elliptical training

I

Indigo

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Hi all...

I am relatively new to working out. I have been using the elliptical machine for about 3.5 months now. My starting weight was 235 lbs and current weight is 209 lbs. My goal is to continue losing weight and go down to about 180 lbs.

I work out for 1.5 hrs a day and 6 days a week. The machine says I burn about 1250 to 1300 calories per workout. While I am working out my heart rate goes around 140 to 150. My age is 37 years old. My body is drenched in sweat after the workout so I know I am getting a good one.

My question is my weight have been bouncing up and down like a yoyo the last 2 weeks. I'll go down to 206 and then all of a sudden jump back up to around 209. I haven't been on any major food binges... I eat about the same everyday. I really don't know why I seem to be hitting this wall and my weight has not decreased much lately.

My other question is would it be better for me to keep my heart rate lower and do the same amount of exercise? I already spend 1.5 hrs and I can't spare anymore time than that. Is it more efficient for weight loss to keep a lower heart rate and burn less calories or continue with what I am doing now and burn more calories with a higher heart rate.

Thanks for your help...
Indigo
 
hey , firstly congrats thats a great achievment!!!
ok you might have come to a bit of a plateau so make sure you continue with your workout and make sure you eat right !!! dont get put down because of a little break in weight loss just pick it up and keep going, it may also be a sign you are overdoing it so watch out for that and give it a rest if you need too!!!
your heart rate is fine,what makes you think it should be lower??... the higher the better really (within reason), i train at about 65-70 % of my max for about a hour the more calories burnt also the better !!!
good luck your on a great path and u will get there
 
Thanks for the quick reply Meganl. Regarding my heart rate... if I use the method of 220 - 37(my age) = 183 (max heart rate). Then let's say I work out at 70% then my workout heart rate should only be 129.

I can reach 129 very easily. My heart rate gets to around 140 after about 30 mins of exercise. By the time I finish at 1.5hrs my HR is 150 for about 20mins.

My concern is if I work out at this higher heart rate will it reduce my ability to burn fat. More importantly will I be doing my body harm. I don't feel bad or anything after my workout. I usually walk two laps around the gym to make sure I cooldown properly (this does not include the 2min cooldown that I do on the machine). I drink about 12oz of water after I finish workout (10 oz before workout) since I don't drink at all while I am on the machine.

I guess I am the same as anyone else. I want to make sure what I am doing is efficient at burning fat and not doing harm to my body.
 
no problem ...yeah 129 seems pretty low..if you dont feel bad and you have been doing it for 3.5 months then it must be ok ... your heart rate isnt too high to be dangerous because it is fairly far away from your maximum...what is your resting heart rate? this also plays a role in what how high it should be ... take your resting hr in the morning as soon as you wake up and let me know :)
 
wow ok i suspect you are alot fitter than you think :) haha um yeah you are fine to be training at that heart rate... i spoke to a top trainer about it and he works out that stuff all the time and he said that is a good rate to train at and you shouldnt get any side effects so thats good news !! haha um well good luck any other Q's feel free to PM me!!
 
Indigo:

Congrats on your weight loss! Regarding your fluctuations - you said you went from 206 to 209? That's just normal shifts in water weight. Your weight can fluctuate by a few pounds in a single day alone! It's very common to see these minor weight fluctuations. Now, if you weight yourself periodically for a month or so and you're always between 206-209 pounds, then you have hit a weight plateau. In order to break through that, you'll have to mix up your workout routine and make some changes to your diet. But if you're only noticing this over a week or so, it's just normal water weight fluctuations.

As for your heart rate question, you're fine as far as the zone you're training in. I just posted a great article on my website about low intensity workouts vs. high intensity workouts - which is better at burning fat? If you go to my website (in my signature), click on the article entitled, "Bank Calories to pig out later?" You'll go to that article and towards the bottom there is a link to the author's archive of articles. It is the first article listed there. It is a must read because it spells out in plain english which is better for fat loss.

I'll give you a hint - they are both great at burning fat. They just do it in different ways. Hope the info helps.

