There’s no way of targeting fat loss to an area, even liposuction evens out over time. Any core/abs/back and shoulder/arms exercises will make you look thinner by sucking your stomach in and improving posture and broadening your chest/shoulders/biceps in proportion.
Other than that I find it’s more down to time spent exercising rather than intensity. So stuff like group night rides, if possible get there an hour early and do an easy ride before anyone turns up (or ride from home if it’s practical), I find that easier than trying to plan an extra ride (and cuts down on washing but not going out twice).
Set small goals that are quantifiable, but aren’t weight loss which can be influenced by counter productive things like starving yourself making riding harder, or dehydrating, or muscle loss. It can take quite a while to reach a target weight, there’s no way I could stay motivated for 20 weeks to lose 10kg, but a target taking about half that time is much more visible.
I’ve set myself a target of joining the fast group for night rides, this means getting from an average speed of 6.6mph to about 8.3mph. Once you’ve got a target break it down into even smaller targets. So for me that’s:
January:
3x rides a week, ~2 hours each time, staying near the front on group rides so I’m working harder then taking a break which will increase my speed.
Febuary:
As January, + get back into commuting by bike.
March:
As Febuary, but re-join the roadie club for Sunday cafe runs.
So that’s 12 weeks planned out, and hopefully combined with some sensible eating some weight loss will be a semi-un-planned result 🙂