Choosing between a treadmill and a stationary bike for weight loss can be a tough decision. Both offer effective cardio workouts, but their pros and cons vary depending on your fitness goals and physical needs. Whether you're looking to add cardio equipment to your home gym or deciding which machine to use at the gym, understanding the differences between these two popular options is key.
Understanding the Basics
Exercise bikes and treadmills are two of the most popular exercise machines on the market, both at home and in the gym. The aerobic exercise that you get from both provides an effective cardio workout. This builds endurance, improves lung capacity, and burns calories.
Treadmill
A treadmill is a piece of equipment that allows you to walk or run indoors. It provides an effective cardio workout and offers what is considered high-impact exercise. It can help burn a substantial amount of calories in a short amount of time, depending on the intensity. Treadmills are designed for indoor running, while stationary bikes are designed for indoor cycling.
Treadmills can be motorized or nonmotorized. Nonmotorized versions typically feature a slightly curved running surface and require you to move the belt yourself to reach the desired speed. Research suggests that you get a harder cardio workout by running on a nonmotorized treadmill compared with keeping up with the same speed on a motorized one. Both motorized and nonmotorized treadmills allow you to train the gait patterns of walking and running.
Exercise Bike
Unlike treadmills, exercise bikes provide a lower-impact cardio workout. Exercise bikes feature a seat and pedals that mimic a cycling activity. You can find different types that target specific training goals. For example, spin bikes resemble standard road bikes. This makes it easier for you to transfer your skills from indoor training to actual road cycling. Meanwhile, reclining exercise bikes have a more comfortable, wider seat with the pedals positioned more forward. This places less weight on the pedals and more on the seat. On the plus side, this reduces the impact of the exercise, making it more joint-friendly. On the downside, it also makes it harder to reach high intensities and isn’t as transferable to outdoor cycling.
Read also: Comprehensive HIIT Guide
Calorie Burn: Treadmill vs. Exercise Bike
For many people, a top consideration for selecting a piece of fitness equipment is how many calories you can burn while using it. Both treadmills and exercise bikes are effective for calorie loss and muscle conditioning. However, because a traditional treadmill means standing up and bearing your own body weight, the actual calorie burn may be a little higher.
In general, running on a treadmill burns more calories per minute than riding an exercise bike. Studies suggest that running on a treadmill burns 8.18 to 10.78 calories per minute, while stationary cycling burns 7.98 to 10.48 calories per minute. The exact amount of calories you burn depends on various factors, including your age and fitness level.
For example, if you're running about 5 or 6 miles per hour on a treadmill, you can expect to burn about four to six calories per minute. If you're cycling on a stationary bike, depending on your resistance and speed, you can burn about three to six calories per minute.
Over an hour, those calories can really add up. However, you can burn more calories with an exercise bike at high intensity for only 15 minutes if you compare that to walking on a treadmill for an hour.
Experience Level and Ease of Use
If you’re new to working out, here’s some good news: The treadmill and the exercise bike are very beginner-friendly, both in terms of ease of machine use and the workout they provide.
Read also: Effective treadmill exercises for weight loss
Breaking that down to a daily, 30-minute brisk walk on the treadmill or light bike ride is a very practical way to start exercising. Typically for a walker or leisurely rider, the calories burned per hour will be roughly the same. However, a difference occurs when the walker becomes a runner. Running on a treadmill will beat a stationary bike any day on calories burned.
So, again, it comes down to whether or not weight loss and calories burned are part of your fitness goals. And as with any new workout, ease in slowly to avoid injury.
Mobility and Joint Impact
Two factors to consider as you're deciding between machines are your age, and any health problems you might have.
For instance, those with arthritis in their lower joints may do better on an exercise bike. It's also a good choice for seniors, who can remain seated while exerting energy.
If you have lower back issues, such as disc herniations, walking on a treadmill is recommended. If possible, try using the incline to help with lower back extensions, a kind of back exercise.
Read also: Weight Loss on a Treadmill
The traditional treadmill may also be a better option for people with no injuries or mobility issues and those wanting a more intense workout. Treadmill work is more dynamic since you are not just sitting, meaning more energy is required to be effective during movement.
Your feet stay firmly inside the pedals when you use an exercise bike, so biking is considered a low-impact exercise. This means that even during a high-intensity exercise, the smooth, circular motion trains your muscles without putting too much pressure on your joints.
Injury Risk: Exercise Bike vs. Treadmill
Even without preexisting mobility issues, the risk of injury should be a concern for all active adults - and the treadmill and exercise bike have different risk levels.
Running, whether outdoors or on a treadmill, is considered a high-impact exercise. The repetitive motion of your feet hitting the ground puts stress on your joints. While there are benefits to high-impact exercises - such as increased bone density - overexercising or improper form can risk injury to the knees and back.
