Why eMtb? What I've learned...

[Mikerb]

Weight management is such a complex subject. To merely say eat less and you lose weight or eat more and you will gain weight ( assuming the same level of exercise) is far too simplistic. There are other factors to take into consideration. I know people who are as thin as a rake and eat like a horse regardless what level of exercise they do or do not do...................I was one of them until I got to about my mid 30s. My natural body shape is ectomorph and it appears in general that people with that body conformation do nto put on weight easily........but also find it difficult to lose weight. Those with mesomorph conformation are largely exactly the opposite. As I mentioned age also has an impact. Men begin losing muscle mass at quite an alarming rate beyond middle age.......which can be delayed with the right sort of exercise ( or a manual job!). Lifestyle is of course also factor. A job that is largely sedentary and indoors, plus potentially stressful and long hours is a recipe for disaster both from the fitness point of view and general health.
I retired at 55 and decided after spending a long career managing complex problems and projects for an employer, my project was then going to be me! I used all the same techniques I employed at work.
So here are some things that often suffer from the shortcut route to just deciding on a specific diet or doing Yoga etc!!
1. Spend time doing research. I researched food types, body chemistry, exercise regimes, supplements etc.............only using peer reviewed medical journal research papers...............not YT rubbish!!
2. Based on that I devised a draft plan which included targets, recording methods, time management..........rewards.
3. I then analysed what would nullify the plan............potential obstacles etc.................these are some of things I came up with:-
a) If I was to commit to any form of exercise it had to be convenient and readilly accessible..........Gyms for example were out because it would take up too much time getting ready, driving there, showering, getting back etc!
b) whatever dietary rules I decided to follow would have to be supported by my wife
c) the entire plan ( diet exercise etc) had to be tenable as a lifetime change......not just until a weight goal was reached for example.........and no excuses.
d) as far as exercise was concerned it had to be time scheduled in my daily diary...........nothing else to take precedence.

I will not go into the totality of the conclusions I drew from my research but a brief summary of my diet/exercise/supplement regime would be
No saturated fat...............cheese, red meat etc
No alcohol ( I drink Cranberry Juice, mixed red fruits, or water)
Supplements are Vit D and Whey Protein powder shakes ( the latter after exercise only)
Exercise is 6 routines on a multigym...strictly timed for reps and rests.........I bought a multigym..its in the garage. A full session takes 30 minutes.........3 times a week winter months only.
Medicine ball floor exercises......4 off.......reps and rests timed.........3 times a week ( alternates with weights)......again takes 30 minutes ...again winter months only.
I windsurf and mtb.........they provide plenty of exercise in spring/summer/autumn together with DIY, gardening etc.
I walk the dogs every day of the year come hail or shine.....4 miles.

When I retired I weighed 85kg ( I am 183cm). I reduced to 75kg. I relaxed some aspects of my diet after 5 years to include for example cheese and occasional red meat ( not lamb or pork though) and my weight settled to 78kg and had stayed just about there give or take 1 kg.

Note I did not include any cardio type exercise other than what comes as part of my sports. My research showed that calorie counting and cardio vascular exercise is largely a waste of time for weight loss, or for maintaining muscle mass and flexibility. Using weights, dead weights or heavy medicine ball exercise done correctly to the point of muscle exhaustion per rep then rest and repeat, forces muscles to seek protein and carbs from the blood stream and fat reserves. In effect your muscles eat your available fat!!.....and that increases your metabolic rate.

