Top Fat Burning Exercises Elliptical Machines

Advantages of the Elliptical

The elliptical is one of the most popular pieces of equipment at the gym. It is easy to use and keeps the stress off joints with fluid, low-impact motions. More importantly, the elliptical provides a full-body workout that works muscle groups of both the upper and lower body simultaneously, which is an attribute that most other popular pieces of cardiovascular equipment lack, and this can make for a much more effective workout.

Burning Fat

In order to burn fat, you want to burn fat calories. When you exercise moderately for a long period of time, your body burns a higher percentage of calories from fat vs. calories from carbohydrates. The ratio will vary depending on the person. However, according to fitness director at 'Prevention Magazine,' Michele Stanten, in his article entitled, 'Busting the Fat-Burning Zone Myth,' although you burn a higher percentage of fat calories while engaging in moderate exercise, high-intensity workouts burn more overall calories in significantly shorter periods of time. The following is a simplified example, just to illustrate how this works:If you spend one hour on the elliptical at a moderate pace, you may burn 200 calories, and 50 percent of calories burned will be from fat, resulting in 100 calories burned from fat. However, if you alternate between a low/moderate and intense pace for 45 minutes, you may burn 300 calories, and only 40 percent of calories will be from fat, but the net result would be 120 total calories burned from fat--20 more calories with 15 fewer minutes spent.

High Intensity Workout

A high-intensity workout focused on interval training is one of the best ways to burn fat when using an elliptical machine. An interval training workout simply consists of short burst of physical exertion followed by small recovery periods (intended to raise and drop your heart rate). According to a recent article on the 'Science Daily' website, interval training will not only burn more fat during interval exercises but will increase potential to burn fat when working out moderately as well. The article details a study by Jason Talanian, a PhD student in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph, in which he finds that after interval training, subjects were able to burn 36 percent more fat when going back to exercising moderately for one hour. To maximize burning calories from fat, Talanian suggests incorporating interval training twice a week into a workout routine to maximize fat burning potential.

Elliptical Interval Program

To burn the maximum calories overall (and ultimately the most calories from fat possible), you will want to begin interval training for all of your workouts on the elliptical. Once your body is acclimated, slowly begin to incorporate longer, more moderate cardiovascular exercising. The following section provides an example of an elliptical routine you may want to follow.

Fat Burning Elliptical Routine

To start:

Warm up five minutes

30 seconds high intensity (80 to 90 percent exertion, raising the speed and level on your machine) followed by 30 seconds recovery (moderate exertion). Repeat this cycle just five times for a total of five minutes.

Cool Down five minutes.

(15 minutes total)To build:

Continue the above referenced structure, but every third workout, add one more interval cycle (which will amount to one more minute) until you have reached 15 to 20 intervals (a total of 25 to 30 total minutes including warm up and cool down).To maintain:

Begin to incorporate longer, moderate workouts on the elliptical into your routine. Switch off between interval workouts and longer moderate workouts. A moderate workout should last about one hour. You will want to keep a level on the elliptical that you can maintain for the entirety of the workout without making it too easy. According to the Running for Fitness website, your percentage of heart rate reserve level should be between 60 percent and 70 percent for a long moderate workout. Interval training between longer moderate workouts will increase your fat burning potential.