Cycling is more than just a fun activity; it’s a versatile workout that can significantly contribute to a well-rounded weight loss plan. Unlike restrictive diets or fleeting workout trends, cycling helps burn fat while preserving and even building lean muscle, which is essential for long-term weight management. Whether you opt for indoor stationary biking or outdoor rides, cycling offers a unique blend of calorie-burning intensity and sustainability. When combined with a balanced diet and consistent effort, cycling can do more than help you shed pounds; it can also boost your metabolism, improve your fitness, and enhance your overall sense of well-being.
Does Cycling Help You Lose Weight?
Cycling is an effective and accessible form of exercise that aids weight loss through calorie burning, metabolism enhancement, and overall fitness improvement. Here are the key benefits of cycling that can aid in weight loss:
Low-Impact Cardio for All Fitness Levels
Cycling serves as a low-impact exercise that is gentle on the joints, making it suitable for individuals at various fitness levels. In contrast to high-impact activities such as running, cycling minimizes stress on the knees, hips, and ankles, making it particularly beneficial for those recovering from injuries or experiencing joint discomfort. This adaptability allows you to maintain a consistent workout routine, an essential element for achieving long-term weight loss.
High-Calorie Burn for Efficient Weight Loss
Cycling can lead to significant calorie expenditure, which varies based on the intensity and duration of the ride. For example, a moderate cycling training session may burn approximately 300-500 calories per hour, while more intense activities, such as hill climbs or interval training, can burn well over 600 calories per hour. By incorporating regular cycling and a scientifically backed nutrition approach into your fitness regime, you can establish a calorie deficit, which is the key principle for weight loss.
Boosts Metabolism and Fat-Burning
Engaging in cycling increases heart rate and promotes muscle building, which raises the resting metabolic rate. As a result, you continue to burn calories even while at rest. Regular cycling helps enhance the body’s efficiency in fat oxidation, particularly during longer, steady-state rides.
Read also: Is 1 hour of cycling enough to lose weight?
Versatile and Adaptable to Your Goals
Cycling offers versatility, allowing you to choose between outdoor rides and indoor stationary training, making it easy to fit into various lifestyles. Cycling workouts can be tailored to target specific goals, whether that involves endurance training, speed improvement, or interval workouts, all of which contribute to maximizing calorie burn and improving cardiovascular health.
Biking vs. Walking: Which is Better for Weight Loss?
Generally, biking tends to burn more calories in a shorter amount of time compared to walking, particularly at moderate to high intensities. Ultimately, the most effective exercise for weight loss depends on individual preferences and the ability to maintain consistency.
Stationary Biking for Weight Loss
Stationary biking is an excellent workout option that remains consistent regardless of weather conditions. Cycling can be tailored to suit individual fitness levels and allows for progress tracking, endurance building, and calorie deficit creation, all essential elements for effective weight loss.
What is a Good Cycling Distance for Losing Weight?
To lose weight, aim for cycling sessions of at least 30 to 60 minutes, covering a distance of 5 to 15 miles, depending on your fitness level and cycling speed. Consistency is crucial; regular cycling, combined with a balanced diet, helps create the calorie deficit needed for weight loss.
The exact cycling distance required for weight loss can vary based on your goals, fitness level, and the intensity of your rides. Here's how cycling distance contributes to weight loss:
Read also: Maximize your cycling results for weight loss
Cycling Intensity and Duration Matter More Than Distance
While distance is important, the intensity and duration of your rides play a more significant role in calorie burning. Higher-intensity rides, such as interval training or hill climbing, will burn more calories in a shorter amount of time, making shorter distances more effective for weight loss. Conversely, longer, steady rides will also burn calories but require more time.
Gradually Increasing Distance is Key to Progress
If you're new to cycling or have limited time, begin with shorter distances, such as 5 to 8 miles, and gradually increase both the duration and intensity of your rides. As your fitness improves, aim to ride longer distances or tackle more challenging routes, like hills or varying terrain. This will continuously challenge your body and promote further calorie burn.
Combine Cycling with Other Forms of Exercise
While cycling is an excellent activity for weight loss, combining it with other forms of cross-training exercise, such as strength training, walking, or running, can optimize your results. Strength training, in particular, helps build muscle, which increases your resting metabolic rate and supports fat loss.
