Strength training and calories

Lottiotta
Lottiotta Posts: 162 Member
in Getting Started
After a couple of big surgeries I'm dabbling in weights again, and I'm having a go at entering the exercises into MFP to see what happens.

As far as I can see, it's not counting calories from it:

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And it's not showing up on my Fitbit exercise log either. (That's fair enough; Fitbit counts calories by time spent doing some vague thing like "strength training", and I go slow so the calories-burned count would almost certainly be off.)

So, is the strength training log just a log, or does it affect the figures at all?

Thanks in advance!

Cassian

Replies

  • Rossergirl
    Rossergirl Posts: 105 Member
    Just a log. I have not seen it affect figures.
  • terricherry2
    terricherry2 Posts: 222 Member
    There's an option under cardio for strength training but I don't know how accurate it is. I'd guess not very.
  • JoshLibby
    JoshLibby Posts: 214 Member
    MFP sucks at estimating how many calories you burn with exercise. I'd suggest not logging it and if you're losing too much weight or gaining too much weight adjust accordingly. I am not losing weight and myfitnesspal told me I could eat an extra 300 calories if I lift or do H.I.T on a particular day. It's complete wrong for me so I don't bother, maybe others have had better luck, although I did a google search and found the same complaints.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Strength training burns way fewer calories than you might think.

    Your negative Fitbit adjustment means MFP is projecting that at 11:59 p.m. you'll have burnt fewer calories than your activity level. You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    Add "Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)" to Cardiovascular to get estimated Calories Burned added to your Diary. Please note that the Calories burned for Cardiovascular exercises provided by MFP are based on published metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs), which are estimates for a general population and may differ for you as an individual. If desired, add individual strength training exercises, such as "Biceps Curl," to Strength Training to have a log of sets, reps, and weights as individual exercises.

    Please see these articles in the list of articles on this topic in the MFP Help pages...
    myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/11170-why-don-t-you-calculate-calories-burned-for-strength-training-
    myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/topics/455842-exercise-diary-and-exercise-database/articles

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  • Mezzie1024
    Mezzie1024 Posts: 380 Member
    I enter under the cardio entry for lifting, but I only enter the actual time I lifted. If I'm in the weights area for 30 minutes, for example, that's about 15 minutes of actual work because of all the rests I take between sets. As I continue to lose at the predicted rate, that's working for me. Chances are, that would not be the case for everyone.
  • Lottiotta
    Lottiotta Posts: 162 Member
    Thanks everyone, really helpful! :)

    So I'll just happily not log my strength training, because I'm still at the Weedy Weed level, and I take lots of rests, and chances are the calorie burn count would be inaccurate.

    @editorgrrl Thanks! I am pretty familiar with the negative calorie burn and Fitbit and stuff. I've had my accounts linked for a while and there are definitely plenty of days where I don't move enough, so if I didn't have it set that way I'd probably start gaining weight again. I'm already set to sedentry on MFP and Fitbit, so I can't get it any lower, I don't think.

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