Elliptical

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  • janeite1990
    janeite1990 Posts: 694 Member
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    I use the elliptical for anything from 30 - 60 mins 4-5 times a week. I estimate that I burn 200 cals per 30 mins worked out doing cardio in the gym as I cannot use a HRM, and the estimated calories burned both in the gym and on MFP are too high.

    Yes, this is about my calorie rate on elliptical. 100 in 5-6 minutes is probably not happening. Sorry! I wish it were so!
  • monkeypantz
    monkeypantz Posts: 288 Member
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    Push yourself by 2 minutes at each time, listen to some good music or watch a long tv show whilst your own it, to keep your mind of what your actually doing.

    I started off in January using the Elliptical and couldn't manage more than 5-10 mins but now I do an hour 3-4 times a week (yesterday I did an hour and half to really push myself).

    Calories burnt can vary so much according to your heart, age, weight etc.....I don't focus too much on it, more of how tired I am, sweaty etc....if you feel like it's a good work out for you keep it up!
  • cjaharmon
    cjaharmon Posts: 46 Member
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    I love the elliptical but like you struggled at first to get past 5 minutes then 7 minutes. Then once I could do 10 minutes it seemed to flow to 30 minutes pretty easily. I do 30 minutes on just cardio days and do the "fat burning" or "cardio burning" programs that keep my heart rate between 121 and 141 depending on which one I do...either way I burn about 400 calories according the machine in a 30 minute session. The machine I use puts in your age, weight, etc and calculates the calories. If it's right I am not sure...am I losing weight between that and what I do on the site You beat I am! Do I feel better after a good work out...absolutely! I actually only clicked on this because i miss my elliptical time this week...have been fighting a sinus infection and trying to let my body rest a little the last two days. Can't wait to get back tomorrow!
  • CherryPie606
    CherryPie606 Posts: 44 Member
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    According to MFP I can burn 378 cals in 30 minutes on the elliptical but the machine itself normally puts me at about 320. I use the lower figure. And just to be doubly sure I don't normally eat back all my exercise calories anyway. It'd be interesting to hear from others who use their HRM while using the elliptical
  • Captain_Tightpants
    Captain_Tightpants Posts: 2,215 Member
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    What you burn depends on too many things to say if it's right or not - your weight, height, age, the resistance setting etc.

    I'm m, 35, 236lbs and I burn about 100 cals in 15 minutes of medium resistance on an elliptical - just slightly higher than what I would burn walking on a treadmill at 3.5mph for the same amount of time.
  • RandomMiranda
    RandomMiranda Posts: 298
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    I completely screwed up my weight loss for a month or so by assuming the calorie burn my elliptical gave me was correct. It gave me crazy numbers like 1000+ calories in 45 minutes. Make sure you enter your weight and age info and take your heart rate readings and it might give you a more acurate burn. Watching a tv show definitely helped me stay on longer.
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
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    I completely screwed up my weight loss for a month or so by assuming the calorie burn my elliptical gave me was correct. It gave me crazy numbers like 1000+ calories in 45 minutes. Make sure you enter your weight and age info and take your heart rate readings and it might give you a more acurate burn. Watching a tv show definitely helped me stay on longer.

    Don't forget to take the end result and divide it by 2. :)
  • vyanadevi
    vyanadevi Posts: 134 Member
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    Hey how do you calculate based on your heart rate? I think that when I exercise on the Elliptical for 30 mins it says I burned 493 calroies and I am not sure if that is right. So I think if I knew how to calculate based on the heart rate it would be more accurate. I am usually at about 167-171 to sometimes 181 when I used the Elliptical to calculate my heart rate.
  • 10acity
    10acity Posts: 798 Member
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    I use the elliptical for anything from 30 - 60 mins 4-5 times a week. I estimate that I burn 200 cals per 30 mins worked out doing cardio in the gym as I cannot use a HRM, and the estimated calories burned both in the gym and on MFP are too high.

    Yes, this is about my calorie rate on elliptical. 100 in 5-6 minutes is probably not happening. Sorry! I wish it were so!