 

[Zed]

Weight management is such a complex subject. To merely say eat less and you lose weight or eat more and you will gain weight ( assuming the same level of exercise) is far too simplistic. There are other factors to take into consideration. I know people who are as thin as a rake and eat like a horse regardless what level of exercise they do or do not do...................I was one of them until I got to about my mid 30s. My natural body shape is ectomorph and it appears in general that people with that body conformation do nto put on weight easily........but also find it difficult to lose weight. Those with mesomorph conformation are largely exactly the opposite. As I mentioned age also has an impact. Men begin losing muscle mass at quite an alarming rate beyond middle age.......which can be delayed with the right sort of exercise ( or a manual job!). Lifestyle is of course also factor. A job that is largely sedentary and indoors, plus potentially stressful and long hours is a recipe for disaster both from the fitness point of view and general health.
I retired at 55 and decided after spending a long career managing complex problems and projects for an employer, my project was then going to be me! I used all the same techniques I employed at work.
So here are some things that often suffer from the shortcut route to just deciding on a specific diet or doing Yoga etc!!
1. Spend time doing research. I researched food types, body chemistry, exercise regimes, supplements etc.............only using peer reviewed medical journal research papers...............not YT rubbish!!
2. Based on that I devised a draft plan which included targets, recording methods, time management..........rewards.
3. I then analysed what would nullify the plan............potential obstacles etc.................these are some of things I came up with:-
a) If I was to commit to any form of exercise it had to be convenient and readilly accessible..........Gyms for example were out because it would take up too much time getting ready, driving there, showering, getting back etc!
b) whatever dietary rules I decided to follow would have to be supported by my wife
c) the entire plan ( diet exercise etc) had to be tenable as a lifetime change......not just until a weight goal was reached for example.........and no excuses.
d) as far as exercise was concerned it had to be time scheduled in my daily diary...........nothing else to take precedence.

I will not go into the totality of the conclusions I drew from my research but a brief summary of my diet/exercise/supplement regime would be
No saturated fat...............cheese, red meat etc
No alcohol ( I drink Cranberry Juice, mixed red fruits, or water)
Supplements are Vit D and Whey Protein powder shakes ( the latter after exercise only)
Exercise is 6 routines on a multigym...strictly timed for reps and rests.........I bought a multigym..its in the garage. A full session takes 30 minutes.........3 times a week winter months only.
Medicine ball floor exercises......4 off.......reps and rests timed.........3 times a week ( alternates with weights)......again takes 30 minutes ...again winter months only.
I windsurf and mtb.........they provide plenty of exercise in spring/summer/autumn together with DIY, gardening etc.
I walk the dogs every day of the year come hail or shine.....4 miles.

When I retired I weighed 85kg ( I am 183cm). I reduced to 75kg. I relaxed some aspects of my diet after 5 years to include for example cheese and occasional red meat ( not lamb or pork though) and my weight settled to 78kg and had stayed just about there give or take 1 kg.

Note I did not include any cardio type exercise other than what comes as part of my sports. My research showed that calorie counting and cardio vascular exercise is largely a waste of time for weight loss, or for maintaining muscle mass and flexibility. Using weights, dead weights or heavy medicine ball exercise done correctly to the point of muscle exhaustion per rep then rest and repeat, forces muscles to seek protein and carbs from the blood stream and fat reserves. In effect your muscles eat your available fat!!.....and that increases your metabolic rate.

Thanks for sharing this.
I would urge a revisit of the saturated fat, it's not the monster it was purported to be, and a lot of the misinformation about it these days comes from the vegan camp. Our very cell walls are made from saturated fat. That's not to say go nuts, but I don't look at it as something to avoid like the plague.
And I'd also consider the adding of a quality omega 3. I take omega 3s and vitamin D as a staple, and that's for the long term, because of anti-aging properties more than anything else. It's best to find an omega 3 that's tested by the IFOS and has a low oxidation rating. It's the oxidation part that's important, else it can do more harm than good.

 

[Mikerb]

There is always conflicting reports on food. I was focused on weight loss, building/maintaining lean muscle and strong connective tissue and as I said I only took note of peer reviewed research. Accumulation of excess body fat is not only about weight/mass since you can be lean but still have excess visceral fat and that is more harmful. There are a number of fats that are in fact helpful since they bond with saturated/stored body fat and are carried together through the disposal process..........e.g peanuts, olives, Avocado. I do no take any supplements other than Vit d and Whey protein since those together with water, creatine ( which is foul!) and caffeine were the only ones with any proven research benefits......assuming no ill health and a balanced/varied diet.
It is 15 years since I retired ( so 70 now). I am the same weight and enjoy the same sports...and no (known) illnesses.

