strength training questions

fiberartist219

Ok, so I started doing some lifting with dumbbells yesterday, and so far so good.

However, I do have several questions, and I welcome any comments you might have about it.

First of all, the book I read said to do the workouts three times a week. Less than that, and I won't see much results, and more than that might be overdoing it. It says to rest one or two days between workouts. Can I still do some cardio on the days that I'm not strength training? I find from past experience that if I only workout three days a week, I'm more likely to give up. If I work out six days a week, I actually miss it on the rest day, and I have more momentum to keep going.

Secondly, the strength training doesn't count toward my calories. I understand that this is because it is so hard to calculate, but I know I burned something. Can someone re-assure me that yesterday was not a complete failure even though I ate almost 2300 calories? (I'm supposed to have 1270 on the days I don't workout, so this huge.) I know today is a new day, and earlier in the week I barely ate, so one day won't ruin the entire journey, but I still want to feel like my work out counts for something.

hopesOFskinny

under cardio there is strength training as a selection and it tells you how many calories you burned. the other strength training thing under cardio is just to keep track of what exercises you did not calories burned, hope this helps you and good luck!

frenchprairiegirl

Strength training builds muscle which will burn fat but if you want to lose weight consistently, you must perform cardio. Otherwise, you'll be gaining bulk.

BigP10

Good to know - thanks!!

nmalany

When they say take a day off they just mean don't strength train the same muscle groups two days in a row. So what many people do is upper body one day and lower body the next, you can do abs everyday. You can also do cardio everyday but it is recommended that you take a day or two off a week, your body needs that rest and it minimizes the risk of injury.
As for your calories you are definitely burning calories lifting weights, especially lower body because you are using such big muscle groups, also the more muscle you build the more calories you burn even at rest. Hope that helps, keep up the good work!!!

SageLikeTheSpice

Okay, first for your calorie count, you can use "Strength training" under cardiovascular and it will give you a number of calories burned. Unfortunately, as you increase dumbbell weights but decrease your own weight, the calorie burn MFP gives you will only go down. This seems incorrect to me, but at least you're recording something on MFP to help guide you somewhat on how many calories to eat. My strength training routines--given to me weekly by my personal trainer--almost always take half an hour, and the number of calories burned is less than 150 from those routines.

You can absolutely do cardio on your off days for strength training, and it's probably a good idea to do so, so that your body doesn't get bored with the same type of workout all the time. The reason you have to wait 48 hours between strength training is to give your muscles time to recover and build (I read recently that they actually build during the downtime, not while you're lifting).

BabyDuchess

I do cardio on strength training and non-strength training days. And yes, you should rest in between days. Ideally, you should work different body parts each time you lift.

fiberartist219

Ok thanks everyone. I will be sure to jump rope this evening (once the sun goes down) to keep my momentum going. I will also look for the tracker under cardio to see if I can get a rough estimate of how many calories I burned. I appreciate the replies!