Introduction
The quest for effective weight loss solutions has led many to explore various forms of exercise. Among these, cycling stands out as a particularly appealing option. Cycling is a great fitness tool, and cycling for weight loss doesn’t have to be complicated. Combining cycling, structured training, and a healthy diet can pave the way for increased performance by dropping the pounds and increasing your fitness. It's not just about shedding pounds; it's about improving overall health and fitness. This article delves into the benefits of cycling for weight loss, providing a structured approach to incorporating it into your lifestyle.
Benefits of Cycling for Weight Loss
There are numerous benefits of cycling for weight loss. Riding can increase your activity level, burn calories, improve heart health, and grow your fitness. Aside from those benefits, riding a bike is fun! Cycling offers a multitude of advantages for those seeking to lose weight and improve their overall well-being.
- Increased Activity Level: Cycling is an excellent way to boost your daily activity, helping you move more and sit less.
- Calorie Burning: Depending on intensity and duration, cycling can burn a significant number of calories, contributing to a calorie deficit necessary for weight loss.
- Improved Heart Health: As a cardiovascular exercise, cycling strengthens the heart and improves overall cardiovascular function.
- Enhanced Fitness: Regular cycling enhances both aerobic and anaerobic fitness, leading to improved endurance and performance in other physical activities.
The Importance of Diet
However, the key to losing weight isn’t just riding. An old adage says you can’t out-train a bad diet, and my experience lends proof to this idea. I had been cycling for years, and of course, would lose a bit of weight when I rode more. But I couldn’t lose the amount of weight that I wanted until there was a significant change in the food that I was eating. While cycling is a powerful tool for weight loss, it's essential to recognize that it is only one piece of the puzzle.
Calorie Deficit
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. Weight loss fundamentally relies on creating a calorie deficit, where you burn more calories than you consume.
Making Smart Food Choices
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. Choosing nutrient-dense foods is crucial for maximizing the impact of your calorie deficit. 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.
Read also: The Benefits of Bike Riding
Macronutrient Balance
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. Balancing macronutrients is essential for both performance and weight loss. Let’s take a look at an example of a cyclist that weighs 220 pounds (99.7 kg), with a daily caloric intake of 2,000 calories. First, they will determine how much protein they are going to need. What about fats? But what about when you workout and burn 1,000 Kjs on a ride? This is where finding out the percentages are helpful since that scale-up. Even though you are working out, you still want to keep a sensible calorie deficit. In the example above, the percentages generally work out to about 44% protein, 48% carbs, and 8% fats.
Cycling Performance and Weight
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). Weight loss can significantly enhance cycling performance, particularly when it comes to power-to-weight ratio.
Power-to-Weight Ratio
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. The power-to-weight ratio, measured as watts at Functional Threshold Power (FTP) divided by body weight in kilograms (w/kg), is a critical metric in cycling. Improving this ratio can be achieved by either increasing FTP or decreasing weight, or ideally, both.
Muscle Preservation
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. Preserving lean muscle mass is crucial during weight loss to maintain strength and metabolic rate.
Goal Setting and Consistency
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.” No doubt, I was concerned about a certain body image, but honestly, I just wanted be get healthy and be a faster cyclist. My goal was to be fast enough to hang on my local drop ride, and I used that goal as my decision matrix. Will this make me faster? Setting clear goals and maintaining consistency are vital for successful weight loss.
Read also: Is Cycling Better Than Running to Lose Weight?
Defining Your Why
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. Establishing clear motivations, whether for performance or body image, helps maintain focus and commitment.
Consistency is Key
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. My success in weight loss was the result of being consistent in my food choices and training over months. Consistency helps you avoid the crash diet cycle. You go crazy, lose weight, burn out, then put the weight back on. I’ve been there many times. The worst part is that not only do you gain more weight, but it can wreck your body composition. Consistency in both diet and training is paramount to avoid yo-yo dieting and maintain long-term progress.
Small Changes, Big Impact
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. Implementing small, manageable changes to your diet and exercise routine promotes consistency and sustainable habits.
Tracking Progress
Recording data not only provides the means for measuring your success but also helps you celebrate progress. For me, that meant weighing in every morning and observing the weekly trend in both weight and body composition. Analyzing a weekly trend helps because weight fluctuates daily. While I used the scale as a data point, I didn’t obsess over that number. Two easy ways to measure body composition are skinfold calipers or a body composition scale. I use a Tanita Body Fat Scale. Having one of these scales to step on every day was massively effective. Just make sure to measure under similar circumstances. For the best data, always measure under the same conditions. Monitoring your progress through data tracking helps measure success and identify areas for improvement.
Measuring Body Composition
Two easy ways to measure body composition are skinfold calipers or a body composition scale. I use a Tanita Body Fat Scale. Having one of these scales to step on every day was massively effective. Just make sure to measure under similar circumstances. For the best data, always measure under the same conditions. Tools like skinfold calipers or body composition scales can provide valuable insights into changes in body fat and muscle mass.
Read also: Bicycle Benefits for Weight Loss
Structured Training
When I started my weight loss journey, I was not a new cyclist, but I was new to interval training. TrainerRoad helped me take my fitness to an entirely new level and added almost 100w to my FTP. 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. Incorporating structured training plans can significantly enhance weight loss and improve fitness levels.
Interval Training
If you are new to interval training, you can use Plan Builder to create a custom training plan aligned with your goal event. It’s best to start with a low-volume plan and work your way up over time. This will give you the flexibility to add low-intensity fasted rides to drive fat-burning adaptations. Interval training, which involves alternating between high-intensity bursts and recovery periods, is a highly effective method for burning calories and improving cardiovascular fitness.
