Elliptical Exercise Equipment Burns Calories
Welcome to another of our Top 100 weight loss tips we've now added to the series as article number 36.
In this article, I'm going to look at the benefits of exercising with a fairly large piece of gym apparatus known as elliptical exercise equipment, or an elliptical exerciser.
First of all, if you don't already know what an elliptical exercise machine is, it might help to explain it. The machine itself resembles a large exercise bike in that you place your feet onto what look like pedals and you hold onto handlebars.
The resemblance stops there.
Instead of performing a cycling movement with your legs, you mover them back and forth, in a similar way to doing cross country skiing. The exercise uses the same leg muscles as you do in cross country skiing as well as torso, arms and chest so it actually gives you a whole body aerobic workout without the need to move around and do a lot of different exercises.
How Does Elliptical Exercise Equipment Make You Burn Calories?
There are many different types of exercise equipment available at a gym or for your own home and they each have their own way of causing your body to burn calories and build muscle strength. So here's how this machine helps your body burn calories.
When you first use an elliptical exercise machine, it'll seem quite strange but you soon get used to it and the movement you need to do. Because it is also similar to using a stepper machine in that it works your leg muscles hard, it causes those large muscles to require a lot of energy to keep up the exercise, which means your body has to supply that energy from blood sugar.
Depletes Blood Sugar Fast
As you continue to exercise, the blood sugar is rapidly depleted, so as the muscles keep requiring more and to maintain the correct blood sugar levels, your body manufactures more to replace what is used up. After twenty minutes or so, the body begins to take the triglycerides (fat) from the fat cells where it is stored and converts them to usable sugars (glucose and dextrose) which replenish the blood's needs and also supplies the muscles with the energy they need to keep working.
The benefits form using elliptical exercisers is that large muscle groups are used, not just isolated ones, meaning that large quantities of energy are needed. The upshot of this is that a lot of fat needs to be converted to sugars after the initial twenty minutes of exercise, meaning you will lose weight faster as a result, while toning up your whole body in the process.
Sure there are other kinds of apparatus you can use at home such as a home treadmill, but using an elliptical machine is one of the best ways to build strength and burn calories.
Sounds like every slimmer's dream come true, doesn't it?
It Works!
Well it works and it works with everybody that uses this type of equipment, but the body has to work to hold up its end of the bargain. That's the catch!
Yes, it's hard work and at first it can feel pretty exhausting. It will take time to build up to the twenty minutes non-stop exercise needed before your body will start burning fat. But it is so worth it if you have the motivation and the determination to lose weight fast while getting fitter and looking better!
100 Weight Loss Tips number 35 follows in the next post!
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Posted on Fri, 09 Oct 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 3 Comments
3 thoughts on "Elliptical Exercise Equipment Burns Calories"
Walter says:
You made some good points there about using elliptical exercise equipment for burning calories and bringing about weight loss. I'm interested in the topic myself and and found most people who use these machines also agree with you on that.
Workout says:
Ellipticals and other fitness equipment is an important factor is losing weight fast.
Jo Ann says:
Elliptical trainers have got to be one of the best exercise inventions of all times. I worked out with free weights for several decades. Now with lower back and joint problems using an elliptical is the only thing I have found with low impact plus resistance that will keep me in shape. It will burn more calories than just about anything else because you use so many muscles at one time. Great for losing weight but also something that you should incorporate into a lifetime of health and fitness. I am 55 years old and I spend one hour and day on the trainer, six days a week.
For beginners I suggest you start out with something comfortable with settings, maybe just manual until you develop some stamina. Work up to twenty minutes a day... slowly. It's not how fast you go so don't be discouraged by the lack of speed - it isn't a treadmill, you are using a lot of muscle groups here.
Get one use it and keep you laundry off of it! It can change your life if you stay motivated.