Elliptical

hello,  I've been doing the elloptical for a while now,  I do about 35-45 mins, and sometimes 60 mins.  Is it any good?  (the elliptical) I also walk 1.5 mile and do weights.  Is that too much?  I've been thinking about walking 30 mins befor work, should I?  I'm not really loseing any weight, but it's because I really don't watch what I eat.  please help?

thank you

Keep doing the elliptical, it is a great aerobic exercise for you. Anything to get the heart pumping! It is a lower impact exercise, which I like, not as bad on the knees as running, not as sore the next day, etc.

Make sure you watch what you eat though. Use the tools on this site to help manage your caloric intake and I am sure the pounds will come off.

Keep it up! - Michael

You know, I started using the elliptical too! IT's been about two weeks now and I do feel a and see a slight difference. I also try to stay in my target heart rate zone. How fast do you use it, and at what level Nlicea??

YOu can exercise 24 hours a day and if you don't watch what you eat you won't lose weight.  Their are many components to weight loss and exercise just one.  Watching what you eat is very important too.  Exercise as much as you want, just don't over do it and hurt yourself.  Also start watching what you eat and be sure to eat enough and your weight will start to show it.

dbackerfan...I don't 100% agree with you..a couple of years ago I joined a gym and went every single day, never missed a day for 6 months and didn't concentrate so much on my diet...sure I didn't binge but I was hardly watching myself, and I lost a lot of weight. 

I agree with DBacker.

Most people probably fool themselves in how many calories they are burning through exercise.

A diet of 500 calories less then your needs will yield 1 lb loss per week.

Only the hardcore will burn 3500 cals a week through exercise.  That would be running 5 miles a day (roughly) EVERYDAY.

Work on the diet  (or as most are fond of saying, a new way of life)

Best Wishes, Geo

Gscott,

I have to respectfully challenge your use of the word "hardcore".  I am by far NOT hardcore and I am using diet AND exercise to create a 500-700 more or less dedicit daily.  500x7=3500 calories burned or lost to equal the lb.  I work out for 30-60 minutes nightly doing workout dvd's or walking on a stair stepper and count that in addition to my 'normal expenditure' at a sedentary level to average about 1750 calories burned a day.

I love that this site allows for so many views and I am not at all disagreeing with your idea, but I just think that I am FAR from hardcore and wondering if maybe I misunderstood :)

But in regards to the original post topic of the elliptical - I love it.  I am a beginner and it's great.

MC

Safantasia - I was just saying if you workout alot but also eat a ton of cookies or candy bars and not watch what you are eating you won't lose weight.  Also nlicea was saying she works out what I would say is alot but not losing, but she also says she's not watching what she eats.  I was saying - yes you need to eat right and exercise to be able to lose weight.

I work out at least 60  minutes a day and I try to eat right but weekends I do tend to eat alot and even though I haven't lost any weight I do lose inches.  I am sure if I could get back with eating right on the weekends my weight will start to show it as well.  Exercise will help lose the inches but eating right will make it better, that is all I wanted to point out.

Hi Nlicea,

I don't think a person can do too much cardio as long as it's not all at one time.  45 minutes is good on the elliptical but if you see it getting too easy after a while switch up the program or resistance to keep pushing yourself.  You're not actually burning a significant amount of fat until you're in your target heart rate zone and you have to stay in that zone for at least 20-30 minutes to see results.

If you want to walk 30 minutes a day, that's great.  I read in a fitness book that double cardio is an excellent way to burn fat 300% more than just one cardio workout a day!  After about 3 weeks you'll see results.

Also keep up with the weight training.  It's a good way to boost up you're metabolism.  Weight training will keep you burning calories even hours after your workout whereas cardio is only burning calories during the actual workout.  Good Luck :)

I love Elliptical machine.   when I first started  three weeks ago it kick my butt..   Now I can do 45 minutes on it. I have added  HIIT to it 3 times a week.   This gives me some real intense time on the machine.  Even on HIIT days I still finish out with 20 minutes of Cardio on the machine. 

What is HIIT?

Do they have some type of cAlore log on this site. Where you can keep up with the calories consumed on a daily basis?

How do you really know what exercise burns what. it is so confusing when i go to the gym and get on the eliptical for 65 minutes it tells me i burn 900 calories, I weigh 192 pounds? Any suggestion anyone, on how accurate these machines at gyms are?

Hi MC, I think maybe your misunderstanding my comment.

Are you comparing your daily expenditure of 1750 cals burned, to my comment on hardcore exercise at 500 a day? 

I guess what I'm trying to say (in round numbers) if my daily activities burns 2000 cal per day, and I eat 2000 cal per day then I stay status quo.  Now if I want to lose weight, and go by the 1lb per week plan, I need a 500 cal deficit.  The poster NLICEA says she doesn't watch what she eats.  So my comment is that its easier to make up the 500 cal deficit through diet, then through excercise only.  Because to burn 500 cals a day (in addition to normal activites) is equal to running 5 miles a day.  That's my exercise.  Of course different activites have different impact

Walking - 340 cals per hous

stairs - 714 per hr

aerobic - 580 per hr.

In my humble opinion, doing those consistently everyday, is hardcore.  Cutting 500 cal from diet is a piece of cake.   ....pun intended :-)

Best Wishes, Geo

Hi!  Can anyone help me out here?  I'm a relative novice to exercise - I've only been doing it for 2 years now but I think I'm working very hard - I'm very overweight but working on combining the exercise and eating better.  My favorite piece of equipment is the elliptical and my basic plan is to burn 600 calories each time.  It takes me about 45 minutes to do this but my heart rate is going pretty high - in the low 150s and I'm concerned that this is too high for 'optimal' fat burning.  Is it possible that I'm working too hard?  Any suggestions?  Thanks. 

I know for my age group (20's), between 140 and 170 is in the "Training Zone". Or at least that's what the poster on the wall of my gym says :) 150 sounds perfect though, unless you're really old lol