exercise bike workout

[jungleman pete]

Hey everyone,

Just have a question in regard to fat/weight loss.

Over the years I have spent a fair bit of time in the weight room, putting on a decent amount of muscle. But over the last few years, I have really lost the urge to work out with weights, probably because I spent way too long with them earlier in my life.

Now I'm pretty well built, but I have some fat on me. I go to the gym on the weekdays and spend my time on the exercise bike, which is good.

Now I want to lose fat, but (this may sound lazy) I don't want to spend any more time in the gym, lift weights or eat any less Because basically this is all the time I have to work out in a day.

The exercise bikes at my gym have different intensity settings all which increase how many calories you burn. I am slowly increasing the intensity setting when I can and have gone from the setting of 7 to 12. I only just switched it up to 12 and am slowly getting the fitness required to perform at the level for half an hour. Which says it burns about 400 calories. I don't believe it would burn that much, but its a hell of a workout.

The bikes go up to the setting of 20. If I gradually increase and get to 20 over the course of five or six months or even longer still doing only 30 mins 5 days a week, would I in the end lose much weight, or would my body constantly be accommodating, which in turn would keep my weight the same? Because the calories in wouldn't change at all.

Hope this doesnt make me sound too slack, but has anyone got any ideas about what would happen?

 

[Reto]

If it's gradual, I think your body would get use to it. I know mine would.

Ever try HIIT on the exercise bike? HIIT does work when trying to burn fat/calories. Running is more effective for me, but can be done on the bike.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Originally posted by jungleman pete

Hope this doesnt make me sound too slack, but has anyone got any ideas about what would happen?

I use a stationary bike during the winter and have found that it's not necessarily the highest intensity that give you the best results. For weight loss you need a good constant anaerobic workout. Your body doesn't kick into the burning fat stage until 20-30 minutes into a workout so finishing at a half an hour won't give you great results.

What has worked for me is road cycling. When I first started out I could only ride for an hour or so. Now a year later, I can go 6-8 hours with 5-10 minute rest stops every couple of hours.

Think about riding 20-30 miles a day three or four times a week and then doing 50-75 miles on the weekend? Also throw in the possibility of hitting some major hill climbs.

The only thing is that you need to get a good road bike, not anything from a department store. Go to your local bike shop and they can adjust the bike to your specific body size too. It will cost you more buying a good (not top of the line) road bike, but your body will thank you for it.

 

[FitnessGuy]

If you aren't going to eat less I would say HIIT is the superior choice in reaching your goals. Weight loss is a function of calories in and calories out, but HIIT basically improves the body's ability to oxidize fat. It is even possible to lose "fat" and maintain LBM while eating at a maintanence caloric intake with HIIT. Goodluck.

 

[wheelin&dealin]

If you're sick of the whole gym scene, then go to the track and do a running workout.

 

[jungleman pete]

Thankyou everyone for your responses.

I've just read a bit about HIIT training, I think i'll give that a try for a while and see how it goes.

Do you think it would be better for me to leave the bike and try the stepper machine (which I dont use often) to shock my system a little bit more? I've spent quite a while on the bike over the last year!

Thanks guys!

 

[Reto]

Stair steppers kick @ss. Mix it up. When you start to get use to one, change up....