No calorie info for strength training

jls1leather

Worked out this morning, like 3 guys. No doubt several people at the gym decided I was insane. BUT I have no idea how many calories to mark. Maybe weigh my sweat drenched shirt?@! 😎

jls1leather

Oh, I overshot my calories today by about 135, but I'm sure I burned twice that. Still I'd like to have it closer than "purdy sure".

nutmegoreo

The cardio section has a strength training option. It's not a great calorie burn.

jls1leather

Hadn't seen that. Dies make me feel a little better -- it says 75 minutes is 375 calories. What I do makes walking uphill look like a car ride 😎 so I'm sure I burned more than that. 75 minutes ACTUALLY pressing, not 75 inutes in the building.

kami3006

jls1leather wrote: »

Hadn't seen that. Dies make me feel a little better -- it says 75 minutes is 375 calories. What I do makes walking uphill look like a car ride 😎 so I'm sure I burned more than that. 75 minutes ACTUALLY pressing, not 75 inutes in the building.

I would be very conservative with calorie burns from lifting to start. It doesn't burn as many calories as most people think even when it's very heavy weight. And no, sweat isn't a good indicator of exertion. I have been following various powerlifting and hypertrophy programs for years and I only get about 150 calories per hour based on my results over that time.

ETA: I am a 5'3" female and am not saying you should use that number but just start lower and evaluate after 4+ weeks.

jls1leather

Hey, thanks! I'm not powerlifting by any means. More about keeping the heart rate up. As an idea- maybe you can help with - after a warm up of stretching and treadmill incline to get the pulse up, I do 5 deadlifts with about 50% of body weight (body at 220, DL at 135), followed immediately by 5 dumbbell rows ( both arms simultaneously) with about 1/3 of body weight (85), followed by a timed one minute rest. I use 85 and 135 because to go from one lift to the next, I just pulled a 25 off each end or add them back. I do that deadlift/row/rest 5 times, for a total of 50 reps with total 5 mins resting. Total reps for the workout after other largely full body exercises is about 252 reps and 19 minutes rest in there. Course not all rest is rest, because some of that time is spent loading or unloading the bar. NEVER actually added it all up, but now I know. Probably isn't possible to track calories for, say, front squats, or other individual exercise. But clearly combo of 5 Romanian dead lifts followed immediately by 5 hang clean-thrusters followed immediately by 5 back squats would burn more than this same exercises with a break between each, and far more than standing bicep curls! Hopefully this made sense to somebody other than me 😱

kami3006

jls1leather wrote: »

Hey, thanks! I'm not powerlifting by any means. More about keeping the heart rate up. As an idea- maybe you can help with - after a warm up of stretching and treadmill incline to get the pulse up, I do 5 deadlifts with about 50% of body weight (body at 220, DL at 135), followed immediately by 5 dumbbell rows ( both arms simultaneously) with about 1/3 of body weight (85), followed by a timed one minute rest. I use 85 and 135 because to go from one lift to the next, I just pulled a 25 off each end or add them back. I do that deadlift/row/rest 5 times, for a total of 50 reps with total 5 mins resting. Total reps for the workout after other largely full body exercises is about 252 reps and 19 minutes rest in there. Course not all rest is rest, because some of that time is spent loading or unloading the bar. NEVER actually added it all up, but now I know. Probably isn't possible to track calories for, say, front squats, or other individual exercise. But clearly combo of 5 Romanian dead lifts followed immediately by 5 hang clean-thrusters followed immediately by 5 back squats would burn more than this same exercises with a break between each, and far more than standing bicep curls! Hopefully this made sense to somebody other than me 😱

There are really just too many variables in lifting to be able to calculate it easily. I also don't know what your goals are. For weight loss or maintenance, I would usually just recommend using this site and start with 50-75% of those calories given for lifting, then see how you're progressing and feeling in 4-6 weeks and adjust accordingly.

I would also recommend choosing a well founded progressive program instead of creating one on your own. You're going to see a lot better progress that way.

There is a good link on this site for them. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

VUA21

I only eat back my cardio calories as strength training is very time consuming to actually calculate your burn. 10 reps of leg extensions burn more than preacher curls, even with the same weight due to the difference in the legth of legs vs arms, there's a huge difference in calories burned doing body weight squats vs slapping 80lbs on the bar. Because of this, I don't track my calories burned for strength training. I'm sure there are people that do, I'm just not one of them.

jamesakrobinson

Have to agree with you. Intense lifting is not in any way represented by the values in this app. A squat or deadlift session taken close to failure for several sets (to the point where the world is going black and you have to grab something to keep from bouncing your skull off the floor) in no way whatsoever burns similar calories to a beginner doing a circuit through the machines... but that's about what there value is.
Just based on my caloric intake on a heavy compound day it's WAY off. If it was correct I would be gaining weight every month but the only time my scale goes up is when I take a break (like this scorcher of a long weekend where I lay by the pool and had way under my supposed maintenance calories and added 7 or 8 pounds in 3 days (granted that's almost certainly a combination of water and a bit of fat because a I also ate less "clean".)

sijomial

If your goal is increasing strength focusing on getting sweaty and keeping your HR up may well be compromising your lifts.

The strength training estimate on here is based on the more traditional strength training style of lifting heavy with 2 - 4 minute rest periods between sets to allow your muscles to recover.

There are also option in the database for circuit training which has a much higher MET value and therefore higher calorie estimate (IMHO probably too high....).

Machka9

I use "strength training" and record about half the time I spend doing it because I figure there are breaks between each set.

sijomial

Machka9 wrote: »

I use "strength training" and record about half the time I spend doing it because I figure there are breaks between each set.

@Machka9
The estimate already assumes you are taking breaks between sets - that's the training modality studied for the estimate, the idea is you record the whole duration as the breaks are already factored in.

AnvilHead

jls1leather wrote: »

Oh, I overshot my calories today by about 135, but I'm sure I burned twice that. Still I'd like to have it closer than "purdy sure".

"Purdy sure" is about the best you can do when estimating exercise calories unless you're in a lab and hooked up to a metabolic cart while you're working out.

The algorithms used in HRMs/fitness trackers are derived from tests with steady state cardio. The further your chosen exercise is from that modality, the less accurate a HRM/fitness tracker will be. Strength training is almost the antithesis of steady state cardio, so......