Weight Lifting for Weight Loss

bjshields

About six years ago, I was a size 7/8, 135 lbs. Let's just say, I'm no longer a size 7/8, 135 lbs. When I was that skinny, I was tracking food (although not nearly as religiously as with MFP) and working out doing interval training and weights.

I was thinking about gaining the weight back, and I realized when I started GAINING back weight was when I signed on to do a 100-mile bike ride about 4 years ago, and my cycling coach told me to stop lifting weights so I'd be lighter for the ride. During that training period, I gained about 15-20 lbs back. Honestly, I think that's when my food also went to hell in a handbasket, because I felt like if I was biking 50-75 miles a week, I should be able to eat whatever I wanted to.

Now that I'm tracking everything so closely, I've noticed that MFP really gives you credit for time spent in AEROBIC activity, seemingly more than it does weight training. I really want to keep up the aerobic workouts, BUT I feel that my body responds very well to weight training and that for me, it's counter-intuitive -- I'll lose more weight the more I lift.

Has anybody else had a similar experience? How do I count calories burned for weights?

NoAdditives

You really need both. Weight training doesn't burn many calories while actually doing the work out but it does get your metabolism going so you continuously burn more throughout the day. But the cardio is really what's going to burn fat while exercising.

Azdak

There is no general table or calculation that can give you a calorie number for lifting weights. HRM calorie counters cannot be used for this activity. Personally, I have never counted lifting calories, but then I was able to "burn" a "big number" with my cardio, so the extra 100-200 calories from lifting weight didn't seem like that big a deal.

If you feel like you need to come up with a number--to help stay on track, as a motivator, whatever reason--then just give yourself 150-300 per workout (depending on length of time). That's a close enough estimate.