I cannot tell you how many times I have talked to someone about losing weight biking, and they have said something along the lines of, “Well, I can’t really lose weight biking because I can’t ride that much right now.”

Then, that person launches into the litany of reasons why they aren’t riding, fully expecting me to chastise and shame them and encourage them to get on the bike MORE.

You see, though, at the end of the day you don’t actually have to ride your bike at all to lose weight biking.

I know that sounds kind of crazy, but hear me out.

Sometimes we just can’t, or don’t want to ride, and that’s ok.

Maybe you are in a season of life where you can’t ride all that much. Perhaps you are really busy and are lucky if you can squeeze in a quick walk with the dog here and there. Maybe you have an illness, or an injury. 

Maybe you just don’t even WANT to.

I am here to tell you that you can absolutely still lose weight even if you can’t ride that much right now. In this article I will talk about the role that movement and biking plays in weight loss, and what you CAN do even if you can’t ride your bike at the moment. 

Movement as Motivation      

It’s possible that you feel like you need to ride your bike in order to lose weight.

What if, instead, you decide you want to lose weight so you can have fun riding your bike?

When we make this small little shift in the way that we look at biking and weight loss, we completely reframe the role that biking plays in our life.

Biking is supposed to be FUN. It is supposed to make us feel good and feel strong. 

When we think that we need to ride our bike “x” number of miles a day or week to lose weight on average, that literally saps all of the fun out of it.

When we instead think about how much fun riding our bike is and how it would be cool if we weighed a little less because biking would be even easier?

Then our movement becomes motivation to lose weight, instead of the other way around!

It makes us want to ride more instead of thinking of riding as a punishment, or something we HAVE to do. 
 

Every Ride and All Movement “Counts”   

Another really important thing to keep in mind here is that literally all movement counts.

Whenever we get up from our desk to walk around for a couple minutes, hop on our bike for a few minutes, park our car a little further from the door at the store to get a little more movement in?

It all counts. All of it.

I used to think sometimes that it wasn’t even worth getting on my bike and riding easy for 20 minutes because these would just be “junk miles” and wouldn’t actually push the needle in terms of my weight loss or physical fitness. 

As a result I would tend to just not bother and wait until I had the time, energy, or inclination to do a “harder” ride and make it “count”.

What I didn’t realize is that it all counts. Literally all of it. You know why? Because I am not riding my bike to burn “x” number of calories. I am riding it because it is fun and moving my body feels good.

Every single time we get up and move our bodies instead of sitting on the couch or sitting at our desk? It counts.

It is a commitment to doing something, and something is always better than nothing. 

We Aren’t Overweight Because We Aren’t Riding Enough 

I am going to let you in on a little secret. When I was at my heaviest weight (while not actively carrying a human), I decided I was going to lose my weight for the last time. 

This was January of 2020 and I set a huge weight loss goal. I wanted to lose 50 pounds.

In the months leading up to January 2020 I had been riding my bike.

A LOT. 

In fact, I was riding a lot more in 2019 than I am riding right now.

And yet, I now weigh 50 pounds less.

You see, I wasn’t overweight because I wasn’t riding my bike enough. I was riding a ton!

I was overweight because I was overeating. I was over fueling for my rides. I was rewarding myself with food because I was riding my bike. I was emotionally eating all of the time.

In order to lose weight I didn’t have to ride more. I had to figure out my relationship with my food, and my relationship with myself.

A Final Note…  

I know it seems a little crazy that I teach women how to lose weight riding bikes, and yet I am telling you that you don’t have to actually ride your bike if you want to lose weight.

Bike riding and weight loss absolutely go hand in hand…just not for the reasons the diet and fitness industries have led us to believe.

We don’t have to work out a whole bunch to lose weight at all.

It wasn’t until I found biking that I was actually motivated to lose my weight for the last time. I wanted to feel good and feel strong riding my bike.

Getting stronger and getting more fit made me want to lose weight to be even stronger, and to be even more fit.

I want to be able to ride my bike and have it be FUN! Also, I want to be able to keep up with my son.

You see, I was in my 30s when I lost my dad, and I don’t want my son to have to go through that at such a young age. I want to take care of myself and be around for him for a very long time.

I am on a mission to get more women on bikes, because I know that once we discover how awesome riding makes us feel about ourselves and our bodies, the more we are going to want to do to be strong on our bikes.

Come with me. Join me. Sign up for my free guide on how to lose weight biking. Start today.

Ride on!
xoxo
Stacy