At Our Age....

One of the realizations that has come with this process has been that at our age (mid 40s) it is essentially impossible to lose weight through exercise alone.  This is a hard realization to come to - despite the evidence being right in front of our eyes...and mirrors.  This is a common frustration reflected by other 17 day bloggers.

From my own experience - I've been 'back into' cycling since 2005.  In November of 2005 and 2006 - I was fit enough from an overall standpoint to complete two 109 mile El Tour de Tucson rides in respectable times (just over 7 hours both times).  I completed the inaugural Copper Triangle ride - 80 miles over three mountain passes with almost 6000 ft of climbing in a similar time. I did a fair amount of regular riding to get there. While my weight might have moved 10 pounds or so - down as low as the mid 230s I never achieved any meaningful weight losses.  One of the other 17 Day bloggers I read was running marathons - yet stayed quite overweight.  I got all these event completion medals riding my bike as a fatass.

It seems sad but true, but we seem to age out of our ability to offset a crap diet through exercise alone.