    I see you only have 8 lbs to lose. I assume this means you're just 8 lbs from a healthy weight? Which means you're burning significantly fewer calories doing the same activity than those of us who are heavier. ;)
  • Tbowman30
    Tbowman30 Posts: 16
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    The elliptical is actually my favorite machine when i first startded out it was HE!!....I could never make it past five....From the first time i used this machine i loved it so because of that i wouldnt give up. Now i can do 45min straight ,prob an hour if i really wanted to! just stick with it and dont give up it'll come!!!
  • kizzaii
    kizzaii Posts: 52
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    Glad i wasn't the only one thinking it was slightly off. Have deleted it from my diary anyway :) Thanks everyone
  • lorenzoinlr
    lorenzoinlr Posts: 338 Member
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    Calories from exercise particularly on an elliptical can drive you crazy. I've been monitoring for two months and just now feel I've come up with a somewhat accurate estimate. I use both a wristwatch and the machine's counter off the same Polar chest belt and they're completely different. The probable actual is somewhere in between. Worse, early on one was well higher than the other, now it's in reverse. Now for 53 minutes my watch says 650 while the machine says 1,100. Based on weeks of experience relative to weight loss I'd guess 750 is about right.

    A good elliptical is very difficult in the beginning but if you can just stick with it for two weeks or so it gets way easier and you can burn a lot more calories. I do a number of different things but feel the elliptical is by far the most efficient and has the lowest injury risk,
  • twinmom01
    twinmom01 Posts: 854 Member
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    typically my burn is 100 cals every 10 minutes.
    depends on your settings :)

    ALSO. the longer you stay on, the easier it is lol - for me anyway, after 10 minutes my legs don't hurt as bad, and it's easier to tolerate.

    I am the same way.. usually for every 10 mins I'm on the machine its saying 100 calories burned...

    This is what I got from my Polar HRM - it averaged out to be about 100 calories for every 10 minutes...I don't trust what the elliptical says and the numbers on MFP are for the most part rediciously high...all use a forumula based on various things - the machines at my gym only ask to input age and weight...they have no way of knowing if I am 6 ft tall and low body fat or 5"4 and quite fluffy...things like that are going to make a difference.

    For other things I do I sort of guesstimate how many calories I burn based on the intensity...for my weight work I consider every rep of something I do is 2 calories...so if I do 25 squats = 50 calories burned...

    I for the most part don't eat back my exercise calories though - for those that do the numbers you are putting in are very important because they can sabatoge your goals...i.e. you only burn 200 but you put in 400 based on machines or MFP and then eat 400...
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
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    I have found that logging it as uphill walking 3.5mph gives a more accurate result for me (based on heart rate readings from machine)
  • kyrstensmom
    kyrstensmom Posts: 297 Member
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    I use HRM on my elliptical at home and my HRM gives me a burn of about 1/3 the calories my elliptical and MFP estimate (Elliptical says I burned 300, HRM says 100, etc). 100 sounds VERY high for only 5 minutes, especially if you were resting before since it takes a little bit to get your heart rate up.
  • Jess102979
    Jess102979 Posts: 98 Member
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    Sounds kind of high. For me I burn in between 90-100cals in 10min. Around 375-380cals in 30 minutes.
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    according to my HRM i burn 100 calories every ten minutes on the elliptical.
    according to MFP i burn 161 in ten minutes
    according to the machine i normall use, i burn 180 in ten minutes.

    obvisouly, i do with the hrm since its more accurate
  • tinastanley
    tinastanley Posts: 55 Member
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    I do an atleast an hr on the ellptical sometimes an hr and 30 mins and found that before I got my HRM the machine said I burned a ridiculous amount of cals. If you can, invest in a Heart Rate Monitor which will give you a more accurate calories burned. I recommend thePolar FT7. I did a lot of research on HRM and found from reviews the Polar FT7 to be one of the best ones. I love mine and I haven't had any problems or concerns with it. Be patient with your progress on the ellptical. When I first started 6 mos ago I was lucky to stay on it for 20 mins. Good Luck! :)
  • finchase
    finchase Posts: 174
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    MFP's elliptical burn rates are way too high. I find that even the elliptical's estimates are too high, compared to my heart rate monitor. MFP is about 3 to 4 times as high as the HRM.

    I find that I burn about 25 - 35 calories in 5 minutes according to my HRM. Of course, that's factoring in my weight and age, both of which appear to be greater than your's, if that's you in the photo.

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