Will 20 minutes on the elliptical make a difference?

2

Replies

  • marilandica
    marilandica Posts: 88 Member
    Every minute you spend not sitting on the couch eating potato chips is a helpful minute. Keep up the good work. Exercise gets addicting. You'll find yourself doing more of it as you lose weight and pick up energy. Keep in mind of course, that it's the calorie deficit that causes the weight loss -- exercise contributes to the calorie deficit, but you still have to be careful about what you eat.
  • jtrack3d
    jtrack3d Posts: 91
    In - Out = Direction you are headed. so, yes... while you may not have made it turn around you've at least moved the needle that way.
  • keithpeters101
    keithpeters101 Posts: 5 Member
    In pure numbers, 200 calories isn't much. But it's something. And if you're counting your calories and keeping those within range, that's even more. But beyond that, I would never discourage any activity. It puts you in the frame of mind that you're doing something positive about it. And after a few weeks, you might find yourself itching to go a bit longer, or maybe even jump over onto the treadmill, or even hit the road and do some light running. Success breeds confidence. Confidence will make you do more of what won.

    Just don't fall into the trap of, "Oh, I burned 200 calories on the elliptical, I can have a few extra slices of pizza!"
  • Lib_B
    Lib_B Posts: 446 Member
    all very good advice here. highly recommend an HRM. i found that after an hour on the elliptical, it would tell me 1,000 calories burned. got the hrm and it's more like 500-700 depending on effort i put into it. same thing on the bike. way over estimated. Or, don't buy an HRM, but be careful if you eat back exercise calories.

    diet will be the biggest part of weight loss. add some strength training to increase muscle mass which will help your metabolism, but as someone else said, you can't out-exercise a bad diet if you are trying to lose. when you get to maintenance, you have a little more room for error, but if you are in loss mode, you need to be diligent on your calorie tracking.
  • Lib_B
    Lib_B Posts: 446 Member
    Thanks for all the positive comments! I'll give what I'm doing about a month and record what my results are :)
    I've been attempting to eat healthy-ish the past 5 days! If anyone wants feel free to add me and check out my diary and recommend what I should be cutting back on.

    My problem though is eating my calorie goal (1450.)
    I seem to find that I'm well under most of the time.

    add a hard boiled egg as a snack or some greek yogurt. handful of nuts, an apple with a schmear of peanut butter. lots of ways to hit your calories (and avoid the carbs you mentioned before).
  • nopotofgold
    nopotofgold Posts: 164 Member
    all very good advice here. highly recommend an HRM. i found that after an hour on the elliptical, it would tell me 1,000 calories burned. got the hrm and it's more like 500-700 depending on effort i put into it. same thing on the bike. way over estimated. Or, don't buy an HRM, but be careful if you eat back exercise calories.

    diet will be the biggest part of weight loss. add some strength training to increase muscle mass which will help your metabolism, but as someone else said, you can't out-exercise a bad diet if you are trying to lose. when you get to maintenance, you have a little more room for error, but if you are in loss mode, you need to be diligent on your calorie tracking.
    I have noticed if i want to see I burned more calories the Elliptical is the best for that. It is alway way higher on calories burned than a treadmill.
  • scrapjen
    scrapjen Posts: 387 Member
    I'm a 20-minute elliptical gal ... but as a SAHM with a home gym, I do it 3-5 times a day. Just got into the 20min habit because often that's only as long as I could fit in between mommy duties. Also, my feet fall asleep for anything longer! All exercise is good. I tend to take it pretty easy on my elliptical (it's my TV time) ... much depends on how much effort you put into that 20 minutes too!
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    You steps per day (regular activity) should count in your activity level. You may need to up your level but don't count steps per day as exercise.
    Oh thanks I forgot *facepalm*
    I'll go try to fix that
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    all very good advice here. highly recommend an HRM. i found that after an hour on the elliptical, it would tell me 1,000 calories burned. got the hrm and it's more like 500-700 depending on effort i put into it. same thing on the bike. way over estimated. Or, don't buy an HRM, but be careful if you eat back exercise calories.

    diet will be the biggest part of weight loss. add some strength training to increase muscle mass which will help your metabolism, but as someone else said, you can't out-exercise a bad diet if you are trying to lose. when you get to maintenance, you have a little more room for error, but if you are in loss mode, you need to be diligent on your calorie tracking.
    I have noticed if i want to see I burned more calories the Elliptical is the best for that. It is alway way higher on calories burned than a treadmill.
    eesh that's no good. It's still inaccurate even when you enter your weight and age?
    I do see a lot of people at the gym with HRMs and that's probably why lol.

    Where do you suggest buying one?
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    Thanks for all the positive comments! I'll give what I'm doing about a month and record what my results are :)
    I've been attempting to eat healthy-ish the past 5 days! If anyone wants feel free to add me and check out my diary and recommend what I should be cutting back on.

