Earlier this month I hit a milestone – 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) logged as a bike commuter. How exciting!! And I have not been rained on once in this whole three month experience. I can feel the difference in my fitness level, even though I was relatively fit before I started. I am no longer afraid of hill climbing (within reason … of course).
Best of all is the noticeable difference in my level of stress since I’ve become a bike commuter.
I arrive at my office each morning feeling extremely refreshed after sprucing up at the gym. I arrive at home a sweaty mess ready for my second shower of the day. I’m sure that I’ve never been cleaner. I am also making incremental improvements with my blood pressure which will hopefully one day allow me to drop my daily meds all together. It took Joe over three years of being a bike commuter to accomplish this, so I will need to be patient.
I do have a small rant … well actually a big rant. I have not been able to lose a significant amount of weight.
According to all those “weight loss experts”, weight loss is a perfectly simple mathematical equation: calories out must exceed calories in to achieve weight loss. Well, in terms of that math, since becoming a bike commuter I estimate that I should have lost 12 to 13 pounds. Have I? No, maybe one pound. I have burned over 40,000 additional calories since July without making any changes to my diet (which was and is relatively healthy). Sometimes being a woman sucks! A male friend of mine has logged fewer miles and has lost 25 pounds.
Read here about how many calories you can burn cycling.
And read here about how many calories you can burn cycling on an electric bike!
Anyway, I’m giving myself full marks for sticking with being a bike commuter. I may not have lost weight yet, but I am a whole lot fitter.
Coming into winter will be a challenge but I’ll keep you posted on all my ups and downs during the next few months.
Next post I will be doing a review for a great product for bike commuters called Bike Wrappers. Very cool concept for visibility on your bike.
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I don’t think it’s a female/male thing. It took me two years of commuting to work to lose 20 lbs. Not surprisingly, I seem to gain 10 lbs. every winter. It takes me until mid-summer to get back to where I should be (or at least close).
The “calories in <= calories out" math doesn't work. If it did, I'd probably weigh about 40 lbs. now. I find that there's some threshold of effort that I hit in the summer that allows me to eat pretty much as much as I want of anything, but in the winter every single calorie decides it wants to stick around for awhile.
Lol. Agreed, Graeme. I too should weigh around 40 pounds, if that. Possibly even minus-40 pounds …
Kudos to Maggie! (And apologies for such a late reply… work has been INSANE.) Please let her know that she’s not the only two-showers-a-day commuter. I, too, am a sweaty mess no matter where I ride in the summertime. Thank heavens for the gym showers at work!