Nonameslob and Jen, thanks for the reply.
Nonameslob, yes I am doing quite some other things too - mainly diet. I have been dieting pretty seriously since the beginning of my weight loss journey. And, though I am not doing a lot of other activities, I should add in that twice a week I am doing Pilates and everyday after the Elliptical workout, do some weight lifting (through the use of machines) for 10 min. I have so far lost 26 lbs, but I was doing treadmill walking all this time and just now switched over to the ellipticals.
I do feel challenged and am sweaty all over at the ellipticals. I suppose that is a true indicator of calories being burnt.

(The heart rate climbs up to about 163 bpm so..). When considering the heartrate alone, it seems to be the ellipticals are even better than treadmill because the highest I could go on the treadmill was 3.5 mph and for this speed, my heart rate only went as high as 145 bpm.
Jen, I think I should also get a heart rate monitor. After a completely sweaty 45 min at the elliptical, I am cutting the calorie burnt summary by 1/2 and not feeling to happy about the resultant number. By the way, what is the ramp angle in the elliptical? The elliptical I use at the gym only has level, workout type, weight, duration, and RPM (resistance per minute or strides per minute) settings. I am curious to know what is the ramp angle and what is its significance.