How to Ride a Stationary Bike to Burn Belly Fat

Churning your legs on a stationary bike is more likely to help you lose an extra belly bulge than crunching your abs. Exercise, especially cardio, helps you lose visceral fat that resides in the deep belly and gain lean muscle. A consistent program that weaves both steady-state riding and intervals into your week burns calories and stimulates fat-burning so you get slimmer

If you're new to exercise, the Arthritis Foundation suggests riding for five minutes three times a day. Build up to a regular routine of stationary cycling to lose weight that includes a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio, five to six times per week. Do this moderate-intensity work by pedaling a stationary bike at an effort that raises your heart rate to between 50 percent and 70 percent of your maximum.

Another way of determining workout intensity is by using the "talk test" suggested by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans . If you can talk but not sing, your workout can be considered moderate. If you need to take a breath every few words, then it's intense.

If you can't commit 30 straight minutes to stationary biking, you can break it up into 10-minute intervals and still gain benefit to your health and burn calories to help reduce belly fat.

Read more: 7 Reasons to Do Moderate-Intensity Exercise More Often

Using a stationary bike for weight loss means you have choices. Once you can manage regular moderate-paced riding, work a little harder at a few of your weekly pedaling sessions.

When you pedal your bike, increase the level or resistance you use at two of your workouts. Go for 20 to 30 minutes at this higher intensity that raises your heart rate to about 75 to 85 percent of your maximum. You'll be left huffing and puffing and build up quite a sweat, but the effort will be worth it when you see your girth go down.

Steady-state exercise gets you started with fat loss, while high-intensity intervals turn up your fat-burning engine. The American Council on Exercise suggests that interval training burns more calories in less time and increases the production of fat-burning hormones.

Every workout you do shouldn't involve HIIT, or high-intensity interval training. Consider doing two to three HIIT workouts on the bike per week, using these in the place of steady high-intensity workouts. Other days should still consist of moderate-intensity pedaling, or you'll risk burn out.

To perform intervals on a stationary bike: