rigs32 said:
I'm not trying to be rude, but do you mean a treadmill? I was confused reading your post.
I have visions of a combination treadmill and sewing machine.
First off--OP congrats on teh new purchase. You want to burn more calories than you take in--but not at a feverish pace. Calorie burn from exercise will vary between people. The surest way to be done with an exercise program is to take on TOO much TOO soon.
How many days during the week do you eventually want to work out? How out of shape are you? These are questions to consider for yourself.
You can also walk until the cows come home, but if you don't modifiy the intake of your food, it may not do you any good. I've trained for a full marathon and a half marathon--one season I looked hot...last season I looked so not hot and in fact gained weight. I didn't watch what I ate properly to coincide with all of my activity.
Try starting out with 30 minutes, 3 days per week.....do not increase by more than 10% per week in time (or you can use distance). This is total for the week.
And unless you are training for some type of distance event--keeping your maximum distance to about 4-5 miles would be about right. But this is somethign to work up to--not something to do right now.
You can look up heart rate--I don't recall the %'s and stuff..but there is a heart rate range you should work in for fat burn and then one for cardio burn. If you are trying to lose weight--keep it in the range for fat burn. The manual that came with your treadmill may have a chart for your reference.
Here's an on-line heart rate calculator:
http://www.virtualfitnesstrainer.com/cooltools/What_is_Your_Exercising_Heart_Rate_Zone.htm
Plug in your age and it will calculate it for you for all you need to know.
When you find that you are getting on the very low end of your exercise range--that would be your key indicator that it is time to increase the intensity during the workout (like going from 3.5 miles per hour to 3.6...then 3.7 and so on).
Soon you will be walking like a pro.
To sum up all this confusion:
Do not increase your total weekly time or mileage by more than 10 percent.
Work within the fat burn rage for your heart rate---when the heart rate falls, time to increase the intensity.
Unless training for something specific--your max distance should be 4 to 5 miles (that is walking 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at a 4.0 mph pace)
Check here on the wish boards...we have a walking/running club--for the novice or the exceptional and it is open to all!
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=109
We just purchased a new treadmill and it's great but I don't know too much about it. If you would like to lose weight how long should you walk for a day. I have been walking for 30 minutes at a speed of 3.5 with a slight incline. I can't run on it, I was never very good at jogging. It reads your pulse too but I'm not really sure what my pulse should be so this doesn't help very much. Any experts. advice welcome. Thanks.
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After two times on it, I could go forever. It was very weird. I find that you need to work yourself up on certain machines- for you this may be the elliptical- I can't compare it to the treadmill. It's like apples to oranges to me. I can go forever on an elliptical but can't run worth a darn. If you're going to the gym, try walking but doing a few minutes (even if it is only 5, then slowly increase the amt of time) on the elliptical to get your legs used to it if you want to use it. 
