Cycling UK Forum

Ctyech are who we use in our volunteer workshop. They're not cheap though. You have bronze, silver and gold certificates but you have to progress through each one (no matter your level of experience or expertise) this can cost £1000-1500 to get your gold award. In our workshops (12+ mechanics, only two people have Cytech and then couldn't say they were any better than the others). Very few mechanics have (or are willing to pay for) these certificates. Ime they are pretty low level and basic training, better to learn on the job from a professional mechanic with 20+ years of experience. You can't buy that!

reohn2 wrote:

TonyR wrote:Perhaps its all part of this Google initiative.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/g ... hadis.html

Are you indicating negative comments following certain political party search results are justified if those parties aren't in Google's interests,are the same as trying to dissuade potential terrorists from following terrorist links?

Is there nothing the Tories can't corrupt! Ted Cruz used similar underhand tactics and psychological profiling to swing the vote in the Caucas in Iowa. One thing is certain, whoever holds the keys to the Search Engines (and there is only ONE search engine really) is as big a political force in the world as any nation state.

Unfortunately for a lot of mostly young people, a meal replacement with crisps/fizzy drinks is the new norm. It's not unusual to find school age kids regularly consuming 3-4000 calories a day, with little or no exercise. Nearly 75% of the kids I teach are overweight. 25% of those are clinically obese. Ten years ago it would be one in ten. Parents often encourage their kids to eat badly and from what I've seen they mostly lead by example.

Scrap metal

Scrap yard

Back yard

I think there's a lot of merit in these low calorie low carb regimes. It's sugar and processed carbs that make me tired and lethargic, when I cut them out I can see a real difference in my energy levels and mood within 24hrs. And you're right about long, extended diet regimes. You're more likely to such to a diet if it's relatively short and the weight comes off quickly. My brother lost 4.5kg in two weeks on a low calorie regime and this really boosted his desire to see it through. Also it doesn't give the body much chance or time to adapt to the metabolic change. Which is where the study in the OP comes in.

I lost most my weight (from 15st 7lb to 13st 4lbs) over a 12 WK period last year on a calorie reduction diet designed for me by a nutritionist. I started off at 1300 cals a day and gradually increased this to 1480 cals a day. This study competely resonates with me. In the first few weeks it seemed easy (and heartening) to lose 3-4 lbs a week but as I got fitter, faster and leaner it became quite difficult to lose even 1lb a week, sometimes less than half of that. At the end of regime I was cycling about 300 miles a week and most of that at 15mph+ in the company of some pretty quick cyclists.

As soon as I stopped dieting weight loss stopped almost straight away. I actually put on 4lbs in a month but I'm hoping that was all muscle mass After another 6 week diet regime at the end of the summer I was able to get down to 12st 10lbs (roughly the weight I was at university 25 years ago) and have kept with 1-2 lbs of that ever since. Shredding that last half a stone was the hardest of all and I had to really shave away the calories. I really got the impression my body 'knew what I was up to' and fought to retain the last bit of fat.

For me cycling is a lot more than weight maintenance, but it's been very effective in that respect. But I can hand on heart say that I'd never have lost the weight without a committed and often times uncomfortable diet regime.

As has been said before in this forum 'you can't out exercise a bad diet'...

beardy wrote:

In the real world an hour of cycling burns 250-300 cals.

According to my nutrition books it would be an additional 180 cal per hour, (90kg 20mph flat no wind)
It
So a ten hour Audax ride (it isnt flat so a similar energy use to 200 miles flat no wind) would take an additional 1800 calories which is about a day's recommended calorie intake.

The results of this scientific research could be better described as "Inadequate exercise doesnt help over eaters to lose weight".

Yes, that might be the case for Audax long distance riders but as the study says, even for them the body adapts a different long term strategy to burn less calories at REST.. The average cyclist will be doing 2-3hr rides at much lower intensity.

Also, would it be fair to say that on a ten hour Audax you'd be eating a LOT more than your RDA? I rode 6 hours off road on Saturday in the rain. I reckon I had about 500cals extra in sandwiches and drinks during the day and the same at night. So my 6 hours of cycling were effectively zeroed in terms of balance.

And some of us have much more complex and subtle psychology when it comes to exercise food and I reward.

I know a lot more fat cyclists than I do thin ones...

freeflow wrote:That was an entertaining diversion. Quite funny in places. You can't beat the laws of thermodynamics. If every in is less than energy out then weight loss will occur. The unfortunate complication is that the system to which we are applying the relationship is far more complex and subtle than simple investigations like the one in the paper report. When a diet/exercise study is reported where the inhabitants live 100% of the study time inside a calorimeter then I might give the results some credibility.

And the people you're applying those self same laws are infinite more complex and subtle than this paper suggests

Personally I think the study is accurate and informs my own experience and experience of other cyclists. Audax enthusiasts are a different breed: they are operating in the arena of elite athletes, the ones I know are riding 3-500 miles a week and mostly at a good crack.

Take for instance the 'reward' factor discussed in the paper. So you ride two hours at a leisurely pace and you think 'I deserve something nice after this effort!' The trouble is that reward is usually out of all proportion to the exercise done. I know myself when my food habits were bad I'd eat an entire packet of biscuits. And a few beers too.

In the real world an hour of cycling burns 250-300 cals. But that's not REAL burn, an average male sitting watching TV will burn 100 cals an hour, so the actual 'extra' burn is really only 150-200 for your 'reward'.

2hrs leisure cycling = 300 extra calories.. What does that look like?

3 chocolate biscuits or,

Pint and a half of ordinary strength beer or,

Large glass of wine + few olives

Clearly your NET burn goes back to zero with only the smallest reward.

A fast Audax rider will be working at twice this rate, for 2-3x longer, but after a few months the study says that even these types of athletes bodies react to the intensity and adapt their metabolism to burn fewer calories at rest.

So it's nowhere near as simple as 'calories out/calories in'. There's an entire cynical sports and marketing global industry relies on the myth 'Exercise makes you thin'.

But not without a calorie controlled and restricted diet.

After a long hard battle with the beer gut, this new study in the well respected Cell Journal confirms my long held idea that exercise on its own (especially low intensity cycling) has no, or negligible effect on long term weight loss. As a way of maintaining weight (preventing you getting any fatter) it certainly helps, but the hard work of calorie reduction is where the biggest benefit by far is to be found:

Constrained Total Energy Expenditure and Metabolic Adaptation to Physical Activity in Adult Humans: Current Biology

https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... eight-loss

The British Journal of Sports Medicine is also very critical of the perceived links between exercise and weight loss, citing Coca Cola and others in their (wrong and cynical) promotional material. I'll post relevant links later.

Tangled Metal wrote:Rat bike solves a lot of the worry perhaps. Get a cheap bike from a guy in the pub for the price of a fix.

Probably stolen

False alarm