confused about the eliptical workouts

Get a good HRM so you know how many calories you are burning per session. I love mine!

Try setting the intensity to a more sustainable level and stay on it for 30-60 minutes.

what he said.

Most important tip I can give you...

DON'T GIVE UP! Keep going with it, your stamina will come!

I tell my clients:

"If your workout isn't hard for you, it isn't hard enough."

Perhaps not trying to do such a high intensity to start? Start easy to stay on longer and work your way up. I will say the elliptical tells me I'm burning 60 more calories then i really am. A heart rate monitor will tell you more accurately then the machine.

You can buy a nice one for relatively cheap on Amazon. Polar is nice. I bought mine for 100 but then have one for about 40$

I set the intensity level pretty high (not all the way though but close to it) I am having trouble going a straight 3 mins without break so I end up doing 3 mins 4 times a day for a total of 12 mins. But when I'm done with three mins it says I only burned 3.5 calories! I go about 3.4 miles per hour. Is the machine right? I am currently 233 pounds.

That does sem unusually low, although 12 minutes on an elliptical isn't going to burn a significant amount, possibly 100 cals at your weight and that speed.

Might be worth thinking about your expectations, you lose weight through eating less energy than you expend on a routine basis, a calorie deficit. You don't need to exercise to achieve that, and indeed in the MFP model you should be eating back the calories that you expend in exercise anyway. We exercise to improve our general health, cardio vascular work helps improve our endurance and the capacity of our system to convert energy efficiently.

With that in mind your focus on the elliptical probably needs to move more towards working up to a longer session. 3.4mph is walking pace, so set yourself a target to be able to walk for a longer period of time. I'd suggest going back to the pace where you could do five minutes, then each day push yourelf to use it at that pace for longer. Add 30 seconds each day. Do three 5 minute sessions, then on Saturday try thre 5:30 sessions, then on Monday three 6 minute sessions. Exercise conditioning is all about progression, so once you're comfortable at 20 minutes continuous then increase the pace a little, and go for 20 minutes at the higher pace. Interweave weeks of increasing time and increasing pace so that you can work up towards 60 minutes.

By the time you're there you can think about what you want to do to progress further, wheher that's moving onto running orsomething else. By that time you should have lost a chunk of weight so you'll feel better about trying something else.

I'd also suggest doing some resistance training alongside using the elliptical. given where you are bodyeight sessions are probably most appropriate for you, and there are penty of options around. Search the boards for bodyweight training for some ideas. That will help you to retain lean mass as you lose weight, which is a big benefit further down the line.

If nothing else staying on the elliptical is going to make it easier to estimate your caloric burn. Particularly if you decide to get a HRM, HRM's are really only suited for measuring steady state cardio burns. Stick with it and I'll bet it won't be long until you can stick it out on the elliptical for a lengthier period of time.

Try setting the intensity to a more sustainable level and stay on it for 30-60 minutes.

For real. I love the elliptical since it's easier on my joints. I set mine for 30-40 minutes with alternating hills at a resistance of about 7. It helps me burn sometimes up to 400 cals, depending on how quickly I'm working it. Better phrased: The faster the music, the better the burn. :bigsmile: