Which exercise machine burns the most calories?

Welcome to number four. Question number four from the diet, fitness, nutrition and lifestyle questions I've been Getting over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com My name is Ben and question number four comes from Mike and he says, which machines at the gym burn the most calories? Well, Mike, your question is it's a little bit loaded because frankly, a lot of machines don't burn that many calories when compared to exercising with your own free body weight. But I'm going to go on a limb here and assume that you're talking about like the cardio machines, that line of cardio machines, because we're trying to burn calories. What it comes down to is that any form of cardio is probably going to be a little bit more efficient than say, going out to an exercise machine like a chest press out on the gym floor. So we're talking about things like treadmill, rowing machine, elliptical trainer, both with and without arms, the stairmaster, the stair climber, the recumbent bicycle, the upright bicycle. A lot of these are going to fall into similar calorie burning ranges, but I can tell you an approximation of what you'd be looking at. Walking on the treadmill without an incline is going to burn the fewest number of calories. Our bodies are very efficient at walking. Walking an incline on a treadmill will burn more calories, but that is assuming that you're not doing what 90% of people in the gym do and hold onto the rails when you're walking on the incline. Okay. You can't hold on to those rails when you're doing that because most of us have been walking from a very early age. Our bodies have adapted to become very, very efficient at it. And so I would take it up a notch. The next thing you could do that's going to burn the next highest number of calories is a toss up between the elliptical trainer without the arms and any variation of elliptical trainer. They've got a lot of different types of those out there now. And one of the stair climbers where you are not actually literally climbing stairs like some of those machines allow you to do, but you're just moving your feet up and down. The next highest mode that you'd be looking at is the recumbent bicycle utilizes a lot of the calorie burning upper thigh, butt, hamstring muscles. And then the upright bicycle, because on the upright bicycle you're having to utilize more the core and the back muscles, which you aren't using the recumbent bicycle. And then finally we've got the elliptical trainer with the arms or the rowing machine, those two are going to burn even more calories. And if you are using your arms, and especially if you're holding like a set of five or eight or even slightly lighter, if you want to go two or three pound dumbbells, that stairway to nowhere in the gym that a lot of gyms still have these days where you just climb stairs that are rotating underneath you, that one's going to burn more calories than it is anything else. So just to review, the top three would be the rowing machine, the elliptical with the arms, and then the StairMaster. There is one that I didn't mention, and this kind of goes without saying, but running on the treadmill, for any of us that have done it, as long as you're not a marathoner or a very efficient runner that's going to fall up there in those top three. And running an incline on a treadmill is just as good as that stairway to nowhere. But then again, if you're running on an incline on a treadmill in a gym, why not go out and enjoy the outdoors and find a hill somewhere outside your house and you'll get a lot more fresh air. So thanks for the question, Mike. And that was question number four from the top 10 questions on nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, nutrition, and the type of inquiries I get over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com.