EUROBIKE 2018

•••9••• Innovationen J ump on the bike and enjoy the morning ride to work. If you are overweight and inactive you can lose fat mass just as effec- tively and fast by starting to take the bike to work as by exercising in a fitness centre. This is the con- clusion of a study done by the De- partment of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. “This is good news to the many overweight people who may not have the time or inclination to join a fitness centre, because they also have to pick up their children and cook dinner after work. Our results show that it is possible to combine transport to and from work with effective physical ex- ercise,” says Professor Bente Stallknecht, Head of Department. The study involved 130 over- weight people with a BMI of 25-35 kg/m2. A criterion for participat- ing in the study was they were not too active or muscular based on a series of parameters like body fat percentage, maximum oxygen up- take and level of physical activity. The participants were divided into four groups. One had to ride the bike to and from work. Two other groups had to do physical exercise five times a week, one at high intensity, the other at mod- erate intensity. The last group could make no changes and thus functioned as the control group. The groups that cycled and were physically active during their leisure time burned the same amount of calories a week during these activities; only the intensity and form of physical exercise var- ied. Throughout the test – using among others the heart rate mon- itors – the researchers checked that the participants met the re- quirements and did the physical exercise they were asked to do. After six months all groups, ex- cept for the control group, had less fat mass. The fat mass had been reduced by 4.5 kg (com- pared to the control group) in the group doing high-intensity leisure time exercise, by 2.6 kg in the group doing moderate-intensity leisure time exercise and by 4.2 kg in the group riding the bike to work. The difference between the three physically active groups was only statistically significant between the two groups doing leisure time exercise. “All forms of physical exercise are better than the control group, but high- intensity exercise is statistically better than moderate-intensity exercise. And riding the bike to and from work is at least as effec- tive a means for reducing fat mass as exercising during your leisure time,” says Research Assistant Jo- nas Salling Quist. Facts about the study The 130 participants of the study were randomly divided into four groups: a cycling group, two lei- sure time exercise groups doing high-intensity and moderate-in- tensity physical exercise, respec- tively, and a control group. The participants were 20-45 years old, lived in Greater Copenhagen and had a BMI of 25-35 kg/m2. The cycling group participants cycled an average of 14 kilometres per day. The high-intensity group ex- ercised 35 minutes per day and the moderate-intensity group ex- ercised 55 minutes per day. High-intensity exercise was de- fined as 70 per cent of the maxi- mum oxygen uptake, while mod- erate-intensity exercise was 50 per cent. The duration of the ex- ercise was six months, and the participants were asked to exer- cise five times a week. The energy expenditure doing leisure time exercise and cycling measured in kcal per week was the same in all three intervention groups. Go by bike to work and reduce your fat mass Researchers at University of Copenhagen state that cycling is just as effective as leisure time exercise Just by riding the bike to work instead of doing exercises in the fitness centre, overweight people can fight obesity. Photo: Roman Koester on Unsplash 8.7 - 10.7. 2018 Besuchen Sie uns am Stand A2-212 www.eal-vertrieb.com Die dritte Generation Premium erweiterbar für ein drittes Fahrrad kompakt und in 3 Schritten einsatzbereit