I asked a good friend of mine (not on this site) for any advice, this is what he offered:
[quote]
ok… this is more appropriate for a phone call…
a refresher:
Just think of the gearing in a car… 1st gear is intramuscular ATP (fast energy but very short… burned completely in like 12 seconds tops)
2nd gear is your creatine phosphate system (again fast energy, but a bit more duration… takes you out to MAYBE 30 seconds).
3rd gear is Glycolytic or Lactic Acid system (intermediate energy system that is tightly bound into the krebs cycle… think onramp to krebs. This energy system will take you out to 15-20 min when consuming starches and proteins as energy sources)
4th and final gear is Krebs cycle,… think of it as the overdrive. fuel efficient, fat burning. Bear in mind one important fact. Fat burns in the fire of a carb. don’t do the atkins crap. if you are on a low/no carb diet, and try aerobic training, you end up with ketosis from incomplete fat burning. = muscle DESTRUCTIVE.
Why am i telling you all of this? I love talking biochem… and nutrition. SO, if you start elliptical workouts or any aerobic type you go through the gears and hit 3rd fairly quickly. It takes about 20 minutes or so to attain 4th gear (fat burning). Many of the cross trainers and dumb built-in programs will vary the speed and incline of the machine to change things up… DON’T.
Why? To carry my analogy here,… imagine you are finally in overdrive or 4th gear (fat burning krebs cycle) cruising down the road and an old man is weaving in front of you…you want to pass him so you mash the gas.
What does your car do when you are in OD and you stomp on the gas? (no, not backfire)… It downshifts to 3rd to gain fast power… except for this analogy your body wont just jump back into 4th (fat burning) when you level off again. you have to wait for the onramp to get back into the aerobic / krebs cycle. KEEP IN MIND: the entire time you are working out, regardless of what gear you are in, you are still burning calories and thus losing weight.
I rant on about gears shifting etc because i think that if you understand how the chemistry works, you have a huge edge to cut fat faster than the next guy tromping through the “fat burning mode” on a treadmill.
by what you are telling me, you are doing fine. the 45 min elliptical is great, just do a steady ~70-80% of your target heart rate (220-age*.8) and you will be as good as you can be. As a personal rule of thumb, i normally judge my heartrate to be good if i can JUST barely hold a conversation while working out. do a good 45-60min 3 times a week and watch your diet and you will lose the fat.
i know you have limited time, can you get to the gym most days of the week? If you have only a hour, maybe try to work in days that are only cardio and then days for weight training? play with the split if you can, otherwise look to a good 30min minimum a day doing cardio with the remaining on the iron.
loosing muscle shouldn’t happen if you are maintaining the weight training just remember that you have intramuscular fat that will burn off too, so you may look smaller, but not actually have lost muscle.
cycle things too… go major cardio with minor weight training for a month to six weeks. Then cycle to major weight training and minor cardio to build more mass for the next six weeks… the weight will just keep coming off and you will have strength fluctuations, but maintain good physique.
I think i pulled a hammie typing so much… i hope its what you were looking for! man i wish you lived closer… i need the motivation to follow my own advice!
p.s.
caffeine liberates free fatty acids into the blood stream… have some diet dew or coffee before you hop on the elliptical… the shift to 4th gear tends to be faster![/quote]
I’m not sure if it is copyrighted material, but it was worth sharing.
But my suggestion is to pick a goal and stick with it until you reach it. Want to get ripped? Then do it, but don’t give up half way through and decide you want to start adding muscle mass or train for a friggin strongman competition or someshit. 
