Is 20 minutes on a stationary bike, every day, enough to lose 2-3lbs a week?

1. 78

   ii3rittlesposted 12 years ago

   Is 20 minutes on a stationary bike, every day, enough to lose 2-3lbs a week?
   
   I am doing 20 minutes every day on my stationary bike, burning a little over 200 calories. I am also eating better and not eating past 1,500 calories. My goal is to lose 2-3lbs a week and over all drop 30-40 pounds by August. I am getting married in November and I want to slim down, back to the size I was 2 years ago. I gained 35-40lbs when I had to quit my job. I was in bed for months with sever anxiety and neck pain. I barley moved. To top that, I started eating meat again. I was a vegetarian for years. So do you think I will see good results doing 20 minutes a day?

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2. 82

   David R Bradleyposted 12 years ago

   Take a look at a few hubs I've written and see if there isn't a more effective solution for you.  You're plan seems like a good idea on paper but might not yield the ultimate results you want... 
   
   1.  http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Books-For-Getting-In-Shape
   
   2.  http://hubpages.com/hub/Beach-Body-By-Spring-Break
   
   3.  http://hubpages.com/hub/Ladies-First-A- … n-and-Tone
   
   Let me know if this helps!

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3. 0

   Curiadposted 12 years ago

   If you eat a healthy diet along with the exercise, yes you should be able to accomplish this goal.
   
   One thing that you might know or not is that to get the best effect from your exercise, you need to know your maximum heart rate and then maintain 80% of that for the 20 minutes.
   
   To calculate you maximum heart rate use this formula:
   HRmax = 220 - age. To get the 80% you multiply the result of this formula by .8
   
   This is a safe way to get your max rate, it is generic and therefore when you get this result you use 80% of that as a sustained rate during your exercise.
   
   You can also measure your resting heart rate and that will give you an idea where you are now and if you check this weekly you can track your relative changes over time.
   
   Most healthy adults will have a resting heart rate of 60-80 BPM (Beats per Minute). Mine was 50 -55 when I was bicycling 60 miles a day over a 2000 foot mountain pass.
   
   I hope this helps, Mark

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4. 38

   ablissfulskinposted 12 years ago

   Hello,
   
   1st, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Marriage is a wonderful union between two people
   
   I'm very sorry about the anxiety and neck pain, keep your chin up and stay positive.
   
   The human body is amazing and changes a lot. From my experience, workouts need to differ, keeping the same routine won't challenge your muscles, nor push them to burn fat, (muscles burn fat). Restricting your calories intake is one thing, but burning them off is another. What works is variety, and as you already know, fruits, vegetables, and fish may work best with a workout routine. Are you able to do yoga? How about pilates? Remember to incorporate light weight lifting as well (5lbs, 8lbs) as well, losing weight by doing cardio alone won't tone you up,(I'm sure you want to tone up as well).
   
   I don't believe in scales, as a matter a fact, I never use them, because a number is just that! You should go by how you feel and look in the clothes you wish to wear.
   
   Maybe one night you can do the stationary bike, another night a brisk walk with your husband to be, the following night yoga, and the one after that pilates? Variety is key, keeping your muscles guessing is what your goal should be, this way they don't get used to the same thing. I hope this helped you a little.
   
   Congratulations again!!!!!

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5. 77

   satto61posted 12 years ago

   Hi ii3rittles,
   
   Surely you can achieve that target.
   
   I am happy that you used the words "want to slim down." It is always better to slim down than trying to lose weight. There is a difference between the two, I hope you understand that.
   
   Positive dietary changes are a must for slimming. You must substitute sprouts, salad and fruits into your diet for a positive tissue changes in muscle fibers. That will give you a feeling of strength and a sense of well being.
   
   If you are not very averse to green tea you can try that. I have enough experience with green tea to tell you that drinking green tea helps in slimming in the long run. You have to take 4/5 cups of that daily and you must know how to prepare green tea. I have an ezine article on "how to prepare a cup of green tea." http://ezinearticles.com/?Preparing-an- … id=6089242
   And lastly expect no immediate miracles.Green tea works best with some amount of exercise and in the long run.
   
   For further information on green tea, you can try at my  blog http://greentea-weightloss-tips.com.
   
   A last word in a lighter note, think - how you can do it, not whether you can do it. Stay away from number crunching, you can avoid worry and de-motivation.
   
   Wish you the very best in your endeavor of slimming and "your marriage."

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6. 60

   duffsmomposted 12 years ago

   Sounds like you have a good handle on things.  Exercise and a healthy diet--good job, that should do it.

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7. 39

   edhanposted 12 years ago

   For exercise to slim down calories, you will require to do more than 20 minutes. 20 minutes is the set point for warm-up and thereafter, it will be breaking down of fats and calories to burn. So, if you do 30 minutes, that means you have done 10 minutes of fats and calories burning.
   
   For beginner, I always recommend 30 minutes and gradually increase to 40 minutes or 45 minutes for best effect.
   
   You should be able to see result after 3 months provided you keep your goal of doing it. I have seen many gave up after a week or so.

