Research shows that sitting for extended periods of time throughout your day can be just as damaging to your health as smoking or having an unhealthy diet. Your body needs to move in order to stay healthy. When you don’t move all day, you have a higher risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, and anxiety.
Now that we have your attention, bike desks can help you lose weight. More importantly, they can help you stay healthy, which will inevitably result in you reaching your fitness goals. The reason bike desks keep you healthy is simple: they keep you moving throughout your day.
Additionally, you don’t have to sacrifice your productivity. In fact, if you’re concerned about what your boss might say, tell them exercising while at work has actually shown to improve productivity, not hinder it.
The tight-knit team at Lifespan Fitness cares about your health. We don’t just care about numbers on a scale (although those can be useful indicators of good health). We care about your lifestyle and whether you feel energetic and accomplished throughout your day.
In this article, we’re explaining how bike desks can help you lose weight and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Remember, weight loss and improving your health doesn’t have to be complex. It can be as simple as using a bike desk for half an hour every day. Continue reading to learn why.
What Is a Bike Desk?
A bike desk is simply a machine you place under your desk so you can ride while you’re at work. These devices combine energy output with work output, stimulating your brain with an influx of oxygen and ensuring you stay sharp throughout your day. When you don’t have time to sit in traffic and wait in lines at the gym, and when work demands your full attention, under desk bikes are excellent resources to keep your blood pumping.
Do Desk Bikes Burn Calories?
People might be skeptical of the idea of working out at the office. They might think it’s too difficult to burn calories at the office or that it won’t be worth it to use an under desk bike. However, one of the most appealing aspects of an under desk bike is its simple design. Under desk bikes have no handlebars, so they aren’t cumbersome.
When answering whether under desk bikes can burn calories, the obvious answer is yes. How many calories under desk bikes can burn is another question that depends on your age, weight, and the level of intensity of your exercise. Researchers at the University of Iowa discovered that under desk bike participants typically pedal between a third of a mile and 13.5 miles per day. It takes an average of an hour to bike 13.5 miles. That means you can burn up to 500 calories in just an hour at work. So, the question is not whether under desk bikes can burn calories. It’s how many calories you choose to burn using your Lifespan Fitness under desk bike.
Do Under Desk Bikes Work Muscles?
Under desk bikes don’t just help you burn calories. They also provide resistance to strengthen your muscles. Your quadriceps, hamstrings, and your calves are the primary muscle groups you work while using an under desk bike but you will also work your core stabilizers because they are what keeps you balanced as you pedal.
Will a Bike Desk Kill Productivity?
A study published by the National Library of Medicine found that under desk bikes positively affect cognition. So, not only will under desk bikes help you burn calories and in turn, lose weight. They will improve your work productivity, getting you one step closer to that promotion you’ve been working toward.
Desk Cycles for Home Use
Even if you don’t have enough time throughout the day to take a 14-mile bike ride at the office, under desk bikes also work as at-home fitness applications. If you don’t get the full calorie burn you were hoping for during the day, you can simply pick up where you left off after work. The beauty of under desk bikes is their simplicity and portability. Simply move the under desk bike into your at-home fitness room and start pedaling.
Desk Cycles for Seniors
Under desk bikes are the perfect option for seniors who have limited mobility. Traditional exercise bikes can be challenging to climb onto. Under desk bikes can be as simple as recumbent bikes and provide seniors (or anyone with joint mobility issues) an accessible exercise opportunity that improves muscle strength, coordination, and circulation. In fact, physical therapists often use under desk bikes for their patients.
How to Lose Weight With a Bike Desk
Modify Your Diet
When trying to lose weight with any exercise machine, you’ll want to focus on more than just the number of calories you burn. While it’s true that in order to lose weight, you need to attain a daily caloric deficit, you also want to focus on the quality of the calories you intake. Adjusting your diet is an important component of burning calories and losing weight. That doesn’t change with under desk bikes.
Gradually Increase Intensity
Another way to ensure you lose weight by using your under desk bike is by gradually increasing (or varying) your intensity level. For example, cycling at 5.5 mph for one hour per day will result in a 160 lb person burning off a lb of fat in twelve days. For a 200-lb person it would take around 10 days.
Increasing the tension on the machine, decreasing the time you spend per mile, and increasing your intensity is one of the easiest ways to accelerate weight loss. Interval training, a form of training in which you fluctuate your intensity to confuse your metabolic systems and burn more calories, is an effective way to break out of plateaus.
Further Scientific Reference
In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers provided office workers with under desk bikes for 16 weeks. They found improvements in the study participants’ weight, total fat mass, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. Additionally, the researchers found that the participants burned an extra 107 calories each day, adding up to 500 calories a week.
Lifespan Fitness Is Your Under Desk Training Partner
There’s no reason to fret if you have a desk job and you put in long hours. You just need to make sure you stay healthy. Using an under desk bike is an easy, productive, and healthy way to burn calories while you’re at work.
At Lifespan Fitness, we understand the nature of fitness is changing. With occurrences such as COVID-19 and the continual decrease of active labor jobs, we need to get more creative with our workouts. Under desk bikes are only one of the many ways we’re seeking to revolutionize at-home and at-work fitness.
Browse our selection of at-home and at-work fitness equipment to start achieving your fitness goals today.
