Indoor cycling and mild calorie restriction improve health profile

A sedentary lifestyle is a behavior clearly identified with an unfavorable lipid profile and being overweight or obese. Exercise and diet are often recommended for weight loss and to improve cardiovascular health, but many people don’t know where to start. Here researchers find clear and beneficial results testing a specific protocol that modestly decreases calories by 175-200 kcal/day and requires moderate intensity exercise (55-85% HR max) on an indoor bike for 45-minutes, 3 times/week.

Researchers from the Human Biomechanics Laboratory at the Universidade Castelo Branco, Brazil published an article concluding that modest calorie restriction and moderate exercise can result in weight loss and improve blood lipid profile. Forty young and overweight women participated in the 12-week study.

The message is clear that diet with calorie restriction (1200 kcal/week) and indoor cycling (three 45-minutes sessions/week) proved to be an excellent strategy to reduce weight and improve blood lipid/cholesterol profile.

Read an abstract of the article here.