Don't damage your joints
I got back into biking. I lost a ton of weight bicycling during College; it works for me, but a few tweaks were needed now that I'm older and heavier.
I bought a new Salsa Fargo touring/gravel bike May 2025 that could handle my weight, and I had my local bike shop put on shorter 165mm pedal cranks and the smallest crank gear possible, 32tooth. If you're reading this, and you're heavy with a belly like I had (and still have tbh), please try shorter cranks. Your belly will get in the way while pedaling. If you lean forward at all, the tops of your thighs will hit your belly. To compensate, you'll start tilting your pelvis, making your lower back hurt, or you'll rock side to side on the saddle making your butt sore.
Your belly won't let you use the longer cranks properly and longer cranks put more torque on your knees. Being at a heavier weight already stresses your knees, especially going uphill. You can always switch back to the original cranks after losing the weight if you have that racing road biker mindset. But honestly, for a touring bike, comfort matters more. I like the shorter cranks. I'm older too. How fast do I need to ride at 53? I don't really care anymore. I just want to enjoy riding for as long as my body will let me. Now, it's more how many hours can I comfortably ride, not how far I went.
I also switched to a 30 degree rise headstem so the handlebars are higher up. I could sit more upright, and I got a more comfortable seat to help support my weight. A suspension seatpost helped too. At close to 300lbs I could have tried to hike/walk the weight off, but biking was far easier on my joints. Now that I'm just shy of 250lbs, I'm walking/hiking more and starting some very slow jogging on nearby, soft forest trails using hiking poles for stability. Yup, I'm one of those dorks. Take care of your joints. Once your cartilage is gone, bone on bone grinding never heals. It'll just keep getting worse until you have to replace the damaged joint, and artificial joints will have major limitations. Listen to your aches. Viva longevity had this interesting video on maintaining joint health too, click here.
Time of Day, Fueling, and Intensity Matters
I try to exercise after Breakfast now. Most of my working life, I worked out after dinner, usually around 7p.m. It was early enough I could fall asleep around 11p.m. I never had the energy to work out before work either. This year was different. During August, I even started doing my rides at 6:30-7a.m. to avoid the heat and humidity.
My breakfasts are now low carb , low fat, high protein. With protein in your belly you can exercise at Zone 2, burn fat, and not break down your muscles/joints. At least, that seems like the current consensus; I had to wade through a slog of science and gym bro content. Any ride over an hour and above Zone 2 effort, you'll need about 200 carb-based calories per hour or you'll bonk. Been there, done that. Avoid bonking, it sucks. Extreme bonking are those marathoners that stumble close to the finishing line and they crawl or get help from another runner to finish.
So, I guess the theory is that by keeping breakfast low carb & low fat, your body will shift more quickly into fat burning mode during your morning exercise session. It really helps the weight come off, but don't go hard. Think brisk walking or slow and steady biking for about 1 hour. Maybe a very, very slow jog if you're already fit. Zone 2 is described as you could talk while working out, but you don't want to talk because you'd soon get too out of breath.
Also, I'll warn you, the first month of exercising on no carbs will feel miserable!!! You're going to feel zombie-like, especially if you're used to the American style, dessert like breakfasts. Take it slow; your body will get better at converting your fat stores to energy.
The first few months, the exercise made me tired. I couldn't get through the day without a short nap mid afternoon. 30-45 minutes usually. I also spent a lot of time watching TV from the couch during the afternoon because I was too tired to do anything else. If I still had to work, I don't think I could have made the transition to be honest. It was a lot easier to form the habit of going for a bike ride around 9a.m. after morning rush hour, and going into slug mode during the afternoon. None of that is work friendly.
I haven't and I won't go Keto/Paleo (high protein/low carb every meal/snack). I still eat carbs with lunch and dinner. I won't give up carbs. I want to make long term, sustainable diet changes that I still can enjoy, and I'm not sure cardio heavy activities like bicycling are good for your heart without carbs to fuel your muscles. Yes, your body can convert fat to blood sugar (gluconeogenesis), but that process can't keep up with more intense Zone 3-4 training. Like sucking wind biking up long, steep Massachusetts hills.
