Why You Should Try Cycling for Weight Loss?

This is a guest post from my dear friend Cliff Thomas who is the founder of MusclesMagician, a website about fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss.

If you set your mind on losing weight, it’s time to stop thinking about it and start working on it.

Today.

Especially if today you have a nice sunny weather.

Why nice sunny weather?

Because it’s the perfect time to take your bike out.

Yes, bikes are one of the best choices when it comes to weight loss for women.

Why is cycling for weight loss such a good option?

Cycling is a cardio exercise and it’s one of the healthiest ways to lose weight.

You spend time outside breathing fresh air and that positively affects your heart and your health in general.

Many repetitive exercises do damage to your joints, but cycling has the opposite effect.

Cycling brings less burden and injuries compared to other types of exercising.

It strengthens your hip muscles, gluteus, Hamstrings, quadriceps.

The stronger these muscles are, the easier it is to burn fat.

So, cycling is actually a better option for burning extra fat than jogging.

What’s the connection between cycling and weight loss?

When you increase your heart rate you burn more fat and calories, which helps you achieve your weight loss goal.

This is a cheap way to lose weight (if you already have a bike, of course).

Cycling helps improve your health and well-being.

As I said before, cycling strengthens your leg muscles- quadriceps, gluteus, Hamstrings, and calves.

Cycling isn’t very demanding, and people usually don’t suffer from injuries when cycling, so it’s a great option for many people who can’t do sports such as running because of the pressure on their joints.

How many calories can you burn?

That depends on the intensity of your cycling.

The more effort you put, the more calories you spend.

This means that you don’t spend the same number of calories if you cycle fast uphill and you hardly pedal.

Cycling moderately can make you burn about 500 calories in an hour.

To make cycling effective, you need to adjust your diet, too.

You won’t get good results if you spend calories cycling and then eat an enormous portion of food for your next meal.

That way you compensate the calories you burnt.

How to lose belly fat with cycling?

Does cycling burn fat?

Yes.

Your abs don’t work as hard as your quadriceps when you cycle, but that’s still an aerobic exercise which means you burn fat.

This exercise can also help you get rid of cellulite on your buttocks, and legs.

It’s very easy to get fat layers on your belly, but thanks to cycling you can easily get rid of them.

Here are some tips for all of you who want to lose weight with cycling.

The best way to get in shape is to ride your bike at least 150 minutes per week.

For example, you can ride it shortly during the week and then ride it for a longer period of time during the weekend.

If you want to lose belly fat you don’t need to exhaust yourself cycling.

It’s enough to cycle 3 times a week, for instance.

That way your metabolism will be faster in the next 12 hours and you will burn more calories during the day even when you rest.

To get optimal results you should do interval training since that way you will increase the amount of fat you burn.

An interval training means cycling fast for 2 minutes then lowering the pace and cycling moderately for 1 minute.

Do that intermittently for half an hour.

The longer you cycle, the longer the intervals should be.

The advantages of interval cycling for reducing your belly and getting rid of cellulite are spending more calories for a short time.

How does interval cycling enhance burning calories?

When you exercise at a steady pace your body adjusts to it.

But, when you change the pace your body is surprised and it needs to put more effort into adjusting.

Extra effort means, obviously burning more calories.

Stationary cycling for weight loss

If spending time outside isn’t your thing or the weather conditions don’t allow you to cycle outdoors, you can consider getting a stationary bike.

A stationary bike is one of the most popular and simple ways to lose weight.

This so-called stationary bike can take you far without going anywhere.

It will allow you to do effective cardiovascular exercises which improve the work of your heart and burn calories which leads to weight loss.

One of the benefits of this bike is that you can track your heart rate and adjust it so that you enhance burning fat layers.

The downside is that it can be boring.

The number of pounds you lose cycling on a stationary bike depends on the intensity of your cycling, i.e. the speed and the duration of your cycling.

It’s recommended to start casually and then to increase the speed and the duration of your cycling gradually every day.

To have a healthy heart and improve its capability, your heart rate during cycling should be at least 45% of your maximum heart rate.

If you are not familiar with the maximum heart rate, let me explain to you.

Maximum heart rate (max HR) is the highest heart rate in a minute.

This value is individual and it changes during the years.

You can calculate your maximum heart rate depending on your age.

The formula for determining your Maximum heart rate (HR max) is the following:

HR max= 220 – your age

Don’t worry if the number you get is much bigger or smaller, remember this is an approximate result.

Note that the most precise way to find out your maximum heart rate is to do stress testing at your doctor’s office.

Hence, if you want to lose weight fast, cycle vigorously, and your heart rate should be 80-90% of your maximum.

Moderate cycling 60-80% of the maximum HR is considered to be the perfect pace for weight loss and casual cycling means 45-60 % of your maximum heart rate per minute.

So, what’s the bottom line?

As you can see, cycling is a good way to control or reduce weight since it boosts your metabolism, builds muscles, and burns body fat.

Actually, it is one of the best fat burning exercises.

To get good results you need to cycle almost every day, so try going to work by bike, or for example, cycle after work, or school.

Don’t forget- if you are trying to lose weight, cycling should be combined with a healthy diet.

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