 

[Zed]

There is always conflicting reports on food. I was focused on weight loss, building/maintaining lean muscle and strong connective tissue and as I said I only took note of peer reviewed research. Accumulation of excess body fat is not only about weight/mass since you can be lean but still have excess visceral fat and that is more harmful. There are a number of fats that are in fact helpful since they bond with saturated/stored body fat and are carried together through the disposal process..........e.g peanuts, olives, Avocado. I do no take any supplements other than Vit d and Whey protein since those together with water, creatine ( which is foul!) and caffeine were the only ones with any proven research benefits......assuming no ill health and a balanced/varied diet.
It is 15 years since I retired ( so 70 now). I am the same weight and enjoy the same sports...and no (known) illnesses.

Sadly, my issue is with visceral fat. I mean - I'm overweight and I don't carry much fat elsewhere. I'm well aware that it's terrible, and it's also a very good indicator of insulin resistance. I think it's the source of my metabolic woes and I think I brought it about with excessive beer consumption some time back (divorce, life falling apart, etc). There is also definitely a genetic component, a tendency to carry visceral fat rather than subcutaneous runs in the family. So does eating refined carbs though . And once you get this kind of problem it's more difficult to resolve. I'm back on that horse though and I'm going to sort it this time.

What you're doing is clearly working for you, and that's great. But just to be clear, I'm not some muppet who just listens to snake oil salesmen and doesn't look at actual research

Let's just agree to disagree on saturated fat. We won't solve it here. You're getting some and your body will manufacture what it needs, so it's unlikely to be a hindrance to your health, so it doesn't matter. We don't need a lot through the diet, but some is a non-issue. It becomes more of an issue in the presence of refined sugar, but of course that's asking for trouble anyway.

Personally I go to people like Dr Rhonda Patrick, scientists at the top of their field, rather than trying to directly digest scientific literature myself. She leads a team of intelligent academics who are very passionate and work full time digesting the literature. There is so much new literature that there is no way a single person working full time can process it all, so they work as a team and collaborate. I'm not a scientist and even if I was I'd be just one, so obviously there is no way I could ever do it myself. I outsource. I actually got my DNA through 23andme and put that through FoundMyFitness too, got some interesting stuff back. The info from there on vitamin D, omega 3s and magnesium is why I supplement those things. Rhonda has actually published peer reviewed research on vitamin D and omega 3s.

As an example - Omega 3's - Search - FoundMyFitness - Keep clicking "Load more" at the bottom.

Saturated fat: Search - FoundMyFitness (the way I read it saturated fat is not a demon nor an angel. It just "is", as per the current evidence).

 

[Mikerb]

I left out one other restriction I applied to my diet earlier on and that is processed food. The simple reasons were that firstly it is almost impossible to tell what is used in the production of those foods and secondly the amount of sugar merely used as a bulking agent.
I said my diet was a lifestyle change not a short term "diet" and I kept strictly to it for 10 years and then relaxed some aspects of it after that but only in quite small ways.
Re visceral fat one line of research I remember following up on was a University Lecturer with a family history of diabetes. He was not visibly overweight but fairly typical of many middle aged men with no interest in sports, not exactly trim! He had a body scan which revealed that he did indeed have a high percentage of visceral fat. He set about consulting a variety of University Research Units for best advice...mostly on exercise rather than diet. He ended up successfully reducing his visceral fat ,as measured by subsequent scans just using one exercise regime. That was a turbo trainer, where he pushed against increased resistance until near exhaustion.....which only took about 10 minutes initially, up to 20 minutes after a while. He did one of those sessions per day for 3 days a week. The exercise regime was one which Edinburgh University had measured for effectiveness, tracking not only visceral fat reduction, but also general fitness levels. They also took DNA samples and were able to predict from that whether or not the exercise would have any radical effect on his general fitness level. They had identfied a number of different DNA profiles that were consistent with how easy or not each DNA profile would enable the person to make significant gains in fitness from exercise. His DNA profile predicted any improvement in his fitness would be very slow.....they were right!! Fascinating stuff!!

