Push ups, sit ups, pull ups, and squats?

dee_thurman

I do all 4 of these throughout the day. It isn't really a workout. I just do them in between commercials while watching tv or when the kids take a break or at the end of my day. I don't won't to log something that shouldn't count as calories but I also want to make sure I am being as accurate as possible. Again it isn't really a workout but I do 2 or 3 sets of each throughout the day. If you are supposed to log them how do you do it?

riffraff2112

strength training can be logged under the strength training tab in exercise. You wont be burning many calories though, strength training calories burned are minimal. Some people don't log them at all, even when vigorously training muscles with weights. Cardio is for calories, weight training is for building muscle, and body shaping.

dee_thurman

interesting... I have always heard that you burn a lot of calories if you strength train. I am not in the gym pumping iron so i really don't have anything to worry about but I just don't see how if you are a body builder lifting weights for hours, that you aren't burring more than someone who jogs 3 or 4 miles.

GuidoGordo

I'm a bit disappointed with Myfitnesspal on this one. I can guarantee you that a lifting workout burns calories. I fudge it in by adding a conservative guesstimate into the cardio section. Nothing in this game is really precise, but I've managed to correlate my exercise calorie count to my weight loss pretty well. i.e. - getting an extra pound loss every week by shooting for 500 cals of workouts a day (3500 in a week). I include a rough (and conservative) estimate of my lifting cals when entering my cardio cals. Lifting won't really help you lose weight as much as cardio, though. I shoot for 300-400 cardio than count ½ hr of lifting as another 100. The math seems to work, for me at least.

rileyes

It sounds like you are maintaining the conditioning you have built. I think if you do a 4x15 circuit with increased resistance (add weights) and try to beat your time, you could count that as circuit training. You may want to dedicate one or more of the sessions to progressive overload if you are wanting more definition and increased stamina.

jeremywm1977

riffraff2112 wrote: »

You wont be burning many calories though, strength training calories burned are minimal. Some people don't log them at all, even when vigorously training muscles with weights. Cardio is for calories, weight training is for building muscle, and body shaping.

Wow, this looks like a bunch of misinformation if I've ever seen it.
Please let me know what crevasse you pulled this from.

If you are just basing this on what a heart rate monitor says, then I guess I can understand your confusion.

nordlead2005

GuidoGordo wrote: »

I'm a bit disappointed with Myfitnesspal on this one. I can guarantee you that a lifting workout burns calories. I fudge it in by adding a conservative guesstimate into the cardio section. Nothing in this game is really precise, but I've managed to correlate my exercise calorie count to my weight loss pretty well. i.e. - getting an extra pound loss every week by shooting for 500 cals of workouts a day (3500 in a week). I include a rough (and conservative) estimate of my lifting cals when entering my cardio cals. Lifting won't really help you lose weight as much as cardio, though. I shoot for 300-400 cardio than count ½ hr of lifting as another 100. The math seems to work, for me at least.

MPF has a "strengh training" entry under cardio. It uses a rough estimate accounting for reasonable rest between sets. What MFP doesn't do is try to directly correlate 5 sets of 10 reps of 100lb squats to calories burned.

In a 75 minute lifting session, MFP gives me ~300 calories (or ~240/hr). In a 50 minute elliptical session it gives me ~600 calories (or ~720/hr), so when people say weight lifting doesn't burn many calories, they really mean it burns ~1/3 as many calories as some of the top cardio choices. If you just want to burn calories lifting weights should be close to your last choice.

So, if you (OP) want to log your circuit training, you could do it under calisthenics or or strength training and just count up your total time spent and log it. Use your real life results (change in body weight over time) to determine if it is light effort or vigorous effort. If you find you are already losing at your goal rate, then just don't log it and consider it part of your NEAT level (you say it isn't really exercise anyways).

rybo

If lifting weights didn't burn a ton of calories, I'd have weighed 300 lbs for the majority of my life.