Spin Bike Workouts vs HIIT: Which Is Better For Weight Loss?

In the past year, home gym equipment has become more popular than ever. The covid-19 pandemic forced gyms and studios to shut down to help stop the spread of the virus, and with enforced restrictions on personal movement, those who enjoy a good workout or simply like to keep fit have been forced to find other ways of exercising.

Thus, the home gym became a more commonplace feature of many homes. That this is a good thing cannot be overlooked, for while there are some items of equipment that cannot be successfully installed in a garage, basement or spare room, they are very few. Most basic and even advanced equipment can easily be found in the home.

In this article we will be looking at two methods of working out to lose weight: the spin bike workout, and HIIT training. Which is best for you? Let’s get started.

What are the Benefits of Spin Bike Workouts?

So, what is a spin bike exactly? If you’ve seen adverts on TV in the past few years you will have seen one for a product called ‘Peloton’. It was the first of a breed of connected cycling machines. Connected, that is, to the internet and able to record and analyse data from your performance.

The success of Peloton, who capitalized cleverly on the pandemic, led to further brands entering the market. Fit Healthy Momma wrote a vs. article comparing Stryde to MYX and Echelon that tells you a lot about three new models that each have their own features and functions that make them stand out. But is a spin bike a great way to lose weight?

It’s worth considering the difference between a spin bike session and cycling outdoors: the former is an intense workout over a short period in which you aim to reach a certain level, while the latter will be a longer yet less intense form of exercise. Hence, while a spin bike workout will help you lose weight, cycling in the traditional way may not.

Put it this way: an average spin bike session of 45 minutes, for example, will burn 400 to 600 calories. It will also boost your metabolism and help tone the muscles. There are some things you can do to make a spin bike session more effective.

For example, eating a banana before you work out can help burn more calories, due to what is known as the thermic effect. This occurs when there are calories added to burn. You should also eat not long after your workout as your metabolism will still be acting and giving it more calories to burn helps with weight loss.

It’s also recommended that, during your spin bike session, you vary the pace and intensity. This helps improve your oxygen consumption after your session, and the body will continue to burn calories. This is the same effect as interval training in which you change the pace of your workout.

So, spin bike training can help with weight loss, but we should say it is not ideal to carry it out as the sole weight loss routine you use. This is because it is a specific training that will take effect on some parts of the body, but not on others. Let’s not have a look at HIIT training, what it’s all about, and how it compares to spin bike sessions when we are talking about burning calories and losing weight.

What are the Benefits of HIIT Training?

If you’re not familiar with HIIT here’s our brief explanation of what it’s all about. HIIT is ‘High Intensity Interval Training’. It is a cardiovascular workout technique that involves highly intense, yet short bursts of exercise followed by less intense workouts, or even a short rest period. The entire HIIT routine should be continued until the individual enduring it feels they have reached their limit.

This is largely because they have! Most HIIT training workouts are designed for weight loss and muscle gain. The similarities between HIIT and spin bike workouts in which the rider performs alternating short sessions of first high speed then slower and more relaxed sessions mixed together, the effect being the more effective release of oxygen into the bloodstream and burning of calories.

An HIIT session would usually consist of a series of different exercises that are put together by a trainer specifically for an individual, and thanks to the aim of burning calories and the effects of increasing oxygen flow to the blood, the metabolism will continue to burn calories after the event, so adding to the effectiveness of the HIIT routine as a weight loss regime.

It’s also worth noting that HIIT training will work on different muscles in the body to the spin bike routine. This is why it is not recommended for one to be exclusive, and perhaps a mix of spin bike training and HIIT to be your regular choice.

So what do we think is the answer to the question in the title? To be honest we think we’ve answered it in the above paragraph, so to conclude let’s look briefly at each method again in relation to them being performed in the home, which may help you decide.

Which is Best for Weight Loss: HIIT or Spin Bikes?

As we mentioned above, both HIIT training and spin bike sessions make a great choice of effective and attainable weight loss routines. However, for the home, we believe the spin bike is a better option. If you are on a limited budget and want to equip a home gym, there is no doubt that a spin bike will be a good investment. This is a device that can be used by all the family – and not just for intense sessions – alongside other exercises such as resistance training to lose weight and keep in trim.

Each of the spin bikes in the review we linked to offers great capability and takes up little space, so check them out in more detail now and buy an exercise machine that you will benefit from.