The Importance of Consistency
It's vital to stay consistent with your cycling routine. Riding a few times a week at a moderate intensity will yield better results than sporadic, long-distance rides. Set realistic, achievable goals and gradually build your cycling habit to avoid burnout.
Is 30 Minutes of Cycling Enough to Lose Weight?
Yes, cycling for 30 minutes can be effective for weight loss if done consistently and at a moderate to high intensity. It helps burn calories, boosts metabolism, and improves cardiovascular health. However, combining cycling with a healthy diet and additional exercise will enhance your results.
Read also: Benefits of Cycling for Weight Loss
Low-Intensity Cycling Workouts Burn Fat
Regular low-intensity cycling workouts are an excellent strategy for fat loss, providing numerous benefits that contribute to long-term weight management and improved overall fitness.
Burns Fat Efficiently Without Overexertion
Low-intensity cycling keeps you in a heart rate zone that primarily utilizes fat for fuel rather than carbohydrates. This steady pace allows your body to efficiently use fat stores for energy, making it an ideal workout if you're aiming to reduce body fat without pushing yourself to your limits.
Sustainable and Lower Risk of Injury
Low-intensity cycling is gentler on the joints compared to high-intensity exercises, making it an excellent option for people of all fitness levels. It's easy on the knees, hips, and ankles, reducing the risk of injury. This coupled with adequate recovery, enables you to maintain a consistent workout routine, which is essential for long-term fat loss.
Increases Metabolism Over Time
While low-intensity cycling may not burn as many calories per minute as more intense activities, it helps increase your overall metabolic rate over time. Consistent cycling improves cardiovascular health and boosts your metabolism, allowing you to continue burning calories even after your workout is complete.
Enhances Fat Oxidation
Low-intensity cycling improves your body's ability to oxidize fat, especially during longer sessions. As a result, your body becomes more efficient at using fat for fuel, increasing the overall effectiveness of your workouts and significantly contributing to fat loss over time.
Builds Endurance
Although low-intensity workouts may not feel as challenging as high-intensity training, they are highly effective for building endurance. By cycling at a relaxed pace for longer durations, you gradually increase your stamina, making it easier to tackle more challenging workouts like a “Century Ride,” further supporting fat burning.
Low-Stress, Enjoyable Workouts
One of the major benefits of low-intensity cycling is that it's enjoyable and can be easily sustained for longer periods. Whether you prefer a leisurely outdoor ride or a gentle indoor training session, the relaxed pace reduces the stress commonly associated with high-intensity workouts, helping you stay motivated and engaged.
Promotes Consistency
Low-intensity cycling is less demanding, making it easier to maintain a regular cycling routine. Consistency is crucial for fat loss, and by including easy, enjoyable sessions in your weekly schedule, you can stay on track without feeling burned out.
Can Leisure Bike Riding Help With Weight Loss?
Leisure bike riding is an effective and sustainable approach to weight loss that prioritizes enjoyment over rigorous workouts. By engaging in cycling at a relaxed pace, you can still burn calories and enhance your metabolism, contributing to a calorie deficit over time. In addition to its physical benefits, leisurely cycling offers significant mental and emotional advantages. It can help reduce stress and make exercise feel less burdensome. By consistently participating in enjoyable, low-intensity rides, you can definitely cultivate long-term habits that support your overall weight loss objectives.
Cycling Plan for Weight Loss
When coupled with the right nutrition and approach, cycling is an effective way to lose weight. It combines fat-burning benefits, low-impact exercise, and a customizable training approach. Cycling also offers flexibility and sustainability, making it ideal for long-term weight management.
Cycling for Weight Loss: A Personal Journey
Cycling performance and weight seemingly go hand in hand, and for good reasons. Pure watts and aerodynamics reign supreme as long as the road is flat. A key cycling metric is your power-to-weight ratio and is expressed as watts at FTP divided by body weight in kilograms (w/kg). To get faster uphill, there are two ways to attack your power-to-weight ratio. You can increase your FTP or decrease weight. Ideally, you want to do both. Fat does a cyclist no favors when your power-to-weight ratio is concerned, but muscle certainly plays a vital role.