Injury can come from any type of exercise, it is important to make sure that you have good form and stay at a pace that is comfortable for you on both the treadmill and stationary bike.
Fitness Goals and Target Areas
Another factor to consider when using home exercise equipment is what you're hoping to accomplish. A treadmill is great for a relatively healthy individual - someone with no significant joint pain or cardiovascular problems - who’s looking to really improve their cardiovascular fitness and endurance. The treadmill can also offer some upper-body workout benefits; your core must be engaged to keep you standing upright, and you can pump your arms as you walk or run or add resistance bands to create a full-body workout all at once.
The treadmill is good for belly fat loss, strengthening the heart, muscle toning, and bone strengthening.
A stationary bike, however, typically doesn't offer much in the way of upper body exercise, unless it’s a version with an upper-body component. The stationary bike provides more of a workout for the glutes, calves, and thighs. It's also good for muscle toning, weight loss, strengthening the heart, and increasing lung capacity.
Think about what you really want to do with this machine. If you're training for a marathon run, for example, a treadmill may be the more directly helpful purchase. Plus, if you live in a colder climate and are training for a running race, a treadmill can help you do that without the risk of injury or exposure to extreme cold outside.
If you're into triathlons, either machine is good. The exercise bike can help simulate the biking portion of the race, while the treadmill can keep your training on track for the running portion. Both build overall fitness to help you endure longer athletic efforts. If you just want to get fit without putting too much impact on your feet and knees, an exercise bike is probably the better choice.
If you’re looking to age well, then either machine can help because they’re highly adjustable in speed and incline and thus comfortable for a large majority of people. The benefits of utilizing a slightly greater array of muscles in a weight-bearing, upright position is a good preference. The act of walking on a treadmill directly mimics the daily activity of walking, and there is great research that shows the faster you walk as you age typically correlates with a longer lifespan.
Cost and Maintenance
The cost of an exercise bike varies widely. While you can find some bare-bones models around the $200 price point, more tech-savvy models cost a few thousand dollars. For some bikes, you have to pay a monthly subscription fee to unlock all features and classes the machine has to offer. Still, bikes tend to be a little less expensive than treadmills on average. Bikes can run in price around $200 to $800, while treadmills typically range from $200 to $2,500.
The treadmill is more likely to need some type of servicing as there can be issues with the motor, belt and incline. Keeping up that maintenance may require additional money as the machine ages.
Exercise Classes and Motivation
Both exercise bikes and treadmills are one-person machines, but that doesn’t mean you have to exercise solo. For the price of a bike and the monthly fee of its adjoining app, Peloton, for example, offers live-streamed and prerecorded spin classes, which provide the group exercise class experience at home. The company NordicTrack offers a similar model for the treadmill. Other companies have programming options for both treadmills and exercise bikes as well.
There are many benefits to a class environment, such as accountability and a positive, high-energy environment. However, if you’re not ready to take the plunge and purchase such a large piece of exercise equipment, you can always check to see if your local gym offers cycling or treadmill classes.
Space Considerations
You also have to consider where you're going to put the machine and how much room it's going to take up. Traditional treadmills can be heavy, so you have to make sure your home can withstand the weight of the machine and the wear and tear of pounding away on it.
Exercise bikes tend to have a smaller footprint than most treadmills, but not always. Although they often weigh less and take up less room, they still need a designated area in the home.
Additional Factors to Consider
- Enjoyment: If you enjoy working out using an exercise bike more, the chances are that your workout sessions will become longer and more frequent, resulting in more calories burned.
- High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Both machines can be used for HIIT workouts, which are effective for burning body fat and losing weight.
Before You Get Started
It is recommended working with a fitness professional, such as a trainer or coach, to develop reasonable fitness goals and a detailed training plan. This can help you figure out which machine offers the best bang for your buck and help you meet your goals most efficiently.
No matter which option you chose, starting out slowly on the machine and working your way up is recommended. One of the biggest problems that I see in my clinic are people who have either started exercising after a period of inactivity or who have transitioned to a new and much more intense exercise program. The muscles, tendons and bones have not been allowed to adapt properly to the amount of force that is being placed on them. This can lead to injury and can curtail your well-intended move to fitness before you even start seeing results.
Gradual progress is the key to a sustainable fitness routine. Once his patients have settled into a workout and gotten stronger, he sometimes encourages them to incorporate 2-pound hand weights while on the treadmill or exercise bike. Using the weights, thrust them as if you are punching an imaginary figure in front of you, then adjust and thrust your arms right above you. This adds a little extra upper body strength building and can boost your calorie burn rate.
Making sure that whatever equipment you buy works properly and “is sized appropriately.” Ill-fitting footwear or shoes that are too old and worn out can lead to problems in the feet as well as the knees and back. Or, if the seat on the bike is too high or too low, then you run the risk of putting excess stress on the joints or leading to back or neck pain.