Logging Strength Training! Help!

supkristi

Hi,

I am a 23 y.o female/5'1/130 lb. I log my exercise and food religiously on MFP and am very attentive to making sure my logging is accurate, since I am eating at 1200 calories a day (about 400 calorie deficit). Needless to say, I cannot be careless when logging my exercise, as it will determine what I eat for the remainder of the day and do not want to go over my calorie limit.

I know you are able to log 'Strength Training' under the Cardio option, but have heard that these values are grossly inaccurate. I do not currently own a HRM, but even so, apparently a HRM is not a good indication of what calories were burned during strength training.

So, my question is.. how the heck am I supposed to log strength training accurately without the proper tools?!

3dogsrunning

You don't need to be accurate. Nothing in this game is completely accurate regardless of how carefully you log.

I always used the value MFP gave me. I think it was around 200 calories for an hour of lifting. For me, 200 is a good number. I know I burned something, even if it was only 100, the extra 100 isn't going to kill my calorie deficit.

Start with a number, use it for a few weeks and track progress from there.

juliewatkin

You don't need to be accurate. Nothing in this game is completely accurate regardless of how carefully you log.

I always used the value MFP gave me. I think it was around 200 calories for an hour of lifting. For me, 200 is a good number. I know I burned something, even if it was only 100, the extra 100 isn't going to kill my calorie deficit.

Start with a number, use it for a few weeks and track progress from there.

I think this is a good recommendation. I don't bother logging strength training because ours takes so long and has a lot of rest periods. Just monitor your loss/gain over the next while and adjust accordingly.

TR0berts

Count me in with 3dogs' recommendation. Track and adjust.

grimendale

Another vote for 3dog's recommendation. Adjust as needed based on real data. All of the information here (even HRM data) is to some extent an esitmate based on population averages.