Explaining The High Body Fat Percentage Of Recreational Cyclists

from Rookie’s keyboard,

Hello, friends

Today, I will demystify another myth.

Many people are suprised to see cyclists who are on the fatter side. But what’s even more suprsing is that many times some of those riders will be extremely dedicated…almost maniacal.

And yet their BF % (body fat percentage) is unexpectedly high. So high, that you can see their belly go up and down.

The same holds true even for touring cyclists. I know a guy who routinely goes on a 500km trip and yet he looks like an out of shape accountant in a love relationship with the sleaziest donnuts on the planet.

The mystery comes down to:

Calories In Calories Out

Illness aside, the main reason why people get fat is the consumption of more calories than the body needs to perform its daily tasks.

The surplus of energy cannot just disappear and is stored as fat. Exercising increases one’s energy output and thus raises the threshold for initiation of that process but does not reverse it.

If you eat too much, you will get fat regardless of how much you exercise.

Hence it’s not that unlikely to see touring cyclists or commuters with potbellies.

They may be cycling a lot, but their food consumption exceeds their caloric needs, and the organism has no choice but to store the extra fuel as fat.

Conversely, some people don’t exercise much or at all and yet remain quite skinny.

Their “secret”? Low food consumption even for their sedentary lifestyle.

Quality vs. Quantity

Eating healthy foods can make you fat too when the caloric intake exceeds the caloric expenditure.

Meanwhile, you can also lose weight even when eating junk food if the consumed calories are under the needed energy requirements.

Cardio = Hunger

Cycling may not require petrol or electricity, but it’s not energy-free. Bikes are technically running on fat and carbs (calories) too. Hence you get hungry after a long ride.

When you add the fact that many people feel like they’ve earned a desert after exercising, you have a recipe for overeating while thinking that you’re losing weight.

One time after a ride, I was so hungry that I ate 2 slices of pizza in combination with 4 donuts.

At the end of the day, the adage “you can’t out train a bad diet” remains true.

The Fat Loss Has Just Began

Another reason why you may encounter fat cyclists is that some people join the sport precisely because they want to lose weight, but their journey is just starting, and you’re catching them in the “before” phase.

Cycling is a popular choice for losing weight because its “low impact”. It doesn’t stress the knees as much because you’re seated and “torque” on the knees comes only from the pedaling motion. If the gear is low enough, the knee stress can be minimized to very low levels.

Meanwhile, running does the exact opposite – it increases the stress on the joints.

And when a person is overweight, the negative effect is even greater due to the extra mass that the skeleton has to support.

Pre-programming

When we hear the word cyclist, we often associate it with the pros on TV.

Professional long-distances cyclists are always very thin and have an underdeveloped upper body in comparison to their legs.

Why? Because the heavier you are, the more difficult it is to cycle, especially uphill. You will never see a long-distance cyclist who is either fat or extremely muscular because the extra mass makes it difficult to pedal for long periods.

Track cyclists are very muscular because their discipline requires bursts of explosive energy. Large muscles help that goal and have no negative impact because the endurance element is small.

It’s also worth mentioning that long-distance cyclists are relying primarily on slow-twitch fibers which are the ones responsible for endurance and have a small hypertrophy capacity.

In different, sprinters use mainly fast twitch muscle fibers.

Fast-twitch fibers are activated during physical effort with high intensity (lifting heavy weight, sprinting…etc.) and have a much greater potential for hypertrophy than slow-twitch fibers.


Until next time,

Rookie


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Comments

2 responses to “Explaining The High Body Fat Percentage Of Recreational Cyclists”

  1. Dan K Avatar
    Dan K

    CICO is the cornerstone of any successful weight modification regime. But humans will forever seek ways to avoid this simple truth whether they’re athletes (like cyclists) or sedentary folk. They will always seek an alternate thing to blame such as carbs, fats, hormones, genetics, socioeconomic factors, bad luck, women, men, school, work, exams, meat, vegetables, fruit, war, peace, etc.

    Why? It’s human nature to avoid tackling seemingly insurmountable problems. Marketers know this and push nonsense that they can sell them to keep them in a perpetual dieting loop. When the only thing that is really needed is to eat less food.

    1. Rookie Avatar
      Rookie

      I agree. Thank you for the comment again, Dan.

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