Written by Travis Helena | ACSM CPT
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Successfully losing weight requires a combination of proper nutrition, resistance training, and cardio. The nutrition aspect ensures you're in a calorie deficit, while resistance training prevents you from losing muscle mass during the weight-loss process.
Cardio is the final piece to the weight loss puzzle, and it should be utilized as a strategy for further increasing your daily calorie deficit (while simultaneously improving your cardiovascular health and overall fitness levels, of course). Fortunately, contrary to popular belief, this does not mean you need to spend all day walking on the treadmill or riding a stationary bike.
One of our favorite pieces of equipment for weight loss is - drum roll, please - the elliptical! Not only is it a great low-impact cardio option, but thanks to the resistance and incline features, it has the potential to burn calories at a pretty high rate. This means you can spend less time doing cardio while still working toward your weight loss goals.
If you're unsure how to most effectively exercise on the elliptical, we've got you covered! We're about to go over the best elliptical workouts for weight loss, along with some other great tips for slimming down.
Table of Contents:
- What Is The Elliptical?
- Can The Elliptical Help With Weight Loss?
- The Best Elliptical Workout For Weight Loss
- 5 Elliptical Benefits
- Muscles Worked On The Elliptical Trainer
- Workout Strategies & Programming Tips For The Elliptical
- 3 More Elliptical Workout Routines For Weight Loss
- Diet Tips To Help You Successfully Lose Weight
What is the Elliptical?
The elliptical is a low-impact cross-training cardiovascular exercise machine. A unique combination of an exercise bike, stair climber, treadmill, and cross-country skier, the elliptical machine separates itself from many other cardio options by allowing you to simultaneously work your upper and lower body.
Due to the pounding and force that occurs with each step, running can stress your body significantly and injuries can quickly occur. The elliptical is a perfect alternative due to its low impact on your body.
There are many elliptical variations, each with its own unique programs, peddles, handles, and motions. What they all have in common, however, is the option to use a manual program, allowing you to control your resistance and incline during your workout.
One of the downfalls of elliptical machines is that your workout can be pretty easy if you don’t challenge yourself, which is not ideal for weight loss or improving your overall fitness levels. This means you need to have a plan and stick to it.
Whether you are doing steady-state cardio for the heart benefits or choosing HIIT to torch fat and calories, we're about to show you how to get the most weight loss out of your elliptical workouts.
Can The Elliptical Help with Weight Loss?
The elliptical can definitely help with weight loss! In fact, when comparing it to other equipment, like the stairmaster vs elliptical, the elliptical wins for calories burned. To understand how it helps, let's back up a bit and discuss the weight loss process in more detail.
Unless you have an extreme amount of weight to lose, it’s common to shoot for losing 1-2 pounds a week until you hit your goal. You want to lose fat and not hard-earned muscle, so slower is almost always better.
To lose 1 pound, you must create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories each week. A simple way to look at this is to target a 500-calorie deficit daily.
We will get to more diet tips later in the article, but for now, understand that you will have to track how many calories you eat to ensure you lose weight.
So, where does the elliptical come in? Depending on your height, weight, age, and intensity level, you can burn around 400 calories in just 30 minutes on this machine.
When you combine this with a proper workout split and healthy diet, you are well on your way to creating the deficit needed to lose weight.
Higher intensity equals better weight loss results
The cool thing about the elliptical is that if you are willing to up the intensity, you can burn even more calories in less time. It’s the swiss army knife of cardio tools. You can use it for a warm-up, a steady-state cardio session, or high intensity interval training.
Weight loss is an equation full of different variables, and cardio plays a vital role. Remember that there are no quick fixes or magic pills, but the elliptical is easy on your body and does a great job at burning the extra calories needed to lose weight.
The Best Elliptical Workout For Weight Loss
Ok, let's say you are all set to hop on the elliptical for your next workout, but you don’t know what to do to optimize belly fat loss. Don’t worry. That's where this interval challenge elliptical workout comes in.
The keys to getting the most out of this session lie with increasing resistance and incline levels and varying your speeds during different intervals.
If you always keep the resistance below level 5, it will be too easy, and your body will adjust quickly. If you never raise the incline, you will miss out on added benefits for your posterior chain, as the more significant the incline the more your session will resemble climbing a steep hill.
Before you start, look at your elliptical computer screen or controls and locate the quick start button, resistance, and incline. There is no speed button. That all comes down to your effort. And remember, the more you put in, the greater the calorie burn.
For the entire workout, screenshot the table below so you can easily reference it during your workout. Then, you can manually change what you need for each interval with a simple push of two buttons.
If the buttons on your machine don’t precisely match these levels, get as close as you can and focus on the level of intensity indicated.
When reading the table below, the workout section tells you what to do, the resistance and incline section shows you what to change your elliptical levels to, and the time portion indicates how long you'll do that portion of the workout before moving on to the next one.
