Originally Posted by
SingingSabre
I'm sorry but you're way off here. This is akin to the idea that "walking is not exercise."
Moving is moving. And 45 minutes of puttering around at 6mph is a start to puttering around at 8mph.
OP: Ride. Ride what you can then an extra 5 minutes. I recommend starting slow and building up. My general rule of thumb for my patients (I'm a PTA) is that if they want to start exercising, they need to have their heart rate increased for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes it takes a while to get to the point where you can do that, and that's fine. Just get moving. There's no perfect correct answer for how far/long to go, but at least 20 minutes of sweating and/or breathing heavily is a great start. After that, go as long as you can, then a little more.
I completely agree. All that is necessary is to do more than you normally do and take in the same or slightly fewer calories. If you normally ride an hour at speed than puttering around for 45 minutes won't help much. If, however, you normally sit in front of the TV or computer for those 45 minutes, then even puttering can be very effective.
Actually, my understanding is that lower intensity may be much better for weight loss because you won't tap glycogen stores in the muscle and suffer the hunger pains from that process as much. Instead, you will tap more into fat stores.