I had meant to post this sooner, but got side tracked and never actually published the update.
Last week I set myself a short term, achievable goal to simply ride 5 of 7 days. I made my goal. I rode Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. My total mileage for the week was just under 50 miles, which according to My Daily Mile, is the most I've ridden in one week since I completed Pumpkinman in October 2010.
When I looked back and saw that fact, I realized quickly how I had put back on some of the weight I had lost. Its really very simple, I continued to eat too many calories and to burn too few. I am working to change that by monitoring what I eat as well as what I burn.
For example, if I follow the calorie burns supplied by My Fitness Pal in capturing my rides, I burned an extra 4873 calories in 287 minutes of riding my bike over the same 7 days.
Obviously these are calories I would not have burned if I had not gotten out there and ridden. For this very fact, I am planning on setting the same goal for this week - ride 5 of 7 days.
Now I actually have applied a bit greater pressure to myself this week because I didn't ride on Sunday. I did ride this morning, though, so I have to ride 4 of the next 5 days. My plan is simple - Get up at 4:00 am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Ride my 8 to 10 miles in the morning before work and then ride either Friday or Saturday, depending on the weather and the activities at home.
The good news is that with riding, my weight was down 1.4 lbs. this week to 416. The big weigh in is on Thursday for the Biggest Winner competition. I will have lost some weight, but not nearly as much as I had hoped for the 10 weeks of the competition.
And there you've hit it on the head - we need to balance calorie intake with calories burned. If it only was as easy to do as it is to write down...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the successful riding week. Getting that much extra burn is an accomplishment - maintaining the schedule will be a MAJOR accomplishment. One of my friends told me that burning an extra 3500 calories burns up one pound of fat - so I'm glad to see those calorie totals adding up on my MapMyRide workout sheet.
I know what you mean about feeling the pressure once you miss a day. I spent my free time after work yesterday working on my mother's garden, so I didn't get it any ride time. That means tonight I'm going to get in some ride time no matter what, even if it means 1/2 hour on the stationary bike at 10:00. I gotta admit, after pushing the ride schedule up to 5/7 my legs are feeling pretty darn good.
Keep on riding!!!
Steve Z