Why do you ride your bike often and you don't lose any weight?
Many people start cycling to lose weight and are forever hooked on the sport for all it has to offer. However, for some people it may not be the best way to lose weight. Cycling will improve your cardiovascular health, your mood and your physical condition; but for many it is not the solution when it comes to losing weight. Here's why.
7 reasons why you ride a bike, but you don't lose any weight
You weigh the same, but something has changed
The scale says one number, but that always has a different reading. In your workout you may have lost a lot of fat, but you haven't lost weight because it has been compensated for by the muscle you have gained. This is very good news!
If your goal is to improve your fitness through cycling, we recommend that you have your first check-up done by a professional, so that he or she can tell you for sure whether or not you are headed in the right direction.
Sport doesn't burn out everything
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Caloric deficit, the only key to losing weight
Riding your bike is not a free pass to indulge in gluttony. Eating without control, especially the so-called empty calories - alcohol, industrial baked goods, fast food etc. - is not a good idea to lose weight no matter how many miles you are riding every day.
The intensity of the exercise is not adequate
Our body will progressively adapt to exercise if it becomes routine. Therefore, if we want to maintain a weight loss, it will be necessary to progressively increase the intensity of our weekly sport.
You will soon realize that to improve, or lose weight, it is not enough to always do the same route and in the same way. You will need to go including changes of pace and distance.
Routine, the enemy of weight loss
Our body is intelligent, it gets used to everything with amazing speed. So, if our sports practice is a routine without peaks of intensity, it will be easy for us to stagnate when it comes to losing weight. That's why it's a good idea to vary your training, even make small stops, which prevent our body from adapting.
Starving and the rebound effect
Some cyclists decide to take the middle way: not to eat before or after the outings. Follow a Spartan diet and lose as much weight as possible in the shortest time possible. Apart from the obvious health risks involved in such a decision, in the vast majority of cases it does not end well: you will end up swallowing like an animal when you least expect it. Remember, always, that a balanced diet combined with physical exercise is the perfect recipe.
You don't respect the caloric deficit
We've recently discussed it: calorie deficit is the key to steady, balanced weight loss. Put on the scale the calories consumed and the calories burned each day, making sure that the first variable is greater than the second. If you respect this, you will see the results.
Your efforts are not well directed
Maybe you're putting everything into it, making a huge personal effort, but the results don't match up with this. Normally, when doing any practice, we gain time and effectiveness if we are taught from the first moment how we should do things. That's why putting yourself in the hands of a specialist is the best idea possible if your goal is to lose weight. Don't hesitate and go to an endocrinologist or nutritionist. He will prepare a plan for you to lose weight little by little.
Have you seen yourself reflected in any of these reasons why, despite riding your bike, you don't manage to lose weight? Can you think of more? We read you on our social networks!