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Anonymous
Okay, /fit/.

I exercise 5 days a week. I usually do 30 minutes of uphill running on a treadmill or 30-45 minutes on an elliptical machine.

When I run uphill for 30 minutes, the machine says I burned 350-400 calories. When I run like mad on an elliptical for 30 minutes, it says I burned 350-400 calories.

The thing is, running on the treadmill FEELS like it's much more difficult. I usually end that routine absolutely balling in sweat... I usually totally soak through my shirt and am gasping for air the whole time. But when I use the elliptical, I barely break a sweat and am barely out of breath at the end. It feels that the treadmill releases more endorphins, because I'm always more light-headed when I'm done.

Is using the uphill treadmill better for me, even though both machines say the same amount of calories are burned? Would using the uphill treadmill for 30 minutes (supposedly 350 calories) better for me than using the elliptical for 45 minutes (supposedly 500 calories), given that it feels like a much more difficult workout?

A possible extenuating circumstance is that I trained all last summer solely on elliptical machines, not treadmills. But I doubt that you can gain a tolerance to those and not old-fashioned running.
>> Anonymous
>But I doubt that you can gain a tolerance to those and not old-fashioned running.

You can. They don't focus on the same areas as running, plus running is higher impact. If you had ran all last summer you'd be in a different boat.
>> Anonymous
>>21787
So what's the story? Should I exercise on an uphill treadmill and kill myself every day, or should I use an elliptical for the same calories and get by with almost no sweat?
>> Anonymous
>>21790
From what I've been told, if you're not sweating, your not doing it right. You NEED to get your heart rate up. I'm sure there's a lovely chart somewhere on the internets that can tell you how much "up."
>> Anonymous
>>21794
You should see me, though. I go crazy on those elliptical machines. I put resistance to near max and go faster than anyone else.

When I first started doing them at the beginning of last summer, I could barely stay on one for 15 minutes. Now I don't break a sweat.

Is it time to switch to something else? I just want to know if it's worth doing a much more difficult workout if I'm supposedly burning the same calories either way.
>> Anonymous
The amount of sweat has nothing to do with how many calories you burn.

But running on an elliptical saves your joints from a lot of shock, which is why I use one. I have bad knees as it is, I don't need to fuck them up more.