When I first started I did good to do 10 minutes. Worked up to 45 minutes until I reached my goal losing the weight. Now I'm doing 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week (cause I love to eat!). I have a Sole E35 and it has moveable arms...While I'm on the elliptical I do some without using them and some using the stationary arms.. It has several different programs, but I use the Fatburn program. I have tried a few of the others (endurance, strength, etc) but I always return to Fatburn. I've been using the elliptical for over year and keep waiting for the time I can get on it without sweating up a storm and feeling like I'm having a heart attack! But I do love the results it's given me....

Hey there! From what I understand the best form on the elliptical is to try to keep your body stationary (your head shouldn't be bouncing up and down) - try this next time! Makes you feel the burn in your arms and legs an awful lot quicker! I haven't used mine in a while, so I can't comment too much on efficiency, but I do notice I get a much harder workout when I put the incline up! I also like to jump on mine for 5 minutes every once in a while, just in the middle of chores or school work to get my heart rate up just enough so i don't start to sweat but i make my body work for those calories i'm eating! This also helps get your metabolism going

Nice, nobody in my gym told me that. Thanks for the tip

Add resistance until it feels like you are pushing against something. The minimum resistance is basically nothing in most cases. If you can go so fast you are flopping around and the machine is shaking, add. Once you find a more challenging resistance that can be your "base," try alternating by adding a level and going hard for 30 seconds, then go back down. I'm on level 13 (Precor) with arms. I go forwards and backwards and use the arms sometimes. If you go backwards without the arms, the core is engaged and helps you stay upright. All of this will increase your energy expenditure. Have fun! I love the elliptical. I want my own but haven't committed yet.

I don't have my own machine but the one I use is an Octane Fitness. When I first started using it I thought I wasn't going to make it through 5 minutes but I can do 15 minutes and make it look easy peasy to the other ladies. I manually adjust my workout based on my mood & music by increasing the resistance from 0- 20 (most difficult) during my entire workout. Of course if a slow song comes on I reverse the direction which works a my legs differently. I've been doing a 30 day squat challenge so I've been doing squats in conjunction with the elliptical so I do 20 squats before I start and every 3-5 mins I hop off do 20 more get back on and keep going for 15-20 mins. By the time I'm done with all that I stretch for a few mins and call it a day