Starting Out With Cycling For Weight Loss

If you’re just starting out on the journey towards fitness and weight loss, you might want to base your rides or ‘sessions’ purely around time spent on the bike. Ride at your own pace and enjoy the feeling of getting active – every little will help and you don’t need to worry too much about intensity.

As you get fitter, you might want to add some variety. Easy rides, where you can talk and hold a conversation, are often called ‘fat burning rides’. These are good for improving your ability to just keep turning the pedals, and burning through fat.

At the other end of the scale is ‘High Intensity Interval Training’ or HITT. This involves pedalling really hard for short intervals with easy breaks in between. These rides burn through carbohydrate stores and you’ll need to up your carbohydrate intake on the day you complete one. Though they don’t specifically burn fat, some experts still believe these sessions are best for weight loss because the high intensity means you burn more calories during the day and you’ll also build more muscle through a session like this.

Experts will argue all day over which form of exercise is ‘best’ for losing weight. Our answer is simple: all things in moderation. Ideally, aim to fit in a couple of interval sessions in the week and a longer ride when you have time on the weekend. This will train your body in both fat burning and high intensity, strength building directions. And it’ll keep you motivated thanks to the varying styles of training.

Source:totalwomenscycling.com/fitness/lose-weight-cycling-everything-need-know