Electric scooters, also known as e-scooters, have been a staple addition to many major cities encouraging people to utilize public transportation, walk more, and provide an accessible way to quickly get around the city. Along with the ease of transportation enabled by e-scooters, there are some associated health benefits of using these devices.
You can lose weight by riding an e-scooter in combination with a healthy diet and lifestyle. The control required to operate an e-scooters engages various muscle groups in the body making it a great low-impact exercise that can assist weight loss and increase muscle strength.
Typically, e-scooters are set up on a ride-share system and because they are made by various companies, you simply need to have the respective app of the company to locate and rent an e-scooter. Along with being an environmentally friendly option to get around quickly, e-scooters are also body friendly.
What are The Conditions Needed for Weight Loss?
If you are looking to lose weight, you will find that most doctors say that there needs to be a combination of factors in play to improve the overall health of the body. The goal of weight loss should never be weight loss in and of itself but an improvement to your quality of life.
To lose weight effectively and healthfully, the following factors need to be at play.
A Sense of Readiness and Intrinsic Motivation for Weight Loss
Oftentimes, those looking to lose weight will implement sudden, extreme changes to their diet or exercise regimen to drop weight quickly however this method is likely to fail as it cannot be sustained. You will want to ensure you are ready to make sustainable lifestyle and diet changes to evoke and maintain weight loss.
Weight loss also happens successfully when you are intrinsically motivated as opposed to extrinsically motivated. The goal should be to attain longevity and health for your body and mind, not just improvement to your external appearance.
If you are unsure where you stand in terms of weight loss, consult a doctor, dietician, and psychological therapist to ensure your source of motivation is coming from a place that can be sustained for you.
Set Realistic Goals to Achieve Weight Loss
Fitness is a long-term journey and to rush it can be dangerous for the mind and body. It is unwise to expect your body to lose 10 pounds in one week and your body will struggle to maintain that type of drastic change.
A healthy weight loss goal is to lose 1 or 2 pounds per week. One way to achieve this is to burn more calories than what is consumed and a doctor or fitness specialist can help you work out what your diet and fitness levels should be based on your body type to safely lose weight.
Eating Healthier to Lose Weight
While a healthy diet consists of everything in moderation, weight loss can be initiated by cutting back on processed sugars, fats, and eating less meat. Be sure to increase your intake of fruit and vegetables to keep you feeling full. Eating a well-balanced diet that is still full of flavor and variety can help you maintain your body goals.
Staying Active to Lose Weight
It is recommended that people get 30 minutes of physical activity daily to maintain physical fitness. This can include low-intensity exercises like walking or using an e-scooter or high-intensity exercises like cardio and weight training. As is the case with diet, start with an exercise regimen that is sustainable for you and build up from there.
How Do E-Scooters Impact Weight Loss?
Because using an e-scooter engages your whole body from push off to maintaining your balance and steering of it, it is a fantastic low impact form of activity to strengthen your muscles and burn calories which equate to weight loss in combination.
E-scooters also boost activity in the way they get you out of the house requiring you to walk to and from the e-scooter. Caloric burn increases on e-scooters as well with a study showing that 45 minutes on an e-scooter equates to 350 calories burned.
To keep your balance on a scooter and successfully make turns and maneuvers with it, your core muscles are activated. Engaging and strengthening your muscles causes them to burn fat more effectively than if they were not engaged thus changing the body composition of fat and muscle.
Please note, that when you start exercising in ways that engage and build any muscles in your body, you may gain weight before losing weight. Muscle weighs more than fat but is leaner and healthier for the body. The composition of your body and its muscle to fat ratio is more of a health indicator than the number on your scale simply increasing or decreasing.
Other Health Benefits of Using an E-Scooter
Along with increasing caloric burn and increasing muscle engagement to burn fat, using an e-scooter has a few other notable health benefits.
Using an E-Scooter Improves Your Balance
Because your core muscles need to be engaged to balance and maneuver an e-scooter, it also improves your body’s ability to balance itself on and off the e-scooter. This is because the strength your body needs while riding the e-scooter stays with your body for a while after being on the scooter and can be maintained with regular e-scooter use or other forms of physical activity.
Using an E-Scooter Improves Your Posture
Similar to the improvement of balance, your posture is likely to improve with the engagement of the same muscles in your core that also encourage your body to hold itself upright. It can be hard to control an e-scooter with poor posture and with use over time, the body seeks to default to good posture to operate an e-scooter well (and safely).
Using an E-Scooter Improves Your Coordination and Sense of Direction
While riding an e-scooter, steering, changing direction, and changing speed all require your full attention and good coordination between your body and mind. Missing any of these steps can result in injury however, the more your use an e-scooter, the more your body adjusts to it. This coordination remains in your muscle memory improving coordination when you are not using an e-scooter as well, thus improving your overall wellbeing.
Final Thoughts
Not only are e-scooters eco-friendly, cost-effective, easy to use and a readily accessible transport method, they also improve the health and well-being of your body and mind. The health benefits are not just limited to the time you are using an e-scooter but also between uses as well. In combination with a well-balanced diet and regular physical activity, e-scooters can be an added boost to your overall health.
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