The answer would be, that it depends how you exercise on a stair stepper. You can spend an hour just stepping away while you read your book or watch your favorite television program and burn a few calories. Or if you are really serious about losing weight and getting in shape, then you could spend half that time (yes half) and burn heaps of calories.

Fat burning, whether it is executed on a stair stepper fitness machine or how ever else it is done, is a science. If you don't follow what has been discovered about how you really burn fat, then you are pretty much wasting your time exercising and have wasted a gym membership fee or the price of a new fitness machine.

If you move around, you burn fat or rather, you burn calories. That is a fact. But the science comes in with how many calories you are burning, versus how many calories you have eaten and naturally consumed (just by being 'alive'). And to lose fat, you must burn more calories per day than you eat. Make sense?

The best way to do this on a stair stepper is to use high intensity interval training, also called HIIT. This is when you exercise as quickly or as vigorously (high intensity) as you can for say one minute, then you either rest or perform low intensity exercise for around 15 seconds.

The after effect of this type of working out means that your body naturally continues to burn fat for the following twenty four hours.

About Your Heart Rate and Fat Burning

At rest, your heart beats anywhere between sixty to one hundred beats per minute. For much fitter people, this can be as low as fifty BPM. Another factor that determines this figure is your age, as a younger persons heart normally beats a bit quicker than an older person.

So to find out what rate your heart beat should be at its highest, during the high intensity part of your workout, subtract your age from 220. I am forty two, so my maximal heart rate is 178.

I don't subscribe to the mid range heart beat to burn fat. I believe, and which has been proved, that the longer you keep your heart rate as high as possible, the more fat you burn. And HIIT workouts are a great way to do this.

Keeping your pulse in this range while you exercise is a great way to burn fat, get healthy and improve your level of fitness. This type of training will prepare you for any other type of exercise you want to do in the future, because your heart (and your body) will be more than ready.

And once you start regularly hitting your fat storage you will really start to look great. Once you look great, you automatically FEEL fantastic.

Here is an example of doing high intensity interval training on a stair stepper.

Stretch and warm up for around ten to fifteen minutes. This way your body is prepared for the vigorous exercise which is to follow. If you have a smart phone, download an 'interval timer' application or you can buy an interval stop watch timer or just use the clock. Set it for 30-45 seconds for high intensity, then set the low intensity for 10-15 seconds.

The ideal length of time to do this is around thirty or more minutes. Don't worry if you can't keep going for that long, believe me, I could not when I first started. But now I can go for around sixty or more minutes in one workout.

So what ever your goals are, fat burning, weight loss, improved cardiovascular health or all three, the stair stepper is a great choice because it works deep into all your legs muscles, while really giving your heart a workout to. But don't forget that any amount of exercise is not going to get you skinny, if your diet is filled with junk food. Honestly, if you eat anything but healthy food, don't expect to burn fat and look great next summer.

Author's Bio: 

Andy is a health and fitness artist, with a focus on weight training and using exercise equipment at home. On his website, you will find all kinds of stepping equipment and how best to use it to burn fat.

You will also find the best places to buy this type of equipment, plus a lot more information about exercising at home. Follow Andy James on Google+.