Body pump calories?

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CaptainBibi
CaptainBibi Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Can anyone tell me how many calories you burn doing a 45 minute body pump (weights) class at Virgin Active? Thanks..

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  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    It's a very hard one to measure because there are so many different factors, including how heavy you're lifting and what effort you're putting in. A very rough guess would be about 300 cals,

    What are you doing with this info - if you intend to eat every last exercise calorie back, then a heart rate monitor is your best friend.
  • DoogCampbell
    DoogCampbell Posts: 53 Member
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    Ahoy thar' Cpt! :p

    I'm really sorry to break it to you because I know how important it is to get something in your MFP log for this but the answer is always going to be 'Depends'.

    You could go to class and put no weight on the bar and do 45 mins. The next week you could come in and do the same routine with 10lbs on the bar. The next time you might do 15lbs but feeling a little half-hearted that day, don't really put much effort in. There isn't a straight forward answer to this I'm afraid. The best recommendation I can make, is to try a 45min treadmill jog and see what that tells you, then compare it to how you feel after the class. Its one of those things you just have to get a feel for.

    If in doubt go low :)

    I know that MFP has some standard values in for these things although I believe they are not labelled as you would expect so may be hard to find. I have heard people say that they overestimate but I would again come back to how much work you put in that day.
  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Search for Les Mills body pump in your exercise diary, assume that MFP gives too many calories.
    Most people only use half the calories MFP gives. You can manually change the number of calories for an exercise once you put in time.
    melaniecheeks wrote: »
    What are you doing with this info - if you intend to eat every last exercise calorie back, then a heart rate monitor is your best friend.

    Heart rate monitors are notorious for not working for anything but steady state cardio. Pump is not steady cardio.
    You will never really know the exact amount of calories you burn.
    Just eat some exercise calories back, as long as you are still losing weight (I assume that is your goal) you are on the right track.
  • LindseySprake
    LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
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    Does depend on how heavy your lifting, how much effort you're actually putting in, your height, weight etc.
    There are a lot of variables.
    Also, with any resistance training, you'll continue burning calories for a while after the class too.

    However, I do use a heart rate monitor and usually get a burn of between 290-380 per class (I like to round down to the nearest 10 cals).
    I'm 5,2 and 150lbs.

    Hope this helps :)

    Also just to mention, the estimates on the MFP database are usually a lot higher than what you'd actually burn.
  • CorbanRushworth
    CorbanRushworth Posts: 4 Member
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    As others have suggested, this is a classic "it depends" question. Well all exercise is, but at least with a 'simple' exercise like running there's fewer variables and it's easier to gauge intensity.

    With pump it depends on how heavy you lift, how heavy you are, what effort you put in (are you missing reps?), how long the rest periods are (often varies between instructors) etc, and much else.

    I am a heavy guy, and lift the most I can lift without missing many reps (e.g. near maximum effort), and I'd estimate I burn 450-550 calories in a 45 minute class, but most of the women, especially the slimer / petite ladies, who never touch a red / orange plate, I doubt they're burning 300 calories in the same class.

    Heart rate monitors aren't that reliable, but are probably a better guide than anything else.

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