I live in a part of the world where almost everything is dead flat. There are barely any hills and definitely aren't any mountains. The only elevated anything we have around here is this one hill and it is not particularly gruesome to ride up.
Even since I got my new fitness watch I have been paying quite close attention to what sort of workouts I end up getting with everything that I do and based on what sort of cycling exercise is simply possible where I live, it isn't really that great of an exercise if you are trying to get or stay fit.
I'm not saying that riding a bicycle isn't exercise, it clearly is, and if you work hard on purpose it can be excellent exercise. However, where I Live there are so man people that going really fast simply isn't an option and therefore, I cannot get my heart rate up to a figure that would I would easily accomplish by either swimming or running. Everyone's heart rates differ, mine is a bit on the higher side but 125 is not a good BPM for me and if i was jogging, I think I would have to walk in order to keep my BPM this low
For the most part this ride was just really relaxed and i can recall the few times that I really got my heart rate up a bit and this was chasing a red light countdown. I wanted to get through before it turned red so I really put my head down and made it, that got my heart rate up but this was just for short bursts. The rest of the time, whether I was on the bike trails or on the roads, it simply isn't possible for you to get up enough speed for this to be anything other than light exercise.
I am not suggesting that anyone not do it, Cycling, provided you don't crash is one of the safest types of exercise out there and injury doesn't often happen compared to the litany of things that can happen to runner or participants in just about any sport.
Even though I was riding for an hour (which in itself is not long enough and is part of the problemo, my watch was telling me that this is an insufficient amount of exercise and I agree with it.
So if you are trying to lose weight and cycling is what you have in mind this is something important to remember. This piece of technology actually makes getting around easier on purpose. It is specifically designed to make it so that you have to use as little effort as possible and according to the hundreds of logs that I have of all the sports that I have done, cycling is actually one of the ones that burns the least.
I'm still going to do it though because the recovery time is so short and you get a chance to visit places further away from where you live.
But I believe modern-day bicycles are designed specifically so you don't have to work very hard and it is also the parts of triathlons where the people with the most money have a tactical advantage over other people.
If you are riding for exercise, continue to do so, but you may wish to pay closer attention to your energy output after your next ride and realize that you aren't actually doing very much compared to other sports.