Getting Healthy: The Blogspedition Looks at Biking for Weight Loss
Weight loss may or may not be your personal inspiration for getting on the bike, but plenty of women appreciate the ease of putting a little exercise into each day with bike commuting. Others gut it out on the trainer to attain personal goals in racing. Still others approach it as a chore because they want to lose weight specifically. Any way you slice it, biking burns more calories than sitting on the sofa with a bag o’ chips.
I’m not talking about trying for an unrealistic uber-skinny body, mind you. I’ve already blogged about the notion that a healthy body image isn’t tied to fitting into a specific dress size.
I’m talking about the basic level of activity that’s recommended by the American Heart Association for good health. They specifically mention dividing your moving-around efforts into two or three chunks of 10-15 minutes each, which is almost precisely how my typical bike commuting takes place.
This blogspedition rounds up a few posts and blogs that feature this topic:
- Cycling for Optimal Weight, on Loving the Bike
- Fat Broad on a Bike–Don’t Hide, Ride! on Women’s Cycling Canada
- Weight Loss for Spring Cycling, on Women’s Cycling Canada. My favorite tip: “Eat like your granny did.”
- Bike Riding to Lose Weight Fast, on Women’s Health. My favorite quote: “… lugging a 25-pound kid in a bike trailer was tougher than any machine at the gym.”
- Resolutions in Reverse: 23 Pounds and Counting, on Grit and Glimmer by racer Heidi Swift. My favorite quote: “Dresses may cut a flattering figure but I’ll tell you one thing for sure–the bike never lies.”
For a weight-loss bonus, give blood. Some of you may remember the saying, “A pint’s a pound the world around” as a way of remembering measurements in the kitchen. Turns out it’s true at the blood bank too! Give a pint of blood and lose a pound, then burn some more calories as your body kicks up its production of replacement blood cells–all while you help save a life. What could be healthier than that?
Related Reading
Your Turn
- Is riding a bike part of a weight-control or weight-loss effort for you?
- How’s it going?
- Or does a post on weight loss piss you off because it seems to buy into unrealistic body-image issues for women?
I started biking for weight loss and dropped three pounds in a month thanks to the exercise. During the next six months, I put on ten pounds but my clothing size didn’t change. When I mentioned this to my doctor, she said that I must have put on muscle. The mild winter means that I’ve continued commuting and taking long rides on the weekends and over the past month I’ve dropped a few pounds. I’m still a hefty woman and have a lot more to lose, but I’m definitely firming up and looking more trim thanks to the regular cycling.
I absolutely needed to get back on a bike to feel better and lose weight, and bought a decent bike in early January (and joined Weight Watchers, but have already canceled again). I have dropped 14 pounds so far and am riding about 10 miles 2-3 times a week, working on getting to 60 miles/week. Cycling simply makes me feel so much better and happier. Plus it helps me to really get to know Berlin again.
Thanks for including our article on Cycling for Optimal Weight. I hope you guys are able to get a lot of people on track by promoting your article to them. Nice work.
Darryl
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