High-Intensity Workouts
The best training plans will include the intensity you need to meet the demands of your 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. High-intensity workouts increase post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), leading to continued calorie burning even after the workout is complete.
Fasted Rides
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. Cycling in a fasted state can promote fat burning but should be approached cautiously to avoid muscle catabolism.
Additional Rides
Adding a second ride with a fat-burning focus is another great tool for weight loss. You can do these either earlier or later within the same day. I used fasted and two-a-day rides continually during my weight loss. Typically I would wake up early, drink some black coffee, then complete an endurance workout, like Carter or Dans. Then I was off to work and would eat a lunch that fueled my evening, high-intensity workout. Incorporating additional rides with a focus on fat burning can further enhance weight loss efforts.
Indoor vs. Outdoor Cycling
When it comes to cycling for weight loss, you have the option of cycling indoors or outdoors, each offering unique benefits.
Indoor Cycling
Indoor Cycling, often done in group fitness classes, provides a higher level of resistance and intensity compared to a home trainer. Motivated by instructors and music, Indoor Cycling is an engaging way to burn calories and enhance endurance. Properly alternating exercise and relaxation is key to maximizing weight loss with Indoor Cycling. Indoor cycling, whether on a stationary bike or in a spin class, provides a controlled environment for structured workouts and can be highly motivating.
Outdoor Cycling
Recreational CyclingA popular and accessible way to cycle, enjoying the outdoors, fresh air, and scenery. Riding a bike outside provides a low-intensity workout but allows for longer durations, contributing to weight loss over time.Road CyclingCovering longer distances on a road bike, road cycling, requires stamina and training. It is an excellent option for burning calories and improving endurance. Gradually building up your training and allowing for proper rest is important for effective weight loss. Outdoor cycling allows you to enjoy the scenery and fresh air, making it a more enjoyable and sustainable form of exercise.
Comparing Calories Burned: Cycling vs. Walking
Both walking and cycling are effective ways of exercise that can help you burn calories and lose weight. But the question remains: Do you burn more calories walking or riding a bike? The number of calories you burn while walking or cycling depends on several factors, including your weight, the intensity of your workout, the duration of your workout and your overall fitness level. While both cycling and walking are effective forms of exercise for weight loss, cycling generally burns more calories due to its lower impact on the joints and potential for higher intensity.
In general, a person burns more calories cycling than walking, because cycling has a lower impact on the joints, allowing you to train longer and more intensely than walking. For example, a 70-kg person burns about 240-290 calories cycling for 30 minutes at an average speed of 20 mph. While the same person burns about 130-160 calories with 30 minutes of walking at a speed of 5 km/h. Of course, the difference in calorie burn between cycling and walking can depend on several factors, such as the terrain you are cycling or walking on and the intensity of your workout. Climbing a hill on a bike both outdoors and indoors on a stationary bike can increase calorie burn considerably. The same goes for walking on a soft surface such as sand or grass, or increasing the intensity by running. So when do you burn the most calories: walking or cycling?
Additional Tips for Maximizing Weight Loss with Cycling
- Vary Your Workouts: Adding variety to your exercise routine is essential for preventing boredom, breaking through plateaus, and maximizing your fitness gains.
- Stay Motivated: Keep track of your progress in apps like Strava, to keep motivated.
- Consider Cross-Training: Cross-training for runners, according to Alex Parren, personal trainer and running coach for Sundried, is any form of cardiovascular exercise that isn’t running. 'Cycling is one of the best options, alongside swimming,' she says. 'Cycling is low-impact, meaning the joints that usually take a pounding during running will be able to rest and recover while you continue to improve your aerobic base.'
Debunking Myths and Misconceptions
There’s a popular myth out there that there is a specific intensity of exercise called the “fat-burning zone” that’s ideal for those interested in burning fat. It’s based on the fact that at a lower intensity, your body burns primarily fat for energy. It gradually switches to burning carbs as the intensity increases. This is true. But the problem with this theory is that at low intensity, you may be burning a high proportion of fat, but you’re also burning very few calories. That’s simply because you’re just going slow. Cycling is really great at accommodating this low-intensity zone. It feels good to ride in that zone. It's important to address common misconceptions about weight loss and cycling to ensure a realistic and effective approach.
The "Fat-Burning Zone" Myth
That’s simply because you’re just going slow. Cycling is really great at accommodating this low-intensity zone. It feels good to ride in that zone. The idea that there is a specific intensity level that maximizes fat burning is a common myth. While low-intensity exercise burns a higher proportion of fat, it burns fewer overall calories compared to high-intensity exercise.
Safety Considerations
Biking, especially in the great outdoors, can come with certain risks. To stay safe while you’re biking, be sure to follow these safety tips:Wear a helmet. This might go without saying, but a helmet protects your head (and your brain) in the event of a collision or a fall. Make sure it fits your head snugly. Ideally, go for a brightly colored helmet that’s easy for others to see.Ride single file. If you enjoy biking with a friend, let one person lead. The follower should leave some space in between.Ride on the right side of the road. You want to pedal in the same direction that car traffic is flowing. In the United States, Canada, and other countries where cars drive on the right, be sure to cycle on the right-hand side of the road. Use hand signals. Let drivers and other riders on the road know that you’re planning to turn or take other actions.Forego the electronics. Don’t wear headphones or anything that might impair your ability to hear other vehicles around you.Keep an eye out for road hazards. Uneven terrain, potholes, standing water, and other potential hazards could be dangerous, so be on the lookout for them.Take care of your bike. Make sure to keep your bike in tip-top condition by performing regular maintenance and spot checks to make sure the chains, wheels, brakes, and other parts are in good working order. Safety should always be a top priority when cycling, whether indoors or outdoors.