Lose weight by cycling: 4 effective strategies to try

Lose weight by cycling: 4 effective strategies to try

Cycling is an excellent aerobic exercise. It can help promote your heart and lung health, improve your blood flow, increase muscle strength, and reduce your stress levels. Most importantly, it can also help you burn fat, burn calories and lose weight. But in order to lose weight, you need to know some effective cycling exercise methods. So in this article, we will learn about the most suitable strategies to lose weight by cycling and your options for cycling in different environments.

How to lose weight by cycling

Cycling is often touted as a good low-impact option for aerobic exercise. Compared with running or jogging, it allows you to increase your heart rate while reducing wear on your knees, ankles and other joints.
This is also a good way to help you lose excess weight. That’s because you can burn a lot of calories when riding a bicycle, especially when you are riding a bicycle, the speed exceeds the leisurely speed.
If you want to lose a few pounds by cycling, here are four key weight loss strategies.

1. Increase strength

Riding at a leisurely pace may not help you lose much weight. However, if you make yourself work harder and increase the intensity of your riding, you will make greater progress towards your weight loss goals.
Generally speaking, the faster you ride a bicycle, the more calories you burn. That’s because your body consumes more energy to speed up circulation. The more calories you burn, the more weight you lose.
Stable, moderate riding can burn about 300 calories in 60 minutes, but if you increase the intensity, you can burn more.
In fact, according to the Harvard Health Letters, a 155-pound person can burn up to 298 calories in a 30-minute bicycle ride if they pedal at a speed of 12 to 13.9 miles per hour. A person weighing 185 pounds can burn 355 calories by riding a bicycle at this speed.
Moreover, at a faster speed of 14 to 15.9 miles per hour, a 155-pound person can burn up to 372 calories in just 30 minutes, while a 185-pound person can burn 444 calories in this period of time. Heat.

2. Choose High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT is a great way to challenge your body, and yes, it can even reduce fat and lose weight, if this is your goal.
HIIT includes intervals between short periods of vigorous exercise and low-intensity exercise. When riding a bicycle, a HIIT exercise might look like this:
1. Cycle as fast as possible against high resistance for 30 to 60 seconds.
2. Then, take a low-resistance, easy ride for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Repeat this pattern for the next 20 to 30 minutes.
This exercise can help you burn more credible sources of calories in a shorter period of time, as well as improve your aerobic exercise capacity and help you lose fat.
According to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, both HIIT and continued moderate exercise can reduce body fat. But compared with steady, moderate exercise, HIIT can reduce fat mass by 28.5%.

The benefits don’t stop there. When you stop pedaling and the exercise is over, your metabolism is still active. This means that your body continues to burn calories at a higher rate, even after you finish your exercise and your body returns to a normal resting state.

3. Go further

Just when you think you have had enough, try to go further. This is the idea behind endurance training.
Studies have shown that endurance training may help burn fat, thereby helping to lose weight.
Ideally, when you are trying to build endurance, you want to start slowly. Therefore, if you start by riding for 10 to 15 minutes in a training session, you can slowly add a few minutes in each training session until you reach at least 150 minutes of cycling in a week.

4. Try cross training

If you don’t like to focus on one activity, cross training may be for you. This is a great way to add variety to your exercise through alternating activities.
For example, you might ride a bicycle one day for a long outdoor ride, and then go to the gym to lift weights the next day.
In order to lose weight, the American Sports Commission (ACE) states that you need to ride at a moderate intensity level for at least 30 minutes each time. In order to burn more calories, you need to ride longer.
ACE also recommends combining the two activities into one cross-training to promote weight loss. For example, you can ride a bicycle for 20 to 30 minutes, and then try other activities for another 20 minutes.

Cycling options

There are many options for cycling, allowing you to easily choose the option that best suits your needs and preferences. Let’s take a look at some of the more popular indoor and outdoor bike options.
indoors
Do you like to exercise indoors? Here are a few ways to ride a bicycle indoors:
• Ride a stationary bicycle by yourself. Whether you own a stationary bicycle or use a bicycle in the gym, you can get an excellent workout tailored to your needs. Many programmable options allow you to customize your exercise based on the speed, intensity, and duration required.
• Rotation class. If you need someone to encourage you to continue exercising, this may be a good choice. Research credible sources also show that, compared to regular cycling, spinning is equally effective in improving physical health and changing the body.
• Trolley. If you cannot use an ordinary stationary bicycle, a manual bicycle may be just a ticket to some aerobic exercise that consumes calories. This machine is driven by your arms, not your legs.
If you go this way, you must make sure that you can use a stationary bicycle or a trolley. If you don’t have your own equipment, you may want to consider joining a gym or community center.
outdoor
If you prefer to take your bike outdoors, you have many options, such as road bikes, mountain bikes or mountain bikes. You can even give up the car and try to go to work by bike or run errands by bike.
But this cannot be a one-off. If you want to use this type of exercise to lose weight, you need to ride a bicycle as part of your daily exercise.
You can also use various apps to track your mileage or intensity. Using fitness tracking apps can also help you stay motivated to achieve specific goals.

One disadvantage of outdoor riding is that you need to follow more safety precautions to ensure safety. Humid, icy or uneven road conditions, hot or humid weather, and unpredictable traffic conditions make outdoor cycling less safe than indoor cycling.

How to ride a bike safely

Cycling, especially outdoors, may bring certain risks. In order to stay safe when riding a bicycle, be sure to follow the following safety tips:
• Wear a helmet. This may be self-evident, but the helmet can protect your head (and your brain) in the event of a collision or fall. Make sure it fits snugly against your head. Ideally, choose a brightly colored helmet that is easy for others to see.
• Single gear. If you like to ride a bike with friends, let alone lead the way. Followers should leave some space between the two.
• Drive on the right side of the road. You want to pedal in the same direction as car traffic. In the United States, Canada, and other countries where cars drive on the right, be sure to ride on the right side of the road.
• Use gestures. Let drivers and other passengers on the road know that you intend to turn or take other actions.
• Give up electronic products. Don’t wear headphones or anything that may affect your hearing of other vehicles around you.
• Watch out for road hazards. Uneven terrain, potholes, standing water, and other potential hazards can be dangerous, so be aware of them.

• Take care of your bicycle. Through regular maintenance and spot checks, ensure that your bicycle is in the best condition to ensure that the chain, wheels, brakes and other components are in good working condition.

If you wanty to learn about how to ride a bike safely, you can refer the article: How to ride a bike

Summarize

If you are trying to lose weight, or want to maintain the weight loss you are trying to achieve, then cycling may be a good way to achieve this goal.
To maximize weight loss and burn fat, try increasing the intensity or duration of cycling exercise. Interval training and cross training can also help lose weight and burn fat.

If you have a medical condition or have not exercised for a period of time, be sure to consult your doctor to ensure that cycling exercise is safe for you.

If you are looking for a new way of commuting or want a healthier lifestyle, we are here to help you. Visit our website to learn more about electric bikes and electric scooter or please leave information to us.