Do you use weight lifting as "exercise" when doing TDEE?

PikaKnight

Using the TDEE method the OP wouldn't be eating back her calories, so it hardly matters what it may actually come out to, the question is should it be counted towards their TDEE and the answer is yes. That's about all there is to it.

Perhaps you're using a different calculator. The lowest setting above sedentary is working out 3x/week, which adds 300 cal/day for an exercise regimen that is burning 100 calories. And if I put in 6x/week (which is what I actually do), then it jumps the TDEE up to 500 cal/day above sedentary, which is even more of a mismatch. If I did that with no cardio, I would actually gain weight thinking that I was on a deficit. Then I could make another thread on MFP about how I have hypothryroidism or something.

Like I said, I'm glad that you've had success with counting weight lifting, but I'd wager you're in the minority.

EDIT: You're using a very detailed spreadsheet that a lot of people don't use. If you do what I was talking about -- going onto the web and inputting 'exercise Y times per week' into a calculator, you're going to get an over-estimate that weight lifting won't compensate for. Quite frankly, that's a lot of work to spit out a number 50-200 calories higher than it is now, and being a little extra under when trying to lose weight is a good thing.

Really? Someone tell those in the success stories forum that have counted their strength building as exercise they did it wrong!!!

Hell, why don't you head over to the Eat Train Progress thread and tell Sara and Sidesteel that too. Oh, and Ed too who has lost 312lbs.

Stage14

I absolutely count it, but I do bump it down a bit. I work out 3-5 hours a week, a combination of lifting heavy and jogging intervals for c25k right now. But I put in the lightly active mode that estimates 1-3 hours a week of exercise to give me a slight buffer since I'm only doing a 15% decrease.

But for a beginner lifter like me, making steady progressions, it's definitely a workout and burns at least as much as yoga or Pilates or any other form of non-cardio exercise. Plus strength training ups your total calories burned when not working out moreso than cardio. If I were burning a thousand calories with every run, sure it would be negligible, but since it's probably closer to a third of my calories burned with exercise, I count it.

pavrg

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. If you count sleeping, why the hell would you NOT count heavy lifting? Who cares if it's an estimate? Even with cardio, it's an estimate. Intelligently choose a number and a deficit from that number, try it out for a while, evaluate your results, and adjust as necessary, based on your goals.

Because the estimate is so small that I won't miss it. So I ate at most 100 calories/day under what I normally should have and lost an extra quarter pound week. If my goal is weight loss, what's the problem? As long as I'm getting 1 g protein/kg of lbm, 5 g of carbs/kg lbm, and 40 g of fat (which added together comes in at way under the TDEE or MFP calorie number anyway), it's gravy. Why nitpick to try to find every little excuse to eat something back and possibly sabotage weight loss?

Is set by time, not days for one. The spreadsheet I linked also goes by time spent working out.

And minority, aside from the people saying they do count it, a large number of the people on my FL, people using the spreadsheet I linked from the 'Eat more to weight less" (Which again, has a section to enter the time spent strength lifting) which is far from a small group.

Time, days, whatever. I'm happy that finding an extra 72.69456 calories to eat in a day by meticulously setting up a spreadsheet worked for you.

cafeaulait7

I track mine, but I don't eat back the exercise calories from it, either (some to half, if I'm hungry from it). I'm sure I burn as much as from yoga or pilates, and I count those.

There's no way I could do a full set in seconds, btw! I must lift slowly. Meh, that's how I feel it the most, so I'm not bothered

I do my other side or alternate a different body part instead of resting between sets. I work up a sweat!!

Achrya

TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. If you count sleeping, why the hell would you NOT count heavy lifting? Who cares if it's an estimate? Even with cardio, it's an estimate. Intelligently choose a number and a deficit from that number, try it out for a while, evaluate your results, and adjust as necessary, based on your goals.

Because the estimate is so small that I won't miss it. So I ate at most 100 calories/day under what I normally should have and lost an extra quarter pound week. If my goal is weight loss, what's the problem? Why nitpick to try to find every little excuse to eat something back and possibly sabotage weight loss?

Is set by time, not days for one. The spreadsheet I linked also goes by time spent working out.

And minority, aside from the people saying they do count it, a large number of the people on my FL, people using the spreadsheet I linked from the 'Eat more to weight less" (Which again, has a section to enter the time spent strength lifting) which is far from a small group.

Time, days, whatever. I'm happy that finding an extra 72.69456 calories to eat in a day by meticulously setting up a spreadsheet worked for you.

