How many calories should i burn at the gym?

Currently I burn between 600 - 1000 calories per day during a 60-120 minute session (4 times a week), my routine is typically 20 minutes on the elipticle trainer, 20 minutes on cycle and 20 minutes on treadmill.

Should I aim to burn as many calories as possible or is it wiser to remain within a set limit, ie...is more really better or can it be counter-productive?

Depends on what your goals are.  Is your goal to gradually lower your body fat over a period of time?  Improve your cardio vascular level?  Maintain where you're currently at?

More input is needed. ;)

-Todd

Hi, Thanks for your reply. :-)

I'm aiming to lose around 3 stones of fat :-D

that may be too much depending on your calorie intake. 

i was burning 700-1000 calories a day and ate about 1300 calories a day. 
i was not losing any weight at all...and when i did, it was water weight.  i ended up eating more nad working out less.

now i eat 1800 calories, and burn about 400 calories a day.  i lost 2 lbs in 3 weeks, but my body had to adjust to getting back to normal.

I'm 5'6 133, and was 5'6 136 during the time my body was getting back to normal.  i actually weigh less now than ever before.

it's all about health and the correct amount of carbs.

Unfortunately I dont think that ellipticals are ever really accurate about the number of calories you burn.  It always shows that you have burnt ALOT more than you really have so you may not actually be working off that much.   But thats just my past exsperience with ellipitcles : )

Thanks for the input guys.

I aim to consume around 1800 - 2000 calories a day (5' 10", Male, Age 35, 211lbs) so far I've been able to remain within that range without too much distress. I agree that a lot of these machines can report higher calories than are actually being used, some of the machines I've used don't even ask for your weight so how on earth can it possible tell you how many calories you are burning!? I try you use only the machines that ask me for my personal details (age, sex, weight).

I've come to realise that the most accurate exercise is plain old walking, wether on the treadmill or not it seems to be far easier to track the true calories used compared to other exercises.

Would a programable heart rate monitor (wrist watch type)be a good investment or are those prone to errors?

"Would a programable heart rate monitor (wrist watch type)be a good investment or are those prone to errors?"

See this thread about monitoring your heart rate. Your answer lies there. ;)

-Todd

I use a Heart rate monitor that you plug your age sex height weight and such.  Sometimes it tells me more calories burned than my elliptical sometimes less - it all depends on the program I use on the elliptical.  It also gives me different amts than this website.  My HRM is usually less than here.  I always use the lesser of the two.  I have read somewhere that the Polar HRM miscalculate females cals burned by as much as 20% but for men its suppose to be very accurate. 

I personally would recommend one just to be sure.