in Fall of 2000 I got myself a mountain bike (yeah like thats needed in illinois). I started riding about 1.5 miles, and Would come back with my legs like jello. Soon after I found myself going 3 miles. Then 5, then winter hit. In Spring of 2001 a friend of mine bought a BikeE (semi Recumbent). I liked it and when I originaly bought the mountain bike I was thinking about a recumbent. I found out BikeE had a lower end model which was much more in my price range for a bike. I bought it and rode it starting at around 3 miles then working my way to 5 then 7. Soon I found myself going 12 miles then 15. By the end of summer I was up to about 30 miles. However some where in there I found I had quit losing weight. I had lost about 80 lbs. I was getting discouraged. then Fall hit so I switched back to the mountain bike. However I still was not losing weight and I had gotten my HR up to about 171 during 15 mile rides on my mountain bike. During the winter I stopped riding. This spring I picked back up and lowered my calorie intake to about 1200 and was burning about 1500 on a 15 mile ride and wasn't losing weight. Recently I posted to here and found out I wasnt eating enough to sustain fat loss. I started eating more (Protien/Fat) and reducing as much riding and have started losing weight again (taking in probably about 2000 calories)

Moral of the story...
its fun to build your stamina up but don't over stress your body! It tends to have negitive effects like burning mussle instead of fat.

if your goal is to lose weight then I would work the larger mussles of the body(legs) with some sort of cardio fun. Toning up the helps though.

I think you are doing a great job. Keep it up!

The BikeE recumbent has a very comfy seat and allows you to ride for longer periods of time. However I can only get my HR up to the 150's 160's if I really stomp on the peddels.

I picked mine up at the local shwinn dealer. You can check them out on www.bikee.com

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