Which Exercise is More effective?

summercake
summercake Posts: 19
in Health and Weight Loss
What would help me lose more weight/burn more calories.
treadmill or elliptical
I do elliptical for 60 minutes on high resistance
or I do tread mill 5-4 miles(that would take me also 1 hour since Im a beginner)

Replies

  • thisismeraw
    thisismeraw Posts: 1,264 Member
    Whatever exercise you will stick with is more effective.

    I personally switch it up between the two. Regardless of which machine you use your calorie burns will be based on how hard you are working. I can burn almost the same amount of calories on either machine depending on my intensity. Running on the treadmill burns more for me.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    You don't lose weight with exercise. The calorie deficit is what makes the difference. As the last poster said find an exercise you like to help with creating that deficit. No point doing something you hate as you will just get bored.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    You don't lose weight with exercise. The calorie deficit is what makes the difference. As the last poster said find an exercise you like to help with creating that deficit. No point doing something you hate as you will just get bored.

    ^^^^
    This. No amount of exercise will compensate for a bad diet. Your calorie intake will be 90% of your weight loss. Consider exercise something you do for fitness, health and to build strong muscles and bones.
  • mjhooperii
    mjhooperii Posts: 11 Member
    An FYI as well, the "Calories Lost" display that most machines have can be VERY misleading for the elliptical. They are on average 20 - 40 PERCENT inaccurate from the actual calories burned. This isn't to say they aren't a good workout (I personally find them to be the "gateway drug" of running due to the low impact on joints), but they don't take into account weight, exertion, or form which are all important for calculating how much work you are doing. Conversely, treadmills that measure your effort using METS and take into account things like age and weight are much better are estimating total calorie loss (assuming of course you don't hold onto those supports which will cause around 25% inaccuracy).

    A general rule is to see how worn out you are from your workout. If you can barely work up a sweat doing 30 minutes on an elliptical but find yourself dripping head to toe and sore from the treadmill, chances are the total work done on the treadmill was more. Balance this and your food intake to create a calorie deficit and the lbs will come off =)
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
    4 to 5 miles on a tread mill is equivalent to 2 to 2.5 miles work on the ground.
    Elliptical uses more muscle groups assuming you use the arm bars.

    Eat to lose weight. Exercise to eat more.
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    Eat to lose weight. Exercise to eat more.

    Eat to lose weight. Exercise to build/keep muscle.

    fixed.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    Not sure but I feel more tired after a good run than on the elliptical and I vastly prefer running over it as well so I tend to stick with running.

    Pick which one you like better and do it. If u like both then do both.
  • ctooch99
    ctooch99 Posts: 459 Member
    Personally I think it is optimal to mix both strength training and cardio. Excessive cardio can actually inhibit weight loss (adpative thermogenesis). Here is a pretty good article on it:

    http://www.opposingviews.com/i/can-too-much-cardio-exercise-decrease-my-metabolism

    And I agree with others sentiment - weight loss happens because of a calorie deficit (more burned than taken in) - A good Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) can give you a good picture of that and tracking your progress on MFP is a way to see where you stand (so long as you track your numbers honestly).

    Fitness comes from proper nutrition and exercise - neither on it's own works correctly. Popular sayings on here (that I think are very true) "Skinny Fat" (ie - calorie reduction but no exercise) and "You cannot exercise away a bad diet" (ie - no matter how much you work out, you are never gonna be really healthy and fit eating fast food every day).
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
    Eat to lose weight. Exercise to eat more.

    Eat to lose weight. Exercise to build/keep muscle.

    fixed.

    Of course. I just thought is sounded a little funnier the way I put it :)
    Exercise has definitely built much strength and maintained muscle while I lose the fat.
    Down 90 pounds so I tried doing haunches squats with two 50# dumbbells. I couldn't squat down and get up without grabbing something when I weighed 310#. But I easily did 10 reps squatting down with 100# of weights this week. :bigsmile:

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