Strength training only burns 110 calories?
marisaleib5086
Posts: 16 Member
According to my fitness pal strength training/weight lifting only burns 110 calories in a 45/50 minute session? Is this accurate? I usually perform 8-9 exercises with 4 sets of 8 reps on days I’m lifting heavy and 12 reps if I’m lifting moderately heavy. If I’m only burning 110 calories that seems like all of my hard work during my gym session is worth nothing.
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Replies
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That sounds about right for the calorie burn. But your hard work isn't for nothing - you need to think of it in wider terms than just a calorie burn. It's helping retain muscle/lean body mass while you lose fat and making you both stronger and more aesthetic.
Many people who don't do some form of strength training while losing weight find that they arrive at their goal weight looking like a smaller version of what they were before instead of achieving the transformation they imagined/desired.18 -
You weight train to strengthen and build muscle. Any calorie burn is a bonus. I think 110 cals would be about right.
In general, your eating will give you the most bang for your buck for weight loss. Exercise is for health, fitness, and body shape, and can burn some extra calories, but not as many as most workout commercials and pop fitness writers would have you believe.12 -
If you're doing it just for the calorie burn, then yes, you are wasting your time. If you want to look sexy naked and be stronger, keep it up and don't concern yourself with the calorie burn. There are some great reasons to strength train, calorie burn is not at the top of the list.14
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In the long run, building muscle will increase BMR very slightly.
In the short term, cardio > weight lifting (even if supersetting non-stop) in terms of sheer time spent doing each.3 -
It doesn't burn much, but will transform your body in ways cardio never will. Not to mention health benefits of stronger muscles, tendons and bones. Less risk for osteoporosis and falls as we age.10
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It makes me wonder why people cycle their carbs on training and non training days,
You burn more calories doing the weekly shop at the supermarket.
Perhaps they should cycle their carbs on shopping and non shopping days.
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It makes me wonder why people cycle their carbs on training and non training days,
You burn more calories doing the weekly shop at the supermarket.
Perhaps they should cycle their carbs on shopping and non shopping days.
For me it's not about calories but the carbs. I feel and perform better with more carbs on my lifting days especially around my workouts.
Also with 4 leg days a week I need those extra cals 4 -
I log weight training in "map my fitness", sinc it with mfp; it gives me many more calories (I wanna say around 400per hour) than mfp. I eat them all back most days and I have yet to gain weight, yet I'm recomping so this is what I'm going for.3
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I do a heavy superset/circuit based routine just now and for an hour my Fitbit is saying 450-538 calories burnt. I pretty much don’t stop so my heart rate is always in my fat burning zone. Obviously Fitbit figures could be a lot of *kitten* but I didn’t realise calorie burn for traditional lifting was so low.
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Strength training definitely isn’t for the calorie burn...but covers all the other benefits already mentioned. Stick with it!
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The purpose of strength training is not to burn calories3
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For my stats, I only burn 55 calories in the 25 minutes i strength train. That's enough to cover my coffee creamer lol. But like others have said, it's not done for calorie burning. Personally I love the ache and exhaustion after a strength workout. I follow up with running, but I prioritize doing strength first.1
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Cardio is for calories, strength training is for function and form.
(I mean, yes, training for a specific sport gives you cardio function and form, but you get what I'm saying.)2 -
Yep my calorie burn, according to my fit bit is approx 70-80 Cals for 45 mins. Doesn’t even cover my pre workout banana 😂. But I do it because I enjoy lifting and trust that the process will get me to my goals0
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flowerhorsey wrote: »I log weight training in "map my fitness", sinc it with mfp; it gives me many more calories (I wanna say around 400per hour) than mfp. I eat them all back most days and I have yet to gain weight, yet I'm recomping so this is what I'm going for.
Samsung health does the same2 -
moogie_fit wrote: »flowerhorsey wrote: »I log weight training in "map my fitness", sinc it with mfp; it gives me many more calories (I wanna say around 400per hour) than mfp. I eat them all back most days and I have yet to gain weight, yet I'm recomping so this is what I'm going for.
Samsung health does the same
@moogie_fit - You saw that pic, too? (referencing something that @Keto_Vampire posted....microwave....not sure if you saw it so this might make ABSOLUTELY no sense...).0 -
If you're lifting heavy, I honestly don't think the MFP "you burned X calories so you have Y remaining" approach is all that useful. It's too hard to estimate what your level of effort was. If none of your lifts are close to body weight you won't burn that many, but moving ten or twenty thousand pounds of weight in an hour or so at the gym imposes some costs on your body.
