Biking enough?

LilyBeeMe

Hello all,

I have a question concerning exercise for weight loss.

I basically try to eat healthy and stay in the green in regards to calorie consumption. As for exercising, I've bought myself an apartment bike and do about 1200kcal in around 2hours. I have a couple of 0.5kg weights that I try to use now and again while I'm on the bike as well.

My question is, is cycling enough or do I have to do more?

To be honest I don't know what it means when people say cardio or strength training or what not.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Sutnak

For weight loss? Cycling is a fine cardiovascular activity. The calorie deficit is what does it though.

Weight training will make you healthier and give you better body composition. .5kg weights are not strength training.

sijomial

Calorie deficit for weight loss.
Cardio exercise for cardio health and fitness.
Strength training for improving strength and retention of as much muscle mass as possible whilst losing weight.

You should be eating back your exercise calories so the exercise shouldn't be a factor in your weight loss. Please tell me you aren't exercising two hours a day and only eating 1200cals.

0.5kg is only suitable as a paper weight, completely and utterly useless for strength training.

LilyBeeMe

Oh no don't worry I eat the exercise back, I'm way greedier than that!

What's the difference between cardio and strength training though? And does doing one or the other enhance weight loss?

Also, I'm a girl and wouldn't like to look muscular, I know it takes a while and a lot of effort for people to get muscular but I'm basically looking to lose weight and get rid of my big fat faithful belly and bum!

DMLC2014

Add some of these everyday too!! http://darebee.com/workouts.html

dpwellman

Cycling is fine... The point is to do enough of it and outside where there's hills and wind, acceleration, deceleration. That's where the benefit lies.

Muscular is not going to happen. Don't worry about it. Shoot for weight that you can do two sets of 6-8 rep maximum. Weight training supports cardio primarily athletes by building muscular efficiency (read: go faster with the same effort).

sijomial

Put simply cardio is primarily a workout for your heart, lungs and circulation.
Strength training is primarily a workout for your muscles.

If you are eating back exercise calories then no they won't enhance losing weight if you mean speed up rate of weight loss. That's not the point of exercise.

You don't get to look muscular by accident, it doesn't happen overnight. The "girls" who look muscular probably have low body fat and/or have done years of heavy strength training.
As you aren't doing any strength training it's a bit irrelevant right now!

85kurtz

LilyBeeMe wrote: »

Also, I'm a girl and wouldn't like to look muscular, I know it takes a while and a lot of effort for people to get muscular but I'm basically looking to lose weight and get rid of my big fat faithful belly and bum!

I find this sort of comment interesting, I hear it all the time. When you talk about not wanting to look muscular I wonder what you really mean. Assuming that you are a young person, think of the beauty icons around at present, Beyonce, Scarlett Johannsan, Mianda Kerr. All are women that show clear signs of lifting weights. To look like Miss Universe you would have to lift for a long time daily and for years, as well as take steroids. Lift weights and you will lose those "wobbly bits" and be stronger, combine it with cardio and yoga, and you will be fit, toned and fantastic!

LilyBeeMe

I see what you mean, I know that truly athletic women such as Miss Universe work out and lift a lot to get there.

Though, examples such as Scarlet Johanson or Miranda Kerr wouldn't really relate to someone like me. Those women were slim to start with and then worked out to develop muscle to be more fit and toned.

I'm overweight. Actually, technically obese, so my goal is to look smaller and dare I say more feminine. A big worry of mine would be to kill myself with exercise to lose the fat and gain chunky/noticeable muscle instead like let's say Serena Williams. Not that I would put myself up there in regards to her athletic ability, but just to give you an idea of what I or other overweight women are afraid of when it comes to weight lifting and such.

howardge

Adding more muscle mass will actually benefit your metabolism! It'll help you burn more calories when you are at rest if you have more muscle tone!

kpodaru

cycling is a great way to burn lots of calories but you have to make sure that you work at a level that will challenge you. my husband is a serious cyclist and the training program he does (during the winters on his trainer) burns nearly 2000 calories per workout. not that you have to exercise like that but do make sure that your'e not going at a steady pace for like an hour; turn it up a notch and go hard for 2 minutes, then recover for 1, then increase the intensity and bike hard for 2 mins, then recover etc. by trying to mimic the road, you'll burn more calories and get a better workout.

PopeyeCT

If your goal is weight loss, the only thing that matters is the calories eaten vs. the calories burned.

You'd be perfectly fine if you did no other forms of exercise. Personally, I get bored and need a change once in a while.

Also, read some about heart rate and fat burning. It turns out that lower intensity exercise promotes more fat loss and less muscle building, which sounds like what you are looking for.

DesertGunR

Riding a bike is definitely a cardio based exercise. It is also one of the easiest on the joints to do. As a cardio exercise it will benefit your hearts health. Your heart is a muscle and cardio training helps strengthen it. Whether you do it indoors or out makes little difference. The point is to do as much as you can each time you get on the bike. There are plenty of resources out there that you can do searches for to find training plans to start learning to increase the cardio benefits for you while riding your bike. Choose a plan that is not to aggressive for your current endurance level as you will be less likely to follow it through to completion.

Using any amount of weight, including your own body weight or resistances bands, is considered strength training. There are many exercise plans that use only body weight as a form of strength training. Again, do some research on how to perform each movement properly in order to prevent injury. You can also find a strength training plan that will fit into your goals.

Cardio and Strength training will both help you burn calories and get you closer to your weight loss goal. Try to include both as part of your plan. They will both enhance each other. As you build endurance doing cardio your heart will be able to better supply blood/oxygen to your muscles as you do strength training. As you do strength training you will tone your muscles making them more efficient in burning calories not only while you do cardio they will also burn more calories during the rest of your daily activities.

