Typical kettlebell calorie burn please

yogicarl

I've seen lots of different calorie burn estimates on the 'net. Just looking for a typical calorie burn for logging on MFP.

My typical session comprises all the basic swings, clean and presses and also TGUs, and some calisthenics in between KB sets like burpeess, mountain climbers, skating, rope jumps to keep the pulse rate up.

300 for 30 minutes?

yogicarl

I should mention: male, 53 yrs, 5'3" short, 163 overweight fat and target around 140 lean, cardio good and fairly strong/compact.

kikih64

Well, I'm a female, 5'5", 130 and when I wear my HRM I'm getting about 270 for 30 mins.

Lupercalia

I think it's pretty impossible to accurately gauge calories burned for KB work, even with a HRM, as HRMs are meant for steady state cardio, which KB training is not.

I don't personally log exercise calorie burns, but if I did, I might use something like "circuit training" to approximate a KB workout.

The stated calorie burns you'll find in a google search are wildly overestimated for what most people are doing in a typical KB workout. I believe those burns are based on snatch sessions, nothing else.

henrysmom13

I've been reading various articles, and they all seem to say about 20 calories a minute.

yogicarl

thank you, all

Lupercalia

I've been reading various articles, and they all seem to say about 20 calories a minute.

That 20 calories a minute estimate is exactly what I was talking about when I said you'd find wildly overestimated calorie burns for KB work in terms of the way most people use KBs. That figure is based on people snatching, not doing a circuit training style workout made up all sorts of different exercises, which is what the vast majority of people working with KBs (including the OP here) are doing.

yogicarl

I've been reading various articles, and they all seem to say about 20 calories a minute.

That 20 calories a minute estimate is exactly what I was talking about when I said you'd find wildly overestimated calorie burns for KB work in terms of the way most people use KBs. That figure is based on people snatching, not doing a circuit training style workout made up all sorts of different exercises, which is what the vast majority of people working with KBs (including the OP here) are doing.

Thanks - so are you saying that a purely KB session would be burning more calories than a KB and calisthenics mixed session? I would have thought the opposite would have been the case as the mix would involve more cardio like mountain climbers etc., whereas a pure KB session is more akin to strength training?

rrsuthy

I use circuit training to estimate by calories burned. I don't eat back exercise calories, so I track for my own purposes.

Lupercalia

I've been reading various articles, and they all seem to say about 20 calories a minute.

That 20 calories a minute estimate is exactly what I was talking about when I said you'd find wildly overestimated calorie burns for KB work in terms of the way most people use KBs. That figure is based on people snatching, not doing a circuit training style workout made up all sorts of different exercises, which is what the vast majority of people working with KBs (including the OP here) are doing.

Thanks - so are you saying that a purely KB session would be burning more calories than a KB and calisthenics mixed session? I would have thought the opposite would have been the case as the mix would involve more cardio like mountain climbers etc., whereas a pure KB session is more akin to strength training?

It would depend on the exercise(s) involved in the KB session, the weight of the KB (or KBs), etc. Too many variables to know which would burn more. What I was saying in my comment was that the estimates you'll see online for calories burned for KB exercises are based off a single study done on people performing KB snatches. Not lunges, not pressing, not windmills, not swings, etc. Just sets of snatches, which if you snatch, you'll know is quite a demanding movement to carry on for any length of time.

I have no idea how many calories anyone would burn doing a mixed calisthenics/KB circuit. I'd simply log it as circuit training and leave it at that. All these "calories burned" figures are really just estimates, anyway. My own way of dealing with this problem is to not log calories burned at all. I just work out and eat at a deficit based on my TDEE, so I don't need to concern myself with whatever calories are being burned because I'm not "eating back" those burned calories. Hope that makes a bit more sense.

yogicarl

Thanks Lupercalia.

Depictureboy

I typically burn 10-15 calories per minute doing KBs. I am not sure what the other poster meant by steady state cardio, because hiit is not steady state either and there's plenty of people who use HRMs for tracking that. I can usually tell if I haven't pushed myself hard enough because I should have no less than 10 cals per minute. So to answer your question, for 20 minutes you should have 200 to 300 calories depending on how hard you are really pushing yourself.

But there are too many variables as the other poster rightly stated as well. You are best to get a good hrm like a polar and track your entire set.

KidP

I just got back from a circuit style kettlebell class. It involved a warm up of light jogging on the spot, ballistic stretching and then into kbells. We did about 40 minutes of work with 1 minute breaks every now and again. It consisted of 2 handed swings, 1 handed swings, sumo squats each for a minute or so. This was mixed in with burpees, mountain climbers, etc. The workout was mostly kettlebells though, mostly swinging. I used a lighter weight than normal (45 lbs) because my hands were already torn up from Saturday's workout. My HRM tells me 800 cals burned upon arriving at home (factoring in "afterburn"). I believe it.

ItsCasey

The 20 calories/minute figure from the ACE study was measured as 13 calories of aerobic burn and 7 calories of anaerobic burn, which was measured by analyzing the blood lactate levels of the participants, all of whom did a 20 minute snatch workout.

Problems with applying this to general kettlebell workouts:

- Snatches are the most physically taxing ballistic lift. Doing some random combination of swings, squats, lunges or whatever typical group class routines you see people doing will not produce the same kind of burn. And most prefab kettlebell workouts don't include snatches because they're very hard, and by the time you're able to do them repetitively, you're probably not doing prefab kettlebell workouts anymore.

- You cannot even begin to guess what your blood lactate levels are.

- The participants in the study were male and female, ranging from 29 to (I believe) 46 years of age, and were all very fit, experienced kettlebell users. The average metrics from that group cannot be applied to the general population with any degree of accuracy.

If I had to make an educated guess for you, I would say 10 calories per minute if you're doing solely ballistic lifts like swings and snatches. Don't even worry about the anaerobic burn. Base your TDEE estimations off that, give it a whirl for a a month or so, and reevaluate.

Lupercalia

The 20 calories/minute figure from the ACE study was measured as 13 calories of aerobic burn and 7 calories of anaerobic burn, which was measured by analyzing the blood lactate levels of the participants, all of whom did a 20 minute snatch workout.

Problems with applying this to general kettlebell workouts:

- Snatches are the most physically taxing ballistic lift. Doing some random combination of swings, squats, lunges or whatever typical group class routines you see people doing will not produce the same kind of burn. And most prefab kettlebell workouts don't include snatches because they're very hard, and by the time you're able to do them repetitively, you're probably not doing prefab kettlebell workouts anymore.

- You cannot even begin to guess what your blood lactate levels are.

- The participants in the study were male and female, ranging from 29 to (I believe) 46 years of age, and were all very fit, experienced kettlebell users. The average metrics from that group cannot be applied to the general population with any degree of accuracy.

If I had to make an educated guess for you, I would say 10 calories per minute if you're doing solely ballistic lifts like swings and snatches. Don't even worry about the anaerobic burn. Base your TDEE estimations off that, give it a whirl for a a month or so, and reevaluate.

Thank you for articulating what I was awkwardly trying to say, Casey! :flowerforyou:

tacticalhippie

I wear a HRM and it varies ... a lot

YesJessYes

Hi, I'm new in here. I take a 60 min. movement class based on kettlebells. It seems like 20 minutes weightlifting, 20 minutes light stretching (mountain/valley, etc.) and 20 minutes getting instructions warming up and cooling down. SO I only count 20 minutes or weight lifting and 20 minutes of light stretching. I don't want to eat my calories back anyway, so this has been working fine for me.