Why am I losing more weight cycling than running?
I used to routinely run about 35 minutes each day. This was interval style running with 30 second sprints every 7 minutes or so. I kept this up for about 2 years. My stamina increased greatly doing this, but I didn't loose any weight.
Recently, I've cut out the running and started to cycle to work, which is 20 mins each way, and in only 2 months I have lost heaps of weight.
Although I do do 5 mins more exercise on the bike, I would have thought that running would be a more intensive work out, what with supporting your own weight more and not coasting.
I'm just curious: is there any reason why cycling seems more effective for me?
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The lower intensity of cycling could be promoting more fat burning vs. glucose burning from the high intensity running. LiveStrong
One of the main factors, aside from diet, that influences the ratio of fat burning to carb burning is exercise intensity. At low intensities your body will turn to fat for energy, but as you start to train harder, it will switch to burning more glycogen, notes Dr. Edward Coyle of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.
You're also working out twice a day instead of once; that could be having an effect as well. Have you noticed a change in cravings or eating patterns? Do you think you're eating more, less, about the same?
Yes, it's called the principle of specificity (or specific adaptation to imposed demand, SAID), essentially, your body will adapt to demands placed upon it, so if you run in a certain way every day for 2 years, your body will be very well adapted to it and more efficient at doing it, greater efficiency means less work means less calories being burned.
Cycling to work, although a lower intensity workout, is something your body isn't used to, so it hasn't adapted to it, learned the most efficient way to do it, so it burning more energy.
A great example of this is opposite to your situation, but is when Lance Armstrong ran the New York marathon. His body was very well adapted for cycling and performed it with amazing efficiency, but when it came to running, the efficiency wasn't there.
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