Not one person alive wouldn’t relate to the days, when being a kid, the only evening outdoor activity we’d deluge ourselves in was riding a bicycle. Well being a kid, cycling is not performed as a fitness sessions, but purely as a fun filled session. Little did we know then, what cycling is benefiting us with. Well now that we’re grown ups and well equipped with our conscience, this is the right time we should be knowing the trivia of cycling we never knew as kids. Undoubtedly, cycling still is one of the best fitness exercises and shall always be.Reading down few more lines, you’ll find yourself being enlightened with the kickass fat burning exercise that will surely tempt you to either buy a new cool bike altogether or provoke you enough to get the duster and the groom, and clean your old yet evergreen bicycle for that healthy ride.

If you really want to shed your gut, pick up the first piece of fitness equipment you ever owned: your bike. Not only is cycling time productive and absolutely fun but also relieves you off the wiggle and jiggle required in running. And if done right, it can burn more calories than any of the fitness exercises. To get fit fast, you need to ride so that you burn the maximum amount of calories and fat without being injured much.

Here are the 9 great strategies to a calorie blasting and fat burning cycling workout:

Ride at Least 4 Days a Week

Consistency rules when it comes to losing weight on the bike. To lose a pound or two a week, aim for a minimum of three short rides of 30 to 60 minutes each during the week, and one longer trip of 1 to 2 hours on the weekend. If you haven’t been on your bike for a while, stick to shorter rides until you’re in good enough condition for a long one.

Stay in the Range

Most guys jump on their bikes and start hammering like they’re Lance Armstrong. That kind of all-out riding pushes your heart rate into the anaerobic range, so your body can’t send oxygen to your muscles fast enough to burn fat. Fat oxidation peaks at about 60 percent of your maximum heart rate[1]. Train just above that, at 65 to 75 percent, for the best overall fitness benefits.

The most accurate way to tell whether you’re riding in the right range is to calculate your maximum heart rate[2] (220 minus your age) and strap on a heart-rate monitor when you ride. But you can also judge just by the way you feel. Rate your exertion on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a light spin and 10 on the verge of blowing up. Try to stay between 5 and 7.

Step Up Your Workout When Time Is Short

Opening up the throttle once a week can be smart too, especially if your time is limited. You burn more calories per minute riding at a higher intensity; you just can’t ride as long. If you can ride for only 30 minutes on a particular day, take your heart rate up to between 75 percent and 85 percent of your maximum (about an 8 on the exertion scale).

Stop Coasting

Cycling at 15 mph burns about 650 calories an hour. But that’s only if you’re pedaling. Coasting doesn’t burn many more calories than sitting in a recliner clicking the remote. To keep pedaling consistently, shift into a higher gear (a bigger chain ring) on easier terrain. You’ll burn twice as many calories as you would have done while half-pedaling and half-coasting, and you’ll lose weight faster.

Use Your Low Gears on Flats & Uphills

Riding in a high gear feels more manly, but you’ll save your knees and burn more calories by using a lower gear and spinning quickly, the way the pros do. Spinning keeps you in that premium aerobic range. You burn fat without becoming fatigued. Aim for a cadence of 80 to 100 revolutions per minute (rpm). To determine your cadence, count the number of times your right leg hits the bottom of the pedal stroke in a 10-second period. Then multiply that number by six.

Sit Down When Going Up

The quickest way to increase the intensity of your workout is to take it vertical. Hills burn a lot of calories in a short time. Adding hard hills to your itinerary will also make you stronger and faster—and therefore able to burn more calories—on the flats. To climb most efficiently, drop into an easy low gear and keep spinning at no less than 60 to 70 rpm while seated. Standing drains energy.

Leave the Beaten Path

You don’t see many fat mountain-bike riders. An hour of off-road riding burns about 600 calories and works your whole body, not just your legs. There’s more resistance on the trails, so you expend more energy. You build your upper-body muscles as you pull up over rocks and logs.

Restock Your Cells with a Sports Drink

After a hard ride, the glycogen, or stored fuel, in your muscles is low. You have about 20 minutes to replenish it or risk ravenously overeating later and jeopardizing your weight-loss goals. Your best plan is to grab a sports drink that contains carbohydrates and protein in a 4-to-1 ratio. The protein helps repair your muscles and the carbohydrates refuels them[3].

Eat the Right Food at the Right Time

Professional cyclists eat breakfasts that would put a lumberjack to shame. Yet they stay as skinny as their tires. Sure, the number of hours they train helps, but the real secret is how they time their eating. Pain your muscles, and the carbohydrates refuel them. Most men eat a light breakfast and lunch, go out and ride hard, then eat a pound of pasta before bedtime. That’s counterproductive, You should eat a big meal early in the day. A large bowl of cereal, an orange, and a bagel for breakfast, along with a comfortable lunch, will let you enjoy your ride without running on empty. Then you can replenish yourself after the ride with a high-carbohydrate snack, and eat appropriately throughout the rest of the day. With the exercise and the subsequent increase in your metabolism, you’ll still burn more calories than you’ve taken in and you’ll lose weight.

Cycling is sure a healthy ride in disguise of a fun filled voyage, but there’s no gain without pain, hover to the link that follows to know more about fat loss exercises. Check out our 29 awesome weight loss tips to get updated.

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References:

[1] Wing RR, Jeffery RW, Hellerstedt WL, A prospective study of effects of weight cycling on cardiovascular risk factors, Arch Intern Med. 1995 Jul 10;155(13):1416-22.

[2] Tanaka H, Monahan KD, Seals DR, Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited, J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001 Jan;37(1):153-6.

[3] David Zieve, MD, MHA, and David R. Eltz, Protein in diet, Review Date: 5/5/2011