Coronavirus: GPs to prescribe cycling in new obesity strategy [BBC News]

[tatanab]

What is really needed to make cycling more acceptable for newbies?

Their perception of what cycling can entail. A few years ago, in a country pub, the young bar maid said she could not cycle because of getting hot and sweaty. I asked if she got hot and sweaty when walking somewhere. The answer of course was "no", so I said " then ride with a similar intensity and you will still be going maybe 10mph".

[gbnz]

Another false dawn

+ 1, we all know it is. Aside from the absurd suggestion that cycling is a superb way to lose weight, HM Gvt need to look at the basics;

1. Obese people choose to overeat and become obese*
2. As long as they're provided with a suitable level of education, it's their choice to suffer ill health and/or die early
3. That's quite acceptable, subject to society not having to pay the cost
4. Though extra proviso should be made for those who are dim, poorly educated, brought up in lower tiers of society or have mental health issues

So perhaps obese people should be excluded from obesity related medical care or obliged to pay towards an ever greater proportion of their obesity related illness?

[Cyril Haearn]

I enjoy getting hot, sweating, a bit tired
Maybe the docs should prescribe tricycle riding, that should learn them

[robing]

For weight loss in order I would put 1/ diet 2/ running 3/ cycling. You see a lot of fat cyclists.

[PaulaT]

For weight loss in order I would put 1/ diet 2/ running 3/ cycling. You see a lot of fat cyclists.

You're right to put diet at number 1. The problem with running is that you can get a lot of injuries such as shin splints. Being overweight multiplies the chances of getting injured. Meyer Hillman looked at this in his book "Cycling towards health and safety". For overweight people non-weight bearding exercise is going to be safer and that comes down to either swimming (best form of all-round exercise) or cycling. There simply isn't enough swimming bath capacity for the 10s of millions of people who need to exercise so that leaves cycling. Incidentally for shorter distances walking might be better than cycling for weight loss as you use more calories per mile walking than cycling.

[Mick F]

Diet is the single most important thing.
Loose weight, and the rest is easier.

[reohn2]

For weight loss in order I would put 1/ diet 2/ running 3/ cycling. You see a lot of fat cyclists.

I'd replace running with brisk walking.

[Jdsk]

For the topic of this thread the most important factor affecting choice of exercise is the likelihood of keeping it up rather than anything from sports physiology.

Drop-out rate is enormous for any new form of exercise (as reflected in the pricing of many gym membership schemes). Countering that is a large part of any "social prescribing".

Jonathan

PS: The point above about weight bearing and injuries is important. But weight-bearing protects against osteoporosis.

[David9694]

I help run a back to cycling group for over 50s. On Thursday all but one turned up on electric bikes, as did I !

I wonder what 'prescribe' cycling actually means? What about a tax on junk food to fund bikes and cycling infrastructure?

Golf 19th hole problem....

Al

Great to hear e bikes are getting people out on two wheels. Hopefully, some of them will also take up cycling

[mercalia]

I enjoy getting hot, sweating, a bit tired
Maybe the docs should prescribe tricycle riding, that should learn them

maybe the PM should prescribe some thing else where you get hot and sweaty? Though by all the kids he has it didnt stop him being over weight?

[mjr]

OK. The cycling aspect seems to have got lost in more general anti-obesity stuff within about a day. What can we do to bring cycling back to the front?

[fastpedaller]

given the inherent mechanical efficiencies of a bike, cycling would seem to be a particularly ineffective way for the average pootler to lose weight.

I agree (if they pootle), but with some effort put in, cycling can give a real good work-out ie. cycling to 'terminal velocity' - cycling can be made as strenuous as the cyclist wants it to be! Another good point is that whilst cycling (for a good time, say 2 hours) the participant is less likely to be eating 'comfort/boredom snacks'.

[rjb]

This has been tried before. Norman Tebbit the former secretary of state for employment prescribed cycling for the unemployed in 1981 during the Thatcher era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU_pDM1N7i0

[The utility cyclist]

I help run a back to cycling group for over 50s. On Thursday all but one turned up on electric bikes, as did I !

I wonder what 'prescribe' cycling actually means? What about a tax on junk food to fund bikes and cycling infrastructure?

Golf 19th hole problem....

Al

Great to hear e bikes are getting people out on two wheels. Hopefully, some of them will also take up cycling

ECF keep bragging about e-bikes and how they will revolutionise cycling, and yet in the two countries that sell/use e-bikes the most, Germany and Netherlands, car sales have soared and cycle modal share has gone down since the explosion of e-bike sales!
Is there any evidence whatsoever that even tiny fractions of motorists have changed their default conveyance of choice for travel purposes, because the numbers I have seen including here in the UK suggest as e-bike sales have increased cycling modal share simply drifts backwards or stagnates at best.

As for the main topic, soundbites and waffle, unless a government makes laws and police enforce them with a justice system that enforces the law with equity, then nothing will change. Temporary bike lanes were mostly crap to start with and what there is many have been removed, why didn't Boris put forward a law to take half the existing infra away from motons, what about forcing councils to have secure bike sheds on every school, a law that puts either 3m wide cycle lanes from all residential areas to all schools, all city/town centres or uses the existing highway to replicate and ensure priority at all junctures over motorists.

he can bring about new laws that have no scientific basis to do so, on virtually a whim, he can also piddle away £3bn on empty hospitals on the basis of another pandemic that never even happened, yet we get no money for cycling (it's all lies regards the amounts) which would mean hospitals/NHS save far more in the long run every single year if we actually got double digit modal share.
The talk about action on the basis of public health, and yet one of the main solutions to redress the pandemic of obesity and pollution is being utterly ignored, yet more hypocrisy and bluster, basically more lies and deceit!

[David9694]

Simultaneously clown and Churchill wannabe, I am no great fan of Boris. This was going to be the glorious year of finally getting Brexit done - handed a global Pandemic crisis through which he could have steered this little island, he’s already bored, doesn’t want to play at leadership any more - it’s local lock-downs now.

Another plus with him is that all the “cyclists should be made to...” won’t get anywhere; we must ensure that remains the case, of course.

We elected, not for the first time, a government based on individualism - but handling infection requires many opposites thereto - E.g. regulation, science, co-operation, planning, duty, based on compassion. We’re in the era of being more concerned if the Haves have not, than with the plight of the Have Nots.

“1. Obese people choose to overeat and become obese*
2. As long as they're provided with a suitable level of education, it's their choice to suffer ill health and/or die early
3. That's quite acceptable, subject to society not having to pay the cost”

I don’t see what practical or moral get-out there is on 3. - and that’s before you even factor in Covid.

The UK lockdown came at least a fortnight too late - I don’t say that in hindsight, it was evident at the time, if you understood the basic math once it’s got a foot-hold; we had a thread on here about it running all through. However I think Boris reads the nation’s mood very well and I don’t think people were prepared for lockdown much before then. I think the pictures coming out of Italy were the real clincher and also triggered the Nightingale Hospitals. Someone said on Twitter recently that Europe were threatening to close the border if we didn’t - I hadn’t heard that one.

I really hope it mysteriously fizzles out - if not, we’ve got a few weeks to get ready for a perfect storm over the next few months - seasonal flu (not too bad so far down under), seasonal weather, Brexit and further waves of COVID. We’ve learnt a bit about how it works and how to fight it, but many health care people are tired.

People want their ordinary lives and pleasures back, and are getting their wish. I’m really surprised at what a thing a few people are making of the masks - 10 minutes while you walk round Next and Tesco - is it really so much to ask?

Pub, gym, sunny Spain (a last hurrah before Brexit) - no thanks.