Recent research has made it clear that weight loss is not an easy equation of calories in versus calories out. A recent study showed that some of us may be biologically predetermined to more easily gain weight, and then, find it more difficult to lose weight. Fortunately, carrying extra weight doesn’t automatically mean you aren’t healthy or fit. It is far better for your health to become more physically active than it is to lose weight through diet alone.
There’s even better news: If cycling is your jam, it’s a pretty great way to help you lose weight, if that’s your goal. Not only does cycling burn calories and build muscle, but also, the more you enjoy an activity, the more likely you are to stick with it. This is called “hedonic motivation,” which basically means if you like it, you’ll do it. And research shows that long-term weight loss requires a commitment to exercise, so it’s important to find that activity you just love doing.
Here, what you need to know about cycling for weight loss, including why it’s such a great activity. Plus, how to support your efforts with other healthy lifestyle strategies.
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Why Cycling for Weight Loss Is a Smart Strategy
According to the National Weight Control Registry, almost all of the people who are most successful at losing weight and keeping it off long-term combine modifying their food intake as well as increasing their physical activity. So no matter your genetics, if you combine consistently eating well with consistent exercise, it is likely your body will find a healthy weight set point.
In fact, 90% of registry members who have lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off for 5.5 years, exercise for about one hour a day. To that end, cycling is a time-efficient and time-effective way to burn fat. According to the Harvard Medical School, a 185-pound person walking at 3.5 mph will burn 159 calories while that same person will burn 336 calories cycling at a moderate intensity.
Besides being a calorie-burner, cycling has other benefits for those who are interested in weight loss.
It’s Easy on Your Joints So You Can Go Longer
Cycling is also gentle on your joints. In fact, it is often recommended as the exercise of choice for people with arthritis and other joint ailments. You need to be sure you have a proper bike fit, of course. Then, combined with a good warmup, you can push the pace without stressing your hips, knees, or ankles.
The low-impact aspect of cycling is one reason Jimmy Weber of Enid, Oklahoma, got on a bike. Now 150 pounds lighter than his max weight of 410 pounds, Weber initially shed weight through bariatric surgery and a lot of walking. However, his usual seven miles a day got boring which meant he was less inclined to go as far as he wanted to meet his exercise goals. Meanwhile, running was out of the question because of health concerns.
The bike, however, was another story entirely. He bought his first bike in 2011 and has clocked more than 20,000 miles in the years that followed, including numerous club and charity rides along the way.
It’s Still Fun to Cycle Indoors
Most outdoor activities are pretty dreadful when you bring them inside (we’re looking at you, treadmill), but indoor cycling apps like Zwift, TrainingPeaks, Wahoo Systm, as well as virtual studio cycling classes, such as Peloton, make stationary cycling fun and entertaining. You’ll be less likely to fall out of routine when the weather turns bad.
Cycling Fits Into Your Life
No time to exercise? Then use a bike to commute or run errands. This way, you won’t have to reserve a chunk of your day to “work out.” By riding your bike to the store, bike commuting to work, and riding instead of driving for other errands, you can slip in hours of activity every week doing the things you’d normally do anyway—and achieve a healthy weight while you’re at it.
How to Support Your Cycling for Weight Loss Efforts
Between indoor cycling, casual bike riding, and training, cycling offers everyone a creative and fun way to get some exercise.
“Bike riding is diverse when it comes to weight management,” Weber explains. “You can go hard and fast and burn a lot of carbs, or slow and steady to burn a lot of fat. Plus, I would not be as happy if I had to maintain my weight with diet alone.”
A few other habits added to your life (and your rides) will help support your cycling for weight loss efforts.
Find Friends
Research shows that social support—especially having a workout buddy or two—dramatically increases the likelihood that you’ll stick with your routine, and consistency is key to improving your fitness and shedding unwanted weight.
Cycling is such a social sport that, like herds of buffalo and flocks of geese, there’s even a special name for a group of us: a peloton. It doesn’t take more than a quick search to find local cycling clubs where you can meet riders of the same fitness and ability levels to join on rides.
Do HIIT Workouts
Your body burns fat through oxidation (part of breathing) and by metabolizing (or using) the triglycerides stored in fat cells. As your body metabolizes the triglycerides and burns the fat, you exhale the waste product (carbon dioxide) with every breath. Confused? Don’t worry. All you need to know is that when you’re breathing hard, you’re burning fat.
