Exercise bike, and what to do..?!

[665748]

Hi, firstly, I'm new here, so sorry if this is in the wrong section of the forum. If it is, feel free to point me in the right direction and I'll delete this

I'm a 21 year old male, I weigh around 85kg and I'm around 5ft 11 - 6ft tall

I have become rather "big" if you were, on my chest and belly. ALL of my fat by the looks of it, has gone to my front. No fat on legs or arms. My arms are really skinny, actually.
Anyway, to the point. I am going to buy an exercise bike to put in my house. I'm 90% sure getting on this each day (every other day..? (this is what I'm here for)) will help me lose the belly and "moobs" haha. My diet is not bad, and I don't really eat too much, though I know my diet will have to change slightly to gain the right weight loss.

My question is really.. can anyone give me a little run down on how much I should be on the bike? I have never really riden before (not long distances anyway) but I feel this is my best option as I do actually like riding, and I hate running.

Should I start off with ½ hour each day for a week, and then go to 40 mins each day for a week, then 50 mins and so on..?
Should I start off with less, say, 20 mins a day?
Should I not even be on there every day? Only 5-6 days a week?


Thanks for any help that will be given, much appreciated!

 

[665748]

One other question. Is interval training more for building muscle than weight loss?

For weight loss, would it be better just to get on and not stop for x mins?


Thanks

 

[PLB_old]

Hey, welcome to the forum!

How much you "should" be on the bike to lose weight is really dependent on your overall daily caloric intake and the number of calories your body burns each day through both basal metabolic rate and energy expenditure through physical activity. The current ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) guidelines for just maintaining your current health status is 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week (in other words, about 30 mins 5 days per week). If you need to lose weight, it's likely going to take more than that. You might find that even though you start exercising, you may or may not lose weight. If you don't lose weight, you either have to cut down the daily calories a bit, exercise more, or a combination of both. Just to avoid injury from the repetitive motion, I would maybe start with every other day at most, to give your body some recovery time in between cycling workouts.

That being said, I can't emphasize enough the importance of strength training. A full-body strength workout 3 days per week is normally recommended. You should start light, but gradually work towards lifting heavier weights.

Here are a couple of threads to read through:

http://training.fitness.com/weight-training/weight-training-101-a-18766.html

http://training.fitness.com/young-athlete-development/young-athlete-development-program-50627.html

As for the question about interval training... interval training does not build muscle, but doing high intensity intervals can help to preserve muscle mass better than steady state cardio. Here's a good read here that'll explain it in more detail: http://training.fitness.com/interval-training/hitt-explained-18503.html

Hope that helps a bit