e-biking makes you gain weight?

[Kai]

After one year of e-biking I noticed that I had gained almost 10 kg more weight in one year.
Has anyone else had similar experience?

Cycling was my only physical exercise and way of commuting. After I realised this I started jogging to keep me healthy.
So, basically even if I save time (by going faster with E-bike) and money (by Not using public transportation), I have to spend more time jogging and going to joga lessons, to balance this lack of exercise.

I also started using my normal bicycle only, allredy 8 months now, and I will take take my e-bike out after I have tweaked some more speed to it next month. Maybe I buy a recumbent if I need speed and fittness.

 

[John in CR]

Just tweak more speed out of your ebike by changing the chainline gearing to be able to pedal assist at a reasonable cadence, so you increase your speed using pedal power. Then if you feel you need even more exercise just use less motor assist on the way home. That way you cover your exercise and transportation in the same timeframe.

 

[evblazer]

That is why I'm kinda scared to get an ebike. Cycling is my sole form of exercise and although I have to be careful not to push myself I don't want to become reliant on the a full on electric assist and not even get any benefit out of it.
It certainly isn't worth saving time goign a little faster on the e-bike just to spend more somewhere else.. Also just a note on your recumbent suggestion I switched from a touring bike to a quasi lowracer recumbent on my commute when my commute double and I started packing on the pounds. It is waaaay too easy not to push yourself on a recumbent and not get your heart rate up.

 

[deardancer3]

I had that same worry about ebikes. I had a special feature added that enabled more weight loss.

so now it looks to be installed on all ebikes for a small extra fee.

The inventor called it an "ON/OFF Switch".

:wink:

d

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Just tweak more speed out of your ebike by changing the chainline gearing to be able to pedal assist at a reasonable cadence, so you increase your speed using pedal power. Then if you feel you need even more exercise just use less motor assist on the way home. That way you cover your exercise and transportation in the same timeframe.

+1 Just change your gearing.

I have had the exact opposite experience with my E-Bike.

I have a 52 tooth chain ring up front and a 12 in the back allowing me to add my pedaling to the speed of the E-Bike hub motor, and I have been pushing harder than when I was riding unassisted just to see how fast I can get it going, especially up hills, but my build might be totally different than yours.

I think of E-Bikes in two main classes, pedal assist and pedal optional.

My geared motor tops out at about 31 - 33 MPH as far as how much it can assist me at speed. In other words, if I going down hill and using the motor, it spins too fast at anything above that speed to add any help. However, if I am going up-hill, I can now travel at 12-17 MPH (with moderate to heavy pedaling) up hills that I couldn't go more than 6-8 MPH unassisted. But that is just how I built my E-Bike, I wasn't really wanting a true "pedaling optional" E-Bike, just something that would help me get up hills fast and an occasional blast through traffic if needed while staying reasonably light enough that it wouldn't be a huge task pedaling once the battery was dead.

I'm actually still running out of gears even with the 52 up front and 12 on the back. I might look into a crank that could accept a larger chain-ring than 52 (mainly for an "over-drive" gear for going down hill at speeds exceeding 35) but for now I am pretty happy with 52/12

 

[docnjoj]

I'm about to install an 11 rear sprocket to go with my 53 chainwheel. Ireally don't go very fast but I find that I can pedal against the brakes downhill and get additional exercise. All I know is if I don't bike I gain weight. Swimming never seems to lose weight for me even at 1/2 mile a day in the summer. The electric just allows me to ride longer and get more exercise. Dogman has a good formula: Just pedal 1 mph faster than your throttle is set for. I just overdid 10 miles with exactly 1/2 up hill. I am sore!
otherDoc

 

[docnjoj]

Also just a suggestion to the OP. Gaining 22 lbs in a year has more to do with diet than getting exercise unless you really don't pedal. If I gained that much weight, well, it would be really bad. But I'm old!
otherDoc

 

[northernmike]

If you have time, pedal a touring bike for exercise rather than jogging. IMO it's easier on your joints due to lack of impact. I used to do 50k 3x per week when I lived in the suburbs, now that I'm downtown I bike 5k each way to work daily. But I was in better shape before.

