Will an exercise bike help loose weight, not gain muscle?
Macca, Dora and Rob are right; how you use the bike will affect what it does to your legs. If you ‘KICK’ the pedals, working really hard to turn them against strong resistance, then the exercise is a bit like working with heavy weights. This will build some extra muscle. (Any fat you have on your legs will ‘smooth’ the shape of this new muscle mass, so you won’t necessarily look ‘bulky’.) If you ‘SPIN’ the pedals, working (GENTLY) at high RPM against light resistance, you will be able to keep going for a long period of time and burn fat off. Working harder at high speed is a waste of time, because the extra effort ONLY burns extra sugar (NOT fat), and makes you tired and hungry. Burning off fat CAN make your legs look ‘buky’ or ‘blokey’, because the shape of your leg muscles will become more visible if you have less fat to conceal them.
