Exercise! Love it or hate it, let's motivate each other to just DO IT!

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Old 04-30-2008, 05:24 PM   #1  
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Default Stairmaster v. Elliptical

Which burns more calories? I use them both and set them for intervals so I spend some time very aerobic and some time in recovery. Assuming that's all equal for each machine, which is giving me the most bng for my buck?
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Old 04-30-2008, 05:34 PM   #2  
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I find going by the 'calorie counters' on the machines at the gym that the stair climber is more effective. If I had to guess I'd say the stair climber too just because I find it wipes me out a lot easier than the elliptical does! I guess the only qualifier I can think of is that if you tend to do one type of exercise a lot your body adapts to it and gets more efficient at it, and therefore burns less calories than it would doing something its not familiar with. At least that is my understanding. So if you always do the stair climber your body might burn more calories if you were to switch over to the elliptical one day. Hopefully someone else will have a more concrete answer for ya
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Old 04-30-2008, 05:38 PM   #3  
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The machine that raises your heart rate highest is the one that burns the most calories.

The number of calories burned during any exercise is determined by your heart rate. So if your HR is 150 on the Stairmaster and 150 on the elliptical, then you're burning the same number of calories on both. Ignore what the machine readouts say, they're usually wildly incorrect. It's the same with any other piece of equipment -- at the same HR, you're burning the same number of calories. 150 on the treadmill = 150 on a bike = 150 doing step aerobics = 150 swimming. All of those activities would burn exactly the same number of calories because your HR is the same on all of them.

It's helpful to invest in a heart rate monitor. It constantly monitors your HR and gives you a more accurate number of calories burned than a machine readout does. And with a HR monitor, you can see that HR determines calories rather than the type of exercise. A HR monitor doesn't care what exercise you're doing -- all it cares about is your HR and it tells you the number of calories burned based on that number.

By the way, by wearing my HR monitor while I lifted weights, I discovered that weights can also be interval cardio!! I can get my HR up as high for a set of weights as I can on the elliptical.

Bottom line: if your HR is higher on the elliptical, you're burning more calories on it. On the other hand, if it's higher on the Stairmaster, then that's burning more calories. It's all about your HR.
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Old 05-01-2008, 10:49 AM   #4  
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I recently added the Stairmaster into the mix of cardio I do. (I'd gotten into a bit of an elliptical rut.) It definitely feels like a harder workout, and I haven't managed to do much more than 20 minutes or so. (I can stay on the elliptical for much longer.) But I also have a new heart rate monitor, and, the other day, I started with the Stairmaster and then moved to the elliptical. To my surprise, I burned exactly the same amount of calories in 20 minutes on the (Life Fitness) elliptical as I did on the stair climber.

It was an interesting discovery because I'd just figured the Stairmaster was more intense because it feels like that. I'm still going to keep doing Stairmaster a couple of days a week--it's got to be good for the legs, anyway, and I'm trying to keep my workout diversified. But it's definitely good to know that I can get a similar workout on the elliptical.
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