logging circuit interval times

chanstriste13

hey, everyone!

question for the hive mind here. i run an interval circuit that runs about 25 minutes from start to finish, including a cardio warm up and quick cool down at the end. i go through a circuit of 7 moves for 45 seconds with a 15 second break in between to switch equipment and take a quick breather. i repeat it three times.

when i log this into mfp, should i be calculating the actual time i am in movement (removing the 15 second transitions and cool down), or can i just call it 25 minutes of activity? i don't want to cheat, but i also recognize that my heart rate is still up during the entire time.

what are your thoughts?

chanstriste13

bump because hoping for some advice!

AnnPT77

If you're using the "circuit training" item in the database, and taking just the normal breaks that are typical in normal circuit training, then I'd count the whole time period. If your warm up and cool down are a materially different activity type (like if you do them on a treadmill or stationary bike or something) you could log those separately, if you like.

Obviously, if you take a big and atypical break (step out to take a phone call or something) probably wanna omit that time, approximately.

I suspect that if you're truly doing something like 25 minutes, the calorie total is small enough in proportion to your whole-day calorie budget that a few calories off one way or the other aren't going to threaten your deficit in any major way.

I'm not criticizing the exercise, not at all: 25 minutes of circuit training is great!

I'm just making an observation about the arithmetic. It's important to be consistent in recording exercise, but for normal amounts of it, there's no reason to stress over minor numbers if you're in the right general ballpark, IMO.

chanstriste13

@AnnPT77 - thanks for that. i have been leaning towards putting in the whole 25 minutes, partly because i think it might be more true, and partly because it's such a pain to calculate in the rest seconds. the warm up is about 3 minutes of cardio, and the 'cool down' is quite quick, because i move into either walking or strength training from that point, and do my deep stretching at the very end.

also, i am logging it in as 'general aerobics' instead of 'circuit training' to kind of low ball my count anyways - i don't have a heart rate monitor anymore (broke, never replaced, kind of don't miss having the band around my torso), so i want to be careful about overestimating workout calories.

thanks so much for chiming in!