Fit Bit and Weight Lifting

abrnchood

I have a new Fit Bit and understand it does not properly calculate weight lifting. I lift 3-4 days a week, for about 45 minutes after a 10 minute warm up. My warm up calculates, but nothing else. Would you recommend manually adding in the weight lifting in MFP (which I know will only approximate calorie burn) or is it best to not mess around with adding any exercise via MFP.

I tried to find the answer in the Fit Bit group but couldn't find it. Sorry about that--someone can connect me to a link if that is easiest.

Thanks!

Noor13

I used to have a Fit Bit, but did not really bother to log the lifting cals, as there is no way to really figure them out unless you are using a BMF, which takes the after burn into account.
And that's where the beauty of lifting is-you may not burn a ton while you are actually lifting, but you will be burning on a higher rate for the rest of the day.

heybales

That much lifting should count.

While the MFP entry may seem low compared to cardio, it actually is decent estimate unless you do a lot of standing around talking time.

abrnchood

I looked at my FB today after my workout. I warmed up on the elliptical for 10 minutes, did 45 minutes of heavy lifting (during my rest period I did some easy plyometrics during about 50% of the 45 second rest periods, just to keep moving)...when I was done, the FB said I had completed 13 minutes of activity. It seemed to not count much of plyometrics and none of the weight lifting.

I wouldn't really care, except I bought it so I could get a more accurate read on my TDEE. Should I just manually enter in 45 minutes of weight lifting in the future?

heybales

Yes.

And if lifting is the focus, don't rob your muscles of time to recharge the ATP stores so you can push just as heavy on next set.

That rest if lifting for strength is really needed, because the improvement comes from lifting heavier than it possibly can do for said reps. If it's just plain tired because of no energy ready to go, that's a different reason and different response to improve.

I'll mention too the BMF does the exact same thing for non-step based movements.
Your temp and sweat isn't enough of an indicator of calorie burn, even when the sensors work well for you.

If you take your total hours lifting time weekly, divided by 168, you'll see what % of your time is potentially wrong. Very minor.
Take the MFP estimate of calorie burn for your lifting weekly, divided by your weekly TDEE (with that included), you'll see what % of your weekly calories is potentially wrong. Usually very minor again. About the amount of inaccuracy in a food label.