They’ll both keep you fit, but is bike riding better for you than walking? We examine the evidence.
The following written content by Howard Calvert
Is bike riding better for you than walking when it comes to weighing up the best ways to stay active and healthy? Both are highly accessible forms of exercise and can be done on a low budget (or on no budget at all if you’re walking). However, you might be wondering; which one provides a better workout? Can one form of exercise result in more significant weight loss? And which one is better for you in the long-term?
We answer these questions below in an attempt to determine whether bike riding is better for you than walking in terms of health benefits and weight loss. This should be especially useful if you’re considering buying a bike and are wondering how the benefits of one would compare to the benefits of walking.
Firstly, it’s worth saying that both walking and cycling provide positive health benefits and will count towards the 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a week that’s recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stay fit and well.
Public Health England shows that regular physical activity is beneficial for health by reducing all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and strokes, as well as reducing the risk of developing cancer and type two diabetes. It can also improve your quality of sleep and quality of life.
Stationary cycling has been proven by Medicine to significantly increase VO2 Max (maximal oxygen consumption during exercise), while walking studies by the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports have shown a moderate increase in VO2 Max.
For walking, the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that walking at least 100 steps per minute will ensure that you’re moving at a speed that will result in fitness benefits. If you’re looking to hit a particular target, whether that’s a number of steps per day or a certain cadence, fitness trackers or watches can help measure both your day-to-day activities and your exercise.
Cycling on an exercise bike can increase your heart rate in different ways depending on the type of workout you do (for example, interval training will raise your heart rate for short and intense periods of time). As a rough guide, according to Heart Zones, cycling for 30 minutes in zone two (which equates to 60–70% of your maximum heart rate) will burn around 70–85% fat, with the rest coming from carbohydrates.
Penny Weston, fitness expert and founder of wellness centre Made, told Live Science that if you want to strengthen the muscles in your legs to make them look more toned, walking and stationary cycling are both ideal. “Walking across different terrains such as hills is particularly effective at doing this. Muscle tissue burns four times as many calories as fat, so the muscles you build through walking can also help you to lose more weight by reducing fat and building muscle instead,” said Weston. Read more from Live Science.
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