Are Ellipticals The Same As Running?

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Are Ellipticals The Same As Running?

I have a question...I can run a little, but not more than 1-2 miles, due to my ankles, for horseback riding(I won't go into detail). However, doing the "elliptical" at my gym doesn't hurt my ankles, and I burn 400 calories when I do it.

Do you think that it is basically the same thing as running? By that I mean, do you think that it would basically do the same things? Will it help get rid of the excess fat around my stomach and legs so that the muscle shows through more?

Please write back, I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

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	b.o.r.n. t.o. w.i.n.	10-Dec-06

Whoever posted before me is really really REALLY wrong. There is no possible way on earth that doing cardio can make you gain fat. It's what burns fat! You need to do it regularly at a pace that makes you break a sweat, for 20 minutes or more, 3-4 times weekly. When you do cardio, you're using energy, and after about 20 minutes, your body stops burning energy from glycogen stores and starts using energy from fat deposits, hence the losing fat. weighttraining can you lose fat too, because it increases your overall lean muscle mass, and muscle uses energy at a quicker rate than fat, so your metabolism increases and you can lose fat there, but the results are definitely slower than by doing cardio. Realistically though, you should be doing both for best results. =)

	marjorie	27-Jul-06

First, no they aren't the same. The motion is the same, but with the elliptical there is no impact on your body. As for burning 400 calories, the measurements on those machines are horribly inaccurate. In some instances they can double the number of calories you're actually burning. If you're looking to lose fat you should be doing weight training, with free weights. Using weights bulids muscle and muscle burns more calories than fat!! Using the cardio machines can actually cause you to gain fat!!! You're body with burn lean muscle before you burn fat. The only way to combat that is to lift weights. Also you should be combining you're excersie redgine with proper nutrtion. You should be eating at least 1 gram of protein for every pound you weight. Example is you weight 150 pounds you should be eating 150 grams of protein. The same goes for carbs. Good carbs come from fruits and veggies and whole grain, not whole wheat, whole grain foods. You should be eating .4 times you're body weight in fats. so if you weight 150 you should be eating 60 grams of fats from good sources like olive oil and falx seed oil. And don't combine fats and carbs from fruits and grain products. You can get more info from f-heit.com. That's all I can think of right now.