Using the bike to lose weight

Health Fitness

The bicycle is one of the best tools to use to burn calories and lose weight. A 145 lb female riding 1 hour at about 12 MPH will burn about 500 calories, increase speed to 16 MPH and calorie burn increase to about 835 calories per hour.

You can increase your calorie burn by doing sprints from time to time during your trip.

Since it takes 3,500 calories to burn 1 pound of fat, then about 4 hours of cycling at 16 MPH will burn about enough calories to burn 1 pound of fat.

Cycling is very low impact, so it doesn’t strain your joints like running does.

Cycling can be done indoors on a stationary bike in bad weather, with little to no change in calorie burn.

I personally find indoor cycling on an exercise bike boring but some find it quite satisfying and now there are sim machines that make it look like you are going on a course instead of just riding a bike. Some of these are powered by a trainer and build stamina when going up hills and offer a variety of courses to keep you bored.

You can use the bike to run a few errands and at the same time burn some calories that you never would have had the opportunity to do otherwise. Using a small bike trailer increases the number of calories burned as well as offering more opportunities for errands since you can carry much more and that allows you to expand the errands you can do.

What I mean by that is that with my trailer I can haul up to 100lbs. of groceries or tools or whatever. I took the week’s purchases from the supermarket. Climbing a 100lb load, even up a small hill, will put a lot of extra resistance on the pedals and improve leg strength.

Most people think of cycling as a full cardio workout, but that’s not always true. Taking your bike uphill, especially with the added load of a trailer, will definitely build leg strength and will also be a great way to strengthen your core.

If you ride BMX or Mountain Bike, you’ll also build some upper body strength and burn a lot more calories than if you just ride casually.

Depending on the type of cycling you plan to do, some preparation may be needed and it will depend on the type of bike you want to buy.

You should check with the local store, they are usually very helpful. Yes, they want to sell you a bike, but most shops realize that they want to make you happy even more and if they sell you something that doesn’t fit you, you won’t come back. Since they need your repeat business to stay in business, they will almost always go out of their way to make the bike you buy the bike you’ll ride.

Here are some general rules, but they don’t always fit perfectly as each individual is different.

Buy a road bike if you want to lose weight, get fitter, ride in a group, and enjoy the speed and agility of road cycling in general. If you do that, also check with the store about getting into your local bike club or group and have fun getting fit. I am a member of the Pecan City Pedalers in Albany Georgia and also have contacts in clubs all over the United States. I really enjoy the road bike.

Buy a comfortable or hybrid bike if you’re just interested in exercise and don’t mind riding alone, don’t care about speed, but just want to burn calories and get fit. Usually these will have narrower tires so they will go a bit faster. They are kind of a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike.

Buy a mountain bike if you live in an area where there are a lot of back roads that aren’t paved, road bikes and hybrids don’t do loose gravel and grass as well as mountain bikes.

Cruises are fine, not my choice though. That was the main type of bike that was around when I was growing up. These are kind of single speed bikes like we had in the 50’s and 60’s. They would be fine for riding around town, but they can be very rough in the hills.

BMX Cruisers or 20″ for racing. BMX racing can be done at any age and after the first few laps on the track you will either love it or hate it. Most kids love it, adults not so much. Personally , I enjoy it and love it to ride and even race with my grandkids It gives a great workout and after 3 motos (1 race) I feel like I’ve done a good workout.

If you try BMX, rent a bike or borrow one, most tracks have them at the track and will rent or loan one for a practice run. Once you have tried it you will have to decide for yourself if it is for you. BMX Racing is not for everyone, but everyone is welcome to give it a try. I think it’s a lot of fun, but maybe when I’m older (I’m only 57) I’ll think differently.

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