Logging strength training?

hkristine1

I have been a real cardio junkie, but I finally made an appointment with a personal trainer at my gym for 30 minutes to get a tutorial in lifting weights. He showed me about 10 different machines (e.g. proper form, settings, appropriate weight resistance for where I'm at right now, etc - he also told me that once I get comfortable with the machines, he would recommend doing another tutorial on free weights - maybe next month or so).

So, I came back and logged my exercise as cardio work "circuit training" (although I didn't use the HUGE number of calories that MFP auto entered for that exercise - just manually put in 100 calories total, which may be high but certainly not so out of whack that it will screw me up on my calorie count, as I will also go to spin class tonight and I always underreport calories burned for that).

What I'm wondering is for those of you who do strength training on a regular basis, do you actually go through and enter all the reps/sets etc. in the "strength training" part of the exercise log? Do you that IN ADDITION to logging it as cardio? If not, how do you account for calories burned, or do you not log any calories burned for strength training?

Hornsby

I have been a real cardio junkie, but I finally made an appointment with a personal trainer at my gym for 30 minutes to get a tutorial in lifting weights. He showed me about 10 different machines (e.g. proper form, settings, appropriate weight resistance for where I'm at right now, etc - he also told me that once I get comfortable with the machines, he would recommend doing another tutorial on free weights - maybe next month or so).

So, I came back and logged my exercise as cardio work "circuit training" (although I didn't use the HUGE number of calories that MFP auto entered for that exercise - just manually put in 100 calories total, which may be high but certainly not so out of whack that it will screw me up on my calorie count, as I will also go to spin class tonight and I always underreport calories burned for that).

What I'm wondering is for those of you who do strength training on a regular basis, do you actually go through and enter all the reps/sets etc. in the "strength training" part of the exercise log? Do you that IN ADDITION to logging it as cardio? If not, how do you account for calories burned, or do you not log any calories burned for strength training?

Most (not all) that lift weights use the TDEE method where you don't track extra calories burned. Since weight lifting is so hard to determine how many calories you burn, you really have to play with your intake to determine your right numbers.

I enter mine in the cardio section but only as 1 calorie burned and really for no other reason to let my friends on my list see that I am not slacking.

3dogsrunning

I always used the MFP entry under the cardio section for strength training. It gave me around 200 calories for an hour. It gave me a few extra calories for exercise, but not such a huge number that if it was inflated it would destroy my calorie deficit. Even if I only burned 100 calories in that hour extra, I'd still only be "over" by 100 calories. It worked fine for me.


I never use the "strength training" section, too much effort.

PinkyPan1

I do not log strength training only cardio.

ASKyle

I do not log it.

The more muscle you build, the more calories you will burn throughout the day. Just think of it as a bonus.

acpgee

I log my strength training on MFP, as I otherwise can't remember how many reps I did last time and at what weight. I hear there are much better apps for this though. The strength training entries don't give you any calories back to eat.

I log under the cardio section for "strength training", but the numbers look inflated. I log about a minute per set, so as not to log recovery time between sets. This gives a modest number where at least I have the satisfaction of seeing it on my diary.

Soccer_Chick

I wear a heart rate monitor for all my work-outs. I just log the work-out as cardio. I enter the time length of the work-out and the calories burned and I just "create a new exercise" and call it whatever I did that day: Back/Biceps or Chest/Triceps, etc...but I do not enter every exercise, number of sets and reps etc...

3dogsrunning

I wear a heart rate monitor for all my work-outs. I just log the work-out as cardio. I enter the time length of the work-out and the calories burned and I just "create a new exercise" and call it whatever I did that day: Back/Biceps or Chest/Triceps, etc...but I do not enter every exercise, number of sets and reps etc...

HRMs are not accurate for strength training.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1044313-this-is-why-hrms-have-limited-use-for-tracking-calories