 

[Zed]

I left out one other restriction I applied to my diet earlier on and that is processed food. The simple reasons were that firstly it is almost impossible to tell what is used in the production of those foods and secondly the amount of sugar merely used as a bulking agent.
I said my diet was a lifestyle change not a short term "diet" and I kept strictly to it for 10 years and then relaxed some aspects of it after that but only in quite small ways.
Re visceral fat one line of research I remember following up on was a University Lecturer with a family history of diabetes. He was not visibly overweight but fairly typical of many middle aged men with no interest in sports, not exactly trim! He had a body scan which revealed that he did indeed have a high percentage of visceral fat. He set about consulting a variety of University Research Units for best advice...mostly on exercise rather than diet. He ended up successfully reducing his visceral fat ,as measured by subsequent scans just using one exercise regime. That was a turbo trainer, where he pushed against increased resistance until near exhaustion.....which only took about 10 minutes initially, up to 20 minutes after a while. He did one of those sessions per day for 3 days a week. The exercise regime was one which Edinburgh University had measured for effectiveness, tracking not only visceral fat reduction, but also general fitness levels. They also took DNA samples and were able to predict from that whether or not the exercise would have any radical effect on his general fitness level. They had identfied a number of different DNA profiles that were consistent with how easy or not each DNA profile would enable the person to make significant gains in fitness from exercise. His DNA profile predicted any improvement in his fitness would be very slow.....they were right!! Fascinating stuff!!

Yeah I've heard about this too, where they can now tell from certain genes how well people will respond to training stimuli, and there are different genes for strength vs endurance, etc. The writing is on the wall for us mere mortals
There's actually this service: Accurate DNA Test For Diet, Fitness, Health & Wellness - DNAfit where I can send my 23andMe DNA test results and they give you some of this stuff. What I've found with other services though it's not as specific or definite as one would hope. Might give this one a whirl though...

 

[Zed]

Yeah I've heard about this too, where they can now tell from certain genes how well people will respond to training stimuli, and there are different genes for strength vs endurance, etc. The writing is on the wall for us mere mortals
There's actually this service: Accurate DNA Test For Diet, Fitness, Health & Wellness - DNAfit where I can send my 23andMe DNA test results and they give you some of this stuff. What I've found with other services though it's not as specific or definite as one would hope. Might give this one a whirl though...

Went and did it. I already have the DNA data so figured, I might as well.
Pretty interesting. There's a lot of detail in here separately for diet, fitness, nutrients, stress & sleep.
Diet-wise, it tells me I tolerate fats better than carbs, but a LOT of saturated fat will not work well for me, that it should be around 10% of my fat intake. But my diet should be I guess moderately high fat. So there you go. Or there I go.

Tells me I have poor toxin management, so should stay away from smoked & chargrilled meats and I have noticed they make me feel shitty, but they're so tasty lol.

Tells me I tolerate lactose well, which I'm very much aware of

That's all good, gives me macro targets for Cronometer...

This makes mountain biking look pretty ideal?

It also tells me I have higher need for Omega 3 and Vitamin D. Hahahah - my supplementing those is suddenly validated. Recommending 3g a day!

 

[Mteam]

Went and did it. I already have the DNA data so figured, I might as well.
Pretty interesting. There's a lot of detail in here separately for diet, fitness, nutrients, stress & sleep.
Diet-wise, it tells me I tolerate fats better than carbs, but a LOT of saturated fat will not work well for me, that it should be around 10% of my fat intake. But my diet should be I guess moderately high fat. So there you go. Or there I go.