This is why rides that include short, intense efforts (a.k.a., high-intensity interval training or HIIT) are scientifically-proven fat burners. In a well-cited, head-to-head comparison from 2011, researchers from the University of Western Ontario found that riders performing four to six 30-second, full-throttle sprints three times a week burned more than twice as much body fat as riders who rode for 30 to 60 minutes at a moderate, aerobic intensity.
To boost your fat burn, add HIIT training to your rides twice a week.
Switch Up Your Rides
On a weight-loss plateau? Time to try a different type of ride. Your body adapts to what you ask it to do so if you always bike the same route, you won’t work as hard as you will with new routes. Change it up to make progress in turning to cycling for weight loss.
Look at your weekly rides and plan for each one to be a bit different from the rest. Go long one day; hit the hills another; include steady efforts during which you’re working for 15 to 20 minutes at “race pace” (or right where you can just speak a few words at a time) in another. This strategy trains all your energy systems, so your body has to keep adapting and you avoid plateaus.
Eat to Support Your Cycling and Your Weight Loss
Finally, we can’t sugar coat it, if you want to lose weight, you’re going to have to figure out which of the many programs and eating plans that scientists have studied will work best for you, or a personalized adaptation of those diets.
According to a 2022 study published in Obesity: The Journal of The Obesity Society, dieters changed their weight by changing their attitude, more than anything else. The number one reason they thought they were successful? Perseverance. They just kept trying until they found what worked for them.
Focusing on diet for weight loss doesn’t mean cutting out food groups or counting calories—you need food to fuel your cycling. “Riders trying to lose weight will often not eat before or after a ride because they want to burn fat and lose weight,” says Leslie Bonci, R.D., sports nutritionist at Pittsburgh-based Active Eating Advice and co-author of Bike Your Butt Off. “Problem is, that nearly always leads to overeating at some point later in the day.”
Instead, time your normal meals to fuel your ride. For example, if you’re riding midday, try to split your lunch in half. Have half your sandwich half an hour before you go out and eat the rest when you’re done. You can do the same with breakfast. If you’re riding longer and/or harder, take food with you, so you can eat about 200 calories an hour while you ride. Have a small recovery snack like a glass of chocolate milk and a few almonds when you’re done to refuel and replenish, then eat as usual for the rest of the day.
“Eat three meals that are satisfying enough that you can go four to five hours until you eat again,” Bonci adds. “Portion your plate so you have half your calories from vegetables and fruits, a quarter from complex carbs, and a quarter from lean protein. Top with healthy fat like nuts, avocado, or olive oil.”
Add Strength Training to Your Cycling
Cycling builds some muscle (see: calves and quads), but it’s not enough to offset the general muscle loss that happens over time. Losing muscle hurts your metabolism—and makes it difficult to lose or even maintain body weight—and also limits the amount of power you can put into your pedals (to burn even more calories and fat).
The solution is strength training. Lift weights two to three days a week to build lean muscle tissue, which will not only make you faster and stronger on your bike but also more metabolically active so you will use more energy all day long.
Focus on Sleep
If you’re not getting enough sleep, that may very well be the missing piece to your weight loss puzzle. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity in 2020 concluded that “the less variability in sleep duration or an adequate sleep duration, the greater the success of the lifestyle interventions in adiposity.”
Translation? If you’ve already made other lifestyle changes, the more you stick to sleeping both regularly and sufficiently, the more weight you’re likely to lose. According to the study, you should aim for at least seven hours of sleep consistently, if not more. Plus, your body needs it to recover from riding.
The Bottom Line: Cycling for Weight Loss is a Journey, Not a Destination
Again, people who are most successful at long-term weight loss have the patience to figure out what works for them. Managing your weight is a lifetime journey of taking care of yourself. No quick-fix diet has been shown to successfully keep weight off for the long term, but adaptations to the Mediterranean way of eating and the DASH diet, as well as others have all been shown to support weight loss.
What’s most important: If you have fun cycling, stick with it, no matter what the scale says. Also, try to set a few goals in cycling that have nothing to do with weight loss so you can celebrate your wins and use those victories as a driver to keep moving more.
Donna Raskin has had a long career as a health and fitness writer and editor of books and magazine articles. She bikes in a nearby county park, lifts weights, takes Zumba, and loves to walk/run with her dog, Dolly.
