Calories from weight training

lunabas
lunabas Posts: 15 Member
edited November 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Just wondered if those of you who weight train add calories for this? I do cardio and use my Apple Watch heart rate monitor connected to mfp to automatically add calorie burn, but with weight training I use VT dumbell app, which gives me a result of 160 calories burned for 30 mins workout. I only lift 4kg each hand, and it’s pretty low intensity - so should I trust that number and eat those calories too? Heart rate doesn’t go up so can’t use that to get calories, and I don’t want to over/under eat. Help?! Thank you

Replies

  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    I lift a lot more when I lift (50-100 lbs) and my watch gives me ~180 for 30 mins, and I doubt mine is that high. I tend to ignore calories earned from lifting.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    No. I lift heavy *kitten* weights. In 3+ years I have never counted calories burned from weight training.

    I will say, when I first started off with my weight loss doing cardio and weight training, I would eat all of the calories back MFP gave me, instead of just a portion. I think the 50-100 calories burned in the weight training offset the high cardio burn given by MFP. But that's just anecdote.
  • lunabas
    lunabas Posts: 15 Member
    Thank you. I haven’t been including them but just wanted to check I wasn’t under eating.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    lunabas wrote: »
    Thank you. I haven’t been including them but just wanted to check I wasn’t under eating.

    Well, if for some reason the weight is flying off way too fast, perhaps you are. Is that the case?
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,140 Member
    I'd probably ignore them too, my burns according to my device are between 50-80 cals for similar workouts with 3-5kg weights for around 25 mins.
  • jasondjulian
    jasondjulian Posts: 182 Member
    Not enough to matter... Weight lifting is critical and highly effective for fat loss and overall body strength, but it does little for just burning calories.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    When I did MFP I gave myself about 250 calories for a 60 minute lifting session.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    If I didn't count mine I would lose way too fast (but I do tons of lower body work per week, supersets, high volume etc which could add up for me ) YMMV.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    If I didn't count mine I would lose way too fast (but I do tons of lower body work per week, supersets, high volume etc which could add up for me ) YMMV.

    Hm. I would say I do a lot as well, high volume. I run PH3...I wouldn't think to eat them back. Guess it depends on your rate of loss. As I always say, you are lucky in that department.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    I use the strength training exercise under cardio. A full-body workout takes me 85 minutes and MFP says it's 300 calories. I eat back half. It's working so far. (For the record, I do mostly dumbbells and bodyweight and currently, the heaviest weight I'm lifting is a pair of 17.5's.)
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »
    If I didn't count mine I would lose way too fast (but I do tons of lower body work per week, supersets, high volume etc which could add up for me ) YMMV.

    Hm. I would say I do a lot as well, high volume. I run PH3...I wouldn't think to eat them back. Guess it depends on your rate of loss. As I always say, you are lucky in that department.

    I mean it would be nowhere near if I was doing cardio during that same time obviously, but i also do a lot of circuit band work, glute finishers.. you know all that fluffy stuff. Haha
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    bbell1985 wrote: »
    lunabas wrote: »
    Thank you. I haven’t been including them but just wanted to check I wasn’t under eating.

    Well, if for some reason the weight is flying off way too fast, perhaps you are. Is that the case?

    Yeah, this. The best indication you're undereating is unhealthily fast weight loss (on average over a 4-6 week period). Obviously, other bad signs are weakness, fatigue, or other relevant negative health symptoms.

    Personally, I've eaten back all my pretty-negligible weight training calories, since it makes me ravenous. That tiny extra snack really helps, surprisingly. (I use the MFP database estimate, which for my size runs around 80 calories per half hour. HRM estimate is ridiculous.)
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    I count 120 cals/hr for lifting, including 3-5 min rest bet sets but not 10-15 min rest bet lifts.

    It's like a bookmark to remind me that I lifted but not so much to put my total cal count off. Never had a problem using this #.
  • tess5036
    tess5036 Posts: 942 Member
    I don't count the calories, but I am early on and still lifting quite light (40 kg on deadlifts). However, I do a lot of cardio, and usually eat back about 75% of those calories as I am still trying to loose. If hungry I might eat them all back.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,084 Member
    I include my lifting, but total time is 70-90 minutes, and I'm lifting as heavy as I can. I get a burn of about 250 for that time using my HRM (Polar H10) and app. That being said, I don't eat back calories by the day, instead I average everything over the week.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    You can log weight lifting under Strength Training via the exercise tab to keep track of reps/sets/weight but not add back calories.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    No, if my weight changed in a direction more than my goal on a consistent basis, I would just change my calorie intake to fit my goal.

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