How long is your commute? Do you live in the city, are there good roads for long rides? I joined a club when I was riding longer distances, we used to do 70-130kms some Saturdays - riding in a group not only lets you paceline and draft, you end up pushing each other and ride harder! I can't wait til summer... 8)

 

[Kai]

I could be my diet and my age. There's a saying that men will get a little belly when they turn 30. Seems to be true, probably because of work, family and car and more income.

I've been eating a lot of FREE food, which I collected from supermarket dumpsters. Often worth from 20 to 50 euros per "night raid" . Maybe that's too much!

KAI

 

[geetarboy]

Hey Kai, Great idea on the dumpster raiding. Another way to save... We can bypass the gas station "AND THE GROCERY STORE!" Enjoy your extra pounds, with the $ you save you can buy a bigger battery...

 

[dogman dan]

So you are in your 30's? When I was 35 I went from my normal weight of 160 to 180 in 80 days and never saw 160 again. I could feel it that I had done a major metabolisim change. It took a few years for me to finally adjust my eating habits permanently, and get for my all time heaviest of 195 back to 180.

Like you said, suddenly I had a belly that I'd never had before. The whole time I was working hard, framing houses so nothing sedentary about my work.

Get a bigger gear and pedal the motor faster, or set the throttle lower and pedal up some more speed. Either method will help turn the fat into muscle. Before I started the ebike commute of 30 miles a day I was 180 pounds of flab, now I'm 180 pounds of strength with a pretty small belly.

 

[SoSauty]

Yeah, I'm 54 and gained 25lbs these last 2.5yr.s which is when I started e-bikeing. But, I don't feel or look chubbier. The only clothes that don't fit are my boxer shorts; have to stretch 'em out around my thighs or they're too tight there. In fact, I like the way I look with 'biker legs.'

 

[Kai]

Now it has been few years since my original post here. I haven't used e-bike during last years because my battery died. Instead rode non-electric Yuba Mundo every day and it was a good exercise. Eventually I got tired of lugging that heavy beast of a bike through snow and uphills. Most of the time I didn't even have any cargo! Once I did a 1600 km bike tour with Yuba Mundo. So I sold the Yuba and bought a lighter utility bike, the Kona MinUte. I also started going to gym. I got a bit of muscles and I feel happy with myself.

But once you get electric-bike fever, you never recover. Recently I installed mid- motor to my bike, and boy it's such a blast! Now I can ride everywhere within battery range without hesitation. No need to use bus. Going to gym in any weather is easy quick. I'm looking forward for every ride. After exhausting workout at gym I can get back home with electrict , no sweat!. I have a long ascent all the way home (6 km) and it was nuisanse.

BUT I think every e-biker needs to have a second bicycle just for human powered exercise, for relaxing cruising and as a fashion statement, perhaps. Singlespeeds make a great furniture when hanged to a wall.

KAI

 

[USAEBIKECO]

An ebike actually makes me maintain the weight im at. I love to ride and usually ride hybrid, some pedaling, some electric. Overall its better to ebike and get SOME evercise than taking a car or bus and get none at all.

 

[lbz5mc12]

I look at it this way, I may be a fat bastard on an e-bike but I'm a fast fat bastard on an e-bike. When I was a kid bike riding was fun but now that I'm older it's just tedious. My e-bike has made bike riding fun for me again. Besides my e-bike isn't making me fat it's all the food I keep shoving down my throat.

 

[bowlofsalad]

You can say that you gained weight because there is more ice cream and cake in your home, or you can accept responsibility and say that you should eat less cake and ice cream. You choose when you pedal and when you don't, not the other way around. Want exercise? Don't touch the throttle, change what you eat and so on. Many here own cars, are cars the cause of our lifestyle? You control your fate, the amount of body fat you have on your body is your own choosing.

