Comment by awjr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by awjr | Hacker News Reader

As somebody touching 20st (127kg) I recently started working on a client site and had a choice, drive by car or catch a train and cycle the 5 miles to the client site. Into my second week and finding the cycling is really making a difference and can get desk to platform in 31 minutes (unlocking of bike etc) down from 35 minutes at the beginning.

I'll weigh myself at some point but honestly feel I'm physically getting into a better place and fantastically alert. There is also the challenge of riding hard on the way home to make sure to catch the train ;)

What is more interesting is that a lot of people in the office are surprised where I catch the train from (Newport,Wales) and that cycling is possible to Cwmbran without riding with traffic. The Monmouth canal is disused and the wildlife down there is amazing as are the views.

I basically go to the gym for an hour a day and I don't have a choice. I have to go no matter what. The weather is a bit crazy at the moment but there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes ;)

I cannot recommend enough the idea of working out a way to cycle to work. Build fitness into your lifestyle and just make it a necessary function of your day. I've lasted at most 3 weeks at a gym. They feel inherently boring to me. My contract is for 6 months.

For those who want to know I'm on the tall side (6'2") so finding a suitable fold-up bike (train friendly) that was 'strong' enough to hold my weight was difficult. I ended up with a Xootr Swift. Beautiful ride and not had a problem on trains ( https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/103836... )

Well … when I was still very obese (162kg, just as tall as you are) I was also struggling with high pulse (around 90) and high blood pressure as well as, you know, just a general discomfort, a feeling of shortness of breath, …

After I started restricting calories nearly a year ago I also started driving around 30 min every single on the ergometer bike (always the same amount of kilojoules per day to be consistent, first 1,000 and now 1,350, first at 120 Watt and with breaks, now at 210 Watt and with no breaks). I also started taking long walks every day, around 6km. (I know people have strong opinion about what is right and more correct to do and I know that my exercise plan is weird and unbalanced, but the most important thing to me is to have something that works and that I can easily get into the habit of doing. Habits are fucking powerful and wondrous things if you make them work for you, devilish, evil things if they work against you. For now I have something that works and that I’m very comfortable with. I can always make improvements, sure, and I want to. Just slowly and with consideration.)

To my astonishment my vitals started improving almost immediately, before I had lost any significant amount of weight. My pulse was down to around 60 (resting) or lower only a couple of weeks after I started, when I was still very much extremely obese. I’m a coward when it comes to measuring blood pressure, so I have no data on that, but I do know that it’s either optimal or normal right now that I’m merely very slightly overweight (94 kg). All the discomfort went away almost immediately, also before I had lost any appreciable amount of weight.

My dad also always has been struggling with his weight, but doctors have told him repeatedly that health wise he's actually doing relatively well, presumably because he also has a similar and very consistent exercise regiment (that also includes daily cycling).

The nice thing with exercise was that I felt its effects on my health more or less immediately. Weight loss is much, much harder to notice and a much more longer term process.

Having lost a similar amount of weight (63kg), I want to give you a round of applause. That's just amazing work.

Congratulations to you, too!

But, to be honest, I feel like I can only start to be really happy about this when I manage to keep it steady for a couple years (though currently that is going quite well and I feel that my previous tendency to naturally overeat is seriously lessened, mostly probably through lasting and habitual diet changes, but probably also through consistent weight tracking).

Worth mentioning that in the UK, a lot of employers are enrolled on the Cycle to Work scheme.

This allows employees to buy a bike through their company/business (normally worth up to £1,000), and pay it back over a period of time, through a salary sacrifice, i.e. pre-tax.

In the UK, use http://www.cyclestreets.net/ it can highlight non-traffic routes so enable you to plan a more pleasant ride.

Of note, don't just assume it gets it right. In my case, it put me at the front of the train station, rather than at the back. This caused the routing to take me out of my way. Always worth exploring an area/talking to people to work out if there is anything out there that has missed.

Biking to work is the number one thing I miss now that I work from home. I highly recommend it to everyone.

I didn't used to bike to work this time of year, because the path I'd use is covered in snow, but even in upstate New York, riding in March and November is surprisingly enjoyable with the right gear.

That working from home can be an exercise trap. I spent the last 6 months with a startup and exercise started dropping off rather quickly towards the end. Ended up making sure I rode with friends twice a week...usually to a pub but it wasn't about losing weight, just keeping up a general level of fitness.

Yup. It's totally feasible to bike year round in many places even in the winter. I rode a bike ~6km to work year round in Ottawa, Canada where temperatures were routinely lower than -10C (14F) (my coldest day riding was -31C (-24F)).

I find riding in a couple inches of snow to be quite enjoyable but it can become overly burdensome when it gets too deep.

The main thing is to just dress appropriately and take your time. There's quite a few blog articles you can find about tips for bike commuting in the winter.

I used to ride the Leeds to Bradford canal to work, was beautiful and just the right distance (about 40 minutes).

Watching the seasons change, seeing the migratory birds come and go through out the year, the calves appearing etc

Good way to unwind after a long day as well <thumbups>

Monmouth canal (Newport to Cwmbran) is unused (no boats) so has way more wildlife than I've seen on any other canal path. I've had to face off against a swan, a rather large number of ducks and the odd suicidal moorhen. Recent wind meant I was climbing through fallen trees :D

To be honest it makes for awesome office banter.

Are you sweaty from the bike ride ?

If so, how do you handle it when you are on the client site ?

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