If I set the spreadsheet for 0 I go from 1850 to 1575. So an extra 250 calories, actually. Worth the 10 minutes it took me to set up, I'll be honest.

AngelsFan91106

Absolutely. If you've exercised "vigorously" or "moderately," that's what you've done--whether it's cardio or weight lifting.

And I know the calculators don't show weight lifting as burning as many calories as cardio, but trust me, your body knows it has done the work. :- ) I, for one, barely do any cardio.

jofjltncb6

You shouldn't. It's a very negligible amount. Each set probably takes you 10-20 seconds to complete. So 12 sets would equate to a whopping 2 minutes of work spread out among 45 min to an hour, during which you never elevate your heartrate to its max nor keep it there for a prolonged period of time.

I'm pretty sure not everyone is following your protocol for lifting.

And heart rate isn't always correlated with calorie burn.

MercenaryNoetic26

I have MFP set to 'lightly active' (activity without lifting) and I log my lifting burn on Fitbit. I use a Polar HRM (also).

pavrg

If I set the spreadsheet for 0 I go from 1850 to 1575. So an extra 250 calories, actually. Worth the 10 minutes it took me to set up, I'll be honest.

I ran the spreadsheet out of curiosity, and it gives me a whopping 140 extra calories/day when I entered in my weight training vs. 0 weight training. Which again equates to losing an extra 1/4 lb a week or can buffer any error in my food intake or estimate of how much low-intensity walking I do in a week (seriously, who accurately counts that?).

Stage14

You shouldn't. It's a very negligible amount. Each set probably takes you 10-20 seconds to complete. So 12 sets would equate to a whopping 2 minutes of work spread out among 45 min to an hour, during which you never elevate your heartrate to its max nor keep it there for a prolonged period of time.

I'm pretty sure not everyone is following your protocol for lifting.

And heart rate isn't always correlated with calorie burn.

Nope, I know I'm not. I cannot even imagine what 12 deadlifts or barbell squats in 10-20 seconds looks like. I guess I could do it if I were using 20-30lbs, maybe.

For me, 30 minutes of lifting is 20 minutes of moving heavy stuff with 10 minutes of rest. It's also never taken me the full 60 seconds of rest to set up between different sets, even if I have to set up steps or go in the aerobics room for a Swiss ball.

stealthq

If I set the spreadsheet for 0 I go from 1850 to 1575. So an extra 250 calories, actually. Worth the 10 minutes it took me to set up, I'll be honest.

I ran the spreadsheet out of curiosity, and it gives me a whopping 140 extra calories/day when I entered in my weight training vs. 0 weight training. Which again equates to losing an extra 1/4 lb a week or can buffer any error in my food intake or estimate of how much low-intensity walking I do in a week (seriously, who accurately counts that?).

An extra 100 Cals a day makes a difference when you're in the lower ranges. With no exercise counted, and a 10% deficit (because I'm trying to lose the last few pounds), the calculators tell me to eat 1250 Cals. No. I'm hungry and shaky on that.

Count the walking and the weights and I'm up to 1550 Cals, which I find easy to do. Plus, I'm losing weight at the predicted rate, so the calculations can't be too far off.

pavrg

Count the walking and the weights and I'm up to 1550 Cals, which I find easy to do. Plus, I'm losing weight at the predicted rate, so the calculations can't be too far off.

A lot of the reputable sites I've read on the subject advocate calculating your own personal TDEE after a month or so of data, discarding the first week or so because results are wonky when you first start a new diet and workout regimen. So at that point, you're not using anything except for your own personal average weight gained/lost vs. average calories eaten.

You raise a good point that it's more significant with smaller people. The 140 calories for me is a 5% difference in TDEE (and a difference I never feel the need to eat); for my wife it would be 11%.

glreim21

"If you are getting a higher heartrate out of weight lifting than cardio, you're not pushing yourself when you do cardio, you have poor overall fitness, or you're doing some funky routine with weights using them for cardio rather than strength training. "

Just for the record this is untrue...my resting heart rate is 48, I have completed 5 half marathons, one triathlon and countless 5 km and 10 km races, my max heart rate while running is usually 150 lifting is 160. So yes, I push myself at cardio, I am just very efficient at it. I still stand by saying you absolutely burn calories lifting weights and it should be counted in you TDEE calculation. Sitting on the couch for 30 minutes vs lifting weights for 30 min is NOT the same calorie burn.

astrampe

"If you are getting a higher heartrate out of weight lifting than cardio, you're not pushing yourself when you do cardio, you have poor overall fitness, or you're doing some funky routine with weights using them for cardio rather than strength training. "