Travis Van Slooten
 
Thanks Travis and Meganl for the help so far. I have some questions regarding my workout. I mainly use only the elliptical machine as my right knee is not that great.

My workout is more of a steady pace and my heart rate will increase steadily until I finish my 1.5hrs and will cap usually around 150. I have read on some other sites lately about HIIT and that I should be working on intervals.

Since I am basically a total n00b on exercise. I was wondering if you guys had any ideas about this. If so... what kind of program should I do for this. Do you think is better to go steady or up and down for my heart rate during the exercise.

I will be honest though... I don't mind doing more work during my workout. But for diet... I am kinda set in what I eat. My diet is not the greatest. I eat chicken with the skin on... *gasp*. I know that is a cardinal sin. What can I say... I been eating it all my life and I can't change. I know in order for me to get to my goal of 180 lbs I will have to adjust my diet.

I guess what I am trying to do is to make sure I am getting the most efficient workout out of my 1.5hrs without changing my diet and still have weight loss and more importantly lose my spare tire.

Thanks for the help...
 
Travis...

I just finished reading that article you told me about on your site. Thanks... was very helpful. From that article I got the impression that it is saying is okay to continue doing my exercise the way I am going.

I guess what I should consider doing is doing both. HIIT and steady.

My problem is I really don't know how to start HIIT. I am not sure how long I should do the high intensity and at what HR level. How long I should do the rest period and at what HR level.

Any ideas???

Thanks for the advice...
 
Read this article, it has an HIIT section with examples to get you started but...
Can I ask why you specifically say you don't want to change your diet? It is a more likely cause of delaying your progress than cardio.
 
Indigo,
You've been doing the same exercise for 1.5 hours per day, 6 days a week for the past 3.5 months. Megan and Tvanslooten hit it on the head when the said you'd reached a plateau. Your body has adjusted to the exercise you're doing. HIIT is certainly one way to change your routine. Another activity would also help. I know you said you have knee problems, but occasionally substituting a stationary cycle or stair machine for the elliptical machine would be good. You haven't mentioned weight training. Substituting a couple of cardio sessions with weight training could pay tremendous dividends. You'll increase your lean muscle mass which will increase the calories you burn throughout the day. So, if you're determined to make dietary changes the last resort, you still have a lot of options you can pursue. Good luck.

Paul
 
I agree also with Mel and Tvanns. As of yesterday I started changing my rate of exercise. I reduced my cardio time down to 1hr. I did 3mins of sprinting to get myself to 155 HR (183 Max) followed by 1.5mins to get my HR down to 125. I would repeat that for an hour.

I am also considering doing HIIT one or two days a week. Regarding HIIT... please advise if I am supposed to go all out and not worry about HR. Also when I am on resting part of HIIT... should I just stop or slow myself down as much as possible on the machine.
 
HIIT is good but can be verrrry hard, HIIT gets your heart rate pretty close to max for short bursts so i dont think you need to watch it to closely... i dont because you will definatly feel it if you go to high!!
 
Switch it up

I would definately go for HIIT - I don't watch my heart rate on the monitor, just go by feel and man you are gonna feel it. I didn't read the article posted in this thread but it probably mentioned that you won't be able to keep HIIT up for over an hour - results in half the time, who doesn't want that?
 
I tried my first HIIT session today. OMG!!! I am such a whimp. I did a 5min warmup then did 2 30sec sprint/30sec slowdown and 5 60sec sprint/60sec slowdown. For a grand total of 12min session.

I was almost dead after that. It is gonna take a while before I can reach 20mins.

I did it on the elliptical. I actually couldn't tell my heart rate because I just used the legs and did not use the arms.

It was funny I just closed my eyes when I was sprinting and was silently praying that when I opened them again that it would be 1min. Sadly to say... when I opened them it was never 1min. That 1min felt like an hour.

I am going to keep at it for a while to see how it goes. I am going to try to do this 3 days a week and do intervals and strength cardio for 3 days.

Last week I started changing my routine with more interval and strength cardio. I was able to push through my weight plateau. I am down to 204 lbs now.

I hope I didn't lose muscle for those lbs. My sparetire did go down a bit in size but not very much though... so I probably did lose some muscle.
 
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