Okay, I've read that to lose 1 lb you'd have to burn 3500 calories, so if I burned 500 cals a day, I'd lose 1 lb a week (in theory). I'd like to get to a point where I can burn at least a 1000 cals a day, to give me a loss of 2 lbs a week loss. On my figures,that would mean at least an hour a day on my elliptical/cross. Now I have a pretty short attention span and an hour on the machine seems like it'll be a lifetime. Would it be so bad to break it down into 3 x 20 min workouts or 2 x 30 min workouts each day instead of one long session?

Okay, I've read that to lose 1 lb you'd have to burn 3500 calories, so if I burned 500 cals a day, I'd lose 1 lb a week (in theory). I'd like to get to a point where I can burn at least a 1000 cals a day, to give me a loss of 2 lbs a week loss. On my figures,that would mean at least an hour a day on my elliptical/cross. Now I have a pretty short attention span and an hour on the machine seems like it'll be a lifetime. Would it be so bad to break it down into 3 x 20 min workouts or 2 x 30 min workouts each day instead of one long session?

If you think you'd have a hard time doing cardio for an hour per day try doing intervals.

Go as fast as you can for 30 seconds and go straight into a medium tempo for a minute (more or less - whenever you catch your breath). Repeat this for 18 - 24 minutes 3-4 times per week.

Bob's your Uncle.

Disclaimer: Of course this type of cardio is MUCH more demanding than traditional-type cardio and requires the individual to be in MUCH better shape to start.

That is exactly what I do. 1 hour eliptical for about 1000 calories. It is working great for weight loss, but theres a catch. I went to get my BF% checked today in a thing called a Bod pod. My daily calorie intake is 1500-1800 calories and about 120-150 grams of protien. Yet my lean muscle mass was only 170 pounds. I started at 290 and am currently at 245, and 6'1" tall. The trainer said that I have definitely lost muscle on this regimin. And I still have 75 pounds of fat...sigh...He has told me to up my calories and protein intake. I am going to attempt to close the gap by upping my muscle and still losing the fat. I guess my overall gist is that you need to keep up the calorie intake if you are going to do an hour a day of cardio. I am kind of new to all this and that didn't make alot of sense to me at first...seemed to be silly to up cardio, but also up calories(wouldn't that defeat the purpose?) But the trainer was able to make me understand...i think..hehe

Good luck

I'd like to get to a point where I can burn at least a 1000 cals a day, to give me a loss of 2 lbs a week loss. On my figures,that would mean at least an hour a day on my elliptical/cross.

Actually, you are probably better off working up to the point where you can do intense enough work to get a good deal of "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption" (EPOC). EPOC is calories that you burn after your workout - not during it.

You are about the same height and weight as me. I use a heart rate monitor to calculate my calories burned. I check the VO2max estimate that it uses against standard tables for running times, and the agreement is good to within 10%. So, using the heart rate monitor to measure calories burned, here is a workout I did on a treadmill:

5 minutes walking
2:47 half mile
2 minutes walking
1:33 quarter mile
3 minutes walking
1:14 quarter mile

203 calories in 15:43
MHR 190, AHR 139

That was the direct calories; and you can see that if I did that for an hour it would be 800 calories.

However, the calories don't immediately return to your basal rate when you stop exercising. The body has to return to a pre-exercise state and it spends energy doing it. I started a new exercise session to count those calories:

692 Calories in 2:04
MHR 151, AHR 98

So when you include the calories burned during and after the workout, it was about 900 calories in about 2:20. Note that the two hours after the workout, I took a shower and walked a half block to my office and sat at a terminal. Normally I would burn about 250 calories in 2:20, so the workout increased the calories in that day by about 650 calories.

The calories burned by EPOC come almost all from fat. This means that even if your workout was not burning a lot of fat, the overall effect is mostly burning fat.

If you did that twice in a day, it would be half an hour of actual exercise, and would have a decent chance of getting you the 1000 calories you want.

Thus, as far as I can tell, if you work up your aerobic fitness, you have a good chance of being able to burn the 1000 calories without spending an hour a day on the elliptical.

That is exactly what I do. 1 hour eliptical for about 1000 calories. It is working great for weight loss, but theres a catch.
Well to be honest I'm not too concerned about some muscle loss, at least not in this phase. I really want to get the weight down and then focus on building muscle, however I am doing a small amount of resistance training too.

Coachese, thanks for the tips, that sounds like HIIT? As you state though, you need to be in reasonable shape to do this type of training and I'm certainly not. I think I'm going to try and aim for two 20 min sessions a day and hopefully those cals burned and the ones burnt while my body get back to pre-exercise state (thanks for the info zenpharaohs) should hopefully total around about 1000 a day. :cool:

I think I'm going to try and aim for two 20 min sessions a day and hopefully those cals burned and the ones burnt while my body get back to pre-exercise state (thanks for the info zenpharaohs) should hopefully total around about 1000 a day. :cool:

You will be well advised to check your calories with a heart rate monitor to make sure you're burning what you think.

If you want to go for EPOC, and that's a good thing to go for, you have to keep in mind that low intensity exercise doesn't get you much. Whether the intervals you do are long (like my old school type) or the shorter intervals that other people suggest, the key is working about as hard as you can.

Don't be discouraged if at first you don't hit your target. The attempts that fall short of your calorie target at first will very likely improve your lactate tolerance, so that you will progress to the ability to do what you want. Go safe (ratchet your intensity up only a little each workout), but go hard.

for reference... i picked up a mioSPORT watch at walmart (in the fitness section) for about $30 i belive it was... I set it up so when i start my 1st excersize it's starting to calorie count... i'm a 300ish# guy and 1000 calories is nothing in an hr workout (about 20 min of weights then rest of the time cardio machine)

if you are a music guy pick up an Mp3 player or something it realy does help with the time A LOT... also gives you that bit of PUMP when you need it if you find the right song at least :)

i'm a 300ish# guy and 1000 calories is nothing in an hr workout (about 20 min of weights then rest of the time cardio machine)

All things being equal, a 300# guy burns calories at about a 50% higher rate than a 200# guy. So as you lose weight, it gets harder and harder to burn the same calories. If your VO2max goes up, though, it gets easier and easier to do the work that burns the calories.

That is exactly what I do. 1 hour eliptical for about 1000 calories. It is working great for weight loss, but theres a catch. I went to get my BF% checked today in a thing called a Bod pod. My daily calorie intake is 1500-1800 calories and about 120-150 grams of protien. Yet my lean muscle mass was only 170 pounds. I started at 290 and am currently at 245, and 6'1" tall. The trainer said that I have definitely lost muscle on this regimin. And I still have 75 pounds of fat...sigh...He has told me to up my calories and protein intake. I am going to attempt to close the gap by upping my muscle and still losing the fat. I guess my overall gist is that you need to keep up the calorie intake if you are going to do an hour a day of cardio. I am kind of new to all this and that didn't make alot of sense to me at first...seemed to be silly to up cardio, but also up calories(wouldn't that defeat the purpose?) But the trainer was able to make me understand...I think..hehe

Good luck

Yeah you are/were eating below your unmodified BMR. I used your height, weight, and the age of 25 (a guess). You BMR would be 2349.45. If you use the 1.6 modifier (exercise more than 4x a week) 4229 would be your maintence calorie intake. (3500 * 2) / 7 = 1000. So to lose 2 pounds a week you should be eating 3229 cals a day. 2729 to lose 3 pounds a week. I would hold off there as 4 pounds would take you to 2229 cals a day which is below your BMR.

Good Luck!

-- Jeremy