Can I Reduce Belly Fat By Cycling?

YES!! You can lose belly fat by cycling every day. The beautiful thing about cycling that can never be over-emphasized is how you do what you love doing and still get immense results from it.

Apart from the other health and fitness benefit, recreational and adventurous benefits of cycling, it also helps in killing one body insecurity that both men and women experience……..belly fat.

Belly fat can be caused by a lot of things, and the different causes are also different in both genders. It may take time, but it will promote a healthy weight and increase your body’s confidence over time.

The amount of time you lose your belly fat while cycling is dependent on your hormones and the different types of body there are. So when someone else is fast losing their belly fat and you are not it doesn’t mean you aren’t doing it right, it’s just determinant on your body type and you will lose it.

Also, you need to note that cycling is not a complete ab workout. To get a flat belly, you need to perform exercises that work on your upper abs too!

Regardless of that, certain proven ways are the best ways to lose weight while cycling, some of them include;

1. Always Start With Moderate Intensity

Since you’ve decided to burn your belly fat through cycling, then you need to start at a moderately intensive pace. You can start by riding 80% of the time at a moderate intensity and the other 20% of the time at moderate to high intensity.

With this incorporation of the 80/20 method of high-intensity intermittent cycling, you can effectively burn fat and calories. And as you keep this up and fitness and endurance increase, you will burn calories and cut belly fat.

2. Start With A Flat Surface

Don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure. Losing weight also has to do with the kind of mindset that you have, so if you think that you need to ride hills like the pros to lose weight on your belly you may end up disappointing yourself and feeling bad when you don’t.

Start with riding flats, once your body adapts to cycling on a flat surface, then you can take uphill routes, using higher gears on your bicycle.

3. Bicycle Selection

It doesn’t matter the type of bicycle you want to use for cycling to lose, what matters is the effort you input to make it work. But then, choosing a road bike, mountain bike, or hybrid bike are easier and more comfortable for cycling to lose belly fat.

4. Fasted Riding

fat woman cycling — Photo by Her zindagi

Fasted riding simply means riding on an empty stomach. This is indeed a tried and proven way to lose belly fat very fast and effectively. To do this, try considering you can consider the 8-hour interval between the last meal and the time to start fast cycling to give you an impressive result. But then, avoid practicing fast cycling every day.

When doing this, start with low intensity, your body will burn more fats as fuel since you are fasting and have low glycogen levels. Do not starve yourself after cycling. After cycling for about 2 hours on an empty stomach, you need to eat.

5. Cycle To Work

No cycling is ever a waste, including small bike trips can aid fat-burning benefits over time. A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health revealed that people who started commuting by bike for as little as 10 minutes each way lost a couple of pounds and improved their BMIs over two years.

In the same vein, cyclers who ride at least 30 minutes every day saw significant weight and BMI improvements, losing about 15 pounds and reducing their BMIs by an average of 2.25 points over the same period.

6. Incorporate Off-Bike Exercise

To aid in faster belly fat loss, you need to add different off-bike exercises like lying down on bicycles, planks, yoga, and Zumba. This will strengthen and benefit your cycling endurance and strength too in the long run. This will also improve your endurance level and strength and will allow you to do more cycling and burn off more belly fat.

7. Reward Yourself With Enough Sleep And Rest

Do not undermine the effect of adequate rest and sleep on your weight loss journey. Several studies have shown that you are more likely to add on excess weight if you are sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation can lead to an increase in appetite and the stress hormone cortisol and can negatively impact your body’s metabolism, glucose tolerance, and insulin sensitivity—all of which can lead to weight gain.

It’s very important to recover properly from your rides, so shutting your eyes during the night for a much-deserved sleep will help keep you healthy, happy, and ready to ride during the day.

8. Proper Dieting

While it’s good to have a strict cycling habit if you want to lose weight, it is also important to have the proper diet and eat right while also cycling as it will give you the best result. Avoid eating junk foods, fast food, food high in carbohydrates, cheese, sugary foods, and foods with high saturated fat and butter. Rather, it is more pretentious foods, greens, lean beef, chicken, beans, potatoes, and salmon.

9. Do Weight Training Before Cycling

Cycling essentially is done by sitting on the cycle seat, pedaling with your legs. It can help to tone your calf muscles and thighs. But, if you want to lose weight progressively, you need to do some weight training before going cycling. It is important to do weight training before because if you opt for doing it after cycling, a lot of your energy will already be invested.

10. Try high-intensity interval training (HIIT)

HIIT is a great way to challenge your body, manage weight and lose belly fat. It involves short bursts of intense exercise alternated with intervals of low-intensity exercise. When trying HIIT, cycle as fast as you possibly can against high resistance for 30 to 60 seconds, then, do 2 to 3 minutes of easy cycling with low resistance.

The benefit of this type of exercise is that it can help you burn more calories in less time and when you stop pedaling and your workout is over, your metabolism remains engaged. This means your body continues to burn calories at a higher rate, even after your workout is done and your body has returned to its normal, resting state.

Keep doing this steadily and see yourself achieve your goal as regards your belly fat reduction. Also, never compare your weight loss achievements to others. You may not see quick results but do not get discouraged and motivate yourself towards your goal every day.