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Cardiovascular exercise and weight loss
I recently bought an exercise bike and enjoy working out with it. I don't get bored as I have in the past with exercise videos. I want to lose half a stone and tone up my tummy, bum and thighs. Will using an exercise bike do this for me? If so, how often and for how long do I need to use it?
What it won’t do, at least in any significant way, is build muscle.
Cardiovascular exercise is one of the best health insurance policies in the world. But despite its calorie-burning and heart-protecting benefits, its effect on weight loss is limited for many people, especially if it's not coupled with dietary change. Cardiovascular activity is great for preventing weight gain and great for weight management, but when used alone, it's not the perfect method for weight loss.
Some people - and I stress ‘some’ - may be able to continue to eat as they always have and lose a few pounds just by adding daily or almost daily exercise. Maybe you are one of those lucky few. The people for whom that works tend to have the least weight to lose and are usually eating healthily to begin with. For most people, however, some kind of dietary overhaul is going to be necessary to complete the picture, since any good you do with exercise in terms of weight loss can be undone with the wrong diet.
As far as toning muscles, the exercise bike may help a little, especially if you do it at a higher resistance, but I wouldn't expect too much, particularly with the abdominal areas. For toning and shaping you really need to add some kind of resistance training. This kind of workout (using weights, machines or body-weight exercises like push-ups) has the added advantage of raising your metabolic rate so that you burn more calories at rest, a huge advantage in the weight-loss game. Check out create a weight training programme.
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