How to Lose Weight with an Exercise Bike Program
Posted: Thursday, May 12, 2005
by Michael Walker
Your pants are a bit tight, you can’t seem to stop eating junk, and you’re tired all of the time. It’s time to get healthy and lose weight. Combined with a more sensible diet, an exercise bike can help you achieve the results you want.
Ugh, the Diet.
So many people go wrong here. Forget fad diets, forget starvation. Slow and steady wins the race. Try changing one thing about your diet. Limit yourself to one soda a day. Stop skipping meals. If you always clean your plate, start leaving one or two bites. A total change in diet is work. If you go for a radical change, you are setting yourself up for failure. You’ll be surprised how well small changes work.
The Right Bike Determines Your Success
This is a critically important part. There are literally hundreds of exercise bikes available. You have to be honest with yourself to discover the one that will work best for you. If you talk yourself into some fantasy world where your exercise plan is going to work this time even though there’s nothing different, you’re going to be disappointed. If you think ahead, you will buy the right bike for your needs. You will end up with a successful long-term exercise routine.
Think back to your last exercise routine attempt. Why did you stop? Did you suffer an injury? Did you get bored? Was it just too hard to do every day? Was it hard to find the time? Answer these questions truthfully. If you don’t figure out where you went wrong, you won’t be able to come up with a solution.
Avoiding and Working Through Injuries
If an injury caused you to stop working out, how did you sustain your injury? Becoming physically fit is supposed to help you prevent injuries, not cause them. There is an exercise bike for someone who has been injured working out. It’s called a recumbent exercise bike. It’s the kind found in a lot of health clubs. It has a large, bucket seat, and you sit back and low to the ground. It is perfect for people beginning a new exercise routine. It’s also very good for back problems as it forces you to keep good posture. It puts no pressure on your joints, and you can keep working out even if you have minor injuries.
Overcoming Boredom
Did you get bored the last time you tried to workout on a regular basis? If you did, you are likely to get bored again. With exercise bikes, the solution is usually a bike with several different levels and riding programs. You can get bikes with different difficulty levels. This means that when it becomes too easy for you to pedal, you simply move up to the next level instead of having to ride longer (which just isn’t likely to happen for the person who is easily bored). You can also get different programs. Programs give you variety and goals. They make you pedal harder, simulate conquering hills, and even sprinting for short periods.
Riding programs might not be enough for you. You might need a bike that you can hook up to your television that simulates riding through different courses. You can take a leisurely ride through a park or compete with other computer riders on a difficult obstacle course. These bikes might cost more up front, but if you don’t invest in a bike that will let you sustain your workout, you’re wasting money on anything less.
The coolest thing for game addicts who get bored is an interactive bike that plugs into a Sony Playstation or Playstation 2. It makes over 50 games interactive. Whatever is happening on your bike happens on the screen in bike, car, and similar games. There are all types of similar bikes available.
If you plan on listening to music or watching TV while you cycle, be sure to pay attention to features that will make the exercise bike quieter. It’s also a good idea to get a quieter bike if you live with other people. For all you know, your workout time is going to be
Don’t Try to Be Lance Armstrong Yet…
People beginning exercise programs are sometimes too ambitious. It’s good to be excited, but you have to remain realistic. If your last exercise program failed because it was just too much work, don’t make the same mistake again. Fight the urge to overdo your first workouts. It is critical to your long-term success that you start out slow. If you go from no exercise at all to 5 to 10 minute exercise bike workouts with little resistance, you are much more likely to avoid injury, soreness, and most of all, early feelings of defeat. If you aim too high – expecting to go from a sedentary lifestyle to 45 minute workouts immediately, for example – you are setting yourself up for failure. When you don’t reach your unattainable goal, it is more likely you’ll quit altogether to alleviate the feeling of failure that much sooner.
The perfect bikes for people who get a bit over-excited are exercise bikes with built in riding programs. You simply start out at the lowest level, and the bike determines your workout. You program in a small goal (10 minutes, 50 calories, or .25 mile) and when you reach that goal, your workout is over.