I use the TDEE method and a Charge HR; my outcomes are body measurements and progression in my lifts. Is my weight doing what it ought to do? Are my lifts squashing me halfway through my warmup sets? I look at that sort of thing and adjust my intake accordingly.1 -
marisaleib5086 wrote: »According to my fitness pal strength training/weight lifting only burns 110 calories in a 45/50 minute session? Is this accurate? I usually perform 8-9 exercises with 4 sets of 8 reps on days I’m lifting heavy and 12 reps if I’m lifting moderately heavy. If I’m only burning 110 calories that seems like all of my hard work during my gym session is worth nothing.
Sounds about right...I get around 160 or so. Exercise and lifting is for more than just burning calories...regular exercise results in better aesthetics and is huge where overall health is concerned. If you're just exercising for calorie burns, you're missing the boat.
Cardio is going to give you a higher calorie burn and is good for your cardiovascular health. Lifting doesn't burn as many calories, but it preserves and builds muscle mass and keeps your bones strong and healthy and allows you to do other daily things that could otherwise prove difficult.3 -
marisaleib5086 wrote: »According to my fitness pal strength training/weight lifting only burns 110 calories in a 45/50 minute session? Is this accurate? I usually perform 8-9 exercises with 4 sets of 8 reps on days I’m lifting heavy and 12 reps if I’m lifting moderately heavy. If I’m only burning 110 calories that seems like all of my hard work during my gym session is worth nothing.
It's not for nothing. Think about it, the more muscle mass you obtain the more calories you burn naturally without effort.0 -
I burn about 300 for 2 hours of powerlifting. If I get a little "fat," I cut back on calories a little and/or add in a little cardio. It works like magic (it's not magic)...
Lifting is for gainz not calories.4 -
jaciejaciexoxo wrote: »marisaleib5086 wrote: »According to my fitness pal strength training/weight lifting only burns 110 calories in a 45/50 minute session? Is this accurate? I usually perform 8-9 exercises with 4 sets of 8 reps on days I’m lifting heavy and 12 reps if I’m lifting moderately heavy. If I’m only burning 110 calories that seems like all of my hard work during my gym session is worth nothing.
It's not for nothing. Think about it, the more muscle mass you obtain the more calories you burn naturally without effort.
Honestly, a person in calorie deficit is not likely adding muscle mass. Even under optimum conditions, ideal nutrition, calorie surplus and perfect training program, a man will add about 1/2 lb per week and a woman half that.
Even if someone did add muscle, the net calorie gain on 1 lb of muscle is somewhere around 6 to 8 calories per day. Gaining muscle mass is a great thing for many health reasons but burning substantially more calories is not one of them.3 -
For me , it's not about the calorie burn, it's about what it does for my health. Lifting weights constantly means less pain , makes me feel mentally better (it's my me time) and allows me to be more active in other areas of my life. Walking down the road to the shops, easy, carrying or dragging (In a small trolley) the groceries, strength training makes that possible. At work, I can push extra dollies of bread to help out the truck drivers, or the lazy , usually boys I work with. I can help take out waste dough to the bins, to help the guy who has come and helped me when I needed it and fallen behind. I can help my husband move a couch. All this is why I lift weights.4
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jaciejaciexoxo wrote: »marisaleib5086 wrote: »According to my fitness pal strength training/weight lifting only burns 110 calories in a 45/50 minute session? Is this accurate? I usually perform 8-9 exercises with 4 sets of 8 reps on days I’m lifting heavy and 12 reps if I’m lifting moderately heavy. If I’m only burning 110 calories that seems like all of my hard work during my gym session is worth nothing.
It's not for nothing. Think about it, the more muscle mass you obtain the more calories you burn naturally without effort.
Honestly, a person in calorie deficit is not likely adding muscle mass. Even under optimum conditions, ideal nutrition, calorie surplus and perfect training program, a man will add about 1/2 lb per week and a woman half that.
Even if someone did add muscle, the net calorie gain on 1 lb of muscle is somewhere around 6 to 8 calories per day. Gaining muscle mass is a great thing for many health reasons but burning substantially more calories is not one of them.
I had an inBody body composition analysis done in January and in June. I don't have the papers on hand to check the exact numbers, but according to the analysis I gained about 2lbs of muscle while losing around 8lbs of weight, and my BMR had increased by maybe 30 calories. Those 30 calories per day is about 3lbs a year, which is not a lot, but still meaningful if you are a machine and everything else is balanced perfectly.
