Exercise is an important aspect of weight loss, especially for building muscle mass and maintaining lean mass. Aerobic exercise can be as simple as a 30-minute walk in the park or spending half an hour to one hour on cardio machines at the gym. Whatever floats your boat!
Light to moderate-intensity workout routines, combined with other lifestyle changes have been proven to help you meet your weight loss goal. I love cardio exercises because besides helping you burn fat, you can upgrade or downgrade your workout session to a low or high-intensity workout.
Regular cardio exercise at the gym includes treadmill walking, stair climbing, running, stationary cycling, or elliptical workouts. I’m as excited as you are to learn about today’s aerobic exercise. I’ll take you through elliptical 30 minutes a day weight loss, how you can lose weight using the elliptical machine, how many calories you burn on an elliptical workout, burning fat on these workouts, the health benefits of elliptical workouts, and how long it takes to lose weight on an elliptical workout routine.
What Type of Exercise is the Elliptical Machine?
What I love the most about the elliptical machine is that it’s a low-impact workout, since it is overground walking, meaning individuals with joint issues or previous injuries can incorporate using the elliptical machine for physical fitness. Moreover, elliptical training is a full-body workout, that engages both your upper and lower body, assisting you to lose weight uniformly.
When it comes to muscle training, even with readjusting the resistance level, there’s not much strength training involved when using elliptical machines. Although, where it lacks strength training, it makes up for systematic developments. An elliptical routine at moderate intensity improves your resting heart rate enabling you to maintain your target heart rate range and has other cardiovascular system and neurological advantages.
Are 30 Minutes on the Elliptical Enough to Lose Weight?
You may feel like 30 minutes for elliptical workouts is not enough to trigger weight loss. There are a couple of factors that may contribute to your elliptical 30 minutes a day weight loss workout, including:
Factors that Affect Weight Loss on the Elliptical Trainer
Take these factors into account if you want your elliptical workout to help you in losing weight. Despite elliptical workouts helping you to burn calories, these factors will affect how fast you are burning calories and how many calories you burn.
Intensity
If you would like to burn more calories and body fat and get better aerobic capacity results over a short period, consider using the elliptical machine at a higher intensity. The lower the intensity of your workout routine, the fewer calories you will burn. Set your elliptical at a higher pace and resistance for the best results.
Body Weight
Your current weight determines how many calories you burn on this cardio machine. Overweight and obese individuals lose more weight than individuals with normal weight through exercise. The point is, the heavier you are the higher your chances to burn more calories.
Fitness Levels
There are important components used to determine your fitness level and they are:
- Body composition
- Muscular strength and endurance
- Aerobic endurance
- Flexibility
The lower your body fat percentage, the higher your fitness level and the higher your chances to burn more calories.
Is Elliptical 30 Minutes a Day Weight Loss Enough?
Elliptical workouts can help you lose weight considering you do require energy to keep up half an hour of aerobic exercise. Your age, body weight, and intensity of your workout will determine calorie burn.
A half-hour of workout on the elliptical machine can burn about 250 to 380 calories depending on your body weight and the intensity of elliptical training.
How to Lose Weight on the Elliptical Machine
The elliptical 30 minutes a day weight loss is achieved in two ways:
Calorie Burn
Burning calories triggers weight loss. Half an hour every day of elliptical training can help you burn calories. However, this way is highly dependent on caloric intake. If you consume too many calories before your workout, your body will burn what is needed to fuel the exercise. Where do the excess calories go to? They end up in fat stores, preventing fat loss.
Body Burns Fat
You may not burn a large number of calories on an elliptical trainer. However, you can pick up the pace and resistance levels on high-intensity interval training (HIIT). This type of workout involves alternating between high-intensity workouts and low-intensity periods as recovery periods. HIIT allows you to meet your calorie-burn goal faster.
A study investigating the effects of elliptical high-intensity interval training on metabolic risk factors in pre- and type 2 diabetes concluded that elliptical HIIT improves your body’s composition and metabolic risk factors of type 2 diabetes.
The results obtained after elliptical HIIT intervention, three times per week for 12 weeks showed significant improvement in fasting blood glucose, waist, and hip circumference, leg lean body mass, appendicular lean body mass, appendicular fat mass, systolic blood pressure, and resting heart rate. There was also a lower tendency for diastolic blood pressure and leg mass and a higher one for total energy expenditure.
A reduction in waist circumference signifies a reduction in belly fat. An increase in lean body mass means there is a reduction in body fat, replaced with lean muscle mass. Alternate between the hardest-to-sustain level for you and resting periods to enjoy such benefits too. Ensure you engage both your upper body and lower body throughout the entire workout.
How Long Should I Be on the Elliptical to Lose Weight?
This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of situation. Different people will experience different calorie burn because their caloric intake differs. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), you should get 1 hour and 15 minutes of high-intensity cardio exercise or 2 hours and 30 minutes worth of moderate-intensity workouts per week. Before you panic, you don’t have to do it all at once, distribute the time across your week.