View attachment 64521

Tells me I have poor toxin management, so should stay away from smoked & chargrilled meats and I have noticed they make me feel shitty, but they're so tasty lol.

Tells me I tolerate lactose well, which I'm very much aware of

That's all good, gives me macro targets for Cronometer...

This makes mountain biking look pretty ideal?

View attachment 64522

It also tells me I have higher need for Omega 3 and Vitamin D. Hahahah - my supplementing those is suddenly validated. Recommending 3g a day!

View attachment 64524

I always wonder if these sorts of things are accurate, or are they just telling you a load of b*llocks to extract some money from you.

Is it the modern equivalent of going to a tarot card reader?

I understand that science should be able to tell you this sort of info from genetic analysis, but is this firm actually doing this, and to an accurate enough level? or is it all mostly rubbish. Would be good to send the same info to several different firms and see if the results all line up.

 

[Zed]

I always wonder if these sorts of things are accurate, or are they just telling you a load of b*llocks to extract some money from you.

Is it the modern equivalent of going to a tarot card reader?

I understand that science should be able to tell you this sort of info from genetic analysis, but is this firm actually doing this, and to an accurate enough level? or is it all mostly rubbish. Would be good to send the same info to several different firms and see if the results all line up.

Nah it's legit. For what it's worth, a lot did line up between Found My Fitness' report and DNAFit, for me. Neither are places where I got my DNA tested, that was 23andMe and is more focused on ancestry. Basically they have to comb through really large amounts of data from studies to isolate what genes do what. A lot of it is tendency rather than set in stone. It can never be a done deal because of epigenetics. The analogy is that your DNA sows the seed but environment provides soil. So it can be a good thing - DNA isn't often a 100% predictor (it is sometimes though, sadly).
All the science is there to delve into should one want.
There are a lot of very smart people compiling all that stuff.

 

[Mikerb]

Interesting stuff and it makes absolute sense to me that we all have different DNA makeups ( nature) which pre dispose us to different outcomes for health and fitness, but we also are to some extent in control of our lifestyle ( nurture)...at least once adult.........which also plays its role. The thing is we can change what has been the major features of our lifestyle, but my experience has been that the key aspect of achieving that for many people is the willingness to change mindset.
For example, we are alone in the animal kingdom to organise our feeding habits into specific mealtimes, so unless other factors force that why do it? I have none of those "other" factors being retired, so I eat when I am hungry and not otherwise. More often than not I only eat when I get up and late afternoon/ tea time ( UK speak). I treat eating as a function not an occasion. How much I eat is determined by how active I have been. We can do nothing a bout the DNA profile we are dealt but it does speak to us.............you will have heard the expression "listen to your body". But don't just listen....act upon it!!

 

[Canmore TLCC 29]

Haha, I think beer originally got me in this state. I suspect drinking copious amounts of beer, followed by the ensuing garbage food during hangovers, probably got me in this bad metabolic state. Beer causes horrendous blood sugar spiking and disables the livers ability to burn fat. And oh boy did I do a lot of that.

But I don't drink now. I did drink a fair bit over a week 3 months ago, before that it was 6 months, and my current plan is never to drink again. Sadly, the weight hasn't fallen off

The more I type about this here, the more I'm starting to lean towards trying another stint on keto though. I don't really look at Keto as a diet - but a therapy, for the metabolism. I just get so tired of meat, fat and plants...

Our metabolism changes a lot as we age. Cutting back if not cutting out alcohol is a good start but it was isn’t guaranteed to drop weight.

