Exercise bike fitness results from time on the machine and the effort you put into a workout. To lose weight and get fit with an exercise bike means more than just burning calories though. It is quite a bit more complex than that and in a way that makes for a better chance for long-term success. Here’s the story…

Many forms of exercise use about the same number of calories oddly enough. Whether you pedal a bike, jog, or perform aerobics, all burn about the same amount of calories. Of course the calories burned depends on the effort level, but many popular forms of exercise burn calories at roughly the same level.

And the level is roughly 8 to 10 calories per minute. Your body weight also affects the energy used, but it is always in that range of about 8 to 10 calories for each minute of exercise. Now, when you consider that a pound of fat contains about 3500 calories, you can see the challenge you face if you want to burn away fat with an exercise bike or any other exercise machine for that matter.

Oh, if it were only as easy as just buying exercise equipment, slim people would be everywhere. But when you consider that vigorous pedaling of your bike burns about 10 calories in a minute, then it would take around 350 minutes of exercise bike riding to lose one pound. That’s nearly 6 hours of pedaling to lose one pound. Discouraging, wouldn’t you say?

But there’s actually good news on the fat burn front. See, losing weight and burning fat is much more complicated than just exercising to burn fat. The key to long term fat loss involves changing the way your body burns fat. Really it is possible to change you individual fat burning rate so you burn more fat than the typical person or at least more than YOU have typically burned.

Your body burns calories all the time, even when you rest. That calorie burning rate is referred to as the basal metabolism. And that is where the secret to fat loss hides.

By exercising regularly with the right types of exercise, it’s possible to begin to burn more fat and lose weight at a faster rate than the 8 to 10 calories per minute rate would lead you to expect.

It’s more than just calories burned by exercise that matters. It’s also building and toning muscle too, since muscle helps burn fat too. That’s why weight lifters tend to possess higher metabolism and weight training helps to burn fat. That’s even though the exercise itself wouldn’t seem to be a very efficient fat burner. It’s the muscle building that leads to fat loss.

That’s why exercises like bike riding can lead to better fitness improvement than would seem possible. There is muscle building going on as well as just the direct calorie burning.

Exercise bike fitness is about more than just burning calories. Fat loss is more complex than just exercising to burn calories. Long-term the way to fitness is about increasing the rate of metabolism as well as just exercising to burn calories.

Author Bio: Looking for a fast way to get fit? Riding a Schwinn Airdyne bike is a great way to exercise and get fit. To learn more about exercise bike fitness, see our page about the Schwinn 231 Recumbent exercise bike too.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: exercise bike fitness,exercise bike,schwinn exercise bike