Tracking exercise

KnitWit70

Quick question: I am new to this site and have started religiously tracking everything. I noticed it subtracts the number of calories I burn doing cardio from my total calories allowed per day, but it doesn't when I do strength training. Yet when I lift, I get far hungrier than when I do cardio.

Does anyone know why this is?

theCaityCat

I think that's because the calorie burnage is so difficult to track. If you look in the database for "strength training", then they have a generic "strength training" exercise that will have the number of calories burned for whatever number of minutes you lift weights.

KnitWit70

Okay, thanks!

perseverance14

You can do the TDEE method (google scooby's workshop) and eat your TDEE minus a deficit (20% if you are obese, 15% if overweight, 10% when you get 10 lbs. from goal). That way, you calculate calories burned with the TDEE formula (just be honest) and you don't eat back exercise calories. You can still track them but you don't have to worry so much (if you are eating based on your total daily energy expenditure and your number of workouts per week instead of trying to track exact calories, which even with a heart rate monitor with a chest strap can have discrepancies). I like the TDEE method better, even with my hrm I was never 100% sure of my burns, I track what my hrm says for my weights and cardio, but I ignore it as far as eating anything back, I never do, I just look at the total like and see if I hit my macros. I record the exercise just because I want a record of it for my own reference.

ecphillips1286

I just asked a VERRY similar question haha. I have heard through responses to figure about 3 calories burned per min of strength training. Obviously how intense the workout are will have a factor in this. Just remember you burn more calories after weight training than you do during. Due to the fact your muscles pull in as much nutrition they can to recover causing more calories burned from them working so hard. Good luck

ecphillips1286

You can do the TDEE method (google scooby's workshop) and eat your TDEE minus a deficit (20% if you are obese, 15% if overweight, 10% when you get 10 lbs. from goal). That way, you calculate calories burned with the TDEE formula (just be honest) and you don't eat back exercise calories. You can still track them but you don't have to worry so much (if you are eating based on your total daily energy expenditure and your number of workouts per week instead of trying to track exact calories, which even with a heart rate monitor with a chest strap can have discrepancies). I like the TDEE method better, even with my hrm I was never 100% sure of my burns, I track what my hrm says for my weights and cardio, but I ignore it as far as eating anything back, I never do, I just look at the total like and see if I hit my macros. I record the exercise just because I want a record of it for my own reference.

Great Info. Thanks for sharing that

heybales

Quick question: I am new to this site and have started religiously tracking everything. I noticed it subtracts the number of calories I burn doing cardio from my total calories allowed per day, but it doesn't when I do strength training. Yet when I lift, I get far hungrier than when I do cardio.

Does anyone know why this is?

Ditto to just using strength training - if you are lifting heavy enough that you are only doing up to 15 reps max, and rests are 1-3 min max.
Don't count warmup walking or stretching or cooldown, just when you start lifting.
If you are doing circuit training up to 20 reps exercise to exercise with maybe 1 min max rests, then that is listed under circuit training with higher calorie burn.

Both are lower than cardio of equal time, but as commented, burn more during the repair if you allow it to.

Also, your comment about subtracting calories from what you are allowed is actually totally opposite of what is happening, want to confirm you are using the tool correctly if you are describing what it does wrong.

You have increased MFP's estimate of your non-exercise maintenance of what you burned that day, when you log exercise actually done.
So you burned more in total now, and MFP subtracts the same 500 deficit or whatever you picked - you would eat more actually after logging exercise.
And still lose the same amount of weight.
While feeding and getting the most from your workout. Why workout otherwise then to get some benefit from it.

nutmegoreo

Under the cardio section, there is a strength training option. You don't burn that many calories for it compared to cardio. I also found my appetite increased significantly when I started lifting and had to increase my daily calorie allowance based on numbers derived from TDEE as described above..

ltboss

Because muscle pulls in more nutrition for recovery that would explain the increased appetite after strength training, correct?

heybales

Because muscle pulls in more nutrition for recovery that would explain the increased appetite after strength training, correct?

More of what you eat goes towards that, yes.

So you could be eating at what you think is maintenance, if you only included the calories burned during the workout. But more burn later happens.
So just as eating in a diet - you may get hungry easier or faster because you actually do have a deficit.

That's also why when in a diet, it's the wrong time to think you just shouldn't count the lifting as exercise, because ah, it's so little compared to cardio.
Well, if you actually can still accomplish a good workout in a diet, you just made the diet more extreme by skipping what was burned during the workout, because you are already going to get even more deficit for repair afterwards.

But what normally happens is, someone gets progressively worse and worse workouts, compared to what they could get doing it better.
It of course doesn't feel like they are, they think they are giving it their all.
And they are, with the fact their muscles are unrecovered to what they could be and probably tired.
It's easy to feel like you are giving it your all on tired muscles.