7 Ways to Lose Weight with Your Bike

Cycling is awesome. It is fun, dynamic and extremely healthy. Are you looking to shed some belly fat? You have an extra bit on the side and you’d like to get rid of it? Why not cycle? There’s really nothing about cycling that you won’t like. On top of that, it is good for you on both the mental and physical level. So, you are interested in getting to know how exactly you can lose weight with your bike? Then let us help you.

The Importance of Sleep

Sleep is what you’ll need to pay attention to if you want to lose weight. Riding a bike while being tired is awful. Studies have proven that people who sleep for at least six hours a night lose weight quicker and are also less stressed. On the other hand, people who don’t sleep enough tend to feel hungry throughout the whole day and they are also less likely to feel satiated when they actually eat. And you’ll also want to repair your muscles after each day and prepare your body for the next.  

Breakfast before Cycling

Metabolism – you’ve probably heard a lot about it. It is quite important for the weight loss process. A good, healthy breakfast will kick-start your metabolism and you’ll have enough fuel for the ride. On top of that, your body will start burning fat. If you skip breakfast, you’ll feel exhausted and you won’t burn fat as much. It is as simple as that.

Ride, Ride and Ride

Get on your bike and start pedaling. The average road cyclist burns about 40 calories per mile. Through simple math, we can see that at a relatively slow 15 miles per hour, you can burn a whopping 6,000 calories for only 10 hours of riding per week. And if you want to kick things up a notch, you can always change the intensity of pedaling. More sweat means more burnt calories.

Cycle to Work

We’ve already mentioned how some people use bicycles to get to work. It is efficient and it is no surprise that it’s becoming a more and more popular way of commuting. Cycling to work means that you’ll be getting in a regular amount of exercise in the time that you would have flushed away by traveling anyway. Some studies show that people who switched to cycling from driving or public transportation lost 1 stone/7kg on average over the course of a year. And that’s just 30 minutes of riding each way.

High-Intensity Sessions

These sessions will significantly improve your cardiovascular fitness and that means that your body will burn calories better. Add two or three high-intensity riding sessions to your week and you should be fine. The goal is to ride to 70-90 percent of your heart rate for most of the session. You don’t need to stick to this pace for the whole session. Slow down in some intervals and then speed up again. Interval training has proven to be quite efficient.

Cycling Clothes

Lorna Jane Squad Short Tights (US$45)

You don’t have to buy specialised cycling apparel if you want to ride your bike on a regular basis. But please make sure that you don’t over-dress to sweat more. Losing weight through dehydration isn’t good. Actually, it’s quite bad for cyclists. You need to be hydrated throughout your ride. And if you want to ride for a longer period of time, you need more fluids than usual.

A Quality Bicycle

It probably goes without saying, but if you really want to lose weight and be efficient while doing it, you’ll need a decent bike. It doesn’t matter whether you’ll opt for long rides or short ones, you must have a reliable and good bicycle. And it really isn’t hard to find one. There are numerous quality bicycles online, one click away from you. So start searching now!

We hope that you now have an idea of what you need to do if you want to shed some weight with your bike. We don’t want you to look like an amateur or hurt yourself, so go through our list once again just to be sure. And if you are persistent enough, you’ll quickly see the results.

Photo credits: Pexel