Can you lose your beer belly cycling? Great news! If you are carrying some extra timber around the midriff from a lifestyle that has continued too much beer and not enough exercise then fear not. You have a new best friend, your bike.
You can 100% lose your beer belly by cycling. Its not only possible but so much fun that its almost cheating. You have probably heard the phrase: “you cant out train a bad diet”. Whilst this may be true you can certainly remove excess fat including your ‘beer belly’ by cycling regularly.
Read on for further details on how to do this.
Does cycling burn fat from your stomach?
Yes but only as part of a holistic form of weight loss. You will lose weight over all as you increase your energy expenditure via cycling.
It’s not possible to remove fat from a single area. Fat loss occurs when you put your body in to an energy deficit by using more calories than you consume over a given period (24 hours for example).
Men require an estimated 2500 calories per day and women 2000 (average figures only and used for example).
Going by these figures if you consume more than 2500 calories per day you will gain weight and if you consume less than 2500 calories you will lose weight.
How long should I ride a bike to lose belly fat?
Cycling is amazing it how long do you need to ride? It has so many benefits other than just weight loss such as:
- Cardiovascular fitness
- Adding to muscle mass
- Improved joint function
- Decreased stress
- Lower all cause mortality (you actually live longer!!)
Cycling at an average pace burns approximately 500 calories per hour. If you did this every day you would burn 3500 per week which is about the same as it takes to lose 1lb of fat (without even dieting).
Although this is just a quick maths example and there are lots of variables, this would amount to 50 pounds of weight loss over a year.
1 hour a day may not be possible for everyone and its better to start small with any change in exercise regimen. You can easily create the habit of daily cycling then up the time/distance/intensity as you become more proficient. In this way you can lose your beer belly cycling.
Cycling or walking for belly fat loss?
Although I would put cycling at the top of the list for weight loss exercise, there should be an honorary mention for walking also.
It’s easy to fit more steps in each day and can be done anywhere. A good idea is to ride one day and walk the next if you are at the beginning of your fitness journey.
Does cycling reduce upper body fat?
Regular cycling will burn fat from the whole body. Body re composition occurs when we lose fat and gain muscle from exercise.
Cycling 1 hour a day weight loss.
It can be hard to fit a bike ride in every day but you can view it as an average across the week.
If you ride 7 hours in a week by riding every other day it amounts to the same caloric expenditure as 1 hour a day (2 rides of 2 hours and 1 ride of an hour across a week for example).
This will get you to the 3500 extra calories burned per week mentioned above.
Best way to lose belly fat
There is good news and bad news about losing your beer belly and weight loss in general. Good news: cycling is the best way to lose weight and get fit at the same time. Bad news: there are no short cuts to changing your body composition. You look like your long term diet and exercise habits expressed in physical form.
That said regular cycling with some minor nutritional tweaks will show visible results in a couple of weeks.
Cycling fat burning zone
In a very loose set of rules : Riding at a specific steady pace is considered the ‘fat burning zone’ and riding at a more intense pace burns through your muscle glycogen stores. Riding harder still uses your anaerobic capacity and is not sustainable for long periods.
There are several official scientific ways of measuring which ‘zone’ by using a power meter or heart rate monitor but for the sake of non-scientific simplicity there is an easy way. Talking pace or the riding speed you can sustain a conversation is generally considered to be endurance or fat burning zone.
You should spend the majority of your time at this speed (over 80% of your ride). The fact that you can ride further and longer at this pace also helps. On longer rides you will actually need to take on some calories to avoid what marathon runners call ‘hitting the wall’. Cyclists call it ‘the BONK’.
What does hitting the wall mean in cycling?
When you hit the wall you have basically depleted your available muscle reserves of glycogen. This is the fuel your body converts in to glucose to use for energy. Your body will then do its best to make you stop what you are doing until you take on some more fuel (simple sugars are best). It feels horrible and occurs after around 120 minutes of intense exercising. Thankfully it can be avoided by taking on some calories during extended training sessions.
Can you lose belly fat cycling indoors?
Once upon a time indoor cycling was a tiresome affair that was more like a mental torture than a physical exercise. To spend time every day working out on a bike indoors was boring compared to being in the great outdoors and this made it something you were unlikely to look forward to doing. Ultimately this would impact on the body re-composition gains to be made but modern technology has come to the rescue. Enter the smart bike/trainer!
Recently indoor trainers have emerged with screens and virtual training programs that mimic real road riding. There are also virtual training simulators (like swift) that you can use online to ride with friends or race against people online from the comfort of your spare room or garage.
How long should you ride a stationary bike to lose weight?
The same rules apply, so training every day is a great way to loose that beer belly and introduce all the mental and physical benefits of cycling to your life.
To sum up:
Can you lose your beer belly cycling? You can lose weight including your ‘beer belly’ by riding a bike. It really does work like magic if you commit to an enjoyable lifestyle of daily riding. The other benefits are myriad and it’s not exaggerating to call daily cycling ‘life changing’. Start right away and see changes within a couple of weeks.
“Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity” — Lord Charles Beresford, British MP
“Never use your face as a brake pad.” -Jake Watson
