What is the best way to track calories from weight training?

vanny24mvp

It is annoying when you can't track them precisely, especially when they are the most important aspect of my training program.

tillerstouch

I wouldn't bother calorie burn from lifting is minimal.

erickirb

If you workout 3+ days/week, I would suggest upping your activity level to account for the cals from exercise and muscle recovery. I set myself up as light active and add exercise as 1 cal, as the higher activity level accounts for the cals burned from it.

Alternatively you could not log it, or log "strength training" in the cardio section for an estimate of cals burned.

Chieflrg

How about just adjust your calorie intake setting according to what your body weight is doing. Very simple to do, and more precise the estimating a calorie burn.

drachfit

agreed @Chieflrg , just track your body weight and adjust calories up or down depending on how it is moving.

SonyaCele

i dont track my weight lifting calories. Weight lifting isn't a big calorie burner.

drachfit

I guess not, I still think a nice lifting session burns a fair amount if you are doing heavy compounds.

Try a spreadsheet like this: tdee spreadsheet

it uses your average weight to calculate your True* TDEE

* True, if you assume that 1lb of bodyweight loss = exactly 3500 calories. probably not exactly right but it's the best we can do, and we base all other calculations off of this too.


I have been using this spreadsheet for over a month, tracking my weight and calories every day. According to this data, my current TDEE is 3500 to maintain weight.

most calculators put me at 2100 calories for a sedentary (no exercise) TDEE. So that says I am burning ~1400 cal per day on exercise. Let's assume since I'm a relatively young male that the calculator is underestimating my Sedentary TDEE, and that it's actually 2300 calories, just to maintain my body without doing any exercise.

I burn ~600-800/day doing cardio.

The other thing I do is lift weights.

3500 - (600 to 800) = 2700 to 2900

2900 - 2300 = 400 to 600 cal burned from strength activities.

I do powerlifting training twice a week, a ~2 hour full-body workout consisting of heavy Squats, Deadlifts, Presses, Pull-ups, Rows, Dips, and core. For my main lifts I take long rest periods sometimes near 5 minutes.
and Bouldering 3 times a week, for 2-3 hours. Both strength activities.

I think to say that strength training burns no or little calories is false. However, it is extremely difficult to calculate; you can't say "I did 5x5 squats of 225lbs so that must have burned 150 calories." You can only really figure it out by back-calculating from your body weight change and your calorie intake.

ASKyle

SonyaCele wrote: »

i dont track my weight lifting calories. Weight lifting isn't a big calorie burner.

Ditto.

theconnertys

tillerstouch wrote: »

I wouldn't bother calorie burn from lifting is minimal.

This isn't entirely true. If your routine consists of primarily full body movements/lifts (vs isolation...so "old school"), you can absolutely get your heart rate up and get a good burn going.

DavPul

Step 1. Don't