@eyemamom, I was thinking of you last night at spin class. Someone had the unmitigated gall to take my usual bike :)) so I ended up on one that was calibrated quite differently. I had to turn the resistance waaay up to get the same riding experience as what I’m used to on “my bike.” My watts shot up into the stratosphere. I was chatting with one of the guys afterwards and it’s also amazing how much more wattage men can get. They have more bulk and hence more power (and in my case a lot more length).
The Peloton bike took another notch upward on my wish list after the spin instructor decided to turn the music up to a level intended to render us all hearing impaired. Sigh. I guess I’m getting old and cranky but increasingly I see the benefits of being able to customize my workout to my liking.
I’ll give you 2 more reasons to order. #1, I went down another dress size since I started getting serious about riding over the past few weeks without losing a bunch of lbs. I have lost weight, but I’m losing more fat.
2. I started doing power zone training. It meets you were you are in your fitness level. I've mentioned before I've had trouble understanding how hard I should be pushing. And I felt like a unfit mess in these classes because i struggked with suggeated resistance and speed. That might be easy for ine person but my absolute max. The power zone training method takes out the guess work. Today I did an endurance ride and had the best output, the highest calorie burn, but I stayed in the aerobic range, which I've never been able to quantify before. And I didn't feel like vomiting after. I'm going to actually learn how to train properly.
@eyemamom - I had never heard of the Peleton bike. It sounds interesting.
For the last few weeks I’ve taken to doing some exercises as I watch CNN at night. I mainly focus on ab exercises or balance. I recently ordered several different resistance bands and while I haven’t use the circular ones yet I’ve begun using the one with handles on each end. I search Pinterest for exercises and I do a few rounds each evening. I figure it can’t hurt. My gym is closed for the next week for yearly maintenance so I will need to be more creative this week with getting my exercise.
I had an appointment with a new endocrinologist on Friday. Besides her fascination with telling me I was 51 years old 10 times in the appointment - I literally counted and told her I was counting after the 3rd of 4th time…(next time I’m doing a Sally OMalley impression). I mentioned how I had lost 55 lbs and that REALLY interested her. Post menopausal, hypothyroid - I’m a case study. We talked about how I did it, and I told her how at first I did south beach, I weighed and measured food, I counted calories as well. But after a few months I learned enough about portions and healthy food I’m just doing it on my own now. She nearly jumped up and down with excitement. She said any patient of hers who ever lost weight and kept it off didn’t follow any specific plan. Any diet plan works, but you have to live it in the real world every day. I actually can now agree with that. Anything works if you stick to it - within reason. But not doing anything specific works too, you literally have to eat less, eat healthier, and move more.
@eyemamom I love that. I know it’s true. I have done diet plan after diet plan only to gain the weight back every time. I believe it is all about making healthy changes that you can live with for the rest of your life. You’re an inspiration.
I always see articles or what have you of miraculous weight loss stories. But I don’t really consider them successful unless they have kept it off for several years. 98% or so of weight loss is not maintained (so I have read, anyway). Any of us who are trying to lose weight yet again know what I’m talking about.
I weigh myself every day. It works for me. Maybe someday I’ll do it less frequently, but it’s a daily reminder to me. I log it into my fitbit, even though I don’t wear my fitbit anymore except when exercising. I was scrolling through the past weeks averages, and though I didn’t realize it, I’ve lost a lb a week for the past 5 weeks.
I also weigh myself almost everyday. That is something I stopped doing the last time I lost the weight. Next thing I know a few years pass and I was up almost 20 lbs. I knew my clothes had gotten tight but I was shocked to see the scale. This time I’m going to keep weighing myself so I catch it before it gets out of hand. The interesting thing was I started using MyFitnessPal again this round and found I had used the app quite a number of years ago. It still had my data and it was interesting to see the patterns of weight gain and loss.
Something I’m doing different this time is I’ve gone back to a gym for the first time in 25 years. I’ve added strength training as I want to be strong as I age. I take a couple of classes with mainly women from mid 40’s to 90. Some of the 80plus women use the highest weights. They are an inspiration. One woman is 93 and she doesn’t drive anymore but has a driver who brings her to the gym each morning. On the days I see her she does a cardio dance class followed by a strength and stretch class. She has the option of doing senior classes at the same time but she is fit enough to do the regular classes.
On another good note- I put the on a pair of size 10 JCrew shorts this morning and they fit comfortably.
@ams5796 - I can’t say I love getting on the scale, but I do it anyway. After a day of indulging I usually lay in bed having a conversation with myself over why I don’t need to get on the scale and it’s okay to skip, etc. In the end I get on the scale.
@mom60 - That’s awesome about the older women! I want to be like that, so the reality is I have to just keep up what I’m doing.
The landscapers are here digging a trench, the hvac unit gets replaced Friday, then after that we start to re-finish the basement of our pool house - which is my gym. We moved my bike to our house, but all the weights are down there. I was noticing I was getting what I thought was exercise induced asthma, but once we moved the bike to a room with filtered air I was fine again.
I weigh about once a week. Some of that is lack of access to a scale, some just not wanting to do it.
Still holding steady on the slight loss and keeping with the exercise. I am not traveling for a good stretch of days, so looking forward to eating better and seeing the number on the scale go down. My schedule is going to be more normal, too, which ought to help.
