Fitness, Nutrition, and the wonderful world of E-bikes

[recumpence]

Hey Guys!

I wanted to throw this out there, and see what your thoughts are.

First some background;

I have been a relatively fit person most of my life, lots of weight lifting, walking, and overall activity (at least in my adult years). However, I could stand to lose a few pounds, but nothing major. My wife has a few health challenges. So, she began learning about nutrition a few years back(raw foods, pasturization, culturing, fermenting, etc, etc, etc). When I built my first E-bike a year ago, she was teasing me about my motor "Doing all the work" and said I would not get nearly as much exercise as I would without the motor. However, I found the opposite to be true! I love riding far more now than before I had a motor helping with the hills because I can ride anytime I want, on any roads I want without concern about the hills. I find myself doing alot of pedalling because (again) the hills don't kill me! So, my fitness has gone WAY up!

Now, that being said, I have found another side benefit;

When I am doing more bike riding, I find myself wanting to eat better (my body is craving good food to feed the energy need, not the taste buds as much), and all this bike riding has encouraged me to weight lift again and do more walking as well!

This E-bike thing has really opened up my mind to fitness in a way I never had before!

Have any of you experienced the same thing?

Matt

 

[dogman dan]

Unfortunatley for me, nothing stops my craving for junk food. I still love red meat, oreos, tortilla chips.

But the ebike thing does help anyway. I do need more calories, since I get so much aerobic exercise, and don't seem to eat more junk food. So the increased appetite goes into the all the food groups dinner I cook each evening. And even with all the eating, my weight has stabilized a few pounds less, but a LOT less pounds of it is fat on the belly. The improvement of my resipiratory health is beyond measuring. I have had allergies and really bad sinus infections for years since I insist on an outdoor carreer. Sinus infections are totally gone, and allergies much improved by all the heavy breathing. My one hour ride each way is why, a shorter ride doesn't do much.

 

[lesspedal]

Hi Matt,
Newbie from oz,I enjoyed riding my mtb, as i got older the legs ,lungs got a bit tired,fitted elation kit last year,i can now ride again and crank on a bit of throttle for those dreaded hills,pedalling at a moderate pace most of the time helps me get fit,better than looking outside thinking its all to hard.
Trevor.

 

[morph999]

same for me. I can ride about 1/2 mile without a motor so with a motor, I can spend more time on the bike and that means more time pedaling.

 

[icecube57]

This is a intresting thread. I did eat better when I I used to bike without assitance. A big guy like me thats almost hitting 300 lbs burn alot of calories. I used to be able to maintain 15-18 mph riding my bike on flats for about 15-20 miles. That burns anywhere between 750-1000 calories an hour. A man my size needs about 3500 calories to maintain their weight. If combined with a 1500 calorie diet. You know how skinny ill be. But when you look at how much pedaling you are not doing because your bike runs so fast. Ill be lucky to burn 4-500 calories if im being lazy on my bike. But if if i drop the speed down to 20 and pedal along. This increases my range. If this increases my range i can go 2-3 times as far and therefore im on my bike alot longer than I was before without the motor. So technically im still doing the same amount of work but just 2-3 times longer. Therefore you are never exausted even on a long ride but still have a workout.. But i use my bike as an excuse to indulge in really bad foods like pizza or fried items. It balances it out. I have no self controll with my throttle but would like to get a limited 15-20A controller to limit my torque to where I have to provide more input.

 

[Ypedal]

totally agree.. i constantly get the o'l " you don't get any exercise on an electric bike.. why bother with that.. blablabla"....

The Ebike allows me to maintain speed while pedaling as much as i can/want/need .. Starting yesterday i'm commuting to work again via Ebike, no busses, no taxi's.. woooot !

The nice blast of fresh ( like. sub freezing temps ) air in the morning sure wakes me up and i start my workday alert and ready.. currently using my Giant ATX mtb with front eZee and 3lb konion batt = i NEED to pedal or i don't make it home lol.. but that's fine.. it provides just enough help to fight the winds and i get plenty of exercise.

My legs are burning.. i love it !