Make sure that you have talked to your doctor about your plans in order to identify any underlying health issues that may prevent you from doing certain types or intensities of exercise. Good luck in achieving your goals.

mwyvr

PopeyeCT wrote: »

Also, read some about heart rate and fat burning. It turns out that lower intensity exercise promotes more fat loss

Sure, but you've still got to rev up your engine beyond simply coasting to get the full effect otherwise an individual might well get to their destination from glucose instead of activating their adipose (fat) fueled glycogen machinery.

The good news is people do not need to go anywhere near what they consider as their max output or even highly strenuous cycling / running / etc to get that engine going.

DMLC2014

I love to bike 15-20 minutes to my YMCA--do a hour of gravity boot camp/or just regular boot camp--and push myself all the way home for another 15-20 minutes. I also do 4 minutes intervals of Slam ball when I get home. I do this 2 (or 3) times per week.

Machka9

LilyBeeMe wrote: »

Hello all,

I have a question concerning exercise for weight loss.

I basically try to eat healthy and stay in the green in regards to calorie consumption. As for exercising, I've bought myself an apartment bike and do about 1200kcal in around 2hours. I have a couple of 0.5kg weights that I try to use now and again while I'm on the bike as well.

My question is, is cycling enough or do I have to do more?

To be honest I don't know what it means when people say cardio or strength training or what not.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

First of all, always estimate low when it comes to calories burned.

I assume that I burn 100 cal for every 5 km. I might ride at 20 km/h outside, with wind, hill, and pavement resistance, so therefore, I burn approx. 400 cal/hour ... or 800 cal in 2 hours.

Riding inside is easier than riding outside because you don't have wind, hill, and pavement resistance. You're also not balancing or using your upper body to dodge potholes and traffic.

To get a more accurate count ... you may want to assume that you're burning less than 1200 cal in 2 hours. Unless perhaps you're going flat out at a pretty good resistance the whole time.

Secondly, cycling is a great workout. Riding inside is OK, but do try to get outside too ... it's a whole different world riding outside.

Thirdly, how often do you do a 2-hour ride inside? Everyday? Once a week?

LilyBeeMe

Thanks for the reply Machka. Well as I said, I have a stationary bike at home. It's reebok and though not one of the very expensive ones, it's decent enough. On its monitor, it shows, time, km, kcal burned, intensity, etc.

Once I get on it, I first have it on manual and a low intensity degree, and do around 15 minutes to just warm up. That burns around 150 kcal (or at least that's what I see on the monitor). And then I put it on one of its preset programmes which starts off easy and then brings me to a proper sweat each round. each cycle of that programme last 3 minutes and burns around 75 kcal. It's at that point where I turn on the TV, throw a cloth on the monitor and spend around 2 hours on the bike, with little breaks here and there to refill my water bottle and pay constant visits to the lavatory.

All that to say, do you think I shouldn't trust the numbers on my bikes monitor? Do you think burning calories while exercising on a stationary bike is enough for weight loss?

And while I have you, I am another victim of the jelly belly! Do you think I should pull my belly in while exercising or should it hang about? lol Which is better when you're on the bike and want to get rid of a big fat belly!?

Thanks a million!

mwyvr

LilyBeeMe wrote: »

Once I get on it, I first have it on manual and a low intensity degree, and do around 15 minutes to just warm up. That burns around 150 kcal (or at least that's what I see on the monitor).

600 calories per hour for low intensity riding indoors? Sounds very high.

canary_girl

I cycle (spin class indoors) and have lost weight. Really you only need a calorie deficit and you'll lose, even without any exercise.

I burn about 600 (per my HRM programmed to my stats) calories in a 55 minute class but I work very hard; my heartrate stays between 150 and 180 BPM for the majority of the class. While I wouldn't trust the bike's calculation of calories it very well may be 600 for you depending on your weight. Personally, I wouldn't eat ALL of those 1200 calories back, but if it's working for you then go for it.

And I agree you should take your bike outside, but only because it's fun. I LOVE to ride outdoors but I wouldn't necessarily agree that riding outdoors is tougher than on a stationary bike. On a stationary bike I NEVER go downhill. Outdoors I fly down hills after every climb. Personally, I think the key is finding something you like to do, something that you do because you want to.

LilyBeeMe

mwyvr wrote: »

LilyBeeMe wrote: »

Once I get on it, I first have it on manual and a low intensity degree, and do around 15 minutes to just warm up. That burns around 150 kcal (or at least that's what I see on the monitor).

600 calories per hour for low intensity riding indoors? Sounds very high.

I'm sorry, my mistake. I meant to say that it takes about 35 minutes or so for me to burn 150 kcal on low intensity as a warm up.

Machka9

LilyBeeMe wrote: »

All that to say, do you think I shouldn't trust the numbers on my bikes monitor? Do you think burning calories while exercising on a stationary bike is enough for weight loss?

And while I have you, I am another victim of the jelly belly! Do you think I should pull my belly in while exercising or should it hang about? lol Which is better when you're on the bike and want to get rid of a big fat belly!?

Thanks a million!

I wouldn't necessarily trust the numbers on the monitor ... those things are notorious for over-estimating the number of calories burned.

Try the 100 cal for every 5 km thing and see how it matches up with the bike monitor.


I find that a strong core helps a lot with cycling comfort. I have described it to others as kind of perching on your sitbones. So if you sit bolt upright on a hard chair, then suck in your abs, your pelvis will tuck under a little bit. Now lean forward. That's the sort of posture to hold on a bicycle.

It's not easy at first ... takes quite a bit of practice and the strong core helps.