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For years, I was a moderately competitive bike racer. I was pretty trim. Without changing my diet, I had kids, and had to give it up due to time constraints.

For years, I was a moderately competitive bike racer. I was pretty trim. Without changing my diet, I had kids, and had to give it up due to time constraints. (I'll pick it back up one day, I swear...) Now I have a pretty standard dad-bod. Probably +25lbs.

soco 3y ago
Same here, I quickly picked 10kg after having kids and giving up intensive martial arts trainings. But, those would be way more if I didn't pay close attention at the calories intake (as exercise is very moderate nowadays, so to say) - I noticed what happens when I let it slip for like a week, bang 1 kg (2 pounds). So it's both.
c0nsumer 3y ago
I'd wager that if you started riding the same amount, at the same HR, you wouldn't lose that 25. (I say this as someone who rides a lot, somewhat competitively, and has directly observed that weight loss comes in the kitchen, not from riding. And if you try to cut back on nutrition during the ride, you'll feel so awful you won't be able to ride.)
- recursive 3y ago
  Prior to getting into biking, I was generally pretty sedentary and was maybe +15 over my eventual racing weight. But I must admit that you could be right. Maybe it was just age or something. I guess I'll find out when I make my glorious return.
  - c0nsumer 3y ago
    There was a point, 2017 or so, where I was riding a ton and being mindful of what I ate. I think I dropped ~10 pounds and gained a bunch of muscle. Since then I've backed off riding a bit, and am definitely not as aware of what I eat (snacking because of stress, mostly) and am up maybe 5-10 pounds from that time.
Fricken 3y ago
I was in a cycling collision a decade ago, and suffered a broken leg. This led to a 2 year period, really the first period in my life longer than a few months where I was largely sedentary. +25 pounds of fat slowly but steadily accumulated around my midsection in that time. Then I got serious about rehab and corrected the issues in my leg, started cycling again, and I was back to my desired weight in about 6 weeks, and without putting any particular effort into controlling my calories. Everyone else in my immediate family is obese and sedentary excepting my uncle who is also a cyclist. Someone in r/cycling the other week tried to suggest that "abs are made in the kitchen" and they were laughed out of the thread. In most forums, however, exercise is a 4 letter word, and Dr. pontzer is very popular. After following the subject for years, I've come to believe rising sedentarism is the primary culprit in the obesity epidemic.
- silverquiet 3y ago
  I don't get why calories in/calories out is so hard to believe. There's a lot of sort of optimizations you can do within it like playing with macronutrient ratios or timing and looking at aspects of food like glycemic load or satiety, but at the end of the day, if you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. You can either eat less or exercise more, but given the relative difficulty of those two things, eating less is probably easier. Exercise also has benefits beyond weight management, so you should also probably find something that works for you. It might not be easy to do, but it's not really much more complicated than that.
  - Fricken 3y ago
    I think that for someone out of condition and sedentary the idea of starting up some kind of sustainable fitness practice is quite a bit more intimidating than the idea getting on some kind of diet plan. It can be hard to picture oneself thinking of exercise as something that can be fun and rewarding beyond the health benefits, it is however possible for it to be a thing you love to do and look forward to. Diets fail 95% of the time. Calories in/calories out isn't wrong, obviously. From a physics perspective it is clearly less effort to sit still and not eat than it is to go do physical work of some sort. Once you introduce human psychology into the equation, however, everything changes.

soco 3y ago

Same here, I quickly picked 10kg after having kids and giving up intensive martial arts trainings. But, those would be way more if I didn't pay close attention at the calories intake (as exercise is very moderate nowadays, so to say) - I noticed what happens when I let it slip for like a week, bang 1 kg (2 pounds). So it's both.

c0nsumer 3y ago

I'd wager that if you started riding the same amount, at the same HR, you wouldn't lose that 25. (I say this as someone who rides a lot, somewhat competitively, and has directly observed that weight loss comes in the kitchen, not from riding. And if you try to cut back on nutrition during the ride, you'll feel so awful you won't be able to ride.)

recursive 3y ago
Prior to getting into biking, I was generally pretty sedentary and was maybe +15 over my eventual racing weight. But I must admit that you could be right. Maybe it was just age or something. I guess I'll find out when I make my glorious return.
- c0nsumer 3y ago
  There was a point, 2017 or so, where I was riding a ton and being mindful of what I ate. I think I dropped ~10 pounds and gained a bunch of muscle. Since then I've backed off riding a bit, and am definitely not as aware of what I eat (snacking because of stress, mostly) and am up maybe 5-10 pounds from that time.

Fricken 3y ago

I was in a cycling collision a decade ago, and suffered a broken leg. This led to a 2 year period, really the first period in my life longer than a few months where I was largely sedentary. +25 pounds of fat slowly but steadily accumulated around my midsection in that time. Then I got serious about rehab and corrected the issues in my leg, started cycling again, and I was back to my desired weight in about 6 weeks, and without putting any particular effort into controlling my calories. Everyone else in my immediate family is obese and sedentary excepting my uncle who is also a cyclist. Someone in r/cycling the other week tried to suggest that "abs are made in the kitchen" and they were laughed out of the thread. In most forums, however, exercise is a 4 letter word, and Dr. pontzer is very popular. After following the subject for years, I've come to believe rising sedentarism is the primary culprit in the obesity epidemic.

silverquiet 3y ago
I don't get why calories in/calories out is so hard to believe. There's a lot of sort of optimizations you can do within it like playing with macronutrient ratios or timing and looking at aspects of food like glycemic load or satiety, but at the end of the day, if you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. You can either eat less or exercise more, but given the relative difficulty of those two things, eating less is probably easier. Exercise also has benefits beyond weight management, so you should also probably find something that works for you. It might not be easy to do, but it's not really much more complicated than that.
- Fricken 3y ago
  I think that for someone out of condition and sedentary the idea of starting up some kind of sustainable fitness practice is quite a bit more intimidating than the idea getting on some kind of diet plan. It can be hard to picture oneself thinking of exercise as something that can be fun and rewarding beyond the health benefits, it is however possible for it to be a thing you love to do and look forward to. Diets fail 95% of the time. Calories in/calories out isn't wrong, obviously. From a physics perspective it is clearly less effort to sit still and not eat than it is to go do physical work of some sort. Once you introduce human psychology into the equation, however, everything changes.