 

[ElectricEd]

I'm an IT/Software/Database administrator for a food manufacturing business. What happens? Just after lunch every other day the designer/chef comes up with a new recipe and wants me to taste it for her.
After getting to the tonne (100Kg) or 220lb in ye old imperial measure, I decided thats it! Time to do something.
The trouble with being in IT is that you sit on your backside most of the day and the stress from having to be "nice" when answering questions from @#$%^&ing :x STUPID users who don't read the error message when the little grey message pops up to tell them what the problem is...
Whoa, easy now...
Well, it makes you want to eat comfort food to calm down. 10 years of this has transformed a svelte marathon running, Audax cycling 76Kg hunk into an obese cranky old fart.
Then I found out that electric bikes have moved on from secondhand IBM tape drive motors to 3 phase direct drive Mosfet driven 1000W marvels. :lol: Fan-bloody-tastic!
After another 8 months of popping hair follicles due to Brett White's :x "slack-as" business practices, I finally got onto my electric bike. It's been about 4 months now and I've dropped from 99Kg to 85Kg. I had plateaued at 86, but apparently this is normal. You just have to go back into old habits for a week to trick the body into thinking that it isn't experiencing a famine and then continue.
The beauty of an electric bike is that you feel a bit stupid if not pedalling. Once you're pedalling, you want to go faster. The result is that you get a great aerobic workout at a level that is best for losing weight. When you get home, you're not so fatigued that you can't be bothered to cook a proper meal, so you eat sensibly. The exercise is an appetite supressant too, so you don't tend to eat so much. The only other thing I've done is to remove butter from my diet. It took about 4 days to get used to no butter, and now a buttered sandwich or piece of toast is like a greasy slimy piece of muck.
The chef has now been told that she has to find another guinea pig and I now eat an apple instead of comfort food. Funnily though, the users don't seem to bother me now.
Go figure...?

 

[etard]

I don't know, ever since I flipped over the handlebars on my ebike, I have rediscovered my mt. bike and the challenge of defeating certain hills. I have consequently improved my riding tenfold, and can now clear gaps, climb hills, and take jumps I never would have attempted before. I agree with the fact that your body craves different food when you are in shape, and no cup of coffee can compare to the refreshed feeling of arriving at work after a nice brisk ride in. I would like to add that Matt, you should feel very lucky that you have someone like your wife that arms herself with the knowledge of food as fuel, like an alchemist trying to get the right combination. My mom, the nazi vegan nutritionist, recommends you just keep it colorful and moderate. So simple even her son can do it.

 

[recumpence]

Well, my wife had to do something. Her health was really suffering. I am luck to have her, though.

A few rules we follow;

#1 If it is in its natural state, it is OK to eat (unless it is poisonous). This includes certain saturated fats. For instance, coconut is a saturated fat, but it reduces your "Bad" cholesterol. This also includes butter. Believe it or not, we buy 100% raw milk (no homgenization or pasturization). It is a HUGE discussion as to why this is NOT bad for you. But, trust me, if properly handled by the farmer, raw milk is best. I hand shake the cream into butter. It takes about 45 minutes to shake a half stick worth of butter in a jar. This, alone, is fantastic exercise! Eggs are also looked down on. However, the fat and cholesterol in the egg is VERY good for you!

#2 All things in moderation. Basically, do not pig out!

#3 Pop and junk food are not only bad for you, they are downright poisonous! I realized this when we purged our bodies of this crap. Now if I eat junk food (more than just a bite or two), I get sick to my stomache.

Lastly, spend time outside. The best form of vitamin D is found in sunlight. Just do not allow yourself to get sunburned and you will be fine. Also, getting down in the dirt builds the immune system. We are so focussed on antibacterial soaps that our bodies are not exposed to bacteria and, thus, our immune system becomes supressed.

Matt

 

[PaulM]

Believe it or not, we buy 100% raw milk (no homgenization or pasturization). It is a HUGE discussion as to why this is NOT bad for you. But, trust me, if properly handled by the farmer, raw milk is best.

Born and raised on a dairy farm, I couldn't agree more! It's good to see you have the option to buy it, here in Ontario, it is illegal for a farmer to sell raw milk direct to consumers.

Lastly, spend time outside. The best form of vitamin D is found in sunlight. Just do not allow yourself to get sunburned and you will be fine. Also, getting down in the dirt builds the immune system. We are so focussed on antibacterial soaps that our bodies are not exposed to bacteria and, thus, our immune system becomes supressed.

