Weight Loss Workouts/Programs

General Discussion
1

Hello,
Due to my work being on the road during the summer I was not able to workout for half a year and of course managed to gain weight.

Can anyone recommend a good workout program from the ones available in Zwift for weight loss?

2

For max fat burning do zone 2 HR rides. It doesn’t need to be a workout or training plan. The rest is diet and that’s the majority.

3

Hello,
Thanks for the info.
Just curious, logic suggests that if the workout is more intense say in zone 3, 4 or 5 , it burns more calories and therefore more conducive for weight loss, so how come Zone 2 is best for weight loss?

I’m guessing I can create a custom workout in zwift in order to maintain zone 2 throughout the workout?

Thank you,

4

it burns fat rather than just burning up your glycogen in the muscles. I’m sure there is a far more scientific answer than that…

as Paul said, the real change happens in the kitchen. I’ve been successful recently by tracking calories/macros and not really increasing my training much at all. 6 - 8 hours on the bike each week, with 2 races and the rest easy zone 2 rides with pace partners. I also try to get at least one weight lifting session in per week. I’ve lost over 20 lbs since September 1st.

5

Incredible!

Thank you for your advice.

6

To add just a bit more detail (though my no means complete info): When people refer to ‘weight loss’ they generally mean ‘fat loss’. So, to ‘lose weight’ (i.e. burn fat), the effort level needs to be at an amount that burns fat. The body will burn fat, and carbs, up to a certain point (the ‘zone 2’ effort mentioned above. But once the effort level starts to get into zone 3, and above, fat utilization drops to zero pretty quickly, and only carbohydrates are used as fuel (fats cannot be metabolized quickly enough at higher exertion levels to be efficiently used as a fuel). Thus the ‘zone 2’ recommendation. Technically speaking, you will also utilize fat as a fuel at lower exertion levels, but ‘zone 2’, and especially the higher end of zone 2, will burn the most fat per amount of time (fat max). Additionally, working out at a zone 2 level is supposed to help your body create more mitochondria, which then allows the body to burn more fuel at any given time, thereby increasing the zone 2 power level.

However, there is some research that says it doesn’t matter at what intensity you exercise in terms of overall calorie utilization, as burning more carbs during exercise causes the body to prioritize fat burning during recovery, and vice versa. I am not as familiar with this as with the zone 2 training, but it does warrant some additional investigation. (I think this is specifically related to calories, though, and does not directly relate to mitochondrial neogenesis.)

Also keep in mind that different macronutrients (carbs, fat, protein) have different affects on insulin levels, and insulin is a ‘storage’ hormone. Exercise can also affect the amount of insulin released into the bloodstream. So macronutrient composition of meals, as well as timing of exercise can impact fat storage.

7

To add to others’ posts:

Most people don’t have time to ride just endurance pace (Zone 2) all week. Let’s say you can ride 5 times a week, and your availability is something like this:

Mon: 0hrs
Tues: 1hr30m
Weds: 1hr
Thurs: 1hr
Fri: 0hr
Sat: 2hrs
Sun: 3hrs

In that case, it’s worth incorporating a bit of intensity a couple of times a week. That’ll help to burn a few more calories in that workout, but more importantly it will help to raise your fitness over time, so this time next year you can do your endurance rides at 180watts instead of at 120watts and so burn 50% more calories per hour. :+1:

So, in the above example, maybe incorporate some sweetspot intervals on your Tuesday and Saturday rides. Start with maybe 3 × 10 minutes at 90% of FTP with 5 minutes of recovery btwn intervals. Next time, 3 × 12. And so on.

Every 4 to 6 weeks (as you feel the need, really) have an easy week, consider re-testing your FTP, and start over. Maybe this time do Threshold instead of Sweetspot. Or try VO2 Max work instead.

8

Thanks very much. I appreciate the help and guidance.

9

A couple more quick thoughts:

  1. It might be good to work in some weight training, also. What’s the point in losing fat if you’re not showing some muscle definition, right? :laughing:

  2. Remember that, per volume, muscle weighs about twice as much as fat; so focus more on how you fit in your clothes than what the scale shows.

10

my advise would to just ride. Do pace partners, races, routes, workouts, etc. Keep your body moving but the main thing you need to watch for is calories in calories out. If you put in less calories than you’re burning than you’ll lose weight.

11

High intensity builds muscle, muscles are hungry so your resting metabolism will rise.

Also after a high intensity workout your muscles are damaged and need to repair themself. this costs energy as well. When glycine levels are low the body finds other resources (fat) less efficient but the body is able to utilize it.

When glycine levels are low after a workout and you watch your diet, the rest of the day is a zone 2 fat-burning work out.

Zone 2 training has ahigher return on investment
High intensity training gives a quicker result

5km running or 5 km walking burns almost the same amount of calories. But running takes only 30mins and walking takes an hour. Running builds more muscle in the end the running part will have a bigger contribution.

(Lost 35kg’s with Zwift and diet, by racing, kom chasing - really fun to time your efforts on a climb while getting stronger and loosing weight, and an initial zone 2 right, just to form a habit)

I’m not arguing about the sense of zone 2 for building endurance for fit athlete’s. But not the best way to loose weight, yes for a introduction in sport

12

For people still finding this thread through searching I really want to emphasize David’s point.

Yes, scientifically Z2 riding for many hours is most efficient.

However, if you are just starting out the math is against you. If you are fat+unfit you will ride at 100-150W for hours, if you can. A day only has 24 hours.

An alternative strategy I find all the online experts are overlooking is: go for getting fat+fit first.

Do 3-4 (or 5-6 if your time permits) rides of 45-60min each week. Blast it at HIIT workouts, races, climbs, do all the sprints.. have fun. Work on boosting your potential power and FTP. If you are really unfit this will lead to “fake FTP” as there is no way you could do your ramp-tested FTP for an hour and you can probably not ride much longer than 1-1.5 hours. Because your muscles run on glycose. Resist the urge to binge sweet stuff after rides and power through the unpleasant recoveries.

After some months you should start noticing some things:

  1. your FTP rises

  2. During HIIT workouts your HR drops FAST . Whereas it probably looked more like a staircase in the beginning it now drops to a HR Z2 level in the rest blocks.

  3. riding FEEL smoother. Because you now have the muscles to ride.

  4. you can easily push out some decent calorie burn in your 1-hour sessions, albeit you need the diet and recovery time to ensure it is not just the sugars.

Now you can gradually switch a few workouts to Z2. Depending on your calorie burn you may still need the HIIT workouts the majority of the time. The goal is to get enough muscle and cardio fitness that you can do relatively high power in you HR-zone2. THEN what all the internet people says is correct.

Most of what the experts say assume that people either have loads of time or already have a fit body. For me personally the HR recovery was the important metric. I do not have the patience, nor time, for long slow rides. I was also very unfit and started in a state where just spinning the pedals would have me in HR Z3 after 20minutes.

First HIIT phase knocked off 10kg easy then slowed as the muscle buildup weighed in. The next 10kg took much longer, and did not come until transitioning to a mix of workouts. However I would never have gotten enough calorie burn and slowtwitch training in my schedule if I had not built fitness first.