How?

Burn off calories with a cycle ride - as gentle as you want. There's no need to wear special clothes or build up a sweat - you're not in the Tour de France.

Just get the cycling habit when the weather's fit (it doesn't rain all the time, you know, and there are such things as waterproofs) - you'll soon be addicted to it and can forget the diet.

And if you are an employee, take advantage of the UK's Cycle to Work scheme to get a discounted bicycle.

Why?

Ordinary cycling uses around five times the calories of sitting around (1 calorie per minute is used for sitting; 5 calories per minute for leisurely cycling*).

• 15 minutes pedalling = an extra 45 calories used.
• 15 minutes every day = an extra 315 extra calories used up a week.

And that's around one and a half ounces lost. Which adds up to 6 ounces in a month - nearly half a pound lost without going near that expensive gym for those time-consuming and boring exercises!

Speed up to around 12 miles (19 km) per hour, and you're looking at extra 100 calories used in 15 minutes (that's 700 calories over a week, making it 12 ounces lost in a month).

Really start pushing those pedals to 16 miles (26 km) per hour, or puff up a few more hills, and you'll be burning up 125 calories in those 15 minutes (do this every day and that's 875 in a week, which means a pound lost in one month).

Want to lose a pound a week? Then you need to use 3,500 extra calories, which works out at 500 every day. So you'll need to cycle fast for an hour a day - or cycle slower for longer. Your choice.

*see below for calorie calculations

Where?

• Explore a few back streets or quiet lanes around your home or workplace - be nosy - see what houses are for sale, whose garden is the best, find shortcuts to the shops, school or work.
• Pick up a few things from the local shops (if you haven't got panniers, put your shopping in a basket on the front or bungee a small rucksack to the rear rack).
• Pop round to a friend's, or meet at a cafe or pub.
• Go to the swimming pool.
• Nip to the library. While in the library, ask them about local cycle routes using quiet roads, ex-railway lines and so on.
• Ask them about any local leisure/family cycling groups/events too. Or start your own. Or join the University of the Third Age's local cycling group. Look at Sustran's webpage 'Get Cycling' for routes in your area.
• Look at maps of your area and devise your own routes that pass places that interest you.
• Walk your children to school and wheel your bike, so you can ride home quickly.
• Cycle to school with your children - there are child seats for bikes, kiddie trailers, towed child bikes (towed by the adultl) and child-sized bicycles.
• Cycle to work, school, college, university. Too far? Then cycle part-way to a bus stop and lock up the bike there.
• Or cycle to the railway station and lock it up there, or put it on the train so you can ride at the other end. Problems of bike theft? Ride old unfashionable bikes that won't attract thieves - leave one at your bus stop/railway station and keep another locked up at your destination.

When?

Any day - there's always an excuse to cycle. For short journeys, it's usually much quicker and less stressful than waiting for a bus, or finding a place to park the car. And it's much quicker than walking too.

Weekends - find somewhere near your home or a railway station to visit - a farmer's market, a pub, a restuarant, somewhere that interests you and your companions. Then pedal off and make a day of it. Saturdays are best - everyone's at the supermarket or watching a match on the the TV - so the roads are usually quieter.

Holidays - there are loads of cycle routes (on and off road) in every area, here and abroad. Ask at the local library, cycle shop or tourist information centre.

*Calorie calculations

A rule of thumb: Burn off 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat.

Calories or kilocalories?: We should say kilocalories really, but most people don't.

Guesstimation: Activities and intensity of effort are difficult to define, so it's difficult to generalise. Also, age, gender, weight and proportion of body fat/muscle all affect an individual's burn rate of calories. Unfairly, muscle uses more calories than fat - but that's an incentive to get fitter to benefit even more from exercise.

Online calculators:

We used these two sites to arrive at the calorie figures above, based on a female weighing 8 stone.

www.caloriesperhour.com bases its calculations on figures (i.e. METS, which are metabolic equivalents) quoted by Ainsworth BE, et al. Compendium of Physical Activities: An update of activity codes and MET intensities. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2000;32 (Suppl):S498-S516.

www.healthstatus.com bases its calculations on the Healthier People self-assessment project by the Carter Center, Emory University, USA.