Okay.... I am a little confused???

I have been trying to start out slower on the new elliptical... last night I was on it and it read that I did 2.5 miles... and I was on it like 20 minutes- tonight I was on it for about
15 minutes and went 1.5... was going to do it longer but I really did get a work-out... for ME :) LOL I was sweating and huffing & puffing!

Now, I looked it up in the booklet (thank you BTW Jersey- the same scale is actually in the booklet to- guess I should have READ it prior to getting on it LOL) Anyhow- the booklet tells me the "Distance" is in miles... but I was told: "Just an FYI - 2.5 miles in 20 minutes is VERY fast.  And 2 miles in 10 minutes is extremely fast - that'd be 12 MPH!  Is it possible you've got it measuring kilometers and not miles?  My normal pace is around 4 MPH - which at that, it takes 30 minutes to do 2 miles - and that is a very good workout." I guess I just went by what the monitor said... but I must be doing something wrong? Do you think computer on my machine is screwed up? It says it is in MILES?  Is there any other way to get ACCURATE info as I work on this?? And... how long does it take to burn calories? This said I burned apx. 60 today working on it?  Is this all off? I am REALLY disappointed now... not in the machine etself but in the read out that it's giving me :( What do you all think??

I don't quite trust my lifecycle either so I use a wrist monitor and work up to the lower end of my target heart rate (for fat  burning) and keep it going for no less than 30 minutes.  There might be an accounting of how many calories you burn in fitday for this activity.  That's just an estimate as well but it may give you enough info to satisfy that need to know. 

I got nuttin on distance equivalents for an elliptical...and I would not personally track that. I like to do minutes; in my estimation, 15 on that thing would be a minimum workout, 45-60 minutes would be my target. Speed is important, again, i would do intervals (bursts of one minute) rather than fast the whole time. On the ground, I walk a 14 minute mile - and trust me, even my scrawny friends barely keep up. After 22 years of walking and previous jogging history, that is my natural pace. I try to do intervals outside, but between me you an dthe fence post, not often enough! LOL Also, I would not EVEN concentrate on how many calories you are burning.  Forget about that entirely - the point is, you are moving on a regular basis.  Why I say that? I think in my own case I used to somehow think that gave me a license to kill (or eat whatever i wanted all day long then). NOW, I don't even really tie exercise to weight loss - it has SO many other functions.  AND my body will gain no matter how much I work out...my intake is key for me. I am so jealous...have I told you that? LOL