diet book that worked for me - Racing weight / Matt Fitzgerald - I don't like diets but it's about spacing food around exercise and eating good things.
I seem to have lost a stone by keeping to standard calorie intake + commuting 12 miles a day on a bike + a few off road detours and some extra riding at weekends. Seem to have developed a CX bike addiction though...
BTW Calorie burning calculator:
http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc
I live at the bottom of Holmbury Hill (Surrey)
Can I be the first to say what a jammy bastard you are?
Nothing to add in terms of advice, just wondered if you're already doing an hour a day and two at weekends and it's not working?
This contradicts some of the advice above. The suggestion is that if your body gets used to burning fat during exersise it will work hard to replace the fat.
http://180metabolism.com/blog/?p=109
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I'm a not totally unfit but nowhere near totally fit vegetarian who used to do maybe 2-3 rides a week but ate loads of carbs in the form of pasta, and I wasn't losing weight doing that. So, I've recently seriously cut down on the carbs (including beer) and I'm hoping that increasing the calorie burn will help, but not sure how best to do it.
Opinion seems divided between 'mild exercise on empty' and 'bust a gut'. I suppose you end up with low blood sugar/carb stores either way (?), but the first one sounds less painful - maybe I'll try both.
Sorry for being a jammy bastard, chappaking, but it's not all fun - the sun doesn't get in here much in the winter, and then there's the mountain men, you seen Deliverance? 
Ride your bike as hard as you can for an hour, job done.
Diet and exercise imo, I basically eat what i want and cycle when i want, result, i pretty much don't lose wieght. (I clearly eat too much, this is no mystery to me..)
So I got a wee calorie counter app and i'm going to try and keep track of my calories at around 2200 for the days when i do nothing, and up to 2500/3000/3500 for the days when i cycle(depending on what i do obviously), just started this the other day though, so no data for you. But i reckon it is the way forward.
Cycling i'm planning to do is the usual commuting and trying to get 2 20/30+ mile off road runs in a week.
I reckon that should see fairly spectacular results if i stick to it for 6 months.(Whether I do or not is another story, I like my grub! )
It's quite interesting though, I looked up the amount of calories you need to maintain your weight. For me it work out as this.
Men (Imperial Units/United States): BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + (12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.76 x age in years ) = ________
no exercise = 66 + 1483 + 870 - 230 = 2189 calories
light effort x 1.2 = 2626.8 calories
medium effort x 1.375 = 3009.9 calories
hard effort x 1.55 = 3392.95 calories
extreme effort x 1.725 = 3776 calories
bastarding shedload of extreme effort! x 1.9 = 4159.1 calories
An hour on the bike might use 200 calories, where as it's easy to drop 1000 calories out of your diet. Put the bike away (and the reward cakes) and look really hard at what you're eating.
I managed to lose 25kg (85 - 60) by minimal exercise and feeling constantly hungry. It's not easy but works a treat.
I'm not saying it'll make you fitter but it will make you thinner.
ignore any posts about slow fat burning rides, the posters have just read some magazine articles written by people who haven't a clue or they've misunderstood what they've read. training to be efficient at burning fat as fuel during exercise is totally different from training for losing body fat
ride as hard as you can when you go out, intervals would be even better, and cut out certain carbs like rice, potato, pasta, sugars, etc.
fat loss is 85% diet, 15% the right exercise.
also consider riding twice a day every other day, rather than every day.
There is no specific 'fat burning zone' in terms of intensity.
Sorry but this is bollocks. It is proven that if you exercise at around 50-60% of max hr you will burn more fat as a percentage than at a higher heart rate or lower. Of course you will burn more calories overall if you exercise harder, but the overall percentage of fat burned will be lower.
ignore any posts about slow fat burning rides, the posters have just read some magazine articles written by people who haven't a clue or they've misunderstood what they've read. training to be efficient at burning fat as fuel during exercise is totally different from training for losing body fat
Oh jesus another know it all.
How many of you have actually manipulated your bodyfat, while preserving muscle and vice versa?
Probably only the few on here who have been into weight training and bodybuilding and understand the difference between losing 'weight' and losing 'fat'
How many of you have actually manipulated your bodyfat, while preserving muscle and vice versa?
How many people need to preserve muscle? We're not jeff capes and we're not carrying atlas stones around, we're cycling up small hills. Light weight generally = faster.
If you are racing, sure lighter weight is better. The average joe who rides, probably just wants to get fit and have a decent physique.
You can of course hammer away and burn as many calories as possible in the calories in vs calories out way of thinking. This works, but does not take into account which calories you are burning.
Lots of people end up 'skinny fat' low muscle mass, while still having bodyfat that is too high to look good. They wonder why they still cannot lose the last bit of fat.....
If you are after something different ie burning fat and preserving muscle (muscle burns more calories than fat, makes your body more resilient and helps to make you look good 
) then understanding how the body works with regard to muscle, fat and water, and how to manipulate them is useful.
http://labrada.com/blog/labrada-news/gaining-an-understanding-of-muscle-versus-fat/
As I have mentioned if you are racing then this goes out the window, but the vast majority would benefit from having a bit more muscle and less fat.
@ kudos
Oh jesus another know it all.
How many of you have actually manipulated your bodyfat, while preserving muscle and vice versa?
Probably only the few on here who have been into weight training and bodybuilding and understand the difference between losing 'weight' and losing 'fat'
Or alternatively someone that does this kind of thing for a living...
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