Cycle or die?

As an overweight, middle-aged man I was amazed to read this in today's Guardian:

 

"PublicHealthEngland (PHE) said 41% of the 15.3 million English adults aged 40 to 60 walk less than 10 minutes continuously each month at a brisk pace of at least 3mph. Health leaders believe that 10 minutes’ walking a day is likely to be seen as achievable by people who are chronically inactive and that the health benefits include increased fitness, improved mood, a healthier body weight and a 15% reduction in the risk of dying prematurely."

 

And so to my question, how much e-cycling is required to meet 10 mins brisk walk?

 

Cheers, Gubbe

As an overweight, middle-aged man I was amazed to read this in today's Guardian:

 

"PublicHealthEngland (PHE) said 41% of the 15.3 million English adults aged 40 to 60 walk less than 10 minutes continuously each month at a brisk pace of at least 3mph. Health leaders believe that 10 minutes’ walking a day is likely to be seen as achievable by people who are chronically inactive and that the health benefits include increased fitness, improved mood, a healthier body weight and a 15% reduction in the risk of dying prematurely."

 

And so to my question, how much e-cycling is required to meet 10 mins brisk walk?

 

Cheers, Gubbe

I am no expert on the subject but perhaps this will help. It all has to do with your arobic rate while exercising. This is the level of your breathing and heart rate. Ten minutes of brisk walking will raise this rate but not to a harmful rate. The same conically inactive person who tries to run for 10 minutes will put themselves at risk because the body will raise your arobic rate to threatening levels. Somone gently cycling on a flat surface will have to cycle longer than 10 minutes than some one walking briskly to achieve the same arobic end result. Then again it also depends on terrain and how hard you want to cycle that is a determining factor. As a former athlete, whom trained regularly, I would have gladly cycled a mile rather than run or even briskly walked. Now that I am older, I find a combination of walking and cycling keeps me fit. I don't run anymore. The botom line is do it

 

Hope this helps

It's about eight years since I last ran regularly and frankly all attempts since have been painful or knackering. I just hope that the buzz I get from my daily 60 minute e-cycle ride is more than that. I hope that 60 mins will boost my health without the pain and floods of sweat - or an just fooling myself.

It's about eight years since I last ran regularly and frankly all attempts since have been painful or knackering. I just hope that the buzz I get from my daily 60 minute e-cycle ride is more than that. I hope that 60 mins will boost my health without the pain and floods of sweat - or an just fooling myself.

I ebike 60 minutes a day, three to four times a week. I know it helps me and I am sure it will help you.

I guess the answer depends on how you use the bike. Throttling down and back to the pub each night isn't going to help much, but at least you get a bit of exercise to get the bike out of the shed.

 

I have a Fitbit Charge that records my heartbeat all the time. It's amazing, you can see an exact correlation with every type of hill I go up. My Resting heartbbeat is about 53 BPM. When riding my bike normally, it averages around 100 BPM and it goes up to about 150 BPM on the long hills with the odd peak at about 170 BPM. Those values are on my road bike. When I'm riding my electric bike, my hearbeat is a lot lower. Normal riding and pedalling without too much effort, it's about 80 BPM, though it still goes up when I encounter hills because I like to pedal medium to hard when I can.

 

Back to the question, I guess anything is better than nothing, and as long as you don't overdo it, it's probably a case of the more the better, in terms of how much effort you put in and how long you do it for. Basically exercise is good for you as long as you don't hurt yourself doing it. On the TV, they said 10 minutes, but that's just an arbitrary number they came up with that wasn't too large to put people off the idea.

"Throttling down and back to the pub each night isn't going to help much.."

 

It would be interesting to know how long or how far it would take to burn of a pint.

A pint is in the region of 120 calories. More for Guinness.

Edited:

Google consensus seems to have it at about 180 a pint of normal beer. That might explain a few pounds that could be considered unnecessary.

Edited August 24, 20178 yr by BornAgainCyclist

I ebike 60 minutes a day, three to four times a week. I know it helps me and I am sure it will help you.

In pure movement terms I am sure it helps. Use or lose range of movement. With an ebike I am hoping for the movement and aerobic without anaerobic and too much force hence increasing life of joints.