At face value, weight loss is a simple formula-eat less and move more. Dig a bit deeper, and it’s much more complicated than that. Not only do hormones play a significant role, but so does the mental aspect. It’s important to re-establish a healthy relationship with food. Before embarking on a weight loss journey, you have to determine the reasons why. Is it for performance or body image? Too often, our body’s view revolves around a perception of should and the thought that “I don’t look like a certain type of athlete.” Having a central goal simplifies your decision-making when you are trying to lose weight. When you develop your goal, tie it to an event. By connecting your goal to an event, your goal is measurable and timely.
Often when shedding the pounds, the focus can become the number on the scale. Your body is unique. What is a healthy weight for someone else is not what is best for you. Healthy weight loss takes time and change. Consistency is your greatest ally. A steady approach will help you analyze what is working and what isn’t so that you can develop positive new habits.
Start Small and Stay Consistent
Once you are committed to a healthy lifestyle, start making changes. Start small. Little changes are easier to manage and will aid your consistency. As you progress, you can add more changes to your diet. Recording data not only provides the means for measuring your success but also helps you celebrate progress.
The Importance of Tracking Progress
Two easy ways to measure body composition are skinfold calipers or a body composition scale. Having one of these scales to step on every day can be massively effective. Just make sure to measure under similar circumstances. For the best data, always measure under the same conditions.
Nutrition is Key
Losing weight happens primarily in the kitchen. Creating a calorie deficit is what leads to weight loss. The right food choices, coupled with riding, deliver a one-two punch. The goal is to lose fat and spare as much muscle as possible. If there is too much of a caloric deficit, you will lose muscle. With so many different types of diets, it can be a bit confusing, but mostly they all create a calorie deficit. What worked for someone else might not work for you.
A big help in limiting calories is keeping a food journal. It can be cumbersome to record everything, but it assists in selecting the proper serving sizes, food choices, and finding all the hidden calories in a diet. Even if you don’t record everything forever, do it for two weeks. When you have limited calories, you want to get the most bang for your buck. You can cut a significant portion of calories by avoiding empty calories like alcohol, soft drinks, junk food, and processed sugars. You will be amazed by how much food you can eat when it is nutrient-dense and low-calorie.
When making your food choices, fruits and vegetables are great additions to your plate. Eat lots of vegetables as they are low in calories but high in nutrients. Include smaller amounts of healthy fats, like avocados, olive oil, and nuts. Finally, make sure you are getting enough protein. Turkey and chicken are great because they are low in saturated fats.
Optimizing Macronutrients for Cycling Performance and Weight Loss
When optimizing your diet for cycling performance and weight loss, it’s helpful to think of your macronutrients as a lever. On one end, you have fats, and on the other, you have carbs. At the fulcrum rests proteins. So the first step is determining how much protein you need. Then prioritize carbohydrates because it’s the body’s preferred fuel source when performance matters.
Structured Training for Calorie Deficit and Increased Fitness
Structured training is an efficient way to create a calorie deficit and raise your fitness. Raising your FTP will allow you to burn even more calories because you are producing more power. A higher FTP means that you will complete workouts with a higher average power. More power equals more calories. If you are new to interval training, you can use Plan Builder to create a custom training plan aligned with your goal event.
High-intensity workouts have an additional benefit. They increase your post-exercise oxygen consumption, which can last 24-36 hours post-workout. After VO2 Max, anaerobic, and, sprint workouts your body works to replenish fuel stores, metabolize lactate, and reduce body temperature.
Fasted Rides for Fat Burning
Riding in a fasted or glycogen-depleted state can be another way to train your body to burn fat. These rides are limited in that they need to be short or very slow. Fasted rides are good at burning fat but won’t elicit a large training stimulus. Just be careful not to overdo it. Extend or high-intensity fasted rides tend to catabolize muscle-something you want to avoid.
Preserving Lean Muscle Mass
When you are cycling for weight loss, you want to preserve as much lean muscle mass as possible. There are three key things that you can do to preserve lean muscle mass while you are combining cycling and weight loss. First, create a sensible calorie deficit. Additionally, you are going to want to eat plenty of protein. The general recommendation for protein for endurance training and weight loss is around 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. Eating lean proteins will help keep the calories lower while ensuring you are getting enough. Finally, add in some strength training to help your weight loss. You don’t have to spend hours in the gym to reap some benefits.
Cycling vs. Walking: A Detailed Comparison
Getting your heart rate up is integral for longevity-regular exercise has been shown to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a slew of other health conditions. It’s also key for maintaining a healthy weight. Two of the most popular forms of cardio are cycling and walking, thanks to their accessibility. But in comparing cycling vs. walking, which is better for weight loss?