(Whether or not the analysis is accurate is a whole different debate, and no, I don't follow the suggestions of the analysis to the letter and I don't now eat 30 more calories daily)
To the actual question here: yeah, the calories sound about right. I usually get a 200-300 calorie burn (Fitbit reading) from an hour-long strength workout that includes a proper warm-up on the rowing machine. The warm-up alone is probably half the burn. I do strength training to, you know, train strength, increase stability and mobility, gain muscle and stay healthy. If I want to purely burn calories, I go for a long walk since that's something I can do comfortably for extended periods of time and burn at a decent rate (350-500 per hour depending on speed, carried load and uphills). Additionally, I work on my running for cardiovascular health, endurance and overall sanity. The fact that running burns at a good rate is a definite plus.0 -
That doesn't sound right. If you need 1500 calories to "maintain" an office job, and you burn that off in a day of largely mild to no activity, that's 1500/24 hours = 62 calories per hour. I doubt that strenous exercise burns only slightly more.
But I would believe that what some CALL strength training wouldn't burn much. In every gym I've ever seen you have some who lift something 5 - 10 times, then text, look in the mirrors, adjust the playlist, chat the next person, and call that a workout.
Each his own, but saying "strength training burns this much" is too general. Depends on what you're doing.9 -
jeffjeff85 wrote: »That doesn't sound right. If you need 1500 calories to "maintain" an office job, and you burn that off in a day of largely mild to no activity, that's 1500/24 hours = 62 calories per hour. I doubt that strenous exercise burns only slightly more.
But I would believe that what some CALL strength training wouldn't burn much. In every gym I've ever seen you have some who lift something 5 - 10 times, then text, look in the mirrors, adjust the playlist, chat the next person, and call that a workout.
Each his own, but saying "strength training burns this much" is too general. Depends on what you're doing.
I follow progressive powerlifting/hypertrophy programs and over five years of data has me burning about 150 calories per hour. So, yeah, it's pretty close.
I don't lift for calorie burn but I do like to know how much more to eat because I feel a big difference when I don't add in calories for it.5 -
Weight training will result in more calories burned as your body will work all day (assuming you workout in the AM) at rebuilding the muscles you've broken down. The MFP logging is just for the working within that time period, it can't judge the burn after the fact.
The muscle repair would also be more or less depending on what you fuel your body with and how much sleep you get.5 -
Tedebearduff wrote: »Weight training will result in more calories burned as your body will work all day (assuming you workout in the AM) at rebuilding the muscles you've broken down. The MFP logging is just for the working within that time period, it can't judge the burn after the fact.
The muscle repair would also be more or less depending on what you fuel your body with and how much sleep you get.
EPOC is highly overstated and hardly significant.5 -
Tedebearduff wrote: »Weight training will result in more calories burned as your body will work all day (assuming you workout in the AM) at rebuilding the muscles you've broken down. The MFP logging is just for the working within that time period, it can't judge the burn after the fact.
The muscle repair would also be more or less depending on what you fuel your body with and how much sleep you get.
EPOC is highly overstated and hardly significant.
True. I thought Lyle McDonald did a paper on this. f I get a chance later, I'll try and find it.3 -
Tedebearduff wrote: »Weight training will result in more calories burned as your body will work all day (assuming you workout in the AM) at rebuilding the muscles you've broken down. The MFP logging is just for the working within that time period, it can't judge the burn after the fact.
The muscle repair would also be more or less depending on what you fuel your body with and how much sleep you get.
EPOC is highly overstated and hardly significant.
True. I thought Lyle McDonald did a paper on this. f I get a chance later, I'll try and find it.
He did a research review on it. It's here: https://bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/research-review-effects-of-exercise-intensity-and-duration-on-the-excess-post-exercise-oxygen-consumption.html/2 -
Tedebearduff wrote: »Weight training will result in more calories burned as your body will work all day (assuming you workout in the AM) at rebuilding the muscles you've broken down. The MFP logging is just for the working within that time period, it can't judge the burn after the fact.
The muscle repair would also be more or less depending on what you fuel your body with and how much sleep you get.
EPOC is highly overstated and hardly significant.
True. I thought Lyle McDonald did a paper on this. f I get a chance later, I'll try and find it.
He did a research review on it. It's here: https://bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/research-review-effects-of-exercise-intensity-and-duration-on-the-excess-post-exercise-oxygen-consumption.html/
Yes, that's the one. You are the best! Thanks3
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