    My problem though is eating my calorie goal (1450.)
    I seem to find that I'm well under most of the time.

    add a hard boiled egg as a snack or some greek yogurt. handful of nuts, an apple with a schmear of peanut butter. lots of ways to hit your calories (and avoid the carbs you mentioned before).
    Good idea, I'll definitely start buying Greek Yogurt. Also picked up a bag of carrots while out yesterday to snack on those also.
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    I'm a 20-minute elliptical gal ... but as a SAHM with a home gym, I do it 3-5 times a day. Just got into the 20min habit because often that's only as long as I could fit in between mommy duties. Also, my feet fall asleep for anything longer! All exercise is good. I tend to take it pretty easy on my elliptical (it's my TV time) ... much depends on how much effort you put into that 20 minutes too!
    Well I congratulate you for even taking the time to fit in some type of workout! :) That's great. Have you lost any weight from doing that? If I had my own elliptical that's what I'd probably do, spread doing it throughout the day to hit an hour. Because for the moment it's quite hard for me too. Gotta work my way there :)
  • Losing_Sarah
    Losing_Sarah Posts: 279 Member
    Absolutely! Shoot, even 10 minutes if that's all someone can do is a start.
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    You steps per day (regular activity) should count in your activity level. You may need to up your level but don't count steps per day as exercise.
    Oh thanks I forgot *facepalm*
    I'll go try to fix that
    Actually I'm doing it right. It says that I'm using my iPhone to measure my actual activity level throughout the day. And that to accurately reflect any extra calories you're burning, we use this data to adjust your myfitnesspal calorie goal. :)
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    Absolutely! Shoot, even 10 minutes if that's all someone can do is a start.
    Aw thanks :) Such positive comments on here.
  • Lib_B
    Lib_B Posts: 446 Member
    all very good advice here. highly recommend an HRM. i found that after an hour on the elliptical, it would tell me 1,000 calories burned. got the hrm and it's more like 500-700 depending on effort i put into it. same thing on the bike. way over estimated. Or, don't buy an HRM, but be careful if you eat back exercise calories.

    diet will be the biggest part of weight loss. add some strength training to increase muscle mass which will help your metabolism, but as someone else said, you can't out-exercise a bad diet if you are trying to lose. when you get to maintenance, you have a little more room for error, but if you are in loss mode, you need to be diligent on your calorie tracking.
    I have noticed if i want to see I burned more calories the Elliptical is the best for that. It is alway way higher on calories burned than a treadmill.
    eesh that's no good. It's still inaccurate even when you enter your weight and age?
    I do see a lot of people at the gym with HRMs and that's probably why lol.

    Where do you suggest buying one?

    Weight and age doesn't matter. It's still inflated (as are the calories burned on MFP - talk about over-estimating!). At any rate, any sporting goods store will carry them. ****'s (MFP censored a store name - it's D*I*C*K's), Sports Authority, etc. all should carry what you are looking for. Or you can buy them online. I personally like the Polar brand, but there are tons out there. They go from pretty basic to really high end. I find the Polar fits in the middle. I've got the FT4 or 7. I can't remember. But it was about $80.
  • meskiukas
    meskiukas Posts: 8
    Yes, of course!!!


    You have to start somewhere. If you start doing a really intense/hard workout, you won't be able to continue with it. This is a great place to start and then gradually start adding time.

    Another idea.......do intervals! I like to do 1min on a lower resistance and then 1min giving it my all on a high resistance. Doing intervals burns belly fat really quickly and I've seen much faster results with doing elliptical intervals/running intervals as compared to just doing it normally.

    Best of Luck!
  • liekewheeless
    liekewheeless Posts: 416 Member
    Any exercise is great! Whatever you can do will help.

    That said, most of your loss is going to come from you diet. BUT,... you will feel much better,.. you will look better. And keeping with your diet will be easier if you exercise.
  • LadyBaggins
    LadyBaggins Posts: 56
    all very good advice here. highly recommend an HRM. i found that after an hour on the elliptical, it would tell me 1,000 calories burned. got the hrm and it's more like 500-700 depending on effort i put into it. same thing on the bike. way over estimated. Or, don't buy an HRM, but be careful if you eat back exercise calories.

    diet will be the biggest part of weight loss. add some strength training to increase muscle mass which will help your metabolism, but as someone else said, you can't out-exercise a bad diet if you are trying to lose. when you get to maintenance, you have a little more room for error, but if you are in loss mode, you need to be diligent on your calorie tracking.
    I have noticed if i want to see I burned more calories the Elliptical is the best for that. It is alway way higher on calories burned than a treadmill.
    eesh that's no good. It's still inaccurate even when you enter your weight and age?
    I do see a lot of people at the gym with HRMs and that's probably why lol.

    Where do you suggest buying one?

    Weight and age doesn't matter. It's still inflated (as are the calories burned on MFP - talk about over-estimating!). At any rate, any sporting goods store will carry them. ****'s (MFP censored a store name - it's D*I*C*K's), Sports Authority, etc. all should carry what you are looking for. Or you can buy them online. I personally like the Polar brand, but there are tons out there. They go from pretty basic to really high end. I find the Polar fits in the middle. I've got the FT4 or 7. I can't remember. But it was about $80.
    That's not too bad, thanks. Yeah I know MFP overestimates bad. That's why I just adjust what it says to what the elliptical says. But now that I found out that's incorrect also >:( lol. The only thing I can seem to trust right now is what my steps say! Lol. I use the M7 motion processor on my phone to count my steps, seems fairly accurate.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Every little bit helps, 1 minute on the elliptical is great because it has the potential to turn into 2 minutes, then 20, then 45. These calories spent will give you more freedom and choices when it comes to food. When you notice how you can eat anything you want within reason and not be hungry but still lose weight, those 20 minutes may mean the difference between quitting within a month or sticking to it long enough to reach your goals.
  • almondjoy206
    almondjoy206 Posts: 16 Member
    I have a question ..... so I have a knee injury that never healed correctly.... so its hard for me to go on the treadmill and try jogging for any amount of time.... is being on an elliptical just as good? Considering I can't go faster then 3.5mph on a treadmill but can ALWAYS stay anywhere from 4.3mph-5.2mph?

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