 

[Bobj183]

Since ebikes all have a very accurate built in power meter to gauge just how much you're putting into the pedals I'm going to assume that the calorie counter on my Kiox display is fairly accurate. If that is so then mine would indicate that I use about 1500 to 2000 calories on a forty to forty five mile ride. Even on the shortest rides I use around 800 to a 1000 calories. Surely it's possible to lose weight at that rate. Just stay off the turbo button
I ride an eMTB now but have ridden MTBs for nearly thirty years and road bikes off and on for nearly sixty years but obsession can have it's downside. So for all the fitness fanatics a word of warning; I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (look it up) two years ago. This was thought to be brought about by over training. You'll find quite a few ex-Pro-Elite MTB riders with the same diagnosis who are telling their story on eMTB forums these days. For people like me the advent of the eMTB has been great because it allows me to keep my heart rate below the trigger point for A-Fib while still riding at a reasonable speed. Age; 74 weight 73kg

 

[Mikerb]

Firtly I do not believe any of these devices can have a clue what calories are burnt by any individual and secondly all burning calories achieves is to use carbo hydrates in the blood stream which are immediately replaced next time you eat. It has very little relation to weight loss since to lose weight you have to reduce bone, water, muscle or fat content from your body.........clearly fat being the main target out of those!

 

[Bobj183]

If you burn off the glycogen in your muscles and reduce your blood sugar your body should then try to access your fat stores to maintain blood sugar levels and start replacing glycogen. As for calorie burn measurements, an accurate measurement of watt/hours can be translated into what would be a typical calorie burn for that watt/hour measurement. Admittedly it will be slightly different depending on the individual but as a rough indicator it is fairly useful. The best way to optimize fat burning is to run steady state at a moderate level without preloading with or replacing carbs. You can train your body to access fat if you want to so it has everything to do with weight loss.

 

[Andym123]

emtb is best of two worlds if your feeling fit and up for it ride with motor off, it’s a better workout than a clockwork bike. From there use whatever power level suits your mood or how energetic your feeling.

 

[Zed]

Since ebikes all have a very accurate built in power meter to gauge just how much you're putting into the pedals I'm going to assume that the calorie counter on my Kiox display is fairly accurate. If that is so then mine would indicate that I use about 1500 to 2000 calories on a forty to forty five mile ride. Even on the shortest rides I use around 800 to a 1000 calories. Surely it's possible to lose weight at that rate. Just stay off the turbo button
I ride an eMTB now but have ridden MTBs for nearly thirty years and road bikes off and on for nearly sixty years but obsession can have it's downside. So for all the fitness fanatics a word of warning; I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (look it up) two years ago. This was thought to be brought about by over training. You'll find quite a few ex-Pro-Elite MTB riders with the same diagnosis who are telling their story on eMTB forums these days. For people like me the advent of the eMTB has been great because it allows me to keep my heart rate below the trigger point for A-Fib while still riding at a reasonable speed. Age; 74 weight 73kg

I cannot remember who it was but I read a post recently on here where someone had tried their power meter pedals on a Bosch equipped ebike (with Kiox too I think) and it was very close. So I think we can assume the Bosch user-wattage logging is pretty good. If you look at the tech they put in there - the processor etc - it's quite believable that they'd make it accurate. How well eMtb mode works is another indicator I think. I'd be surprised if Specialized wasn't pretty damn close too. Can't speak for the Shimano.

About the damage from too much or too hard exercise - I think it's a very good point. I talked to my doc about my struggle with MTB - you know, that it was the exercise I wanted to do but I felt like crap a lot because of my HR spiking so much. He told me to back off, get some conditioning instead, stay away from the high heart rate. The ebike is a fantastic way to do this!

Next problem, how to stop it spiking so much on the descents...
Check this out the below, tells the story. Bit hard to see as a sceenshot without the vertical highlight thingy, but mostly all the spikes of heartrate above average are on the downhills, minimal or no pedalling. It's difficult I think to know how much is adrenalin, as this was sessioning some new black trails. But I think it's dawning on me that the limiter for my descending speed isn't just testicular fortitude as I thought (undoubtedly it is somewhat lol), but muscular power/endurance/efficiency - my ability to throw the bike where it needs to be. At some point I can't do it fast enough, so I automatically brake, self-preservation automagically takes over.

Not that it really matters, I don't care too much about doing it faster I care about having fun, gently progressing and staying in one piece. But if it's motivation to do some strength work and that improves my ride, health and recovery - then I'll take it.

