Netherlands: Ride your bike
Bikes outnumber people (at 18 million versus 16.5 million) in the Netherlands. While just 1.2 percent of work trips in Canada are made by bicycle, 40 percent of the Dutch use their bikes for commuting. Traffic lights in some parts of Amsterdam are even synchronized to bike speed. While most Canadians have to deal with winter conditions, riding bikes in good weather for errands, work or pleasure can help fend off weight gain.
"Casual riding for errands and commuting can burn around 500 calories an hour, but if you up the exertion or add in hill-climbing, you can burn up to 1,000 calories an hour," says Stephen Cheung, an exercise physiologist at Brock University, who commutes by bike—a 34-kilometre round trip—nine months of the year.
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