Just for the record this is untrue...my resting heart rate is 48, I have completed 5 half marathons, one triathlon and countless 5 km and 10 km races, my max heart rate while running is usually 150 lifting is 160. So yes, I push myself at cardio, I am just very efficient at it. I still stand by saying you absolutely burn calories lifting weights and it should be counted in you TDEE calculation. Sitting on the couch for 30 minutes vs lifting weights for 30 min is NOT the same calorie burn.

this and more of this.... :flowerforyou:

pavrg

You shouldn't. It's a very negligible amount. Each set probably takes you 10-20 seconds to complete. So 12 sets would equate to a whopping 2 minutes of work spread out among 45 min to an hour, during which you never elevate your heartrate to its max nor keep it there for a prolonged period of time.

Nope, I know I'm not. I cannot even imagine what 12 deadlifts or barbell squats in 10-20 seconds looks like. I guess I could do it if I were using 20-30lbs, maybe.

For me, 30 minutes of lifting is 20 minutes of moving heavy stuff with 10 minutes of rest. It's also never taken me the full 60 seconds of rest to set up between different sets, even if I have to set up steps or go in the aerobics room for a Swiss ball.

This guy does 15 reps in 25 seconds. Stop putting the weight down for 10 seconds everytime you do a deadlift rep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NneSdmuKo08

For a normal deadlift workout of 4-6 reps (it is a power lifting exercise after all), it would take you 10-15 seconds to complete the set. It just feels longer because you are exerting yourself with deadlifts a lot more than other lifts when done heavy. But I also wager you don't do deadlifts @ max load more than twice a week.

Just for the record this is untrue...my resting heart rate is 48, I have completed 5 half marathons, one triathlon and countless 5 km and 10 km races, my max heart rate while running is usually 150 lifting is 160. So yes, I push myself at cardio, I am just very efficient at it. I still stand by saying you absolutely burn calories lifting weights and it should be counted in you TDEE calculation. Sitting on the couch for 30 minutes vs lifting weights for 30 min is NOT the same calorie burn.

What did you place? What was your time? I can do a half marathon too and never get my heartrate up, but I won't win.

I never said weight lifting was the same calorie burn as sitting on the couch; I said it's minimal (100-200 calories, which was confirmed by the spreadsheet), that 'lightly active' tdee calculators usually estimate 300-400 calories/day of exercise which is 2-3x what you burn during weightlifting, and if weight loss is the goal then giving yourself the buffer doesn't hurt.

MzManiak

I do. I tried to maintain my weight without calculating it... and was consistently losing weight every week, even when I went over my calories. I have to eat about 100 calories more per day than what the calculators say to maintain my weight if I don't count it... I'd say it's important for me. (Which goes along with what my Fitbit says- that I burn 72 calories during a 30 minute weight lifting session)

The rate and intensity with which you lift affects the burn count though. As does your general life style.

Try it one way. If it works for you, cool. If not, tweak the numbers until you get them right.

DaddieCat

I don't know where some of these numbers come from, but I use a heart rate monitor to track caloric burn throughout my various activities and doing a standard 10-rep 3 set lifting workout at the gym I burn roughly one thousand calories. Some days it's under at 950... some over at 1100-1200... my heart rate monitor is a polar f7 and I calibrate it often.

Just sayin'

markymarkchitown

MFP grossly understates the calorie expenditure that resistance training adds. There is much out there on EPOC (Excess Post Excercise Oxygen Consumption) I.e., afterburn effect. The long and the short of it is that the more oxygen you consume, the more calories you are burning (this is corresponding, not causal). All the articles about studies done on this have shown that shorter periods of higher intensity work versus longer periods of lesser intensity work gives you a greater EPOC. So when you are huffing and puffing after that minute of intense lifting, you are going to burn more after the workout than had you stayed active during the entire time by jogging. It's true the jogger would have burned more DURING the actual exercise time, but the lifter (according to most literature) will burn more in aggregate by the end of the day due to the higher EPOC.

Of course there are so many vairables, like how hard you are lifting; but in general the literature agrees that lifting gives a greater effect after the workout as opposed to during the workout.

hananah89

I was tracking my lifting with my cardio but wasn't losing (after close to a month) so I recalculated with only my 3 days of cardio. If I'm still hungry at the end of the day (read: SL day) then I'll eat and not worry about going 1-200 cals over.

BigGuy47

... 'lightly active' tdee calculators usually estimate 300-400 calories/day of exercise which is 2-3x what you burn during weightlifting

What about the calories you burn for muscle repair in the 24 - 48 hours after lifting? All of your calculations seem to be centered around calories burned "during" the activity.