Burning calories Through Ab Exercises

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ckay220
ckay220 Posts: 271 Member
Good morning everyone!
I had a quick question..I'm using a workout trainer app to do my workouts...they're pretty helpful with the countdowns, motivation, etc. I usually do a 30 minute ab workout (complete with reg, oblique, vertical leg and split crunches, russian twists, and supermans) and it says I'm burning around 300 calories everytime I complete the workout. I wanted to know if that sounded accurate to anyone & also if I'd be able to log that as a calorie burn?

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  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    No way. Not even close.

    I personally wouldn't log any ab work exercise calories, especially if it's only 30 minutes. Unless it's high intensity like P90X or something, the calories burned aren't going to be that much.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,209 Member
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    Sounds way overestimated.

    Personally i'd use the 30 minutes on higher-burn activities - cardio or full-body strength. Remember that ab exercises don't shrink the abs, if that's what you're trying to do. Anything over 5 minutes of abs is overkill.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    300 definitely sounds like a giant stretch. I would guess more like 50 and that would be generous. You would be best off not logging it, and really, not wasting time on it.

    Get a full body weight regimen going and enjoy the progress you are likely to see.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
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    You are probably near 100 calories with just a guesstimate & that is if you are very intense otherwise its much lower. To answer the second part of your question, you can log as calorie burn if you wish to.

    *edit for part2 of question
  • staceypunk
    staceypunk Posts: 924 Member
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    Many of the exercises you listed are similar to the ones I do in Jillian Michaels videos (Killer Abs and 6 week Six Pack). But she mixes in HIIT with it every couple of minutes to keep your heart rate up the entire time. I am shorter breathed while doing the ab exercises because of that. If you are not panting and sweating then no way are you close to 300 calories burned. I used to use a HRM and I recall logging between 200-280 calories per 35 minute workout with the HIIT in there.