The formula to weight loss is simple one, which is to burn more calories than you consume. On the other hand, sometimes a treadmill can give more benefits regarding weight loss over an exercise bike. When you’re considering what types of exercises to do if you have a goal of weight loss, you’ll want to choose ones that help you burn more calories. You may want to build muscle or improve your cardiovascular system, but if you’re aiming to lose weight then you’ll want to ensure that the exercises you’re doing are able to burn more calories.
It’s important to remember that exercise bikes and treadmills have different functions that can result in one allowing you to burn more calories over the other.
Benefits of Exercise Bikes
Exercise bikes are stationary devices, they typically are focused on burning calories and cardiovascular health. A study worked with middle-aged adults suffering from Peripheral Artery Disease who were also vascular rehab patients. This particular study demonstrated that these patients were able to improve their blood pressure, reduce BMI and improve their motivation for exercise when working with exercise bikes. Exercise bikes are a less-strenuous form of exercise, so these patients are able to see some benefit to stationary bike exercise.
Treadmill Benefits
Research indicates that an average treadmill and a cycle burns about 10 calories per minute of use. Calorie burn is roughly equal for both forms of exercise on average settings. However, where the treadmill clearly outshines the exercise bike is in actual fat burning. Treadmills burn an average of 0.3 grams of fat per minute, while exercise bikes burn just over 0.15 grams of fat per minute. A treadmill can burn twice as much fat as an exercise bike.
Additional Benefits to Treadmill Exercise
The Peripheral Artery Disease study also compared the two groups in terms of their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and observed another major difference. Between the vascular rehab patients doing treadmill exercises vs stationary bike users, the treadmill exercise group showed the most improvements in their LDL levels. Therefore, it’s clear that treadmill exercises have very well-known benefits to people looking to improve their overall health.
Helpful Tips
These calorie burn studies compare both forms of exercise in relatively simple terms. Remember that not all forms of bike and/or treadmill exercise are created equally. If you set the treadmill to a higher speed or the exercise bike to a more difficult level, then you’ll be able to burn more calories. You’ll want to consider setting an exercise bike to a more strenuous level if you choose to use one of these.
Bottom Line
A stationary exercise bike cannot fully replace a treadmill. However, exercise on a stationary bike can have many of the same benefits of a treadmill for your overall health. Consider using a stationary bike to supplement your exercise routine – perhaps you might want to divide your time between the treadmill and stationary bike. If you’re struggling to find motivation to exercise, then perhaps you might want to consider starting with a stationary bike.
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