Don’t know where to ask this, but what type of training plan would be best to lose weight when overweight?
I know it’s mostly about food, but which plan should help?
Fat burning is most effect in specific HR zones. I’d recommend finding your max HR on the bike to determine your best fat burning HR. Once you know your max HR there are tons of charts online that will give you an idea where you’re burning fat.
You’ll probably learn your ideal fat burning zone is a lot lower than you’d expect.
Traditional thought is slower, longer rides in moderate HR zone. But this has been debunked in recent studies that find interval training can be much more effective at calories burned per length of effort which reduces the time necessary to achieve the same net burn (as well as continue metabolism burn post workout).
Aerobic training alone really isn’t that effective for weight reducing. Of course if you rode for 4 hours a day that statement is wrong, but given you don’t have that much time to ride, you need a good resistance workout to build muscle to replace the fat.Cycling is just too efficient by itself. You can have the greatest lungs and be fat at the same time ;)
And of course, as you mentioned, diet is probably the most important factor.
Karl, yes and no. Yes, intervals are burning more calories. No, burning more calories is not exactly the same as burning more fat. So…yes, you will lose more weight doing intervals, but you may be burning more than fat. Ultimately, I think it’s a good idea to mind your body composition more so than your weight.