 

[Zimken]

Well, wouldn't we all love a magic formula to lose weight! Sadly there isn't, you have to work at it, but more difficult is knowing what suits you as an individual. As a middle aged (67) man, I have always been what I would consider fit enough, others may disagree, but it is what it is. The important thing for me is to separate fitness and weight, simply because the heaviest I been was when I would consider my fittest (windsurfing years in the 80's), mainly because I had more muscle. As I got older my weight is 73.5 kg (5ft 10in) and I consider my self carrying too much weight around the stomach.
My approach was to concentrate on core strength and easiest way for me to do this was 3 sets of press-ups and 3 sets of squats every morning. Surprisingly after 4 weeks my waistline shrunk by over 1 inch and I went from 3 x 20 pressups to 3 x 40 in that short time (Similar with squats). Guess what weight hasn't gone down much (1 kg) but I can actually see muscles in my torso again, to say nothing of feeling much better on some of the forest and gravel tracks due stronger legs and core. I can also now lift my 24kg eBike onto the tow bar carrier with ease, even lifted the bikes over a locked gate!
So, for me simple pressups and squats have worked, I guess I could cut out a couple of beers a week, but where is the fun in that!

 

[BushLevo]

Just eat less and the rest takes care of its self.

Contrary to popular belief exercise does not offset poor diet and calorie intake unless you are an athlete.

Shedding 12kg in lockdown made eMTB much easier and less demanding on my body and bike. suspension works better and so do tires and wheels when they arent being made to deal with 10-15kg of weight.

Being "Fit" is also a myth as its impossible to quantify. Put a "Fit" runner on a Snowboard and watch how long he still thinks hes "fit"

You can train your body in weeks to do a task more efficiently but it takes months to lose weight and by weight i mean fat and not water.

I lost 12KG by not even leaving the house or doing exercise and then EVERYTHING after got easier.

Absolutely agree with this. I lost 18kg in the last 5 months simply by reducing the quantity I ate, with particular attention to no starchy carbs, without altering my exercise regime one iota. My Turbo Levo is loving me for it.

I heard a saying that 'you can't out-run your (food)fork'.

 

[beutelfuchs]

@Zed great post (the first one). As being on the heavier side I always have the same issue. Mountain ride on the weekend followed by the rest of the week being sore, sick or a combination of both. No need to mention that this is no base for progressing at anything, and exactly this was the result.

To get fit you need to increase training load a lot and this requires lot of riding with 80% of time on endurance pace (rough rule of thumb) which just doesn't work on an mtb with 100kg on top of it.

With the emtb I could finally break the barrier to increase fitness on the bike while having a lot of fun on the downs. As a side effect today I'm a lot better rider DH as ever before as well.

Last year I added (accoutic) gravel riding into the mix which is a great way to spend time with the family on the bike and to discover stuff.

Regarding weight loss, that's just so individual.
Some smart ass always comes around with "you just have to ingress less energy than ...". Yeah Einstein, the question is how to sustain that state long term.
What works for some is to reduce caloric density and therefore increasing portion volume.
For me it's decreasing stomach volume which helps making me less hungry. So I have to eat small portions of rather higher caloric density. As soon as I break this cycle I re-enter hunger land and become a carb eating machine.
If course burning 700...1500kcal on a lot of rides helps

 

[1oldfart]

VEGGIES are a key to clean ***garbage*** out. Probably a part of excess weight is some accumulation of fat.
Probably part comes from water retention.
Just by cutting salt you will loose weight.
The problem is more about quality.
By eating quality food there is no need to count calories.
Basically fresh is good, manufactured/process is bad.
Eat all the potatoes you want just, not fried, not salted, not with cheese.
I mix 3 to 5 good things no special recipee.
Your taste buds will adapt and there will be a man healthier who does not sacrifice.
Stop that.
You are sacrificing your health by eating bad quality.
I hope it helps.

You need motivation?
You will be saving money, so a bigger bike budget