How much time should I devote to cycling every day?

[RhymeBomb]

To lose weight, that is. I've always been in good shape, but over the past few years I think I may have let it get to my head and I managed to gain about 7kg. Most of it seems to have collected in my belly, although I probably have beer to thank for that... 8)

Anyway, for the past few weeks I've been cycling outside for a half-hour every morning. Because of my (previously) active lifestyle I never had to worry about any of this, so when I started researching I was horrified to learn that I could be wasting my time. Every article I read seemed to imply or infer that I was an idiot for thinking this would help me lose weight. Apparently, I need to double my workout time simply because I'm cycling outside instead of on a stationary bike, and I need to eat half of what I normally eat except in five or six portions a day, and that food has to consist of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, and I shouldn't exercise after I had just eaten or if I'm ABOUT to eat...and jesus fucking christ the list just goes on.

I just want someone to pat me on the head and tell me that these things are written by people that devote their free time to making people like me feel bad with their crap lousy internet articles.

*sigh* /rant off

I live by a nice big park, so when I bike I can just bike around it without stopping. Is 30 minutes a day, every day of the week not enough for weight loss? I know it's healthy in other ways, but I don't give a shit about the other ways. I want to get rid of my beer gut!

 

[Yoshi525]

In part they are correct but in fact you will eventually loose weight, provided you don't eat huge amounts, if you exercsise.

Half an hour a day isn't really enough if you are loosing weight, it is just about enough for general fitness if yo uare at the weight you desire. I would reocmend increasing it by 1/4 of an hour a week until you are oding 2-3 hours a day, then the wight will drop off.

 

[RhymeBomb]

Two to three ho...

On second thought, maybe I can live with this gut...

Would you suggest this... ...two to three hour a day routine to be broken up or at one time of the day?

 

[SuAside]

running will get you to loose weight faster than cycling. an half an hour a day of jogging will surely make you loose some fat (and gain some muscle).

if you also do some other exercises, it should get along nicely. like 30 min jog in the morning and varried pushups, situps, pullups etc in the evening?

and Yoshi525, no one starting with some physical training is going to waste 2 to 3 hours a day on it... that's just insane.

 

[RhymeBomb]

I loathe jogging. I know it's much more effective, but I cannot stand it. I had a treadmill...it's a coathanger now.

I do weight lift every other day. Same with pushups/situps.

Assuming I stubbornly choose to bike no matter what...which I will...would an hour a day be effective? I can't see myself being able to spare any more than that.

 

[SuAside]

I loathe jogging. I know it's much more effective, but I cannot stand it. I had a treadmill...it's a coathanger now.

yeah, jogging for more than 15 minutes drives me insane too. that's why i do pushups and shit underway. i prefer that punishment over running, so i'm motivated.

(also, music helps )

Assuming I stubbornly choose to bike no matter what...which I will...would an hour a day be effective? I can't see myself being able to spare any more than that.

well, biking does require more time to be effective. of course, a mountainbike requires more effort then a racebike.

i guess 1 hours of biking is better than nothing, but i'm guessing it'll take a while to see results. you WILL feel better about yourself though, eventhough you havent lost 7kg.

 

[RhymeBomb]

Thanks for the help guys.

Yeesh. I'll never make fun of a fat person ever again. I can't believe it takes this much work to lose a few pounds.

 

[Gonzalez]

I loathe jogging. I know it's much more effective, but I cannot stand it. I had a treadmill...it's a coathanger now.

yeah, jogging for more than 15 minutes drives me insane too. that's why i do pushups and shit underway. i prefer that punishment over running, so i'm motivated.

Since I am preparing for military collage I do 30 minutes jogging with a speed of about 2.5 km for every 10 minutes (a total of 7.5 km a day), and 30 minutes of gym bike with about 1/4 of the brake applied. Making it a full hour of non stopping physical activity, after that comes the pushups and the situps and other stuff. This from Monday to Friday.

You may also want to control your diet, separate all you eat in many small meals during the day instead of few big ones, make it six meals a day, never forget to have breakfast. Alcoholic drinks are highly caloric, so cut down a bit on the beer. Also no food excess.

Since you are not preparing a military training I recommend 30 minutes of non stopping walking and 30 minutes on your bike, or one hour of bike if you prefer.

After you go back to normal weight (it should be quick if you follow my advice) you can get back to normal but don't give up your hour of physical activity at least three times a week.

Worked for me, it should work for you. Good luck.

 

[Lukus]

I lost a lot of weight before by doing situps, or crunches, or whatever you want to call them. I started with 50 each evening, then slowly increased to 150. Sometimes I'd test myself to see how many I could do, and usually had to quit at around 250. (One time I managed 500, but that time I was *really* in the zone.) Crunches give "good workout" for losing weight, without having to work out like a military or something, and (obviously) mostly drop belly fat. It's a pain, but goes over really quick - especially in comparison to jogging for 30 minutes which in my experience does almost nothing in comparison.

What you need to do is find a number that feels right for you - or rather, one that feels slightly over the top - focus to reach it, and then do another 10 (or w/e). The problem is that if you don't push yourself, it won't take, so if you're starting to get comfortable with 50, you've gotto increase your target number. You don't want it to be 'uncomfortable' either - you want it to be a fucking pain towards the end. Something that might help is keeping in mind that it's your fucking belly that's forcing you to go through with and endure that pain, unless you'd want the blubber to continue to prosper and grow until it's taken you over to the extent that you won't be able to fart without getting your buttocks elevated by a forklift. Do it with your shirt off to not forget why you're doing it, preferrably right before dinner.

For the record, I have no knowledge about working out what so ever save for what I've done myself, and I've only done crunches. Went down from 83 to 58 kilos in a couple of months. (I was 13 at the time, but I'm thinking about taking it up again. Like, tomorrow or something.)

 

[Gonzalez]

Haha, it's ok, I told him to do physical activity for 1 hour, like walking or the bike not to start jogging for 30 minutes like me right out. I do that because I have to improve my endurance, hell I even want to get to reach 45 minutes or even one dang continued hour if I can.

In any case the key is calories. The more calories you put into your body the more you'll have to spend. If you combine a good diet (and this means changing you eating habits, not to starve to death, not at all, far from it) and spend calories trough physical activities you'll get good results. Basically it consists on spending more calories than what you gain so that you loose weight.

Once you reached your weight you can start balancing the calories so what you consume and what you spend is more less the same.