Start off your day, and you have two quandaries: to mount your bike or pound the pavement?

Let's cut through the fluff and get to the heart of the matter – both cycling and walking provide excellent forms of exercise, but with a slight twist. Cycling, usually regarded as the higher intensity workout of the two, tends to burn more calories on flat grounds. However, factors like speed, exertion, incline, and even your existing weather-vane weight affect the calorie-burning potential.

Adding the element of resistance to your stationary bike or cranking up the gears of your outdoor bicycle can crank up the challenge, leading you to burn more calories. The same rule applies to hiking up a hill on foot or by bike. Now the question is, where does 'intense' workforce your body falls?

When your heart rate and breathing increase, and you break into a profuse, unflattering sweat while walking briskly (at approximately 3 mph), congratulations, you've reached moderate workout intensity! Meanwhile, cycling under 10mph is typically deemed moderate intensity, which becomes vigorous with increased speed and incline.

It's time to start reading your body's signals, people! One way to do this is to pay attention to how much you can talk during your workout. Limited talking means you're hitting that moderate or vigorous exercise intensity sweet spot. Use fitness monitors, smartwatches, and heart rate monitors if you have trust issues with your own body.

Both aerobic activities flex and strengthen those hard-to-reach slow-twitch muscle fibers of your lower body--especially helpful when pedaling a bike or boosting one foot after the other without feeling like you've just run a marathon.

Building these slow-twitch muscles boosts your endurance during cardio workouts. Even more, sweaty cycling sessions on uneven terrain or challenging your stationary bike resistance can engage your fast-twitch muscle fibers, leading to a more demanding 'I'm gonna pass out' sort of exercise.

Cycling is widely celebrated as a no-impact, joint-friendly workout where your feet are not being mercilessly battered against the ground, unlike in walking, which, while being low-impact, increases strain on your body’s weight-bearing joints.

Walking even on level surfaces exposes your knee joints to impressive forces of up to 1.5 times your body weight. While a lesser strain, greater incline walks such as outdoor uphill treks or treadmill incline sessions could work better for some people.

The distance you can cover while cycling or walking ultimately comes down to how fast you choose to move. People biking outside at a moderate speed might cover between 12 and 13.9 miles in an hour, whereas people walking at a moderate pace typically cover about 3 miles in an hour.

Equipment is crucial when opting to exercise at home. Treadmills mimic outdoor walking and provide walking comforts year-round, but the loud noise and physical space it requires could be off-putting for some. Besides, expect costly repair bills as treadmills age.

On the other hand, stationary bikes offer compactness and tranquility alongside variants that cater to individuals with mobility or back pain issues. However, these bikes don't mimic the balancing act and terrain thrills of outdoor cycling.

Your choice of aerobic activity can also be influenced by pre-existing health conditions. Walking offers impactful weight-bearing exercises which are beneficial for osteoporosis sufferers by maintaining bone density and reducing bone mineral density loss. While cycling, being a non-weight-bearing activity, might not be as beneficial for bone health, it could be a more comfortable solution for individuals with osteoarthritis.

Your choicest and most frequent form of exercise should essentially be the one that you find convenient, achievable, and indeed enjoyable. Do discuss with your healthcare provider before starting any new workout regimen, and don't forget, in the world of fitness, consistency is the real key!