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news
London cyclists at traffic lights (copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk).jpgStudy: Cycling daily reduces obesity - unless it's an e-bike
A study of travel habits in seven European cities has found that people who ride their bikes daily have the lowest body mass index (BMI) of any class of transport user – unless the bicycle in question is an electric one, in which case they rank second only to motorists in terms of obesity levels.
The study was published in the journal Environment International under the title Transport mode choice and body mass index: Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from a European-wide study.
It was conducted as part of the Physical Activity through Sustainable Transport Approaches (PASTA) project, which is funded by the European Commission.
Among the findings of the study, which focused on Vienna, Zurich, Antwerp, Barcelona, Örebro, Rome and the London Borough of Newham were that people riding an e-bike had a higher BMI than those riding conventional bicycles.
Riders of e-bikes also scored higher than pedestrians, people who use public transport and motorcyclists, and the only group they had a lower BMI than was car drivers.
The authors of the study, which was led by researchers at Hasselt University in Belgium, called on governments to make cities more bike-friendly, pointing out that as well as helping combat obesity, that would also reduce air pollution.
The study, which analysed the habits of more than 2,000 people in the surveyed cities, found that men switching from cars to bicycles for daily travel lost an average of 0.75 kilograms in weight, with their BMI falling by 0.24. Results among female respondents were slightly lower.
Co-author Dr Audrey de Nazelle of the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said: “Travel by car contributes to obesity and also air pollution. In contrast, bikes burn fat and don’t release pollution.
“As well as promoting better health, cities that encourage cycling are giving themselves a better chance of meeting air quality objectives.”
Even when people only cycled occasionally, for example to on the odd commute or to run errands, the study found that they were able to maintain their BMI.
Lead author Dr Evi Dons of Hasselt University commented: “In this way, cycling prevents overweight people from gaining additional weight and it prevents those who are of normal weight from becoming overweight or obese.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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46 comments
Were the car drivers driving to the gym?
The mere fact they used BMI as a gauge of anything to me proves this research isn't worth much.
BMI is an effective statistical gauge when discussing populations. Since its inception however, other measures have arisen which tend to be more effective. It has very little relevance to discussing idividuals
Not in this situation when you have cycling involved.
people who cycle/exersice a fair bit and develop extra muscle mass often show up as having higher BMI numbers, this distorts the results massively. That's why the use of BMI in these instances is bogus and inaccurate as a measure population wise, groups of people that are used for comparison to health or for individuals, the disparity in the accuracy is too widespread and within the groups themselves, even those that don't exercise/partake in the comparison acctivity.
This is reflected in the very low weight differential of 0.8kg, think about it.
BMI is actually pretty good at identifying those who are obese.
95% of men and 99% of women with a BMI over 30 are obese.
At a population level it is accurate enough.
I would also argue that road cycling does not tend to lead to a heavily muscled body shape that would render BMI inaccurate.
Compare professional road cyclists to professional rugby players as an example.
Agreed - when I was playing a lot of rugby and doing a lot of gym work I was firmly in the "overweight" category - not that far from "obese". At the time I was one of these outliers. However, since I stopped playing rugby and have mostly just been cycling I have dropped back into the "healthy" category. It wouldn't be possible for me to put the weight back on while just cycling without eating a massive amount and, er, getting a bit fat. Track sprinters get big from the gym, not from cycling.
One of the BMX racer guys I know is definitely on the large side. I've no idea what his BMI is, but I'm certain he'd be classed as obese. But he's extremely fit and extremely fast and wins a lot of races.
So yes, BMI gives an indication of someone's weight, but might not take into account the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. As others pointed out, rugby players in particuar often would be classed as obese, when their fitnes reveals them to be anything but.
Sort of missing the point, e-bikes are not about attempting to get fit for no effort. They are, in the context of this study, about providing a practical and less environmentally damaging alternative to meet the needs of mass urban transport.
Whilst nothing is without potential for some negative impact, and aside from the certainty that some people are arseholes and some of them will be arseholes with e-bikes, the very fact that more people can access cycling via an e-bike has the effect of making cycle infrastructure to support that choice a higher priority for the authorities responsible for that aspect of urban planning.
But is it the ebike that makes you unfit or the unfit that makes you ebike?!
Somehow I don’t think it’s lean racing snakes abandoning their road bike to buy an electric hybrid and a bag of donuts.
As has been pointed out, not exactly news, but a little scientific verification never hurts, does it?
The BBC have a prog on R4 about health, and although I've heard many of the episodes, not once have they mentioned the health benefits of cycling, not even the recent one about obesity. Incredible, but then, they have been promoting helmets for thirty years, so it's obvious that they just hate cyclists.
Though the R4 prog on statistics -"More or Less" - did do an episode discussing the health benefits of cycling. Oddly, as I remember it, the claim was that an hour of cycling adds an hour to your life expectancy, which surely can't be right as it would mean if you never got off the bike you could live forever (anyone prepared to try and test that?)
That would be the same "More or Less" which looked a cycle helmets a few years ago, and for the only time in the prog's history, didn't look at the data, only interviewed helmet zealots and allowed the presenter to air their pro-helmet views? Not exactly as unbiased and impartial as the BBC's charter mandates. In fact, they are lying shitbags.
The motorcyclist bit is interesting though.
And wouldn't mind knowing more about the public transport users and where they come in the list.
OXIT!
Not really a surprise tbh...
+ (All my fingers and toes)
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