Is Soulcycle/Flywheel/Spinning effective for weight loss?

January 13, 2015 2:58 PM

I got a few free classes to a spinning class (Flywheel, its like Soulcycle) and I was trying to figure out whether it was an effective form of exercise for weight loss. Is it effective and would I feel out of place as a guy?
posted by touareg to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

I've been to Flywheel classes in NY probably a dozen times and there are always at least a few men in the classes (and about 50% of the team, a male teacher), though there has always been more women than men. I don't think you'd feel out of place as a guy if you are interested in a cycling class generally.
posted by Caz721 at 3:10 PM on January 13, 2015

Flywheel tends to have more men than Soulcycle, but at both there are always at least a couple of guys. It's definitely a good workout for weight loss! Give it a try.
posted by telegraph at 3:16 PM on January 13, 2015

Spinning is a good workout for cardiovascular fitness and endurance. Like any cardio exercise, it will only be beneficial for weight loss if you can resist the urge to eat more that moderate to intense exercise produces.

In 2012, I bicycled over 2000 miles and gained 10 pounds. From January 2013 to December 2014, I lost 65 pounds by continuing to exercise (a bit more, in fact) and counting calories (I used MyFitnessPal's website and app).

The main benefit of exercise for losing weight is that it lets you eat more food while still losing at a reasonable rate. I am much happier eating 2000 calories a day and burning 500 in exercise than I am eating 1500 calories a day without exercising.

A few sayings that float around fitness and weight loss communities:

"You can't outrun a bad diet."
"You get fit in the gym, but you lose weight in the kitchen."
"You diet to look good in clothes. You exercise to look good naked."

Take your pick!
posted by brianogilvie at 4:02 PM on January 13, 2015 [12 favorites]

I have a friend who is a spinning instructor. A guy in her class burned 750 calories in 45 minutes, which is just insane. Your metabolism may vary, of course, and it all depends on your current weight, height, age, and (most importantly) how far you push yourself, but... yeah, you'll burn some serious calories spinning.

It's hellish, though. I don't know anyone who does it for fun.
posted by joebakes at 5:56 PM on January 13, 2015

I spin for fun. It's a pretty efficient way to get a serious workout. For weight loss, yeah you have to be careful not to eat back the calories. But like objectively hellish, no it is not.
posted by zutalors! at 7:02 AM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like spinning a lot, and I feel like it falls somewhere between doing elliptical/treadmill on my own (which often ends up fairly low exertion, depending on the day) and a kickboxing class (which more than kicks my butt) in terms of energy exertion/calorie burn. As others have said, any exercise can be hit or miss when it comes to weight loss. But if the question is whether it's a strenuous workout, I would vote yes.
posted by rainbowbrite at 9:57 AM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]

Can you rephrase the question? By definition anything can be "effective" for weight loss if the energy (KCal) you expend doing it is enough to bring you into negative energy balance.
posted by tiburon at 10:09 AM on January 14, 2015 [1 favorite]