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The 50 Pound Challenge – Week 24

With the Tour De France underway there is a ton of inspiration to bike now. These people do over 100 miles a day as fast as they can. That makes my dinky 16 miles look like nothing. Either way I’m big into riding the road bike and that has been my only form of exercise in the past few weeks.

This past week is the first week I have done 3 rides in one week. The 19 mile bike race is just two weeks away so I want to get as much riding in as possible. I’m trying to work on my hill climbing because I know there are at least two monster hills on the course. The roads around my house are perfect for this type of training. I have now master the one monster hill on my route. I’m trying to master the second monster hill. This second hill makes the first one look like a speed bump. I finally was able to climb the second monster hill on Tuesday. It took everything I had but I did it and it felt awesome! I tried to climb the monster hill again on Thursday but I only got half way up. I have a feeling it was because I ate dinner too close to my ride. I’ll be trying again this weekend though.

Even though cycling is my only form of exercise I burn at least 500 calories every ride. I rode 3 times this week so that’s a burn of at least 1,500 calories. I’m also doing very well with my healthy eating. I’m keeping my portions small and snacking on peanuts, granola bars or fruit. I did have a small bag of popcorn this week but I think that is on the healthy side. So what did all of this do for me in terms of weight loss for this week?

Well…..again this week I am on a weight loss plateau. I did not lose any weight again this week. I did not gain any either but I have a feeling this is all due to muscle gain. As I had said I am now able to climb these two monster hills. I think the reason that I am able to do this is because my leg muscles are growing and therefore canceling out any weight loss I would have seen. I can see in the mirror that I am skinnier. I’m very happy with the results I am seeing in the mirror and in my body. I just don’t see it on the scale. After I ride in the race in August I will be able to skip the monster hills in my training and just go for distance. I am planning on signing up for a 25 mile ride in September and that course is very flat. When I start training for the September ride I should start to see the weight loss again.

It is just a guess that the non-weight loss is due to muscle gain. This is only the first week that I have ridden 3 times in one week. Maybe before that I have not been exercising enough. We’ll see this week when I ride at least 3 times again. I have also not taken my eating to the next level or in “diet” range. I may need to do that also but I am hesitant to do this before my race in August. After the race I may cut down my caloric intake and see if that helps (switch to salads only for lunch and protein only for dinner until the next 20 pounds comes off). The other factor may be Gatorade. I have started to drink Gatorade during my road rides in the past 3 weeks. The Gatorade really does help to hydrate me especially in 90 degree weather. It also gives me the boosts that I need to keep riding. I mix the Gatorade with water so it’s not so sugary but I wonder if the Gatorade is totally taking away any weight loss I would normally see. Gatorade is full of a ton of calories so this may be another factor. Either way, I think I’m going to keep things the way they are for now because my main goal for the next two weeks is preparing myself for the race in August. I’m seeing progress in my hill climbing and my overall distance so what I am currently doing is working. After the race in August I’ll start tweaking things.

So I’m still at 193 pounds this week. I should have lost 27 pounds by now but I have lost 22 pounds so far. That means I am now 5 pounds behind my goal. I still feel good though because of the gains I have made in my fitness level. Still it would be nice to see the scale start to move down again. Stay tuned next week to see if another week of 3 road rides will return my weight loss to the positive direction.