And so to my question, how much e-cycling is required to meet 10 mins brisk walk?

 

Cheers, Gubbe

 

I've just done a brisk, 3 miles / 4.8 km, cross country walk with the dog. Occasionally I jog for 100m or so, just to raise my heart rate. I feel similar to when I do a brisk 8 mile, cross country ebike ride. Both take around 30 minutes or so on a good run.

 

'Brisk' meaning that I put some effort in. The main difference is that I can also rest, whilst still going in my intended direction, on the bike. If I don't take the dog, I go a lot faster.

 

Wiki says " Many people tend to walk at about 1.4 m/s (5.0 km/h; 3.1 mph). Although many people are capable of walking at speeds upwards of 2.5 m/s (9.0 km/h; 5.6 mph), especially for short distances"

 

So, your 10 minute brisk walk is just short of a mile. 5.6 mph shared by 6 = 0.93 miles or almost 1.5 km. I'd say that 'working hard' for 10 minutes on an ebike could equal that brisk walk feeling. You'll obviously go a lot further in that time. 15.5 mph (24.8 kmh) shared by 6 = 2.58 miles or 4.12 km in 10 minutes.

In pure movement terms I am sure it helps. Use or lose range of movement. With an ebike I am hoping for the movement and aerobic without anaerobic and too much force hence increasing life of joints.

And this is the beauty of an ebike. Low impact and very flexible in its function. Being able to turn it off and it functions like normal push bike, or turn it up to full power it let the bike do all the work. Everything in between is the choice of the rider. It truly is an idea piece of exersice equipment.

Yesterday a 2 hour ride on my unpowered MTB average heart rate 138, max 173. Last ebike ride 3hrs 10 mins average heart rate 126, max 161.

This was unusual for me, I normally ride the ebike harder than the MTB but yesterday was a downhill finish (it was actually all just about flat)

My fitbit readout from a recent ride home from work on my cube reaction e-mtb.

As I ride mainly on canal towpath with a couple of steep climbs along the route I rely on the assistance for the climbs and acceleration other than that mostly above 16mph so no assist.

To me that's the great benefit of the e-bike it allows you to do the bits that would otherwise put you off but still put a good shift in from an exercise point of view ( for my 56 years anyway).

A pint is in the region of 120 calories. More for Guinness.

Edited:

Google consensus seems to have it at about 180 a pint of normal beer. That might explain a few pounds that could be considered unnecessary.

The body uses about 90Kcal per hour just to operate - hence the 2000 Kcal per day for an adult male. That is equivalent to 100 watts. So 180 Kcal would power your metabolic demands for 2 hours - a Mars Bar would do the same for 5 hours! Fats / Oils of any sort contain 9000 Kcal/Kilo so that is why Polar Bears, Orcas, and Eskimos like seals - lots of calorie rich blubber!

How far can I go on a gallon of oil on my bike.pdf

The French recommendation is 20 minutes walking per DAY! Walking at a decent pace is much kinder on the body (knees, other joints) than jogging and just as good for your heart. Cycling for at least 30 minutes at a low assist level should do the trick too. I used to walk to work and back when I lived in the city - 40 minutes a day. The walk home allowed me to evacuate all my stress which only had beneficial effects on family life!

 

The secret is start off slow: 2 days a week and chose places that are attractive to walk in/to. Set yourself different destinations. Walk to the shops often and bring back small quantities each time rather than drive for a whole boot load. Get a good comfortable backpack for carrying shopping. Buy shirts that are adapted and in general clothes that breathe to help transpiration escape. Only wear rain gear that does the same. Get decent comfortable walking shoes, ones that feel like slippers and are waterproof. ...

Get off at the bus stop / train station / tube stop one before normal and walk a bit further. A mile either end of the commute should get you to your 10k steps, will only take 15 mins each end which would take a few mins anyway.

I just went up to the shop and back, which takes about 10 m inutes, so I did my brisk 10 minute walk today, even though I'd already done 40 minutes flat out on my road bike.

 

Before I went to the shop, I had been soldering up a battery. I was supprised to see that my heartbeat was 20% above the resting level while I was doing that, so I can confirm that instead of exercising, you can just work on your bike - clean it or something.

