- [Matt] Christmas is over. It's the new year, so no doubt many of you will be
thinking about how to lose some excess weight ahead of the summer cycling season.
- [Simon] The good new is, though, that you are in the right sport if you want to
lose weight. Cycling is a fantastic way to shed pounds, kilos in stow. So
here are our tips on how you can get lean in 2017, becoming a cycling machine...
- Do cycling... stop.
- ...living your dream... ,
- No, just go on with the video.
- ...eating mainly green.
- Just stop it now.
- Clementine?
♪ [music] ♪
- Happily, the first bit of this video is all about eating which is fun.
Now, new year's resolutions and diet regimes are all well and good,
but what they actually do is restrict your calorie intake. And that can
actually result in binge eating, which can end up undoing all the good that
you've done in the first place.
- Yeah, and one of the worst times you can actually restrict calories is
whilst riding your bike. You might not think that you need to consume anything if
you're only out for an hour or 90 minutes, but any longer than that, and you
really should think about eating something whilst riding. Because otherwise,
when you get home, you'll end up feeling like you could eat a proverbial horse.
And that's not good, because you could end up consuming more calories than you just
burned out on your ride.
- So when you're out on your ride, make sure you take some solid food with
you or some energy gels and then some carbohydrate drink or any permutation of
those three things. And then when you get back home, you'll be far less likely
to dive into a cookie jar or the sweet tin.
♪ [music] ♪
Come January the first, many riders try and cut out the guilty pleasures all
together, whatever they may be. So it could be chocolate, cakes, beer, wine
or fast food, but just like drastically reducing your calories, trying to cut
completely everything from your diet could leave you to crack.
- Yeah, so, instead, why not use these treats as a reward for good training or
for doing exactly what you planned to do on the bike or for going that extra mile
on a particular session. Because if you do reward good behavior,
you're more likely to stay motivated and then also stop yourself feeling that
you're being denied life's little luxuries. Here you go mate, well done.
- Cheers, Si.
- Genuinely, well done today, well done.
- Well, I really did try and do what I've set out to do today, Si.
- Well you've gone that extra mile, and you've behaved well.
♪ [music] ♪
You probably don't have time to do epic five hour rides every day like pro
cyclists do, but you may well find that you actually get the same results
from two short, well timed rides in the same day, because they
can really get your metabolism revving.
- Yeah, do a half an hour session on the home trainer with some really hard,
short intervals before breakfast, and then do the same session after dinner a couple
of hours before you go to bed. And that will keep your metabolism burning
brightly through the night.
- Yeah, now, you don't want to do this everyday, definitely not, in fact, but two
or three times a week, and you will quickly see results both from the scales
and when you admire yourself in the mirror.
- You're looking good, Si. Have you been doing double sessions?
- You know, I have, actually. My metabolism is, frankly, revving.
Can you tell?
- Yeah.
♪ [music] ♪
- Something's been said that we burn more calories for exercising at the same
intensity when it's cold compared to when it's warm. The theory being,
we burn more energy simply trying to maintain our core body temperature.
However, recent studies have shown that while we do burn more calories when it's
cold, only when we're shivering. No one really want to do that on a daily basis.
- In fact, we actually burn more energy trying to keep our bodies cool when
we're hot than the other way around which is certainly news to me.
So you're far better off doing the session on a home training indoors than venturing
out into the icy conditions, as you're burning more calories and therefore lose
more weight. It's far better as well than getting frostbite.
♪ [music] ♪
Are fat burning rides a myth? Well, probably, because when scientists
discovered that we burn a greater percentage of fat at lower intensities,
there's, all of a sudden, a real rush to prescribe endurance cycling at a low
heart rate to burn fat.
- However, whilst it is true that you burn a higher percentage of fat at low
intensities, you actually burn more fat at higher intensities even though
carbohydrates form a high percentage of the fuel that you use.
- Hmm, so sprints, intervals, running flat out for an hour are far better for
burning fat than actually dawdling along at walking pace.
- Yeah. Now, we would be really, really interested to know how you guys all
get on with your weight loss targets in 2017. So, make sure you share your
experiences in the comment section down below and probably find that in reading
other people's comments, you'll probably get an extra bit of motivation to help you
along the way as well.
- Yeah, now, for our indoor training playlist, how about clicking just up here?
And for a guide for indoor trainers, click just down here.
- There's some dirty, high intensity stuff right there, isn't it?
- It certainly is.
- Make sure as well before leaving, for either of those, that you do subscribe to
GCN. To do that, just click on the globe which hopefully is not obscuring that
really quite magnificent vista.
- That's actually quite nice. Isn't it?