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8. 51

   Histemicposted 12 years ago

   You should, but mix up your exercises a bit. Your body can start to adjust to your training regime if it's the same all the time. Once adjusted the body will reduce the amount of calories used to complete the exercise regime. Neat, huh?
   
   To keep the body guessing include some high repetition/low weight exercises. 15-18 reps would be best and up to 5 sets per muscle group.
   
   This kind of training won't build muscle, the reps are to high and weight is to low. It will keep your body guessing about your next exercise however. This will lead to more calories being burnt.

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9. 39

   sairakhanposted 12 years ago

   i think its not enough if you don't take diets.Without diet you can't loose much weight.

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10. 69

    chasemillisposted 12 years ago

    You will get results, but I'm not sure about how good of results. Cardio coupled with healthy eating is definitely the best way to lose weight, but doing the same exercise for two months will train your body for that one thing. You need to change it up a bit, if possible. Try swimming, running, and stair stepping in there. And if you eat less than 1500 calories a day, you're almost guaranteed to lose the weight because the body needs at least that much on a daily basis.
    
    And you could probably spend 20 minutes doing much more effective workouts without weights than the bike ride each day.

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11. 84

    Pamela N Redposted 10 years ago

    Not necessarily. Reducing calories is good but you also have to eat a healthier diet. If you eat less calories but those calories include too much refined sugar, fat or carbohydrates you might not reach your goal.
    
    There is a book called Eat Right For Your Blood Type that has helped many people. Some of us are meant to be vegetarians and some aren't.

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    1. 57

       realmepersonposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       stationary bike not good get out in the open

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12. 93

    OldRosesposted 10 years ago

    Doctors usually recommend a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise daily. Anything less, such as your 20 minutes, is not doing anything and is a waste of time. Add 10 minutes of exercise per day to get your best results.

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13. 52

    scrooge1000posted 10 years ago

    1. The higher your your basal metabolic rate (bmr), the faster you burn energy bearing molecules such as lipids (i.e fat). The task of exercise during your diet is to keep this rate up because when you go on a diet, the body turns this rate down.  To determine your bmr  go to http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm
    
    2. It is the diet that will cut into your excess adipose tissue. A pound of adipose tissue stores 3000 calories.  To lose just one pound  per week requires  reducing your calory intake by 400 calories per day. To determine the calory value of your food intake  go to http://www.calorieking.com/foods/. Use this to decide what food substitutions and reductions  to make.

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14. 84

    tehgybposted 10 years ago

    As long as your macronutrients are in check, you will lose the weight.
    
    Control your protein, carbohydrates and overall calories.
    
    Since I left the army I gained a bit or weight.
    I used an app called my fitness pal, that let me track everything. I lost the 20 lbs in a month.

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15. 90

    Carolyn M Fieldsposted 7 years ago

    There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. To take off one pound, you will need to eat 3,500 calories less, or burn off that amount, or do a combination of both. It doesn't matter if the calories come from meat, or bread, although meat will keep you from feeling hunger longer. I cover this in my hub:
    
    https://caloriebee.com/diets/How-to-Los … to-Nothing
    
    So . . . If you burn 200 calories in 20 minutes, that is 600 in an hour. So you'd need 5.8 hours to burn off one pound of fat. At 200 calories per day, that would take you over 17 days.
    
    The good news is that at 1,500 calories per day, you are probably at least 500 calories under your "maintenance" intake per day. So doing that alone will take off one pound per week.

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16. 68

    BNHookposted 6 years ago

    Coming from an exercise science and bodybuilding background, I use to live and breath this stuff. The best thing I can tell you is to begin by tracking your calories to see what you're taking in before you even change your diet. The diet comes first and has to be in line before you can start evaluating if your exercise is making any impact. Then, as other hubbers have implied, you can begin manipulation of your protein, fat and carbs.
    
    Start with high protein (nothing harmful about high protein as long as you are properly hydrated), moderate mixture of complex and simply carbs, and some healthy fats.
    
    After you've established your baseline, start dropping carbs when you reach plateaus and replacing it with a little protein to help with satiety.
    
    As far as exercise, keep it simple and short, but intense. Riding the stationary bike is useless unless you have joint issues. 20 minutes a few days a week of some high intensity cardio (treadmill, elliptical, sprints, etc) and you'll be burning fat like it's your job.

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17. 75

    Ken Burgessposted 6 years ago

    The body burns stored up energy (glucose/glycogen) during those 20 minutes, so while would help you from gaining weight, it will not impact weight loss.
    
    It takes about 45 minutes of the heart rate being above a certain level (depending on a persons age, sex, etc.) after which the body will send a signal to start burning fat and converting it to energy.

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18. 54

    KathiaAllenposted 3 years ago

    I don't think so, I know from experience that after 40 minutes you really start to burn calories, I do 20 minutes of cardio and then I do an exercise routine that takes about 20 or 30 minutes more.
    
    Before this pandemic I had almost no time but the lockdown gave me panic attacks and my psychiatrist at Southern Winds Hospital recommended doing it daily and I have felt much better physically and mentally.

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