Steady, moderate cycling burns about 300 calories in 60 minutes, but you can burn more than that if you increase the intensity. In fact, according to the Harvard Health Letter, a 155-pound person can burn as many as 298 calories in a 30-minute bike ride, if they pedal at a 12-to-13.9 mile-per-hour pace.
Do you use biking to lose weight? Bicycling is a great leisure activity, but if you are bike riding for weight loss you need to structure your workout differently than you would if you are just doing a casual ride with a friend.
How Far Should I Ride?
If you are cycling to lose weight, duration (the time you spend biking) matters more than the actual distance you travel. That means that you don’t necessarily have to ride the entire Tour de France course to shed a few pounds. Relieved? Good. But don’t put away the odometer.
When you are new to exercise, you can start your biking workout program with a simple test. Use your odometer (or a GPS watch or smartphone app) to see how far you travel when you bike for 30 minutes.
Jot down the number in your workout journal and set a goal to decrease the amount of time it takes you to ride that same distance and route. As your fitness level improves you’ll be able to log more miles in less time and you’ll burn more calories in the process.
As you get comfortable spending more time in the saddle, schedule longer rides during the week. If you do three cycling workouts each week, complete one short ride (30 minutes), make one ride a moderate duration (45 minutes), and set a goal to ride one long tour (60 to 120 minutes) each week.
How Fast Should I Cycle?
If weight loss is your primary goal, exercise intensity matters more than speed. A higher-intensity ride will burn more calories than a lower-intensity ride. The type of bike you ride and the trail you choose will affect both your intensity (how hard you work) and your speed (how fast you travel).
For example, if you are riding a heavy mountain bike on muddy, off-road trails at 12 miles per hour, you’ll probably have to work very hard. But if you are on a road bike pedaling down a hill, you can reach that pace with almost no effort at all.
Your best bet? Learn to use a heart rate monitor. The device provides an accurate measurement of how hard you are working. Aim to work at 70 to 75% of your maximum heart rate for most rides.