Add calories burned during weight sessions

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tami_andrews
tami_andrews Posts: 10
edited January 2015 in Getting Started
so lifting is a regular part of my workout regiment. When I logged the strength training in, it does not show calories burned. I use an FT for polar watch. Is there anyway to manually punch in your calories?
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Replies

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited January 2015
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    You don't earn that much and your HRM won't accurately give you a figure as that's for steady state cardio so best to just log with a nominal 1 calorie
  • Ishii19
    Ishii19 Posts: 109 Member
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    Um I actually think you can burn a lot of calories lifting, rabbitjb . OP - there is probably a more accurate way to measure your burn, but one option is to log your lifting under the cardiovascular section as "calisthenics" - that will estimate calories just like it will for walking or biking or whatever. Think of the strength section as just a way to keep track of weight lifted and reps/sets done as that section will not add any calorie burn.
  • Ishii19
    Ishii19 Posts: 109 Member
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    Oh - and you can manually enter calories my creating a new exercise under "my exercises" in cardio.
  • zenaxe
    zenaxe Posts: 203 Member
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    Interesting, I was logging the weightlifting but it wasn't showing up as any burn, which made no sense but at least it gave a log to chart somewhat. So calisthenics is the way to log this...~!~
  • GothyFaery
    GothyFaery Posts: 762 Member
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    You can use the calisthenics entry under cardio or you can use "Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)" also under cardio. I'm not sure which one would be more accurate as far as MFP calorie burn estimates but it just makes more sense to me to use weight lifting for lifting weights...
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    From the MFP Help pages...
    myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/11170-why-don-t-you-calculate-calories-burned-for-strength-training-
    Also, you can get an estimate for many types of activities burned for your body weight, including weight lifting (strength training), from the CalorieLab site calorielab.com/burned/
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    If I'm understanding the question correctly... add it as a cardio exercise (just look up strength training, or something similar), then you'll get calories burned. You can manually change that number if you want.
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    strength training isnt logged as a calorie burning workout when you are putting in weights - that's about strength. If you want to add in the calorie burn of it as well, you need to put it in as a cardio exercise - most people use strength training / weight lifting or circuit training.

    Or you can use your heart monitor, find out how much you really burned and make your own custom exercise in the MFP database. I do that all the time. Most of my workouts are just SuperHero names :P
  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
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    The strength training portion of the exercise log is there solely for you to keep track of your lifting progress. To see calories burned (and it's a very very very rough estimate that is usually way way off), log "Strength training" under cardiovascular.
  • tami_andrews
    tami_andrews Posts: 10
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    You guys ROCK!! I did add this under cardio. I use a heart rate monitor so my calories are accurate and I am entering them based on my stats there and not using MFP's estimate. Would love to have any and all on the journey! I can't figure the app very well so feel free to add me and we can keep up!! Thanks!
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    strangles the word 'journey' grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
  • AnAbsoluteDiva
    AnAbsoluteDiva Posts: 166 Member
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    A couple of things here.... if you're using a HRM and you've entered your correct weight, you are definitely getting accurate readings of calories burned. As others said, you can manually enter your calories burned under "weightlifting". I stay on the conservative side of all this stuff and err on the side of caution. Can't tell you how many times I read posts from people saying they've been watching every morsel, recording accurately, and gained five pounds. In other words, if your HRM is telling you that you burned 431 kcals in one hour of lifting (or whatever), round down to 400. You'll be pleasantly surprised when at the end of six months, you lost five pounds of fat you didn't expect to lose.
  • AnAbsoluteDiva
    AnAbsoluteDiva Posts: 166 Member
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    yoovie wrote: »
    strangles the word 'journey' grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

    I agree! Along with "conversation" (political junkies will understand), "paradigm", and "team player" for my friends residing in corporate America.

  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    yussss
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
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    Ishii19 wrote: »
    Um I actually think you can burn a lot of calories lifting, rabbitjb . OP - there is probably a more accurate way to measure your burn, but one option is to log your lifting under the cardiovascular section as "calisthenics" - that will estimate calories just like it will for walking or biking or whatever. Think of the strength section as just a way to keep track of weight lifted and reps/sets done as that section will not add any calorie burn.

    No you really don't burn that much.

    HRMs are for steady state cardio and won't be accurate for lifting and going by the MFP database is pretty off-base from my experience
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    603reader wrote: »
    Ishii19 wrote: »
    Um I actually think you can burn a lot of calories lifting, rabbitjb . OP - there is probably a more accurate way to measure your burn, but one option is to log your lifting under the cardiovascular section as "calisthenics" - that will estimate calories just like it will for walking or biking or whatever. Think of the strength section as just a way to keep track of weight lifted and reps/sets done as that section will not add any calorie burn.

    No you really don't burn that much.

    HRMs are for steady state cardio and won't be accurate for lifting and going by the MFP database is pretty off-base from my experience

    This. I've heard the HRMs are inaccurate for weight training as well. Though I don't use one so I'm basing this solely on what I've read.
  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
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    while it doesn't burn as much as cardio, putting aside the other benefits, its a good burn. I get at least 200 cals per every 30 minute session. I started my fitness program with gym that focused on weights over cardio and it usually had me at around 250 per every 30 minutes depending on how hard the day's workout was.
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
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    HRMs will not give you accurate calories burned for weight lifting. They are meant for steady state cardio. Here's an explanation: http://livehealthy.chron.com/can-heart-rate-monitors-measure-calories-weight-lifting-4910.html

    I'd suggest logging your strength training and using MFP's number. I've found it to be reasonably accurate, whereas my HRM was definitely an overestimation.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Can people please stop talking about which burns more, especially with exactly ZERO context???

    Gahd.

    It is very possible to burn more calories lifting than with cardio, and it's just as possible to burn more calories with cardio than with lifting.

    Nevermind the complexity of "knowing" how many calories you burn doing either.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    I never logged my weight training and for the first 4-5 months I lost what MFP said I would. I guess means that I burned practically nothing while weight training, or not eating back those calories allowed for some errors in eating, which kept me on track.

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