Elliptical: Calories Burned in 30 Minute
How many calories are burned on the elliptical on a 30-minute workout? Wasn’t that your next question for me? Harvard medical school has a list that shows the number of calories burnt from taking part in different activities by people with different weights.
Depending on your body weight 30 minutes on the elliptical machine:
- For a 125-pound (56.7 kg) person burns 270 kcals
- For a 155-pound (70.3 kg) person burns 324 kcals
- For a 185-pound (83.9 kg) person burns 378 kcals
Doing this exercise at a faster speed or combining it with other high-intensity calories when you are overweight or obese will see you burn the most calories.
Tips for Your Elliptical Workouts
Here are a few ways you can make your elliptical workouts more effective:
Consider your Fitness Level
Workout smartly! Being tired and exhausted doesn’t mean that your workout is effective. What is your fitness level? This is a good starting point, then build up on it gradually. Going directly to a HIIT routine at the beginning of your workout will have you regret all your life choices. Kickstart your journey with simple aerobic exercises then pick up the pace to strength training.
Make Use of the Entire Machine
Put both your lower and upper body to work, not just one. This way you will burn the most calories. In addition, since most of the strain is distributed to all parts of your body, you will be able to maintain your exercise for longer increases the amount of fat you are burning.
Don’t Focus on Only One Workout
As much as we’re loving the elliptical workouts, you will have more fun incorporating other workouts into your exercise. You can start with using the elliptical machine for a low or moderate workout, then do a quick run on the treadmill, or use the rowing machines at the gym for more intense exercise.
Diet is Key
When working out you need to keep track of your daily calorie consumption so you don’t consume more than you should. A healthy diet plays a significant role in triggering and maintaining weight loss. The best diet for elliptical 30 minutes a day weight loss is the ketogenic diet.
A study to investigate the effects of a ketogenic diet on exercise performance and body composition resulted in a significant decrease in body mass and percentage of body fat. Fat oxidation also increased. This means combining a low-carb, high-fat diet with HIIT increases the loss of fat, promoting weight loss.
A ketogenic diet works by triggering ketosis, which is the breakdown of fats to produce ketone bodies. A low-carb diet will create a calorie deficit, forcing your body to burn fat in storage. Nonstarchy vegetables and fruits like strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries will create that calorie deficit for you.
Stay clear of fad diets that try to sell you the idea of so much weight loss over a short period. Losing weight quickly may have major health concerns for your body. A keto diet will create a caloric deficit that allows for gradual weight loss.
The good thing about keto is it is a balanced diet, and your body will be provided with everything it needs for optimum function.
Take Time to Recover
It is inevitable to be tired and feel fatigued after exercise. Workouts will create a caloric deficit that reduces the amount of energy your body has for normal function. Take a break, and take time to rest. Aerobic exercise not only burns fat stores but also muscles. Give your body and muscles time to heal.
Include Strength Training
Once you have gotten used to exercising and your body has gotten used to low and moderate-intensity exercises, then take it up a notch. Strength training builds muscles which increases metabolic rate. An increase in metabolic rate equals high energy expenditure.
Can You Lose Belly Fat on Elliptical?
Yes, you can lose belly fat on elliptical training. The more calories you burn, the more belly fat you will lose. Combining your elliptical training and a healthy diet is the most effective way to burn fat and maximum calories to reduce belly fat.
How Long Does It Take to See Results on Elliptical?
You will see results after 3 to 4 weeks of working out on the elliptical. However, this duration depends on how consistent you are with your workout, body weight, fat percentage, diet, and intensity of your exercise. You can meet your weight loss goals in 12 weeks if you eat right and stick to your exercise.
What is the Fat Burning Zone on Elliptical?
The fat-burning zone refers to a point when you have met 60% to 75% of your maximum heart rate and your body is burning more calories from fats than carbs. This number isn’t really important when on the elliptical because your body still burns calories whether or not you are in the fat-burning zone.
A high-intensity workout that is higher than your fat-burning zone will have you burning calories even after your workout. Don’t focus too much on your fat-burning zone because you will be selling yourself short, since you have a chance to burn more calories beyond this.
Is an Elliptical Better Than a Treadmill for Weight Loss?
Before you all come for me, the elliptical and treadmill both have their advantages and are good choices to add to your workout schedule. Although, a treadmill is more effective for weight loss than an elliptical. A treadmill is a high impact while the elliptical is not. With that said, pick what best works for you, whether it is the treadmill or elliptical workouts, or alternate between the two for a more effective workout.
Finally
The elliptical machine is an awesome addition to your workout schedule for weight loss. Combining it with a keto diet will increase how much fat you burn, promoting weight loss. But still, combine your elliptical workout with other machines at the gym to increase the efficiency of your workout.
Are you a fan of elliptical workouts? Let us know which workouts you combine your elliptical exercise with. How long do you stay on the elliptical machine? Drop your answer in the comments below.
