People who have bad knees typically use the Elliptical Machines as the only option for exercise and fat loss. Here is one of my fat loss tips. If have knees are healthy and strong, think twice before using an Elliptical machine.

Two Reasons why

Reason Number one- An article published Men's Health magazine warns, "Never trust elliptical machines." Mens Health goes on to quote a study that found elliptical machines overestimated the number of calories burned by subjects during a workout by 31 percent.

Watch out!

So in essence if your "elliptical cardio workout" burned 400 calories, you really only burned closer to 300 calories.

Reason number two and a big one to consider. Someone at Mens Health magazine interviewed "Biggest Loser" contestant Ed Brantley, who managed to lose 73 pounds. Ed said this in the interview "I hated the elliptical. It was too easy. I didn't feel like I was doing anything."

Well hey guess what, go figure. This is the whole reason why elliptical machines are very popular. Elliptical machines are definitely inferior for any fat loss program because they fail my "human nature path of least resistance" test.

I will put it these words...

Gather up 50 people and get them into a gym with 50 treadmills and 50 elliptical machines. Have them cardio exercise for 30 minutes at an intense pace, let each person choose to use either the treadmill or the elliptical machine. Interestingly up to 90 percent head straight for the elliptical machines

Why oh why?

Human nature will always move to take the easy way out. That is why elliptical machines are so popular and busy at the gym. The majority use the elliptical machines and it is rare see people doing intervals on a treadmill or high intensity circuit training.

When you get stuck (most people do eventually) at plateau in your weight loss program keep these fat loss tips in mind and you've been working hard on the elliptical machine to lose weight, forget it. Do not say you "worked out" when in fact you did not really get much work done at all. Try using the bike, the treadmill, or bodyweight exercises for more efficeint and effective results.