Matt

Exactly!!! The cleaning product commercials are disgusting. Most of the chemicals they promote are probably more hazardous than the apparent "health risk" they claim to eliminate!

 

[ElectricEd]

Exactly!!! The cleaning product commercials are disgusting. Most of the chemicals they promote are probably more hazardous than the apparent "health risk" they claim to eliminate!

I think you're on to something there. They may be the cause of other effects too. [Un-scientific assumption coming...] Just yesterday I heard on the news that a researcher in the UK had found an increase in children developing allergies to fruit and vegetables!
Although I'm not trained in nutritional chemistry, part of my job as a software programmer is to automate the declaration of ingredients, compound ingredients, the nutritional information, additives and allergens in the labelling of food products. This has to comply with FSANZ (Food Standards Australia & New Zealand). We get the product declarations from the manufacturer or supplier of an ingredient which includes the required data. This data is entered for each item and crunched to give the correct labelling information in each outgoing recipe.

When you look into the additives commonly used, your jaw will drop when you find out how they are made or what they are derived from. Many food colours are petrochemical in origin, some additives are fractionally distilled or floated off after being mixed with petrochemicals or known carcinogens, others are derived from substances that you wouldn't go near with a 20ft barge pole. When you realise that we are feeding this stuff to our children each day, that they are cleaning themselves with modern soaps with colours and pretty smells, that they are living in the volatile miasma of paints, varnishes, plastics and modern household cleaners, surely this all must have some effect at the cellular level.
As an electronics and software nerd I am not a rainbow loving, mystical hippy campaigning for land-rights for gay whales, but after finding out about what goes into our food, I've put in a green house, vegie patch and am now building a chook run (Ozspeak for chicken coop).

Just to amaze you, recently one of our customers (that American company that used to open at 7am) insisted that we use a particular product to to give the barbecued flavour used in roast chicken. Check out the ingredients for it:

Sugar, Tomato Flakes [Tomato, Maltodextrin (from Maize), Beetroot Powder, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil], Nature Identical Bacon Flavour [Salt, Corn Starch, Yeast Extract, Sugar, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Spices, Onion Powder, Flavour Enhancers (627, 631), Flavouring (contains Milk Solids, Soy Derivatives), Colour (150d, 160c), Food Acid (330)], Salt, Vegetable Powders [Onion, Garlic, Beetroot], Tomato Powder [contains Anti-Caking Agent (551)], Malt Extract Powder [from Barley], Food Acid (262), Breadcrumbs [Wheat Flour, Water, Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Baker's Yeast, Salt, Gluten, Canola Oil, Vegetable Fibre (Soy, Wheat, Oat), Soy Flour, Vinegar, Emulsifiers (481, 472e, 471), Milk Solids, Preservative (282), Sugar, Vegetable Gum (412), Tuna Oil, Sesame Seeds, Vitamin (Thiamin)], Wheat Fibre, Vegetable Gums (415, 412), Dehydrated Vegetable [Carrot], Thickener (1422), Herb and Spices [Parsley, Chilli, Black Pepper, Ginger], Caramel Colour (150d) [contains Sulphites], Paprika Oleoresin (160c), Natural Smoke Flavour, Vinegar Powder [Maltodextrin, Thickener (1401), Vinegar], Flavour Enhancer (635), Worcestershire Sauce Powder [contains Colour (150d), Preservative (220)].
Would you eat anything like that? And that's just for the BBQ sprinkle! Plenty are fairly benign ye olde world stuff but there's still a lot that is questionable. The other ingredients need to be listed in the final product too. We run out of real estate on a label fairly quickly.

So for a pretty good lifestyle that gives you that warm fuzzy feeling, commute with an ebike, eat more home-made foods that are simpler in composition and avoid take-aways. You'll feel better, look better and may even live longer.

 

[recumpence]

Preach it Brother! :wink:

How about this one;

I am FED UP with people my age (I am 37) saying things like "Well, we are getting older......" or "We are not as young as we used to be......." or "At our age........."