Indoor Bike Training
The weather won't always cooperate, so you need a backup plan. A rainy week could derail forming good habits.
I used an older road bike that wasn't comfortable/safe to ride outside due to my heavier weight. Roads are rough in Mass. Found shorter 165mm cranks on ebay, installed myself. I hooked the bike up to a discounted $500 Saris H2 trainer (Wahoo is more popular & expensive), bought a dedicated $500 mini computer off Amazon, and paid for a Rouvy subscription. When you start, if you're heavy like I am, lower the reality setting so you can do the climbs without hurting your knees. Don't lie about your weight. It enrages other Rouvy riders.
What really made riding the Rouvy bike more comfortable was making a rocker plate to put the bike and trainer on. It lets the bike tilt side to side and slide front to back a little as I ride. It helps keep your butt from getting sore, because you're not putting all the forces right into your sit bones in a static position. Oh, and setup at least 2 fans to keep cooler. You're going to sweat more riding indoors.
https://hunneyd.blogspot.com/2025/01/rocker-plate-for-my-indoor-bike-trainer.html
Proper pushups
One of the things that has always bothered me is not being able to crank out 20 good pushups. Doing pushups from the knees never helped me improve. Doing benchpresses doesn't help either. I needed a different strategy
I found this youtube vid, How to do more push ups the Special Forces way
I have a weightlifting cage in the attic, so when I do bench presses, there are safety catches so I can safely get the bar off of me when I go to muscle failure. You can use those same safety catches and the bench press bar to do pushups. No idea why I never thought to try it until I saw the video above. A couple months ago, I started with the bench press bar about 3ft off the floor, doing 4 sets of 10, with 1 min breaks between sets every day. Every 1-2 weeks, I'd move the bar down a catch after mastering the level I was at. I'm now just 6" off the floor, so close to doing proper pushups from the floor. Don't have a cage? use 2 chairs, then 2 shorter plastic bins filled with heavy stuff to stay stable. Etc.
I want to be able to do pushups because if I do bike cross country at some point (it's on my bucket list) I need a way to work out the upper body when touring. It'll help me stay fit when doing truck camper cross country trips too. When truck camping, I could bring a weighted jump rope too.
Keep your non-exercising spouse happy
Every 1-2 weeks, I'd plan a longer bike ride from our house to a lunch spot. I'd bike there and Jacqui would meet me by car. Win Win. We'd have a nice lunch date, and it helped me stay motivated to keep biking. It broke up my normal routes monotony. I guess I'm like a golden retriever, food motivated. Found a good variety of places, and I avoided busy roads. Planning those rides helped me get much better at routing and planning through the Ride With GPS app; it's like Google Maps but for bike touring.
Another side benefit of using a Garmin GPS bike computer with Ride with GPS to navigate , it has a g sensor, and I only get 10 seconds to disable it from automatically calling Jacqui for help if it senses an accident. If the call to Jacqui fails, it calls 911. It's linked to my phone via bluetooth. I also shared my google location with Jacqui so she can see where I am roughly. I accidentally knocked my bike over once triggering it, and I barely stopped it before it called Jacqui, so it works.
Jacqui and I have also been talking about getting her an e-bike, so she could join me on some easy rail trail rides Something an hour or less with breaks and snacks. An e-bike could be useful for her to go to the town library from home too; it's only a mile away. There's a nice, safe shortcut through the town cemetery, and it'd actually be easier than driving, waiting in the downtown traffic queue, and parking the car. Weather permitting of course.
Oh, and I wised up and learned to buy Jacqui snacks/sweets when I'd see something she'd like at an eclectic general store in the area. Bribery, in the form of baked goods, are usually appreciated
