Summer is coming! Are you carrying a few pounds you would like to get rid of before the beach or that vacation? Indoor cycling is a great way of burning calories and helping you cut that unwanted weight.
There is a lot of advice out there, some very good, but also some real myths! There are also a huge number of diet supplements and pills, promising to reduce your weight without exercising or changing your diet.
Let’s just look at the basics of why we put on weight in the first place. Pretty simple really – we eat more than we need and the body stores the extra calories as fat. So logically the solution should be equally simple! Exercise more and/or eat less, right?
Yes, but most people don’t know how many calories they eat or burn each day. And only realize the ratio is out of balance when they start to put on the pounds! How many calories are there in a cheese burger? How many calories will an hour of indoor cycling burn? You can track exact numbers if you want to and there are some great software programs, My Plate etc, which will tell you calories for each food item and type of exercise.
Or you can take a less analytical approach, just by making some healthy lifestyle changes. Let’s look at exercise first.
1) Indoor Cycling is Great Cardio!
Remember the “fat burning zone”? Work out at lower heart rates or intensity and your body will burn more fat, not carbohydrates – it doesn’t work! Ride a stationary bike in this zone and you may only burn a few hundred calories in an hour. Push yourself and indoor cycling can burn anything up to 1,000 calories in the same time! Very important if you only have limited time to exercise! Incidentally you will burn more calories on our stationary bike, due to the movement and upper body workout.
2) Build Muscle
Incorporate some exercise which will build muscle and your body will burn more calories. You don’t need to worry about bulking up, but do enough so that you start to see good muscle tone. Just using heavier resistance during indoor cycling classes will help to build up your leg muscles. Again the RealRyder bike will also work your upper body and core muscles.
3) Train Regularly
Also look at little lifestyle changes which all add up. Take the stairs, walk the dog more, take your bike, not the car – those type of things.
Next look at your Diet
What are you eating? If it made you fat you need to change something!
1) Cut down or cut out the “junk calories” heavily processed foods that have limited nutritional value, but are high in fat, sugar and processed carbs.
2) Eat more fresh vegetables and fruit
3) Eat more chicken and fish
4) Eat good carbs and fats (brown rice not white, olive oil not butter)
5) Try and spread your food out more. Instead of 3 meals a day, try 5 (smaller meals!)
6) Don’t eat late at night!
7) Drink more water (not soda of fruit juice!)
You don’t need to starve yourself or become a slave to the weighing scales just make good healthy choices and hit those indoor cycling classes as often as you can and watch your weight come down!
Two last points, we talk about how the RealRyder burns more calories due to the full body workout, look out for more on this shortly! Also if you want proof that using indoor cycling for weight loss works read the full story of Elise who lost over 50 lbs riding our stationary bike at B-East!
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