What!? Excuse, me! I feel FAR better at a healthy 37 years old now that I work out, pedal alot, and eat right, than I did at 21! My father is 65 years old and insists that (other than waking up a bit sore in his knees) he feels better now than he did when he was in the Marines!

I know there are some physical limitations and genetic issues that we can have. However, for those who just succum to "Well, we are just getting older....." need to get off their freakin butt and get outside for some sunshine and exercise. They also need to eat right. And, when I say "Eat right" I do not mean eat what the US government says is good. We need to eat raw, organic food that is as close to the way God intended as we can possibly get.

I am sorry, but, I cannot stand laziness like I see in so many people I grew up with. Heck, I rode 30 miles today, most while pulling my kinds in the Burley trailer and most of thos miles I was pedalling without the motor. The motor just helps me get up the hills and out of the way of cars.

I appreciate everyone here. We are in this together and I am glad we are interested in reliable, healthy transportation.

I feel awesome!

Matt

 

[John in CR]

Matt,

While I agree with almost all of the above, you must have been a junk-food-junkie-videogame-playing 21 year old. I was an f'ng machine at 21 that no amount of healthy eating and exercise could help me to achieve now. Too bad our brains evolved more quickly than our bodies, something another decade will help you understand better.

John

 

[Zoot Katz]

Spending less time in the state of aneorbia, I feel my fitness level has declined since turning to the dark side where ebents are its deepest depths.
Carbohydrates loading is still good practice if you're planning a century. Natural grains are a better source than pasta.
Carbs keep your brain working. Alcohol may be the exception.
Honey trumps Cliff Bars for usable energy per penny and it's got nothing in it you can't pronounce.
AFAIK, it only makes sense to consume mass amounts of protein within two hours after a ride where you come home and almost collapse.
After doing the entire live food only thing or being purely vegan and various levels of pH balanced veggie I followed evolution by remaining an omnivorous upright biped. Steak Tartar is still a favourite. eff BSE.
Fasting is more beneficial than diet.
Listen to your body, not the movie you've made.

 

[recumpence]

Matt,

While I agree with almost all of the above, you must have been a junk-food-junkie-videogame-playing 21 year old. I was an f'ng machine at 21 that no amount of healthy eating and exercise could help me to achieve now. Too bad our brains evolved more quickly than our bodies, something another decade will help you understand better.

John

In my case, I was an overweight (not morbidly) kid. By the time I was in my twenties, I was thinned down, but my body was still reeling from two decades of crap. So, it took a while to purge.

Do I have a few aches here and there that weren't there in my twenties? Yup. But, my mind is clearer now, my body (overall) is much healthier and I just feel better.

It is so hard to explain.

Matt

 

[Mr. Mik]

I hate to be the odd one out - but it's not an ebike that's to blame, just a bloody scooter!
Since I got involved with this whole EV stuff, including the research before initial purchase 2 years ago, surfing has largely been canceled, in favor of sitting on my bum writing stuff like this! The result is not too good. BMI approaching the upper limit of "normal", and there is certainly more fat and less muscle now!

But, a small scale free range egg production is now in full swing, and I managed to muffle the rooster, YEEEHAAHH!!!!
No plans to get a cow, I assure you...

I hope the roads from my place into town get fixed up with reasonable side strips one day; then I'll be into cycling again.
Or I just need to figure out how to build a "self-resetting 4xs to xs4p string" to get around the Australian 200W limit for e-bikes; then biking might become feasible a lot earlier!

And maybe one day, the electric surfboard project will be ripe for execution. If I'm not too fat by then!

 

[JinbaIttai]

I'm also a little irritated at e-biking, but for a different reason. Since I started leaving the car home and biking to work, I have to eat a larger breakfast or I get too hungry. This costs more money. Calories don't exactly grow on trees you know . . . wait a minute something doesn't sound right there. . .

 

[SoSauty]

Yep, knowing I'll be pedaling easy for 20min, to classes, rather than strenuously for 30 min. makes my e-bike "primary transportation." Lost my license (medical) and love my newfound biking indepedence. Fifty-three, slender, strong, and free. Only death can stop me

 

[monster]

there is absolutly no way i would even consider commuting 22 miles a day on a normal pushbike. but my ebike makes the 22 miles fun. so i am getting 100% more excesize with my ebike.