 

The walk up to the shop just took me into the cardio zone at about 110 BPM. I must admit that I found it quite hard work.

It would appear I don't do moderate exercise

I can't walk for toffees. 100 yards and I'm done for. Stick me on a bike/e-bike and I'm like a hamster in a wheel. Give me two buckets and a microfibre and I'll spend several hours on my cars. Go figure, but I guess it's the getting up and doing something that really counts.

 

Gaz

100 yards puts you in the blue badge camp I believe. If there isn't a medical condition limiting you have you seeked some help to build up walking stamina? You don't sound like an inactive stereotype and it is surprising to hear what you say your limit is.

My fitbit readout from a recent ride home from work on my cube reaction e-mtb.

As I ride mainly on canal towpath with a couple of steep climbs along the route I rely on the assistance for the climbs and acceleration other than that mostly above 16mph so no assist.

To me that's the great benefit of the e-bike it allows you to do the bits that would otherwise put you off but still put a good shift in from an exercise point of view ( for my 56 years anyway).

Pylon37 do you cycle up the locks at maryhill?

As an overweight, middle-aged man...

Same here. And very conscious of my own excessive weight...

 

I’ve had two different models of FitBit, and various cardio monitor devices, and 'phone fitness apps... and all have been horrendously inaccurate. There is a credible news article on the internet somewhere where they strapped maybe 10 different models of cardio/fitbit type monitors to a seasoned runner, and all turned out to give vastly different readings... so believe these devices at your own peril.

 

My own awakening to this false reality was waking up, having a shower, breakfast, getting in the car and driving 80 miles to an event... and then finding my FitBit telling me I’d apparently walked 2000 steps when in fact I’d only been sitting on my arse, in my Mercedes, whacking up the M1.

 

Anybody who believes any of these “fit-bit” devices (or similar “apps” on their ‘phone) is deluding themselves... they certainly don’t measure anything real that you can truthfully reference to. Yes, they may show exertion and increased heartrate, but IMHO it's all meaningless tosh... you may in fact think you're simply working your heart at a good rate given your BMI when in fact you're putting yourself into serious danger.

The Fitbit's assessment of your walking is never going to be accurate. You should think about its strengths rather than its weaknesses.

 

I've had mine for about three months now. I have a pretty good handle on how far I walk, ride and what else I'm doing. Overall, I think the fitbit does a pretty good job of tracking what I do. I'm not an unthinking dunderhead. I'm a technical person and I'm continuously assessing the plausibility of the Fitbits measurements. If I thought that it's measurements were ficticious, I'd have chucked it after the first week. I would recommend one to anyone. They're a lot of fun and very informative. The only downsides are having to take it off in the bath/ shower and having to re-charge every 5 days. It emails you when the battery gets low!

Overall, I think the fitbit does a pretty good job of tracking what I do. I'm not an unthinking dunderhead. I'm a technical person and I'm continuously assessing the plausibility of the Fitbits measurements. If I thought that it's measurements were ficticious, I'd have chucked it after the first week.

That's your reality d8veh. It's not mine. I'm not an unthinking dunderhead either. I'm also a technical person and continually assessing measurements. I even used to teach others in "thinking for themselves"... but, for me, both my FitBits (and other devices too) appeared hideously inaccurate - notably when compared against each other. I chucked both of my FitBits after a couple of months of open-minded trials. I genuinely did want them to provide meaningful measurement - but none did.

 

If your FitBit appears to work properly for you, that's great (I'm sure some at least must be accurate). But what exactly are you referencing it to to know yours is in fact even remotely accurate?

Edited August 25, 20178 yr by cyclebuddy

Maybe they've improved. Mine's the Fitbit Charge 2. Also, I got an aftermarket magnetic adjustable strap, which keeps it in the right position on my wrist all the time. Maybe that helps. With the original one, it used to slide down.

Maybe they've improved...

I'd genuinely love to believe that. But how do you KNOW the measurements your FitBit is giving you are even remotely true? Unless you buy and wear two or three simultaneously and compare them all together, you'll never know. Past published tests where this has been tried doesn't bode well.

 

It'd be great if we could really believe in the useful information these devices claim to provide. But (having tried several myself) I remain a cynic and am yet to be convinced.