Exercise bikes are a great choice if your fitness goal is to lose weight. They can burn calories and help create a calorific deficit needed for weight loss.

Learn the factors that make exercise bikes great for losing weight and what type of exercise bikes are best for weight loss below.

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5 Factors that Make Exercise Bikes Great for Losing Weight

These are the 5 reasons why exercise bikes are great for weight loss.

1. Enhances Cardio Fitness

Riding an exercise bike is a good way to get your heart pumping. Cardio exercises like bike riding strengthen your muscles, lungs, and heart. They also enhance oxygen and blood flow throughout your body. Hence, riding an exercise bike can gain many health benefits, such as:

  • Help you sleep better
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Enhance brain and memory performance
  • Reduce stress level
  • More energy
  • Better mood
  • Boost immune system

2. Provides Low-impact Exercise

An exercise bike provides a low-impact workout that uses easy movements to improve joints and bones without straining them. It is an excellent workout option for older adults and people with joint problems.

Other aerobic exercises such as jogging, jumping, or running can stress your knees, ankles, hips, and other joints. With a stationary bike, your feet make less effort when you pedal, which is good for your joints yet provides effective exercise.

3. Strengthens the Lower Body

The pedalling action of cycling can strengthen your lower body, including your quads, hamstrings, and calves. Riding an exercise bike can also build muscles in your back, glutes, and core. If you use an exercise bike with handles, then you can also work your upper body, including your triceps, shoulders, and biceps.

4. Allows Interval Training

Interval training is known to help you improve your cardio fitness and also help burn more calories in a short period. Riding an exercise bike is a great option for interval training since you can adjust the resistance levels at different intensities.

5. Convenient

An exercise bike is very convenient to use. If you do not have time to go to a gym or exercise outdoors, you can hop on your bike and have a fantastic workout right in the comforts of your home.

How to Use Your Exercise Bike to Achieve Weight Loss

We recommend these 3 tips on how to use an exercise bike to achieve weight loss.

Use it Consistently

Like in other workouts, consistency is the key to seeing results. Use the exercise bike consistently and maintain a regular routine.

Resistance and Cadence

Add resistance and cadence to make your workout more challenging. When you pedal with low resistance, you may think you are working hard because you are cycling so fast. But the truth is, it will not do much to tone or strengthen your legs.

Conversely, do not increase the resistance so high that you hardly move the pedals. You must also ensure that your bike is properly set up before riding it so that you can work out comfortably and more efficiently.

On the other hand, increasing your cycling cadence can help you become a faster, stronger, and more efficient rider. You will also feel less tired and able to work out harder and longer if you try to improve your cadence.

Do HIIT Workout

HIIT bike workout can raise and maintain your heart rate, letting you burn more calories and lose weight in less time.

What Type of Exercise Bike is Good for Weight Loss?

There are 4 types of exercise bikes that can help you with your weight loss journey. Learn more about each type below.

1. Spin Type

Spin bike gives you a realistic riding experience because it imitates the feel of a road bike. The seat and the handlebars of a spin bike are almost the same height, thus giving a feeling like you are riding outdoors.

It comes with a knob or a console to adjust the resistance level. You can set the resistance according to your fitness level, and it is perfect for HIIT and toning other muscle groups.

2. Air Type

An air bike is easy to identify because it is attached to a large spinning blade at the front. An air bike has no resistance buttons because it uses wind resistance through the large fan. This means the harder you pedal, the more resistance you will feel.

3. Upright Type

An upright bike is the most common type of stationary bike that you usually find in the gym. The handlebars of an upright bike are typically higher than the seat. This positioning encourages you to sit tall while cycling. Upright bikes come with built-in programs, and you can easily shift your resistance just by a press of a button.

4. Recumbent Type

A recumbent bike is a type of exercise bike where you ride in a reclined position. It is much longer than other types of bikes, and the seat has a backrest. The pedals are in the front, making you pedal with stretched legs rather than bent. There are also no handlebars giving a much more relaxed workout experience while getting optimal biking benefits.

Though all of these types can help you lose weight through consistent training and maintaining a healthy diet, the best types for weight loss are spin and air bikes. Let us give you a short comparison between these two bikes below.

Air Bike vs. Spin Bike

To better understand why air bikes and spin bikes are the best ones for losing weight, here are some factors to consider if you want to lose weight faster.

Resistance

Losing weight means you need to burn more calories and to burn more calories depends on how hard you work out. Increasing resistance is one way to burn more calories. The spin bike’s resistance can be easily adjusted through a knob or console.

On the other hand, an air bike’s resistance depends on your physical output. This means that the harder you cycle, the higher the resistance.

In this case, an air bike may be more efficient in burning more calories since it needs more physical effort from the rider. An advanced rider will also benefit more from this type of bike because the resistance setting is not limited.

HIIT

Both these bikes enable you to do a HIIT workout. However, a spin bike may be a better choice for this type of workout since it has a more precise resistance system that makes HIIT more consistent, and you can easily track your performance.

Workout Options

Having workout options on your exercise machine may help you to get more motivated. Variations can make working out more fun and help spice up your routine when you don’t feel motivated.

An air bike does not have that many options. In order to lose weight, you can pedal faster and harder, do HIIT, or use the handlebars for a full-body workout.

On the other hand, a spin bike may come with built-in programs to help jazz up your workout routine. Some advanced models even have a compatible app giving you access to vast exercise libraries.

Full-Body Workout

A full-body workout allows you to burn more calories in less time. A spin bike mostly targets your lower body, while an air bike can target both your upper and lower body in one go.

Spin bikes and air bikes are both great for weight loss. When choosing an exercise bike, choose one that you will enjoy most. Air bikes are more suited for people who want to do a full-body workout and short-interval training.

On the other hand, spin bikes are great for people who want to enjoy variations in their workout routine and want to do HIIT sessions.

Final Thoughts

Exercise bikes are good for weight loss because they are effective in burning calories. There are different types of exercise bikes that can help you lose weight, but the best ones are spin bikes and air bikes. Whichever exercise bike you choose, be sure to pick an indoor stationary bike that you will enjoy and use consistently in order to get the results you want to achieve.

1. Is Cycling for 30 Minutes Enough to Lose Weight?

According to research, you can burn at least 210 to 294 calories while riding a stationary bike for 30 minutes. You can also burn more calories if you change to a more dynamic pace. To know more about how 30 minutes of cycling help you lose weight, read here.

2. Does an Exercise Bike Help with Belly Fat?

An exercise bike is an excellent machine for weight loss. However, there is no single fitness machine that can target belly fat. The secret to toning your stomach is to lose extra fat and weight by exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy diet.

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