They're great tools for weight loss. You can burn a lot of calories on them. But you need to do different forms of exercise also. If you don't, your body will become used to the usual exercise and you won't be losing any more weight (the plateau effect). So try to incorporate other forms of exercises as well as the elliptical or bike, and you'll see great results.
I do 40 minutes a day 5 days a week. I started on Jan 17 when I weighed 266.5 ( I'm 5'8" ) , on Feb 4th I weighed 257 and on Mar 3rd I weighed 251. Today I weighed myself and I weigh 250.5. I also eat 1500 calories a day with 33 grams of fat.The elliptical is no impact and doesn't cause me any negative side effects. I have flat feet, bulging discs ( 3 ) vertebral stenosis and arthritis in my lower spine. I'm 50 yrs old.
You can lose weight with those machines but you have to burn a bunch of calories to do it. Try 500 calories at a time. That may be like 30 to 40 min a day. Do it at least 3 days a week and more if you have time. Eat healthy and not overeat.
Yup! Lots of people do. You have to use them at least 4x per week and eating healthy and lifting weights will help you lose even faster. You're most likely not going to be able to workout on an elliptical/bike long and hard enough to outwork a bad diet though. If you're gonna continue eating McDonald's and Pizza every day, then you probably wont be losing any weight.
I bought an exercise bike just after Christmas and it took me maybe 4-6 weeks to lose around 20 pounds. I would use it quite often, never any less than half an hour per day.
Hope I could help ♥
xox