Finding the Time
You do have time to burn fat and calories on an exercise bike. No matter how intense your schedule is, there are people busier than you who find time to make an exercise routine work. They are not better than you. They don’t have more than 24 hours in a day. They simply figured out how to make it work. You can, too.
It can be as simple as the time of day you chose to workout in the past. There is scientific evidence that people who are “morning people" or “night owls" are physically different. Different people have energy at different times. Think about when you work best. If you wake up without an alarm clock ready to go, you should exercise first thing in the morning. If you are a night owl, you should consider working out at night. You might find that you are one of the people who tire yourself out enough with a night workout to sleep like a baby.
You Can Do This!
Losing weight is not a punishment. You are smart enough to know how to eat a little better and become more active. If you are honest with yourself, you will choose the proper bike. You want to look forward to the workout itself. Don’t get caught up in which bike burns more calories. Find an exercise bike you will enjoy riding. Figure out the time of day that’s best for you to exercise. Make it like getting dressed or bathing – it’s just something you do every day. You don’t have to train for the Tour de France. You just have to get on and do something every day. Ten minutes a day will yield results. Bookmark this article for future motivation, find your exercise bike, and get busy!
Michael Walker is a freelance author providing useful information about stationary exercise bikes, spin bikes and mini exercise bikes. His numerous articles offer comprehensive tips and solutions for the fitness enthusiast.
Thank you so much,I broke my ankle and knee in June and I really wanted to start working out with a bike so your advice really helped me.
I was just looking and found this very positive as im now on my 10th day of my workout on my excercise bike which calculates 30mins at different levels i do this while watching a 30minute soap in the evening .
But does 10 minutes a day give a good enough aerobic workout? I've started to ride 15 minutes with a 30 sec. wind sprint at a higher level every 5 mins. Isn't this better? I'm 76, want to lose weight particularly round the belly and am eating as wisely as I can. How much part does the exercise play in all this? Thanks.The whole point of his commnets are to GET USED TO DOING IT without killing yourself so you won't feel like quiting. Once you feel your ready to take it to next level then you can think about your next goal. 10 minutes to 15 minutes to 20,30 an hour. But don't think about any of it until your consistent with 10 minutes then move up when you feel your ready for 15.
Very nice article. loved it
hi this was very helpful to me,i have started eating very sensible and doing halfhour everyday on bike i must admit i could only manage ten mins when i first started,lol,but getting better every day,please could you tell me though will i start to lose weight?and i do not really want muscley legs?.many thanks and again great advice!
A really useful article, especially as I have just started using my bike regularly again. I also would love to know if a 30 minute workout with resistance will make my legs even bigger, having quite heavy, untoned legs already?.
how many minutes are needed to loose weight?
This wasnt useful at all. I have been on my bike nearly every day for 2 weeks i have been eating healthy & had a few treats but nothing too major. Anyway i went to get weighed at my fat club & the first week i stayed the same but the secnd week i gained 1lb. Im not hapoy with it as it has made me not want to exercise aspeople r saying im buiding mt fat into muscle & that weighs more. I want to loose about 23lbs before christmas &i thought it would b possible if i exercised on my bike everyday but 2 weeks down the line i have no sucess. Please HELP ME!!!!An exercise bike is not a quick fix for problems of overweight or obesity. It helps to persist. I have friends who have taken between 3 and 6 months before noticing a significant weight loss. In any case, it is not the weight [which could even go up because muscles weigh more than fat], but the body fat percentage that matters. My advice is to persist with the routine of healthy eating and increasing your workout. If you can eventually manage 90 minutes four times a week combined with a healthy high fibre diet, you will notice a rapid drop in your weight.
if u want to loose wait u need to cut ur calories in half fromm two thousand to a 1000 a day and do at least 20 mins on the bike 4 times a week but u have to sweat to burn calories, ive been doing this and lost half a stone in 4 weeks, which is not bad ive been doing 8 to ten miles on the bike lasting tops 30 mins hope this helps
Great informative article!
More comments