Bike Riding for Losing Weight

One popular form of exercise is that of bike riding for losing weight. While many people see biking as a fun weekend activity or a way to get to work or school, riding a bike also has a long list of health benefits, both physical and mental.

Biking at a leisurely pace on level ground can clear your mind even if the physical health benefits are not as impressive. Biking at any rate and with any amount of force is a repetitive physical activity, which will have positive psychological benefits whether you are a child or are a senior citizen. Biking is fun and relaxing at a both a slow and fast pace. Of course, you have to be in reasonably good physical condition for a heavy bike ride to be fun, but most amateur bikers are pleasantly surprised by how quickly they work their way up to a rigorous biking workout.

In addition to the mental benefits, riding a bike has extensive physical benefits. Whether you bike three times a week or every single day, biking will help you lose weight. Biking longer distances on level ground at a moderate speed still burns lots of calories. As with all exercise, the faster you go and the more force you use, the more calories you will burn. Bike riding for losing weight is also, like all other forms of exercise, a matter of calculating calories burned over time.

While most people think of their childhood bikes as fun toys, bikes are also a valuable piece of cardio equipment. If you have a bike, you can just pull it out, pump up the tires and you're ready for a workout. If you don't have a bike, take the time to think about what kind of bike purchase will give you maximum benefits, both seasonally and in enjoyment. If you live in a snowy climate, but you hate working out indoors, a road bike may still be the best option for you, with skis, skates and snowshoes being your exercise equipment in the winter months.

If anything in your situation indicates that exercising indoors may be a good option for you, you might think about choosing a spinning bike and putting it in your living room or home office. Spinning workouts can be as leisurely or as intensive as you make them. Leisurely watch television and burn 100 calories while you're at it, or purchase a spinning workout DVD and burn four to five times the calories. If you are looking to lose weight through spinning, the latter option will bring you to your goal much faster.

Another hot trend in indoor (stationary) biking is that of virtual tour biking. Spinning workouts generally motivate exercisers with loud music, the beat of which determines how fast or slow you bike during any given song. However, some exercisers prefer visual motivation instead of, or in addition to, audio motivation. If you are one of these, check out some virtual bike tour DVDs. You might just find the virtual scenery so interesting that you do a new workout every day and are shedding a pound or more a week.

While all speeds and resistance levels (whether uphill or with a resistance knob on a stationary bike) of biking burn calories, the harder you work out, the more calories you will burn. If your fitness goal is only to lose weight and you are in no way interested in building muscles, then you should always pay attention to the speed at which you are biking. On flat ground, bike as fast as possible. On a stationary bike, build speed with caution and with a decent amount of resistance. For many people, the best way to burn a significant amount of calories is to find a good balance between speed and resistance.

Biking too fast can make you tired or bored quickly, but biking slowly with a lot of resistance can fatigue your muscles and make you feel that the workout is impossible, which will also result in you quitting early. In order to complete a full workout and burn a lot of calories while you're at it, put the resistance at a level that you can comfortably perform for an hour, but that also challenges you a bit. This speed/strength balance will help you burn a maximum of calories, while also ensuring that you stay on the bike for an hour. Another tip: alternating sitting and standing will help alleviate pain from the bike saddle, which also helps lengthen your workout.

Most spinning and stationary bikes have a screen that tells you (approximately) how many calories you have burned, how far you have ridden and how much energy you are creating. Set a goal for yourself in distance, or in calories burned if you have a set goal of calories to burn. If you want to lose weight, remember that 3500 calories is one pound; this may sound like a lot of calories to burn to lose one pound, but if you work out regularly on the bike, it will happen quickly. Burning 500 calories a day on the bike will have you losing one pound per week—that's more than 50 pounds in a year!

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