Expert: Ken Alan - 6/28/2004

Question
Hello elle,

I work out at a health club, and I do a variety of cardio equipment. My question is about the StepMill (the stairclimber with the rotating stairs, not the pedals) vs. the Elliptical machine. To me, the StepMill is very hard! I count the minutes until I get off of that torture chamber...yet I have to practically beg it to burn calories for me. On the Elliptical, 20 mins in and I have already burned about 300 cals! I do get a good workout on the Elliptical, I work out at level 13-15 the whole time. Yet, it is practically nothing--and I mean, NOTHING--compared to the StepMill. I would think the calorie burning level on the StepMill would be so much higher since it is so dang hard!

Why do I burn so fewer calories on the HARDER machine? It is frustrating!

Answer
Machines are preprogrammed to give an estimate of number of calories burned.  It is not accurate by any means.  Chances are, if one workout is much harder for you than another, you are burning more calories in the harder workout.  Don't take the numbers so seriously.  Just keep up the good workouts you're doing.