Elliptical Calories Vs. Treadmill Calories

Elliptical trainers and treadmills are two of the most popular types of exercise equipment. Both provide an aerobic workout and feature adjustments that can make the workout as intense as the user wishes. The amount of calories you burn on each depends on how much you weigh and how hard you work out.

Elliptical Trainer

• According to Caloriesperhour.com, a website with calorie-burning estimates for thousands of activities, a 150-pound person would burn 277 calories during an hour-long workout on an elliptical with moderate settings--60 strides a minute at a resistance of 7 (out of 20). A 200-pound person would burn 301 calories.

  A more intense workout--70 strides per minute at a resistance of 15--would cause the 150-pound person to burn 507 calories an hour. The 200-pound person would burn 607 calories.

Treadmill With No Incline

• Treadmills have two adjustments that cause a workout to burn more calories. The first is speed.

  According to Caloriesperhour.com, a 150-pound person will burn 272 calories an hour during a moderate 4 mile per hour workout on a treadmill with no incline. The 200-pound person would burn 363 calories.

Treadmill With Incline

• Walking and running uphill requires more energy, so many treadmills can be set at an incline to make a workout more challenging. According to Caloriesperhour.com, a 150-pound person will burn 456 calories by walking for an hour at 4 mph with an incline of 5 percent. The 200-pound person would burn 608 calories an hour.

  Running at an incline burns the most calories. A 150-pound person would burn 953 calories by running at 7 mph for an hour at a 5 percent incline. The 200-pound person would burn 1,270 calories in an hour.

Form

• Form is important in estimating the calorie-burning potential of any workout. There are ways to cheat at any exercise, and the more you cheat, the fewer calories you'll burn. When running on a treadmill, it's important to practice good running form--namely, don't run while leaning on the console or handles.

  On an elliptical trainer, it's important to push the pedals down with your leg muscles and move the poles with your pectoral muscles and triceps. Simply shifting your weight from one leg to the other will make the machine move, but it won't give you much of a workout.

Equipment Quality

• Using exercise equipment with reliable user consoles (to tell you how fast you're moving) is important to get an accurate assessment of your workout. So is maintenance; treadmills whose belts jerk will give you an uneven and uncomfortable workout, and elliptical trainers with worn-out resistance mechanisms won't give you the counter-force you need.