More about Americans' obesity, bicycling, etc. - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

09-09-2003, 09:58 AM

Bill Moore has another nice article about America's obesity problem, vs. how
Europeans are so much healthier because they bike and walk instead of drive:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

EV World is a great website for anyone interested in alternative transportation
and energy. It's not just for electric car geeks.

Matt O.

09-10-2003, 09:23 AM

> I hate to burst your bubble, but walking or cycling is no way to lose
> weight. The human body is to damn efficient.
>
> It is what you eat. Now, it is true that my bicycle has improved my health
> vastly --- but what I eat caused the lose of weight from 306 down to 214 so
> far.

I disagree. I lost 15 lbs after taking up cycling for transportation,
and I probably eat *more* now than before because I'm hungrier from
the exercise. Muscle burns fat even when you are at rest, so doing
exercise which builds muscle is an amazing way to lose weight.

Of course for exercise to be effective it has to be reasonably
vigorous and reasonably frequent. If someone considers a 2 mile bike
ride a week their "exercise" then obviously it won't make much/any
difference in their weight.

09-10-2003, 11:35 AM

"Joe Potter" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:5pr7b.31531$[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].c om...
> I hate to burst your bubble, but walking or cycling is no way to lose
> weight. The human body is to damn efficient.
>
> It is what you eat. Now, it is true that my bicycle has improved my health
> vastly --- but what I eat caused the lose of weight from 306 down to 214
so
> far.

I disagree. I went from 400lbs+ to 250 by changing my diet AND cycling a
lot. Cycling was a large component in it, I believe. Although I'm stuck at
250 right now.

Preston

09-10-2003, 12:32 PM

"Tanya Quinn" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:64a84a3a.0309100923.1a59f330@posting.google.c om...
> > I hate to burst your bubble, but walking or cycling is no way to lose
> > weight. The human body is to damn efficient.
> >
> > It is what you eat. Now, it is true that my bicycle has improved my health
> > vastly --- but what I eat caused the lose of weight from 306 down to 214
so
> > far.
>
> I disagree. I lost 15 lbs after taking up cycling for transportation,
> and I probably eat *more* now than before because I'm hungrier from
> the exercise. Muscle burns fat even when you are at rest, so doing
> exercise which builds muscle is an amazing way to lose weight.
>
> Of course for exercise to be effective it has to be reasonably
> vigorous and reasonably frequent.

I've found that riding consecutive days really makes a difference. Daily
commuting seems to speed up the metabolism more than a couple of hard rides a
week.

09-10-2003, 02:07 PM

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 12:35:37 +0000, Preston Crawford wrote:

> I disagree. I went from 400lbs+ to 250 by changing my diet AND cycling a
> lot. Cycling was a large component in it, I believe. Although I'm stuck at
> 250 right now.

I quickly dropped from about 215 to right around 200 when I got back on
the bike, but since then I have hovered right there. I do like to eat,
and since I am so much healthier in general since getting my butt back on
the bike, I am not as concerned with the weight. I would like to lose
20-40 more pounds, so that I could climb better, but like I said, I do
like to eat.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I can
_`\(,_ | assure you that mine are all greater. -- A. Einstein
(_)/ (_) |

09-11-2003, 05:52 AM

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 18:07:57 -0400, David L. Johnson
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
> I quickly dropped from about 215 to right around 200 when I got back on
> the bike, but since then I have hovered right there. I do like to eat,
> and since I am so much healthier in general since getting my butt back on
> the bike, I am not as concerned with the weight. I would like to lose
> 20-40 more pounds, so that I could climb better, but like I said, I do
> like to eat.

It's not worth going hungry, just to look good.

The excersize keeps you healthy; you can eat
any garbage you want, and the excersize will
keep your system clean. Just keep on riding!

--
Rick Onanian

09-11-2003, 06:30 AM

We are overweight due to slight imbalances in exercise and eating. Eat
50 kcals a day more than you burn, and you gain over 5 lbs a year.
Keep that up for a couple of years, and you are obese.

Adding a short walk or bike ride *every day* will burn those 50 kcals
and have slow but significant long term effects on weight. Do one
frikin errand a day without your car. Of course, one push-away from
the table a day would also do the trick. But that involves sacrafice.

09-11-2003, 07:24 AM

On Thu, 11 Sep 2003 09:52:36 +0000, Rick Onanian wrote:

>> on the bike, I am not as concerned with the weight. I would like to
>> lose 20-40 more pounds, so that I could climb better, but like I said, I
>> do like to eat.
>
> It's not worth going hungry, just to look good.

I'm not talking about looking good, I'm talking about climbing better. As
in faster. Of course, I just finished a big breakfast; I gotta go ride it
off.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Arguing with an engineer is like mud wrestling with a pig... You
_`\(,_ | soon find out the pig likes it!
(_)/ (_) |

09-11-2003, 08:22 AM

In article <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].cox.net>, Rick Onanian
<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 18:07:57 -0400, David L. Johnson
> <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote:
> > I quickly dropped from about 215 to right around 200 when I got back on
> > the bike, but since then I have hovered right there. I do like to eat,
> > and since I am so much healthier in general since getting my butt back on
> > the bike, I am not as concerned with the weight. I would like to lose
> > 20-40 more pounds, so that I could climb better, but like I said, I do
> > like to eat.
>
> It's not worth going hungry, just to look good.
>
> The excersize keeps you healthy; you can eat
> any garbage you want, and the excersize will
> keep your system clean. Just keep on riding!

I also just read an article that said women who exercise reduce the risk
of breast cancer. Obese women have a high death rate from BC, probably
because it's harder for them to find lumps through self-examination.

Another reason to keep on riding!

09-11-2003, 09:39 AM

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (salmoneous) wrote in message news:<54daff87.0309110630.2bbbf45@posting.google.c om>...
> We are overweight due to slight imbalances in exercise and eating. Eat
> 50 kcals a day more than you burn, and you gain over 5 lbs a year.
> Keep that up for a couple of years, and you are obese.
>
> Adding a short walk or bike ride *every day* will burn those 50 kcals
> and have slow but significant long term effects on weight. Do one
> frikin errand a day without your car. Of course, one push-away from
> the table a day would also do the trick. But that involves sacrafice.

I think it's really very simple from a calorie counting stand point.
You simply have to burn more calories than you consume to loose
weight. This a tool that may help, there are many online, but here's a
link for a cycling calorie calculator:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

At least with this tool you can monitor how much your ride will burn
for the day. But, it's of little help if you don't know how much your
consuming in the first place. There are many food calorie count
estimators too. Also, as said above 4 slices of pizza may add up to
1000 calories the same as 25 apples. Either way you have to burn that
much to get ahead of the game.