Which is better? Speed or time

[TartyDoris]

I do 25 minutes on the eliptical trainer at setting 15, or 40 minutes on setting 10. The 40 minutes burns more calories but the 25 minutes leaves me feeling far more exhausted. What are the pros and cons of each?

well if you where the woman I was watching today going all out on this peice of equipemnt - your knees will be knackered in about a year - actually your left knee as it was really harsh and very unbalanced with a lot of pressure ont he left knee

so I would go for time rather than speed

Depends what you want to achieve. Crosstrainers (sorry...) have been shown in lots of studies to vastly overestimate how many calories burned (in comparison to things like the rowing machine and treadmill.) Often the crosstrainer feels easy than these machines, which is why people use it....but there is a reason it feel easier!! With that in mind, it is worth considering doing short and fast, as that will raise your metabolic rate for longer, and tone your muscles more. I assume when you do your 25 mins you then go on to do something else? You could opt to do it at the end of your workout and really push yourself, thereby maximising the fatburning potential.

Depends whether you have an injury or not, but in terms of gym machines and calorie burning, the treadmill (as long as you are at very least jogging at 10kph or more) is by far the best in terms of burning calories and improving aerobic fitness. You can pootle away on the crosstrainer all year and still struggle to run or row any distance.