Elliptical Intervals Workout:
|
The Workout |
Resistance & Incline |
Time |
|
Warm-Up |
Level 3 |
5 minutes |
|
20 seconds fast/40 seconds slow |
Level 5 |
4 minutes |
|
30 seconds fast/30 seconds slow |
Level 7 |
4 minutes |
|
40 seconds fast/20 seconds slow |
Resistance Level 7/Incline Level 10 |
4 minutes |
|
30 seconds fast/30 seconds slow |
Level 10 |
4 minutes |
|
20 seconds fast/40 seconds slow |
Level 12 |
4 minutes |
|
Cool Down |
Level 3 |
5 minutes |
At just 30 minutes, this interval workout gets you in and out of the gym with the maximum amount of calories burned, while challenging your muscles with the increases in resistance and incline.
We know intervals are incredibly tough, but they are the best option for weight loss on an elliptical.
5 Benefits of the Elliptical
An insane calorie burn is reason enough to exercise on the elliptical, but that's not its only benefit! Here are 5 perks of using the elliptical.
And if you want to see even more reasons to start working the elliptical into your routine, we have an entire article on elliptical benefits that discusses in detail just how awesome it is!
1. It’s low impact:
Your body is going to thank you for using a low-impact workout, like the elliptical. Running is great, but it is tough on the body.
Each step you take, around 2,300 per mile, places the strain of your entire body weight on your joints.
This is eliminated with the elliptical since your feet never leave the pedals. If you are someone with past injuries or imbalances or are new to working out, do yourself a favor and hop on the elliptical.
2. It activates the lower and upper body:
Most cardio exercise options are all about the leg muscles but offer little benefit for the upper body. Using the handles on the elliptical will engage all of the muscles in your upper body that contribute to the push-pull motion.
The more muscles you work, the more calories you burn.
3. It’s versatile:
You can use the elliptical for a warm-up to get the blood flowing or start your workout with a short 10-minute interval workout. You can use it for LISS cardio or HIIT.
You can even include intervals between your strength training exercises. Whatever your goal is, the elliptical can keep your cardio workout exciting and fun.
4. It improves your balance:
Since elliptical trainers mimic your natural walking and running gait, it allows your ankle, hip, and knee joints to function in their natural path.
This, combined with the upper body handles, enables you to connect one side of your body to the other, increasing your coordination between limbs and helping improve your balance and proprioception.
5. It gets your heart pumping:
Cardio helps lower your blood pressure and improves the way your heart functions. Since you can get your heart rate so high on the elliptical, your body burns a ton of calories.
This helps your body use oxygen and increases your chances of losing weight.
Elliptical Muscles Worked
Most of the time, when people think of cardio, they don't think about doing it to train their muscles. But the elliptical is a great option to include in your workout routine because it is a full-body exercise that will help tone your muscles.
We have an entire article on elliptical muscles worked, so we'll keep this brief, but let’s quickly look at what muscles the elliptical works.
Lower Body:
Your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves will feel a serious burn, especially if you increase the resistance and incline.
The elliptical even allows you to change the lower body muscles you are targeting when you change directions. For example, pedaling in reverse will target the hamstrings more than moving forward.
Upper Body:
The upper body is activated through the push and pull motion while you are holding the handles. This allows you to activate the chest, anterior deltoid, serratus anterior, and triceps with each push of the handles.
During the pull, you will activate the trapezius, rhomboids, lattisimus dorsi, and biceps.
Core:
Your core muscles work the entire time to help keep your body upright with good posture.
Your rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, hip flexors, and erector spinae all play a role in bracing your upper body and rotating during your gait.
Workout Strategies & Programming Tips for the Elliptical
You first need to decide whether you want to do an aerobic or anaerobic cardio session. Aerobic exercise is steady-state cardio that uses oxygen as fuel, while anaerobic exercise is a high-intensity interval option that uses energy stored in your muscles.
Steady-state sessions are excellent for people with slightly lower fitness levels or those new to working out. These sessions should last 20-40 minutes, targeting a heart rate of 60-70%.
HIIT, on the other hand, has you performing short intervals where your heart rate is about 90-100% of its max. This will likely be too much for beginners, but it offers fantastic calorie-burning benefits.
You should shoot for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity regular cardio exercise or 75 minutes of high-intensity cardio per week1. To hit these targets, you will first need to figure out how many days a week you are going to the gym. Then you simply need to plan out your number of cardio sessions.
Keep an eye on your muscle recovery if you are doing multiple HIIT workouts per week.
Having a goal for the time you are on the elliptical is excellent, but you need to work hard, or you won’t see the weight loss you want. For a good workout, make sure to focus on varying your incline and resistance, changing directions, adding intervals, and using the handles.
3 More Elliptical Workout Routines For Weight Loss
Looking for another great elliptical workout plan for weight loss and fat burn? We've got 3 more excellent programs for you to try!