Benefits of Cycling
You can reap so many benefits from incorporating cycling (either on a stationary bike or on a road bike) into your routine. Some general health and fitness benefits from incorporating cycling into your fitness routine include improved mental health, lowered levels of stress, lower risk of heart disease, and decreased rates of obesity.
First off, it’s an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise. Cycling helps to burn more calories, which will in turn help you to lose weight. Plus, you can get even more out of a cycling session by varying the intensity. You can increase the resistance to make you work harder, which builds muscle in your legs including your glutes, quads, and hamstrings. We know muscle is active tissue, which means it burns calories even at rest. With the right combination of nutrition, cycling regularly not only builds muscle, but it can also create a calorie deficit for lasting weight loss.
Another perk is that it’s low-impact. It strengthens your heart, lungs, and legs without putting too much pressure on your joints, which makes it ideal for people who have pain or are recovering from injuries to their knees, ankles, or hips. In fact, a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that people who biked regularly were less likely to have osteoarthritis or experience knee pain by age 65 than people who didn’t bike.
Potential Downsides of Cycling
If you’re cycling frequently, it’s important to balance it with some upper-body strength training. For people who bike outside, there is also the safety aspect to consider. The risk of injury and falls is increased. It is encouraged to use helmets and other safety gear.
Benefits of Walking
Walking is so simple and accessible, and it’s hugely underrated as a form of exercise. It offers a great place for you to start if you don’t have an established exercise routine or you’re a little scared to join a gym. While cycling has a higher ceiling in terms of possible calories burned per session, walking also boosts your metabolism. And like cycling, there are ways to increase the intensity. For instance, walking on an incline or up a hill (if possible) for that extra burn.
Another major perk to walking is that it is a weight-bearing exercise, which makes it helpful for supporting bone health. A study published in PLoS One found that regular brisk walking can significantly increase bone density, which can help reduce your risk of developing osteopenia or osteoporosis. Add a weighted vest to get even more bone-health benefits.
Some other general health and fitness benefits from walking include reduced falls, depression, and [type 2] diabetes. Walking has also been found to have decreased risk of death from heart disease and cancer. A recent review published in The Lancet Public Health found that, compared to those who walked 2,000 steps per day, people who walked at least 7,000 had a:
- 25% lower risk of death from any illness
- 25% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease
- 47% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease
- 37% lower risk of death from cancer
- 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes
- 38% lower risk of dementia
- 22% lower risk of depression
- 28% lower risk of falls
Potential Downsides of Walking
There are virtually no downsides to choosing walking as your primary form of cardio. That said, walking alone may not burn as many calories as higher intensity workouts such as cycling or running. It also doesn’t build muscle mass, so if it’s your only form of cardio exercise, you should really pair it with resistance training to protect and build muscle.
Cycling vs. Walking: Which is Better for Weight Loss?
As a calorie deficit is needed for weight loss, one could argue that cycling is the better choice, as you can burn more calories in the same period of time as you would walking. But this varies on output.
It depends on your preferences, your lifestyle, and what you can implement consistently. Cycling does burn more calories in less time and builds leg strength. However, walking is more accessible, is often easier to sustain, has the added bonus of supporting bone health, plus it’s free! Ultimately, you should choose the form of exercise that you see yourself sticking with as a regular part of your routine. There is not a downside for choosing one form of cardio over the other.
The Impact of Cycling on Body Composition and Health Markers
While weight loss is often the primary goal, cycling also has significant positive effects on body composition and various health markers. A study by Dominic J. Chartrand et al. (2024) investigated the cardiometabolic effects of a week-long cycling event covering 1,144 km. The participants, healthy, physically active Caucasian males, maintained a stable weight, but this masked significant changes in body composition. They lost 2.2 kg of body fat while gaining 2.5 kg of fat-free mass.
Reduction in Visceral Adiposity and Improved Lipid Profiles
Despite minimal weight loss, the cyclists showed a significant reduction in visceral adiposity (14.6%) and waist circumference. Visceral fat, which is stored around the abdominal organs, is particularly harmful and linked to increased risk of metabolic diseases. The study also observed notable improvements in lipid profiles, including a 21.5% reduction in total cholesterol and a 34.6% reduction in non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.