I lost 30 pounds on a bike without really trying. That sounds like an infomercial but hear me out.
The gym never worked for me. I’d go for three weeks, hate every second, then find excuses. The elliptical is soul-crushing. Weights are fine but I’d rather do literally anything else. And running? My knees said no after about a month.
Bought a used road bike off Craigslist. $400. Figured I’d try it, sell it if I hated it. That was six years ago.
Here’s the thing about cycling: you’re going places. Not staring at a TV bolted to a treadmill. Actually moving through space, seeing neighborhoods you’ve never been to, finding coffee shops and weird little parks. An hour disappears and you’ve burned 500 calories without noticing because you were too busy looking at stuff.
The first month I just rode around my neighborhood. Maybe 30 minutes, three times a week. Nothing heroic. I wasn’t “training” – I was just messing around on a bike like when I was twelve.
Then I started commuting. 20 minutes each way. That’s 40 minutes of exercise I don’t have to think about – it’s just how I get to work now. Some days I take the long way home. An hour ride, three or four times a week, adds up to real numbers.
Warning though: you will get hungry. Like, weirdly hungry. It’s easy to convince yourself that a 400-calorie ride justifies a 700-calorie burrito. Do that math wrong and you gain weight on a bike. Ask me how I know.
But if you keep the eating roughly sane, the weight just… goes. Slowly. You don’t notice week to week. Then you put on pants from two years ago and they’re loose and you realize oh, this actually worked.
The real trick is that I’m not “exercising.” I’m not white-knuckling through a workout I hate. I just ride my bike because it’s fun, and the fitness is a side effect. Six years in and I’m still doing it. That’s the whole secret – find the exercise you’ll actually do.
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