Are forks the cause of obesity? Are guns the cause of murder? Is alcohol the cause of alcoholism?

Want to pedal? Remove the ebike stuff and plan for a longer trip time.

Take personal responsibility for yourself.

 

[lbz5mc12]

My point exactly.

 

[MadRhino]

This is about why and how you will use the bike.

Use it to save your body some energy going where you were used to go cycling and sweating, then it will make you gain some weight.

Use it as a toy to add performance motorized sport to your habits, then it will make you lose some weight.

Use it for both then you will stay at the same weight, only switching some mass from legs to upper body.

 

[D-Man]

My belly hasn't popped out yet. :lol:

 

[The fingers]

My belly hasn't popped out yet. :lol:

Mine has! :lol:

 

[neptronix]

Get a cycle analyst and watch it while you ride. It's really easy to lay back and let the motor do most of the work, but watching the cycle analyst will help you quantify how much leg power you are putting in. I've put more pedal power in lately since i got the CA.
Turn down the amps so that you have to shift gears up to accelerate from a stall and on hills.
Run barely enough amp hours to get to your destination.
Optimize your pedaling cadence. Fast is good. Slow is lazy. If you don't have the right gearing for it, change that.

Consider a dinky 250w crank drive.

You can still get a good sweat going on an ebike. But you must optimize the man-machine factor

 

[neptronix]

Oh, another thing that helps is a 3 speed switch.
Program your controller to have speed 1 be your optimal pedaling speed, 2 be your 'fast pace' pedaling speed, and 3 to be 100%..

Work this around your gear ratios so that you are pedaling at 100rpm or over at these speeds.

This is what i've done with my 6000W Cargo bike. One position turns it into a 45mph motorcycle.. the other two turn it into something that puts me in the gear/speed range that i can use to get the same efficiency as i did on my first build with a 250W motor, doing 18-22mph! I can come home totally frickin' wiped out but have gone twice the distance my body could have ever handled in a day.

 

[Eskimo]

At least on my first two rides e-bike made me pedal hard. You don"t wanna use motor only, you like the extra performance what you get when you pedal and use throttle. Same hills that i walked in the past made me now pedal hard with full throttle. Btw ordered couple Endless-sphere stickers from my local stickershop Just build a smallish box around the frame triangle from 4mm ply. Those will fit on that nicely, and most of the cyclists have not heard about this site here. Those version 2. torque arms on Grin Technologies site look good. Winner of the contest "Best company name of the year" Getting fat is mostly about your intake, much less about your consumption, if you are an average lazy guy i think. If you pedal ten miles, and then ride that same trip with E-bike, there would be maybe a difference of 50 calories or something. Some guy possibly consumes more. One piece of chocolate separates classic and your e-bike i would say.

 

[Sunder]

BUT I think every e-biker needs to have a second bicycle just for human powered exercise, for relaxing cruising and as a fashion statement, perhaps. Singlespeeds make a great furniture when hanged to a wall.

KAI

I have both powered and unpowered bikes. I'm not entirely convinced that the powered one would make me gain weight though, because the alternative to riding an electric bike is not riding a push bike - but driving in many instances.

With a puny Q100, I still need to pedal to get to the speeds I want as well - so while it's not the same exercise as a road bike, it's still better than no exercise at all.

 

[docnjoj]

There is no way I could go the time/distance that we do (20 miles 5 days a week) on my heavy trike without electric assist. It usually takes us 1.5 to 2 hours to complete our routes. Time is an important factor in exercise and generally, the longer you pedal the better it is for you. My blood Chemistry values have all gone down to normal in the last 9 months and I owe it all to the bike use and a bit of swimming in the summer. Our hills leading to home are either 1.5 miles at about 3% or 1/2 mile at 4% and those would be killer without the help of the motor. I don't know of any other form of exercise/fun for us older folks than this.
otherDoc
Oh yeah weight. I lost over 20 lbs in the last 9 months. Diet was part of it but the bike definitely helped.