BIKE RIDING FOR WEIGHT LOSS.

If you are one of those people who leisurely pedal around the block or over a flat stretch of scenic road, you’ve probably been riding for sheer pleasure. Riding bikes for pleasure is a good form of aerobic exercise. But unless you map out a plan to “push yourself,” you probably won’t lose much weight.

I really get tired of hearing people say, “No pain, no gain!” But the old adage is true when it comes to riding bikes to lose weight. By pushing your cycling distance or speed, you are sure to feel some pain in your leg muscles, your hands, wrists, and your derriere, even some pain in your throat and lungs as your body tries to accommodate your increased demand for oxygen.

MAPPING OUT A WEIGHT LOSS PLAN

You will want to keep a record of your daily diet and food intake, your weekly body measurements and weight, as well as your cycling distance and time.  You’ll find it to be a fantastic motivation tool to show how much progress you’ve made in a few days, a week, or a month!

Keep track of your food, vitamin, and supplement intake. Thousands of foods have already been analyzed by experts for number of calories, fat, carbs, and protein. You simply select the foods you ate. Make sure you don’t exercise when you’ve just eaten, or when it’s almost meal time. Both times will slow you down.

No matter how humiliating it is, measure your arms, legs, chest, waist, neck, hips and thighs once a week. The thrill of seeing those same cm’s melt away in the coming weeks will be worth the effort.

Consider investing in an instrument that actually measures body fat–there are inexpensive pincer-type instruments that measure fat by pinching you, or buy a set of bathroom scales that cost more but calculate body fat quite painlessly.

Try to ride 4-6 days per week. When you map out your weight loss plan, your short-term goals will change as you change. You’ll quickly develop stamina for longer distance. As fat turns to muscle, your speed will increase. Each week, try to increase either your mileage or your speed.

You know how far you’ve been able to ride, thus far. Start keeping track of the exact route you are taking, the total mileage, and the length of time it took you. Make notes in your records for special circumstances. Did it get dark outside so you were forced to cut your ride short? Was it technical, sandy, hilly, rutted, or jeeptracks?

What was the weather like? Was it dangerously hot? Was it windy? The wind can be your friend or your enemy. When the wind is behind you, your ride is a breeze...but coming from any other direction, be prepared to huff and puff. Accept any length of time as a job well done and simply get the ride accomplished!

Finally, add an upper body workout three times per week. Bicycling works your legs, but to get the rest of your body firm and trim, you’ll need to exercise your upper body, as well.

This hopefully the pointer in the right direction.  Next week we will go into this with a bit more details.