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Tips for cycling prep

For small lights, 'be seen' rather than 'see with' types you'll struggle to beat the knog lights.

Knog Blinder MOB 4 Eyes Front Light and Knog Blinder 4 Square Rear Light. My place has them cheapest at the minute, PlanetX bikes
 
There's a lot more to this than is being suggested but good on you for starting your journey.

Paul's advice is probably the best to begin with. Just go out and ride. It will hurt. Be prepared to ride through that and aim to ride further and further rather than faster and faster.

The numbness is to do with position - visit a specialised dealer and look to use your sit bones rather than soft tissue. Good luck.
 
Seconded for the Knog Blinder I have a Mob Mr Chips for the front and it is really bright and gets you noticed, usb rechargable so no messing with batteries.
For the rear I use an Exposure Trace-R again very bright and usb rechargable, not cheap but you get what you pay for.
 
Thanks again all. Went out for just a couple of miles today, and the new saddle is just fine.

The commute begins tomorrow, and I'll either cycle daily, or take the odd day off to recover if necessary. I'm hoping the former.

Diet-wise, believe it or not, our base diet is good. We (mostly my wife TBH) cooks from fresh stuff. We avoid too much fat, and rarely have sweet things like dessert. My problems are really mostly from an inactive lifestyle - desk, car, sofa - hence the changes I'm making.

I promise to report on progress - mostly as a means to 'keep me honest'!
 
Where I work they run a fat club once a year usually after New Year. There were about 12 in it this year and each month they put a fiver in and the one that loses the most weight(proportionally)each month wins the pot. It works well as all the participants ended up losing weight and the money acts as a nice incentive.
Maybe you could set something similar up?
 
Thanks again all. Went out for just a couple of miles today, and the new saddle is just fine.

The commute begins tomorrow, and I'll either cycle daily, or take the odd day off to recover if necessary. I'm hoping the former.

Diet-wise, believe it or not, our base diet is good. We (mostly my wife TBH) cooks from fresh stuff. We avoid too much fat, and rarely have sweet things like dessert. My problems are really mostly from an inactive lifestyle - desk, car, sofa - hence the changes I'm making.

I promise to report on progress - mostly as a means to 'keep me honest'!

I'd look into the diet a bit more, steady exercise alone won't make much, if any, difference.

Good luck with it anyway.
 
I'm working on 8 miles cycling = 400Kcals (ish). Multiply that by five to give 2000Kcals. Given the generally accepted 3500Kcals per pound of weight loss I expect to lose weight through this. That obviously assumes nothing else changing, so we'll see.
 
Not sure if your figures add up there just checked one of my rides on Strava, 50miles @15mph average =1384kJ burned which is approx 331Kcal.
 
Muzzer, not sure I get your calorie calculation. On my most recent ride uploaded to Strava (using a power meter) I used 1288KJ which Strava tells me is 1436 calories.

In any case, I think Whaleblue will need to do a lot more than 8 miles a day to see any weight changes. That will need to come in combination with diet, IMO.
 
So Strava is wrong? This is what it says in the information pop up

Total Work, expressed in kilojoules (kJ), is simply the sum of the watts generated during your ride. There is a close 1–to–1 ratio with Total Work and Calories expended during a ride.
 
I used this:

http://www.bicycling.com/training/calorie-counter

But it's in line with a few other websites I looked at. It's massively at odds with muzzer's Strava numbers, but cycling at 15mph for over three hours being only 331kcal seems wrong to me. Obviously cyclist weight plays a significant part, and I'm at the heavier end, while I'd imagine muzzer is already quite fit and slim.
 
Guessing at muzzer's weight:

34071939966_d29bea92e5_n.jpg


If anyone can shed light on why the numbers Strava gives are so completely different I'd be interested.
 
Strava is all over the place on calorie calculations- I'd have thought you
would burn more than 330 calories on a 50 mile ride?
 
Indeed. just checked mine. 71 miles, 6,600 ft of ascent, 4hrs 48mins and 3,385 calories!

Yesterday was 27 miles and it says 1827 calories.
 
It's the difference between energy put through the bike to make it go and the food required to fuel that. So your power meter says 400 kJ, which is what say an e bike would use. But you are not a machine so you need to eat 4x that much to drive it. 400 kcal, says strava, sounds OK.
 
All makes sense now.

Thought I'd download the Strava app to my iPhone. I assume I can use it as a free version for the basics?
 
As Steve pointed out the difference is between the fuel in and the work out, the assumption is that the body is between 20 and 25% efficient. So to do 1 calorie of work you consume between 4 and 5 calories from your internal reserves.

This is an assumed ratio, and assumptions lead on to all sorts of tenuous concepts like 'fat burning'.

When you don't use a power meter Strava estimates get quite wild, it's straightforward when you ride up a mountain, assuming you've not lied about your weight, but complete guesswork when riding generally. It has no idea about the wind, nor whether you are sitting in a group. It's not a good weightloss idea to take Strava numbers and use them to determine that a big piece of cake has been 'earned'.

I don't think Whaleblue will lose weight directly as a consequence of 30 minutes riding a day. But indirectly it's bound to make a difference.

And no harm in Strava for the mentally sound. It's at least a good way to log activity. There's even an unfinished PFM club to join.

Paul
 


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