mrdoright0405

I ride for health issues and recreation. I mainly ride stationary bike. Due to lack of time I am forced to ride the stationary bike. I decided to mix things up a bit. I will ride 30 mins on the staionary bike then hop on the MTB for about 15 mins. 45 mins total. Vice Versa. This is killer on my legs and really gets my heart rate pumping. Anybody do anything simuliar?

PatWasha

When I decided to lose weight, I worked out on a stationary bike for an hour before bedtime. I lost a little weight, but not much, so I got a roadbike, to ride 30min into work and 30min home. I then started watching what I was eating, weighing my meat at dinner and watching the fat intake and began to lose some weight. Eventually, I began to lengthen my rides, out to 1hr into work and 1hr home, with a 30min walk at lunchtime.

Now, 6 years later I ride 1 1/2 hrs into work, 2 to 3 hrs home and walk during my lunch hour. I also continue to watch my fat and protein intake and have lost 100 pounds. My goal is to lose another 40 to get down to 180.

JavaMan

Hm...30 minutes...1 hour...1 1/2 hours...Moving farther from work seems to be a good strategy!

Arghlita

I know that when I was in college (car free but not by choice) I initially lost weight from hauling myself around, then started eating more. When I started walking and running for pleasure, I lost more weight. Now the area I live in doesn't have many places to walk and I'm too heavy to run, so I've started considering biking. Don't have advice, just also interested in stories/advice.

Don Gwinn

Arghlita, I highly recommend it. I'm still too heavy to run long distances, especially on pavement (I can run on trails in the woods when they're available, and I was 330 when the school year ended and I lost access to the woods behind the school where I work.)


So if you want to run badly enough, try soft ground. It really makes a huge difference. Otherwise, for fat loss, walking is actually about as good in the long run (but NOT for CV fitness.) I learned to love elliptical machines this winter, as they can be very challenging without stressing the knees at all.
But the bike out on the road is the king, and it's about 10000% more fun than spinning an elliptical machine for half an hour.

jrennie

running or walking(as long as you get your heart rate up) at an incline is way more effective for burning calories than cycling. If you love cycling then use running for a cardio work out and cycling as a cross training and recreation(2 birds 1 stone)
for a 190lb guy:
running up hills burns 1294 cal/hr
cycling moderate effort 690 cal/hr

joejack951

Or just cycle harder. The big benefit to cycling, even if you can't achieve as high of a heart rate as you could running, is that you can do it for 3-4 times as long as you can run and be in less pain the next day (for me at least). Cycling is a great cardio workout too. I don't run much but I have no problems running 6 miles @ <10min/mile which I could never do before I started riding.

Don Gwinn

Jrennie, you're right about the heart, but you need your knees, ankles and hips almost as much. Running up soft, grassy hills is great. Running stairs or bleachers is not horrible but it will still mess you up if you're not careful. Running on pavement is for lightweights unless you specifically need to be better at running, IMHO.

At my new, wasting-away-to-nothing slender weight, I weigh 316 pounds. Three hundred and sixteen. And you know, I can still run pretty well on those trails (at least pretty well for a 316 lb. fat guy.) But on the bike, I can expose my CV system to much greater duration even if the intensity is lower.

If you really want to do great cardio that will make you puff like a steam engine in very short order and without a lot of time or travel to do it, carry heavy weights around your backyard for time or distance. Heavy bags, bags of cement, sand bags, barrels. . . . great workout that builds functional strength, too.

will dehne

I do similar to what you do. Stationary bike set at 650 calories/HR at 20 MPH 90 to 100 RPM cadence for one hour.
On weekends I do 50 miles in three hours pure riding time. (plus food stop)
Last weekend I did 100 miles in six hours pure riding time. (plus two food stops)
I feel great and can eat "good food" and drink good wine.

grgs

I really believe that cycling on the whole is a much better weight loss exercise than running. It is a fact that running will burn more calories per minute than cycling, or almost any other exercise for that matter, but so what? Someone trying to get in shape might run 40 minutes one day, then what the next day? Most likely the person would need to take that day off. While on the other hand, the same person could probably ride two hours in a day and be ready to do the same the next day.

Of course the immediate counter-argument is "It's tough to find two hours in a day to bike" Which actually leads to one more advantage of cycling, transportation. It is much more convenient to bike for transportation than to run. Bike to the grocery store, to work, etc. and eventually you might find you bike two hours a day without setting aside any specific time for it!!!!

Of course, the truly best weight-loss exercise is whatever you'll be willing to continue to do. I personally love running and biking (and like swimming) so I have no problem convincing myself to do those things. In the past when I've tried things I didn't like (ellipticals, weights, diets) to lose weight I found myself a major failure!!!