Cycling to help lose weight

[ronrabbu]

When cycling to help lose weight, is it better to have less resistance and more pedal revolutions or higher resistance and less revolutions?

[alexthecat]

@ronrabbu the goal is to raise your heart rate, in order to burn more calories. For me, that means higher resistance and a slightly slower cadence. The heart rate sensor on your Fitbit will tell you if you're on the right track. 

[t.parker · Accepted solution]

@ronrabbu it matters how much power you generate. With lower cadence you need to increase resistance in order to match power. Your HR may (mostly will) go down if you reduce cadence but if you generate the same power (due to higher resistance) you will be doing the same work and use equal energy (and most of HR based algorithms will underestimate your effort in such a case).

To simplify, it doesn't matter whether resistance is low and cadence high or the other way around as long as your effort is at the same level. Adding variety is in fact a good thing so don't stick with one way. Judge by your effort (or get power meter/smart trainer).

[RonaldShow]

The answer is yes, of course, but everyone is different. In my case, I never lost weight cycling until I also cut my calories to recommended levels (less than 2k a day, for me). When I ride, then I can eat more. Read this https://betterme.world/articles/does-cycling-burn-belly-fat/ 

I found that losing weight has done more for my cycling (speed and stamina), than cycling has done for my weight.

[ledd22]

Yes, cycling can help lose belly fat, but it will take time. A recent study showed regular cycling may enhance overall fat loss and promote a healthy weight. To reduce overall belly girth, moderate-intensity aerobic exercises, such as cycling (either indoor or outdoor), are effective to lower belly fat.In general, cycling running will burn more calories than cycling, but that doesn't automatically make it the winner. Running is harder on your joints, since it's a high impact workout, while cycling is lower impact.Ride your bike for 45 to 60 minutes for weight loss benefits. Doing cardio exercise such as cycling for at least 300 minutes per week is recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the greatest weight loss benefit.

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[charleskn]

I am not a fan of the calories burned metric for dieting, but they are a good metric for the relative effort from one exercise session to the next.

I recommend alternating days where your average heart rate is in the fat burning zone, and days where it is in the aerobic zone. Mix up the workouts just as you would mix up your cadence and the cycle resistance to generate power. The indoor cycles are easy since they will tell you your instantaneous and average power. Take you average power times the duration and you have an effort level for that workout to compare with others.

[Glenda]

A specialist Joint doctor told me to ride my bike for 10 minutes.  That is so doable I do it.  All activity is better for weight loss than sitting on the couch all day  I learned the hard way sitting on the couch all day only uses 900 calories for me and I gained weight doing that.  Don't be overwhelmed by goals too hard to even begin.  Just start.  Work up to more when you feel like it.