has anyone lost a significant amount of weight using the elliptical trainer?

All that matters is that you're eating a calorie deficit. If your elliptical helps you reach that deficit that's great, but you could also achieve a deficit with no exercise. Always good for fitness, though!

First and foremost, a calorie deficit will be what makes you lose weight. Using the elliptical can help you increase this deficit. Be aware the calorie burn shown on the machine might be very overstated, I know the one I use is.

No even vigorous training will allow you to lose weight. Unless you are engaged on physical activity all day long and burn 6000 calories or more, then exercise alone will not cut it. My experience doing bodybuilding for 1 hour and cardio for another hour always left me starving for food and weak. I have learned that adding reasonable exercise is crucial for many reasons including improving your immune system but really the way to lose weight is to cut calories and most important, to eat healthy. Do you already turn around products you consume and read the labels? That kind of eating healthy.

Exercise will allow you to eat more while you are dieting. Exercise does a lot more for you than just losing weight, conditions your body, you will feel strong and vibrant, allows your body to become an efficient high tech machine. Even if you do not lose any weight, the exercise is important to your overall well being.

mayawalz wrote: »

Oh yes i forgot to mention that i am on a reduced calorie plan on MFP. I meant that on the exercise side of things, is it sufficient for weight loss in conjunction with the diet?

Well, I lost a total of 60 pounds since the first week of August. The first 50 with just with diet alone, the last 10 I added 30 minutes of pilates daily and I don't eat back my exercise calories.

This article had some great links to some elliptical sessions that mix it up a bit. I hate the elliptical because it gets dull, but these sound fun. http://www.self.com/flash/fitness-blog/2011/08/from-total-body-to-high-intens/

I use an elliptical at home and I like how quiet it is- great for workouts during my kids naptimes. Typically I use it for a warm up, then do bodyweight exercises or weights, and a couple times a week I'll get back on after my weight set and do 15-20 minutes of HIIT. I really recommend intervals over slogging through a long steady-state cardio exercise. More interesting, more effective, and takes less time.

As long as you are staying within your daily calories your elliptical workouts are great for weight loss and in my opinion a great jumping off point!! I own a Bowflex Max Trainer elliptical/stair climber in one and I have been successful 7 pounds in 32 days (including a few cheat meals). I agree it's all about creating a deficit to lose weight and your elliptical will definitely help with that!! I wish you happiness, luck, and success girl!!

mayawalz wrote: »

Oh yes i forgot to mention that i am on a reduced calorie plan on MFP. I meant that on the exercise side of things, is it sufficient for weight loss in conjunction with the diet?

Stick with your MFP diet plan to meet your nutritional goals and use the treadmill for cardio vascular health. Exercising/increased activity allows you to consume more calories.

Keep in mind that you need some way to estimate how many calories you're burning exercising so that you can eat back a portion of those exercise calories to fuel your body properly. This is how MFP is designed to help you work toward your goals.

The counters on treadmills and other machines are not very accurate estimations of burns. Heart rate monitors seem to be more accurate for steady state exercise but are also just guesstimates of calorie burns. I use a heart rate monitor at the gym and a pedometer for walking.

Many people on MFP, myself included, suggest eating back 1/2 to 2/3rds of your exercise calories allowing for calorie burn overestimations. Many people do not eat back their exercise calories but, in my opinion, this creates too large a deficit and can't be maintained over the long term without compromising one's health.

Also, some kind of resistance training, weight lifting, is helpful to maintain as much lean body mass/muscles as possible while you're losing fat. You don't have to lift very heavy to begin.

All of the above has worked for me as I've love 42.5lbs out of 50lbs. over the last year with MFP.

Good luck with meeting your weight loss goals.

The elliptical was my weapon of choice during my weight loss process. I had a reasonable calorie goal and used the elliptical to create significant deficits.

rabbitjb wrote: »

Not on it's own

I've lost a significant amount of weight eating at a calorie defecit

and I've used the elliptical to increase my cardio fitness

LIKE

mayawalz wrote: »

thanks everyone! so much great advice on here. i'm trying my best with the calories but i've gone overboard everyday so far , but since i'm only starting i guess its expected, i can adjust accordingly once i know what the culprits are (carbs!!).

I took me a while to figure out how to eat within my calorie goal. There were alotttt of habit that needed to change. Keep working at it, you are heading in the right direction!

Its ok, but burning calories using your cardio machine of choice is very dependent on current weight, duration,intensity and consistency. You have to do a lot of cardio to burn weight but if you keep consistent then it all adds up.

I have 5 young children and started trying to lose weight when my youngest was around 6 months old. I tried to eat right and danced and did exercise videos at home. I lost 60lbs so it can be done as long as you stay disciplined.