How do people log anaerobic exercises?

rankinsect

So, I mainly do strength training and HIIT, and I really don't even know how to log them, so I just haven't been logging anything.

I see widely varied estimates of calories burned on strength training, since EPOC can be difficult to measure, and there has to be significant variation among people just in terms of the time spent between sets, time spent switching exercises, etc. I do have a HRM but I know that it's a poor indicator of anaerobic calories burned.

HIIT is also difficult to measure because of EPOC, and again numbers for how much it burns are all over the place. HIIT is complicated by the fact there's no one system - my 30/20/10 system on a stationary bike is going to be different from other HIIT workouts, and different from using the stationary bike aerobically.

To date, all I do is periodically trend my calorie and weight data to estimate my actual average TDEE - which would include all exercise and non-exercise components. I suppose I can keep doing that, but looking for others' input on how they log exercise like this.

AnvilHead

Too many variables to get any kind of an accurate estimate for strength training. I calculate my deficit from TDEE (and therefore don't eat back exercise calories), so if I log it at all, I usually just put 1 calorie. If you're eating back exercise calories, I'd call it 100 calories per hour and work accordingly from there.

sijomial

Strength training - I just pick the MFP category under the CV section (235/hour for my weight). If it's a high volume / low rest session will manually increase the number a bit based on feel. Not worth messing about with something that's virtually impossible to measure or verify.

Circuit training I just log with the circuit training category.

I don't do HIIT as it's not worthwhile for my fitness levels and goals - I do long duration intervals. Will typically use a power meter equipped bike. If it's on different equipment I might use my HRM as a rough guide but my intervals tend to be hard/very hard and not HIIT style maximal/recovery intervals (which makes using a HRM totally misleading).

EPOC just isn't worth bothering about, virtually insignificant. Especially for HIIT, a small percentage (14% ?) of a short duration and so small calorie burn really isn't a factor to consider.

Really people shouldn't expend so much effort trying to chase unobtainable accuracy - a vaguely reasonable estimate and consistency is all you need. If it's a one off exercise it's insignificant, if it's part of your regular routine you should be adjusting your calorie balance based on actual results over time not calculations.

Keep it simple!

MeanderingMammal

rankinsect wrote: »

I see widely varied estimates of calories burned on strength training, since EPOC can be difficult to measure

EPOC is insignificant, somewhere between 5 and 10% of net calorie expenditure. Given that a HIIT session is only going to burn perhaps 150-200 calories that's lost in the noise.

I would just stick with TDEE

nordlead2005

I honestly just log it in MFP using whatever fits the closest.

I also have a spreadsheet going back to week 1 (now on week 19) with my average weekly calorie intake along with my weight. I can calculate TDEE over any period of time.

If you take my long term average TDEE (week 1 to week 18), it is 2764. If you take my last 4 week average it would be 2774. Basically, I've become more active as I've lost weight, otherwise TDEE should have dropped due to having less body mass.

If I compare my TDEE calculation to MFP's NEAT + Exercise it turns out they are pretty close, so I go with what works for me and is easy (just logging in MFP with whatever is close).