The elliptical trainer in the gym is a go-to for many of us who want a low impact cardiovascular workout in comparison to treadmill running, but for weight loss, these machines are excellent to help your burn calories and shed fat.
In terms of the number of calories, one burns on a cross-trainer can vary according to different factors, but on average if you work out with the elliptical trainer for 30 minutes you could burn between 170-320 calories from this low impact workout.
Check out the reviews of our best rated cross trainers here!
To find out more about how many calories you can burn on an elliptical trainer, which factors affect the calories you burn in your workout session and how to improve calorie burn, we've made a simple guide below.
Before we get into discussing the number of calories you can burn with an elliptical workout it's a good idea to know what factors can affect your calorie burn.
Many factors can vary your calorie burn, from weight, the intensity of the elliptical workout, gender, age and even sleep!
As we mentioned above, depending on your current body weight and intensity, you could burn up to 550-650 calories in an hour making them a great addition to a weight loss program as you need to burn 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week.
For a quick 10 minutes workout on a cross - trainer you could burn between 80-100 calories at a moderate intensity and comfortable pace for a warm-up. We would suggest if you are short on time to try a HIIT workout instead of your cross trainer (intensity interval training) to accelerate your fat burn.
In around 20 minutes, like a 150-pound person, you could burn around 150 calories on your cross-trainer or up to 200 calories at an intense pace when working out. The best part about cross trainers is that even after you stop working out you can continue to burn calories in a period after exercise due to your muscle burn.
To burn even more calories you might consider working out for half an hour, this would help your burn between 200-300 calories depending on your weight and if you are working out at an intense pace.
For an hour of working out with the elliptical, you could burn between 500-600 calories, you can increase the elliptical crosstrainer burn by putting intervals to get your heart rate up, the benefits of crosstrainers are that you can decrease and increase resistance.
You can burn a vast amount of weight calories on a cross trainer if you want to and we've listed a few easy hacks and best tips below for helping you increase your calorie burn.
Overall, cross trainers are an excellent calorie-burning machine and can help you lose weight and burn calories fast, the amount of calories you burn however is dependent on many factors such as your weight and the intensity of your exercise.
If you are wondering what muscle the cross trainer works, you can check it out here!
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Raymond Burton is a fitness coach and writer. He's an ISSA, AFLCA, and Crossfit LV1 certified personal trainer and has served as consultant to the Department of National Defence and General Electric.