For those of you getting into indoor cycling, as you are discovering, it’s a wonderful way to get cardio exercise and torch calories. As someone who has been deeply immersed in indoor (and outdoor) cycling for more than 20 years (both personally and professionally), I am extremely biased towards cycling as the perfect cardio workout to pair with resistancecstrength training. You all should feel very good about the commitment you are making.
For those of you discovering “power zone” or wattage based training, be aware of a couple of things. First, it’s the platinum standard for measuring the intensity of your workouts and tracking your performance. Heart rate can fluctuate for so many reasons from day to day but wattage doesn’t lie about how much work you are actually doing. Having said that, be aware that there is a vast difference between indoor cycles that give you calculated wattage and those that give you measured wattage and you need to know what system is used by the bikes you ride. Without going too deep into the weeds on the technology, calculated wattage uses the position of the resistance mechanism and your cadence to calculate estimated wattage based on some algorithm. Measured wattage actually measures your power output using one of several types of devices. There is a world of difference between the two. In a nutshell, with calculated wattage, you will rarely have the same riding experience from bike to bike or even on the same bike over time. The reason is that cables stretch, adjusters come out of adjustment and unless the studio routinely adjusts and recalibrates all their bikes, you simply will not have a uniform experience. What reads as level 7 on one bike will feel much different and give you a different power calculation than level 7 on another bike. The accuracy and reliability usually are just not there. With measured wattage what you see is what you are getting because the actual power at the flywheel or at the crankarms is being measured. If you see you are hitting 300 watts then you really are, unlike calculated wattage where 300 watts may really be only 225 and you may need to set the controls at a very different setting than the bike next to you to even get a readout of 300 watts.
In this regard, the Peloton bike uses calculated power based on cadence and resistance settings. What that means is that if you are attempting to compare your power output to other riders, don’t bother. If you are looking to measure your progress against your own relativistic readout, make sure you know how to calibrate your bike and do so regularly.
@MichaelNKat - thanks for confirming what I thought. Since I got the peloton, I could compare it to my life fitness gx. They feel completely different, which led me to believe I bet every single peloton is different. I’m doing it to get in shape, while minimizing injury. I am doing power zone training and it’s working for me. I also wear a heart rate monitor and I see the zones are keeping me in certain heart rates. I’ll never ride a bike out on the road, I will never compete, etc. I just do it because it’s fun, and I’m a bit of a number nerd so I like to track my progress. How often do you suggest calibrating the bike? Not that I know how to do it, but hubby is pretty handy.
@eyemamom, depending on the design of the resistance adjustment system and the computer on the bike, there can be 1 or 2 types of calibration that can be done. The first is purely software based and involves essentially zeroing out the monitor. Typically that involves taking all the resistance off the bike and hitting some combination of buttons on the computer to enter calibration mode and reset the computer to zero with no resistance on the bike. This can be done before every ride in a few seconds and it’s not a bad idea to do so. It assures that there are no artifacts causing the computer to read something other than zero when there is no resistance on the flywheel.
The other component to calibration is a bit trickier. Most bikes that use calculated wattage use the assumed position of the resistance mechanism as one of two factors in their formula (the other being cadence). As cables stretch and adjustment mechanisms wear, the assumed position is no longer accurate. This requires a resetting of the position of the resistance mechanism and adjustment of the resistance controls back to factory specs. Different bikes, different techniques, different specs. With bikes that have magnetic resistance (like the Peloton), this usually involves adjusting the resistance controls so that they are slack, adjusting the position of the magnet basket so that it is positioned at defined distance or position relative to the flywheel and then adjusting the resistance controls to a neutral “zero” position as defined by the manufacturer. It takes time and can require a comfort level working with small tools. Doing this gives you the best shot at accuracy as well as reliability. For home use 3-4 hours/week, you can probably get away with doing this once every month or two. This is where most facilities fall short. It’s time intensive and potentially costly to do a mechanical calibration on a fleet of bikes every month.
For fitness riders using power, absolute accuracy is not important. What counts is consistancy and reliability in the read outs so that you can see trending and changes over time and hold yourself accountable during a workout.
I had to stop at the grocery store this afternoon around 4. It took some willpower to not grab one of the candy bars in the check out aisle. I’m usually pretty good but I realized going to the store late in the afternoon really is not a good idea.
@mom60 - I call 4pm my witching hour. Everyone talks about post dinner munchies, I get pre-dinner munchies. I try and plan to have a snack around then, which is either a yogurt, cottage cheese with fruit, nuts or a cracker barrel cheese stick.
I made a really good and easy chicken last night. I bought a jar of pesto, which I’m sure I could make, but this made it easy. I put a few tablespoons of pesto down on a glass pyrex, salt and pepper a chicken breast, put pesto on top of it. Cook for about 25 minutes on 400 covered with tin foil. Take off tin foil, sprinkle on low fat mozzarella cheese and bake another 5 minutes. It doesn’t sound like much but it was really tasty.
Bumping this up. My gym has been closed this week for annual maintenance and we have been experiencing an unusual heat wave. It has taken a toll on my exercise routine.
I don’t know how people do it who live in a hot summer climate exercise outdoors. Does your body adjust to the heat? @eyemamom -sounds like a great easy recipe. We eat a lot of chicken.
I made a very good chicken recipe last weekend. It was roasted chicken pieces with shallots. I used chicken breasts on the bone that I cut in half. The shallots were delicious. Google David Leibovitz roasted chicken with caramelized shallots if your interested.
