Who lost weight with indoor bike?

WannaBeMorningJogger

Im curious to know if there are people here that lost weight with mainly a stationary bicycle as their exercise? I feel it's easier on joints and it helps burn a lot of calories, that's why I chose this exercise as my main activity. Im curious to know if it works.

Katmary71

It does, I used just my recumbent bike the first 5 months of last year. I added weights and elliptical every other at the end of May. I still use it 4xs a week on non-gym days.

NorthCascades

For science: you can lose weight even without exercise. It's just calories, any movement that burns calories helps because math, and also because it lets you eat more and still lose weight, which helps people stick with it for the long term.

The reason that's important to understand is because it means there's no kind of exercise that's best for weight loss. Anything you do helps, anything you can stick with is great.

With so that out of the way, an outdoor bike is a tremendous help for me. Like you said, it's very low impact, and it burns a ton of calories over any decent amount of time.

Machka9

Eating fewer calories than you burn is how you lose weight.

So ... you could lose weight with no exercise.

But sure ... if you set your indoor bicycle up properly so that you don't end up with joint issues, it should help.

I do a combination of indoor cycling on my bicycle on a trainer with Zwift and outdoor cycling.

nighthawk584

I lost 95 lbs in the kitchen, but I use my spin bike for cardio every day and incorporate weight training for fitness. It definitely is my favorite form of cardio and easy on my joints.

sarabushby

I’m about to hop on my bike on a turbo trainer to build today’s calorie deficit. Just be cautious with your calorie burn estimates and if you’re not losing at the rate you think you should be then consider adjusting how many of the ‘exercise calories’ that you eat back, or reduce the number that you log for your training.

For me personally, I much prefer interval sessions than just steady peddling for an hour, there’s tonnes of good sessions and resources online and you can build the endurance and intensity as you’d fitness improves. Don’t feel that you have to do a long session for the fitness gains though, HIIT training is highly effective at improving fitness so hop on the bike even if you only have 20mins to spare, just make sure you warm up, cool down and that the work intervals are at FULL maximum intensity.

Enjoy!

sijomial

I guess you could say I lose weight every Spring with cycling (about a fifth or 1,000 "miles" of my annual milage is indoor cycling).

The variation in my exercise duration and burns means my weight rises in Winter as volume drops (Christmas & New Year are also factors!) and I lose my fluff in the Spring as my volume comes up again. As regards weight loss I find it far easier to create and maintain a deficit with a high calorie allowance boosted by exercise compared to a low calorie allowance with little exercise.

Agree it's very easy on my joints - my badly damaged knees tolerate cycling very well.

"Burn a lot of calories" is very subjective.
To burn what I consider to be a lot requires high fitness and a high volume/duration too. I find indoor cycling pretty dull which makes long durations a chore.

Careful how you estimate your calories - heartrate is unreliable (especially if you are unfit, and/or get hot, and/or do interval training), estimates based on weight (METS) are useless for a non weight beating exercise, using indicated "speed" is hopeless as you aren't actually moving indoors. A power meter is the gold standard and very accurate.

mjbnj0001

I have. Both lost weight and helped maintain weight loss in offseason from regular riding and other outdoor activities (swimming and light hiking/walking). I'm a winter indoor cyclist at the gym before switching back to outdoor riding when the snow/ice are gone.

As many folks here have stated, weight loss comes from caloric deficit ... so you need to both boost your activity and metabolism and eat less. However, I have found in my own experience and those that I've talked with, this is not a quick process. Don't expect the pounds to melt away in a couple of sessions or weeks. There's a saying, "you can't outride your fork." I do mostly home cooking, "clean" stuff, following a lowered glycemic index-glycemic load and lowered sodium plan, but otherwise pretty usual stuff with a much higher proportion of veggies.

I've been doing this now on a program started 2+ yrs ago. First year, I dropped more than 60 lbs over the year, second, only 20ish net (varies, and I had a med issue that halted activity in the Autumn). I've been moving in a several-lb swing for some months now as I get back in the saddle after my pause. Also, I've been measured at gaining muscle mass since I began, so there isn't a one-one correspondence on weight loss and fat loss.

I start modestly in the gym each season, following a cardiac "training zone" approach, gradually increasing level of effort, time (30, 45, 60 minutes, plus), RPM and layering in increased numbers of faster RPM intervals for additional benefit - over the several-month winter "gym season." I count my "indoor miles" in a different bucket than my outdoor "real" miles. I am 65yo, male, with some assorted med issues which both moderate and drive my program. I am unable to do a spin class, so this is your basic gym cycling. 2-3x/wk. Since it's been a warm winter, I've also actually gotten outside a few times.

Outdoors, I ride for fun or transportation, or focus on training with longer distance, more time, more speed, more hills (I live on the flat NJ USA coastal plain), and don't futz with physiological metrics except where I bump up against things the docs don't want me doing (HR limits).

All the machines have crappy and inconsistent measures on "miles," "calories," HR and so forth; I'm looking for better tools for measurements to tune the training - but the bathroom scale has generally been a good overall summary of progress along with a basic improved well-being. Sorry for lengthy answer. A little garrulous today.

cwolfman13

WannaBeMorningJogger wrote: »

Im curious to know if there are people here that lost weight with mainly a stationary bicycle as their exercise? I feel it's easier on joints and it helps burn a lot of calories, that's why I chose this exercise as my main activity. Im curious to know if it works.

It works if you are in a calorie deficit...anything works if you are in a calorie deficit. Exercise does not default to weight loss though...if it did, people who exercise regularly for health and fitness would ultimately wither away and die.

I'm an avid road cycling enthusiast and mountain bike enthusiast and spin class guy...I've lost weight, maintained weight, and gained weight doing all of the above. The difference is how much I'm eating calorie wise.