[Viviane]

I wouldn't put much stock in this article.

First, the author has a stake in convincing people to come down off the elliptical and purchase his training program

Craig Ballantyne is an expert trainer for Men's Health magazine and Oxygen magazine, and his fat burning bodyweight workouts help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

Second, his conclusions are based on a publication that he works for- which is kind of like citing a paper you authored to prove your thesis in another. This is some pretty lazy "journalism." (Yes, I know it's a fitness magazine, but they should be held to minimum standards or they're useless). Third, his conclusion that ellipticals aren't going to help you lose weight or push past a plateau is premised on the assumption that you won't work hard on it and/or you'll rely on faulty fat/calorie burning calculations done by the machine. That's pretty individual. Some people certainly will use the elliptical to slack off, but that's probably true of any equipment they'd use- no incline on the treadmill, no hills on the recumbent bike, leaning on the stair climber, etc. And, those that think the fat/calorie burning counts are written in stone are likely newbies or just misinformed.

I work my off on the elliptical. And, I know because I'm soaked in sweat and can barely talk during the workout, not because I'm deluding myself that I got a good workout. That's also how I know I need to go to the next resistance level- it starts to feel too comfortable. I say, if you're sweating hard, you have to really push yourself to make it to the end of the time, and you're still losing...you're probably doing pretty well with exercise!

[FitGirlyGirl]

The guy is full of sh**. The only thing in there that I will agree with him on is that the calories burned read out on these machines is not accurate. Well, it's not going to be accurate on any machine and anyone who has been doing this for any length of time and is serious about it knows to ignore it. I use a body bugg (these things do have good accuracy - though nothing is ever perfect, of course), so that's where I get my calories burned numbers from. From the info my bugg gives me and the wetness of my towel and t-shirt when I get done on the elliptical, I can tell you that I am definitely getting a good workout. Yesterday I spent 20 minutes on an elliptical and burned 201 calories according to my bugg - sounds good to me. Can you take the lazy way out on the elliptical? Well, yeah, but you can do that with anything - other machines, exercise classes, fitness programs like insanity or something, anything. If a person wants to be lazy they will. If they want a good workout they will get it - no matter what they are using to do so. The elliptical and the Wii were the beginning of my exercise program. I had lost 40 pounds before I started attending classes and about 50 pounds before I started to regularly use a treadmill or a bike, so nobody is going to tell me that ellipticals don't work.

[MindiV]

I love my elliptical. The one I used to use said I burned 40 calories in a 45 minute workout. And I did input height and weight. Yeah...machines are NOT accurate.

So I bought a heart rate monitor. I regularly get my pulse rate into the 180s, and burn 400+ calories in a workout. Like others, I FEEL like I've worked out after getting off my elliptical. I disagree with the article's assertion that you can't get a good workout on one.

If you get on any machine, treadmill, elliptical, rower or whatever, and totally BS your way through a workout on the lowest setting, you won't get a good workout. But if you push yourself, you'll get a good one anywhere.

[Rebound]

This is a stupid article... You can work out half-assed on ANY piece of equipment!

The one thing that some people forget, though, is keeping good form on the elliptical. I'm guilty of poor form, too, but I've always read that you should stay very even on the elliptical. Pretend that there is a ceiling 4 inches above your head and you have to stay below it. I see a lot of people who pulse up and down about a foot. Keeping your body level throughout the entire movement is a much harder workout.

And I agree with everyone who thought his 3 "reasons" were pretty dumb. Anyone who knows ANYTHING knows that the calorie counters on cardio machines are crap and shouldn't be trusted. I do trust my GWF, though, and that tells me that I can burn a **** of a lot of calories on the elliptical -- providing I make myself actually WORK, of course!

[rockstar87]

I agree that it's harder to get a really intense workout on the elliptical. It just doesn't get my heart rate up like the treadmill does (or even the stairmaster with actual stairs, not the one you bounce on).

That being said, who even pays attention to the calorie counters on the machine? You know who does that? Already skinny girls that go to the gym to bounce around on the elliptical and not break a sweat or even get a little red faced. Those machines are always the busiest at every gym I've been to and very rarely do I ever see anyone working themselves hard one one. These people don't even use the proper technique. If you actually use the machine correctly you'll feel it a lot more. It's a really easy machine to cheat on if you're not making a conscious effort not too.

Personally, I just don't like the movement. I remember a trainer saying that in an article or on TV or something - the elliptical is just not a natural movement. Running, biking, stairs are all functional movements and the elliptical is just...not. And I agree. Haha. It feels weird to me.

So for all those reasons I pass on the elliptical unless I'm nursing an injury. I used to use it when I was heavier, but then got into running and spinning and haven't looked back.

And yeah, the article's not very insightful. I think it's meant mostly for people who aren't aware of the flaws in the machines. People who aren't trying to lose weight (or just started getting into fitness) and haven't done their homework on the calorie counters and things.

Clearly we're all well beyond that .

[Meg]

I lost 122 pounds in a little less than a year using the elliptical as my only form of cardio due to arthritis in my knees. Eight years later of maintenance later,it's still my favorite form of cardio. I frequently can get my HR to 95% of max (using a Polar monitor) when I do cardio intervals on the elliptical. So the article completely baffles me.