1. 20-Minute Elliptical Workout:
Do you have twenty minutes to spare during your lunch break? This is a great routine to quickly burn calories and help you re-energize for the afternoon.
|
The Workout |
Resistance & Incline |
Time |
|
Warm-Up |
Level 4 |
3 minutes |
|
Pedal Backward/Moderate Pace |
Level 6 |
2 minutes |
|
Pedal Forward/80% Intensity |
Level 8 |
2 minutes |
|
Pedal Backward/High Intensity |
Level 10 |
1 minute |
|
Pedal Forward/Recovery Pace |
Level 4 |
2 minutes |
|
Pedal Backward/Moderate Pace |
Level 8 |
2 minutes |
|
Pedal Forward/80% Intensity |
Level 10 |
2 minutes |
|
Pedal Backward/High Intensity |
Level 12 |
1 minute |
|
Pedal Forward/Recovery Pace |
Level 4 |
1 minute |
|
Pedal Backward/High Intensity |
Level 12 |
1 minute |
|
Cool Down |
Level 3 |
3 minutes |
2. 30-Minute Resistance Workout:
As a heads up, the 30 minutes may vary, depending on how long it takes you to do the bodyweight exercise portion of this routine, which focuses on squats and push ups.
For the strength portion, hop off the elliptical and perform ladders, up to 10 reps, for both the squat and push up. To perform ladders, start by performing one rep of each, followed by two, then three, until you work your way up to 10. Then get back on the elliptical to complete your workout.
|
The Workout |
Resistance & Incline |
Time |
|
Warm-Up |
Level 3 |
5 minutes |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 7/Incline 3 |
2 minutes |
|
High Intensity |
Resistance 9/Incline 3 |
1 minute |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 9/Incline 3 |
2 minutes |
|
High Intensity |
Resistance 9/Incline 3 |
1 minute |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 10/Incline 3 |
2 minutes |
|
High Intensity |
Resistance 10/Incline 3 |
1 minute |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 12/Incline 3 |
2 minutes |
|
High Intensity |
Resistance 12/Incline 3 |
1 minute |
|
Recovery Pace |
Resistance 3/Incline 3 |
1 minute |
|
Resistance Training: Squats & Push Ups |
|
Ladders to 10 reps |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 14/Incline 3 |
2 minutes |
|
High Intensity |
Resistance 14/Incline 3 |
1 minute |
|
Cool Down |
Level 3 |
3 minutes |
3. 20-minute climbing workout:
Prepare to feel the burn in this resistance-oriented elliptical workout!
When you reach the portion of the workout that has you move up to a resistance level 15, if that's too challenging or your elliptical doesn't go that high, simply go as high as you're able to.
|
The Workout |
Resistance & Incline |
Time |
|
Warm-Up |
Level 3 |
4 minutes |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 3/Incline 5 |
2 minutes |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 3/Incline 7 |
2 minutes |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 3/Incline 9 |
2 minutes |
|
30 Seconds High Intensity/30 Seconds Slow |
Resistance 3/Incline 10 |
2 minutes |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance 3/Incline 12 |
2 minutes |
|
20 Seconds High Intensity/40 Seconds Slow |
Resistance 3/Incline 15 |
2 minutes |
|
Moderate Pace |
Resistance3/Incline 15 |
1 minute |
|
Cool Down |
Level 3 |
3 minutes |
Diet Tips to Help You Successfully Lose Weight
To lose weight, you must first ensure your diet is in check. Using an app like MyFitnessPal is an easy way to log your food and track your calorie intake.
The next step is getting a food scale and weighing your food to ensure you aren’t guessing.
Using a simple Basal Metabolic Rate calculator will give yourself a baseline for how many calories your body needs to stay at maintenance. From there, try subtracting 300-500 calories to put yourself in a deficit.
If you are honest with your tracking, you should be able to use that data to adjust your food intake, whether you need more or less, based on your goals and progress.
Another good idea is macros counting. This is the percent of calories you get from fat, protein, and carbs. As a starting point, aim for 40 percent from protein, 40 from carbs, and 20 from fat. This will take some trial and error, but a simple takeaway is to consume a minimum of .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight and eat whole foods, like those featured in the 80 20 rule diet, instead of processed junk.
It's important to note that you're likely better off exceeding .8 grams of protein per pound when in a calorie deficit to ensure you maintain your muscle mass throughout the process. For best results, target anywhere between 1 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
Hit Your Weight Loss Goals With Help From The Elliptical
We hope you're ending this article feeling inspired to work the elliptical into your weight loss journey. If you push yourself on the elliptical, you can get exceptional results!
Remember: Just because it’s low impact does not mean it's easy. Your workouts are what you make of them. So make them hard.
Make working out and committing to your weight-loss journey extra convenient by adding an elliptical to your home gym. We have articles on the best elliptical machines under $1000 and the best ellipticals for all budgets, ensuring there is one suited to meet your needs!
References:
-
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How Much Physical Activity do Adults Need? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Published 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
Travis Helena
Author