How much you need to ride to lose weight, burn fat and calories by cycling

If you love cardio exercise and you’re bored with running, it’s time to take a bike ride. It will be a great alternative to running, especially if you love pedaling. By the way, you can ride on the streets or indoors – as you prefer.

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How to ride a bicycle to lose weight? How many calories are burned by cycling?

How is cycling good for weight loss?

Cycling is a cyclic cardio workout. Along with pumping muscles, the nervous and vascular systems are trained. If you work in different heart rate zones, you can get the desired result. Here is an example of how these zones work for a man of 30 years.

Pulse	Zone	Degree of load
174-185	Maximum load. For maximum speed and results.	Do not use for training. Only professional athletes work at this heart rate.
162-174	Anaerobic zone. Increases the ability to maximize performance.	Stick to these values during strength training. The heart rate immediately after exercise should not exceed these values to avoid overtraining.
151-162	Aerobic Zone. Improves physical fitness.	Powerful calorie burning, improved heart function, and increased stroke volume.
139-151	Beginning of the fat-burning zone. Improves endurance.	Increased calorie burning begins at this heart rate.
128-139	Light activity zone. Helps the body to recover.	A light warm-up or exercise.

How much exercise do I need to do to lose weight?

The weight loss process will depend on your exercise and nutrition regimen, healthy sleep and post-workout recovery.

If you keep a balance in all areas, any cardio workout will be effective. To lose weight, you need to spend more calories than you consume – this is the cardinal rule. The optimal time of training on a bicycle is from 30 to 80 minutes. For an hour of riding, you can safely burn from 400 to 800 calories. But this will depend on the speed.

What can you train on?

You can use both an ordinary bicycle and a trainer. If you need to lose weight, the type of exercise machine is not important: the main thing is that it should be convenient, comfortable and compact for use at home.

The most universal option is the Saikle. At the same time, you can pick up equipment with a display to travel by bike around the globe and even in space. If you want to participate in competitions or ride on the street for long distances, it is best to buy a fatbike. It is well adapted to a road bike.

On a regular bicycle, you can “ride” and at home. There are bicycle stands for this purpose. Mount your bike on them and practice riding the same roads on a virtual display. And if sitting indoors is already boring, get outdoors and travel.

What is the right way to use an exercise bike?

It’s important to customize your exercise bike to your individual characteristics: adjust the seat, handlebar position and height. Check yourself: sit on the exercise bike, put your heel on the pedal and see what position your foot is in. If it is straight, the machine is adjusted correctly.

Also pay attention to the position of the handlebars in relation to your knees: your knees should not collide with your elbows or be close to them when moving.

Which is better: running or biking?

Whichever is more to your liking. To choose the best option, try both. Listen to your body to see which responds better. Running is a physiological action with a shock load. If you are not physically fit or have contraindications, it is better to opt for bicycles.

Keep fit and take care of your health.