Cycling for HUGE weightloss advice pls

intake fluctuates between 1200 and 2000 per day

calorific expenditure on the 30-45min exercise bike reads 400-600cal

unknown on my outdoors runs.

Diet is under control. I was just hoping for advice on the best type of cycling training for my current goals.

Thanks for the input.

I've taken all your advice and done some calculations and it does add up that I should just get out on the real bike for a couple of hours and enjoy the good weather while it lasts and save short intervals for busy or bad weather days.

KathyG - my exercise bike also measures power in watts so are you saying I could use this to make a more accurate assessment of calories burned? To be honest I've found so many different calculators that give such varying results I dont know which to believe. What actual calculations are there based on height, weight, time, distance and for the exercise bike, watts and speed - that can allow you to create a better estimation of calories burned?

Last week (my first week on a real bike and second week including exercise bike) I managed 80 miles. So hopefully I can get it up to 150 soon enough.

As for 'bike fit' not since I bought the bike 5 years ago. I've just been playing with the seat height a lot but I've now got it to what feels good. i.e. not too low where my things burn up too quickly and not too high that I lock out my knees. The only problem I'm having is that my hands/wrists keep going numb. I'm putting this down to too much weight on them. I cant seem to change the height of the handlebars tho' so I'm just putting up with it.

Thanks

To loose 8.6lbs of fat you need to have a calorie deficit of about 30.000 calories for the week!

That means a 4300 calorie deficit a day! That is a hard (pretty much impossible) number to reach!

How did you come up with your 8.6lbs?

I started using a Bodybugg (a device that measures your calories burned during the day) about 2 weeks ago and I was shocked about how it measured calories burned while biking. It only gave me about 300 per hour of biking at a moderate speed. I did some research and most sites plus my garmin give me about 500-600 calories an hour (at a speed of about 15 mph) which I am using from now. It is still only half of what I burn during an hour of running.

Thanks for the info folks and sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

@Joblin yes as you've seen the 30,000 deficit from 11 hours of cycling was explained in this thread...

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=161558&posts=3&start=1

Additionally, I agree with IdealMuse in that the calories lost in a given exercise are dependant on the weight of the individual.

@IdealMuse Yes I'm a bloke! My interest in the numbers stems from having my engineering hat on and expecting the numbers to add up somewhat more closely. Unfortunately the notoriety of the calculators had escaped me.

By the way, a cycling magazine pointed me to this calculator

http://www.maximuscle.com/static/caloriecalculatorwin.html#top

However it gives a completely different reading of bodyfat compared to the scales I have.

@JC5066 Yes I do know that an average (but variable) 500cal deficit is thought to be most productive. However as we are establishing here, the estimation of your base cals for maintenace level weight is horrendously inaccurate. I just want to point out that when I eat its either because I'm hungry or I'm forcing myself to eat something because I think I should. Its not because I have a 'plan' that forces me to starve myself.

I'm finding that on days I work out my intake goes up to around 1900-2000 and on off days its around 1200-1300 for example Sunday I had a 5 hour ride = 4 protein shakes, bacon piece(1 slice wholemeal bread+ 2 slices bacon - I think you americans call it canadian bacon), 2.5 sandwiches, mini twix, mocha, 3 meatballs, 1 boiled egg, rice, 1 apple = 2010 cal

Yesterday - 'rest' day = 1 sandwich, 1 bacon piece, apple, protein shake, 2 cups of tea, 2 tuna steaks (300g), salad. then I was going to go to bed but instead went for a 2.5hour walk downed 400ml skimmed milk (to force myself some protein) and then went to bed. = 1325cal

So according to my electronic bodyfat sensing scales, since 26th April I've lost 24.5lb fat and gained 16.5lb muscle. I think it would perhaps be more accurate to plot the points on a graph and take an average to account for daily variance. Tho' even so I still find these figures somewhat incredulous.

How can that possibly be anywhere near right???

Why don´t you go and get your BMR tested, then you know exactly how many calories your body burns a day just to stay alive. You add to that your lifestyle and your exercise.

Burning more than 1000 calories per hour on a bike even if you are still close to 300lbs is very unlikely unless you go very very fast.

I am 205lbs and even if I bike at a 20mph pace my calorie burn is "only" about 600-700 an hour!

Scales are the most inaccurate way of measuring Bodyfat so you might want to get your bodyfat tested with a professional and do that at 2-3 months intervals.

And also don't forget that your body is not a machine and other factors play into the calories in versus calories out rule.