Doing This One Thing While Biking Will Burn Twice As Many Calories

If you're trying to lose fat and develop an active, healthy lifestyle, it's important to focus on a few key factors: eating at a calorie deficit, strength training on a consistent basis, and getting in your cardio. One of the most popular cardio activities is cycling, whether it's done outside or on an exercise bike. And when it comes to biking for fat loss, you want to constantly challenge your body. That's why we're going to let you in on the one thing to do while biking that will burn twice as many calories.

Read on to learn more about this biking hack that will torch calories fast. And next, check out The 6 Best Exercises for Strong and Toned Arms in 2022, Trainer Says.

Incorporate Hill Climbs

A great way to stay motivated while biking is to gamify it a bit, which could mean tracking the route you've gone on to see your distance or the number of calories you've burned in a single session. You also want to keep challenging yourself. When you're doing the same activity at the same pace, your body adapts to it. This leads to burning fewer calories for the same amount of work, in addition to your fat loss goals staying on a plateau.

The way to get around this is to either perform a longer distance, ride at a higher speed, or both. The problem with this is that you can only go so fast and so far. So, another way to burn more calories when you're biking is to incorporate hill climbs. Climbing hills will definitely burn a lot more calories than if you were on a flat surface. It will force you to increase your power output, recruit more muscle groups, and push harder to climb up.

If you don't have access to a hill and only an exercise bike, you can increase the resistance and get into a climbing position. Below are two workouts you can implement into your biking routine.

Uphill Climbs

man doing hill climbers on his bike — Shutterstock

Find a hill in your community, and complete a short warmup to prep the legs and lungs for your workout. Lean forward into your bike, and sprint your way up the hill. With hill climbs, you can alternate between sitting on your saddle and standing. Standing will recruit your upper body and core, and will also raise your heart rate. Play around with both positions, either by alternating sets, or splitting your time 50/50 over the course of your climb.

Once you reach the top, cruise back down. Rest as long as needed before performing another set. Aim for a total of 3 to 5 sets.

Exercise Bike Sprints

woman sprinting on exercise bike — Shutterstock

Go through a 5-minute warmup at a comfortable pace which you can maintain to drive blood into your legs, and get the body ready. Once you're all warmed up, get into the standing position, and crank up the resistance by 8 to 12. Sprint hard for 30 seconds as fast as you can, then bring the resistance down to 2 to 4, and cruise at that pace for 30 seconds. Aim for 6 to 10 rounds.