Cycling for Weight Loss
If you desperately want to lose a few pounds and if you are struggling with ‘how to get started’, just dust off that bike in the garage and take it out for a spin, as riding a bike at a moderate speed of 12-14 mph, can burn nearly 235 calories, within half an hour! Isn’t it the simplest way to lose weight? You can easily burn around 400-500 calories on a one hour bicycling trip. The calories burnt will depend on your body weight, genetic factors and the intensity of your ride. Especially, uphill and high intensity cycling for weight loss helps you in many ways. Let us have a look at the benefits of bicycling.
Benefits of Bicycling
Burning of Calories: The overall motion of bicycling helps burn a lot of calories, since, you require certain amount of energy to move you and your bicycle against the resistance of air and gravity. If you weigh around 80 kgs, you can burn more than 500 calories in an hour of cycling, at a moderate pace. Cycling is the best way for natural weight loss. Half an hour recreational cycling at 5mph can burn 75-155 kcal, while a moderate 10 mph cycling can burn 190-415 kcal in 30 minutes. If you opt for vigorous 15 mph cycling for half an hour, 300-670 kcal can be burnt.
Muscle Development: The quadriceps and hamstring (large muscles) and the small calf muscles work well while cycling. Cycling makes these muscles stronger and well developed. The body looks leaner but stronger. This also helps in raising the resting metabolic rate, leading to burning of more calories even while resting. The abdominal and back muscles are also strengthened leading to a good balance and posture of your body. When the core region of the body is strong enough to support, all other activities like lifting groceries, gardening, carrying children are obviously found to be easier.
Freedom: Nowadays, many cities encourage ‘no car’ areas and ‘pedestrian only’ areas . Cycling offers greater freedom about where to go. With a bike, going down narrow lanes or on canal paths and cutting corners is quite possible, which you cannot do in a car. Driving a car can never offer you the freedom that cycling can. Smoothly descending a hill on a bike is thrilling, which is something you can never feel in a car.
Saving Time: In crowded city areas, cycling is the best way to save time. In congested cities, it is the best quicker method of transport. You don’t have to spend time driving around searching a parking lot, as you can park usually exactly where you want to end up.
Easy to Start: Cycling offers a wide range of intensities. Very low level of intensity can also help in burning calories. So, cycling for weight loss is the easiest way to start with. You can increase the level of intensity gradually, in a slow and controlled manner.
Inexpensive: If you wish to lose weight, cycling is a relatively inexpensive fat burning exercise. Bicycles cost less than the cars. Cycling can also save significantly on petrol cost. Cars are most inefficient at low speeds while cycling in crowded areas can be comparatively inexpensive besides being easier.
Safety: Nowadays, good bike tracks and well designed bike lanes are available on city and country roads. Taking into consideration the bicycle helmet reviews, we can safely conclude that bicycle helmets protect the cycle riders very well.
Cardiovascular Fitness: Cycling improves cardiovascular fitness, leading to more energy throughout the day. An increased sense of vigor and well-being is observed, when cycling is a routine activity. Cycling for weight loss can thus help you prevent heart diseases and high blood pressure.
Stress Release: Stress has become an inevitable part of modern lifestyles. Cycling helps you a lot to take your mind off many trifling problems, which leads to reduced level of stress.
No Global Warming: As cycling does not emit any carbon dioxide, there is no risk of pollution, which can help in reducing global warming.
Less Risk: Bikes are not lethal machines, like cars. Bikes can rarely be the cause of a fatal accident. Cycling can help reduce the death rate due to accidents on road.
Prevention of Diseases: Diseases like diabetes, hormonal imbalance can be prevented with the help of cycling.
Easy for Joints: As cycling is a non weight bearing exercise, it is very easy on the joints, tendons and muscles.
Indoors: There are various types of exercise bikes available, with which, cycling can be an indoor activity also.
Outdoors: There are different types of bicycles like road racing bikes or mountain bikes, are available for outdoor activities. Fresh air can help you feel energetic.
Social Activity: Cycling is a very good social activity, as it can be a group activity. It can be enjoyed with family and friends.
No Age Bar: Cycling for weight loss can be tried by people belonging to any age group. No special training is required to follow cycling for weight loss.
To start cycling for weight loss, you just need to have a bike, bike helmet, sunglasses, water bottle, spare tubes, bike pump and a little knowledge of bicycle brake repair.
After reading all the above mentioned benefits of cycling, you must have noticed how good is cycling for weight loss. But not just cycling, any exercise, when accompanied by healthy and balanced diet, can help achieve desired weight loss. Read more on weight loss diets. The important thing is, that make ‘cycling for weight loss’, a fun affair and not a routine.
