HRM and strength training

GeoJenna223

I trust my HRM for strength training. I use it for kettle bell as well as generic weight training. My heart rate during kettle bell can break 190 bpm if I am doing ladder training**. For 45 minutes of that type of training, i usually burn anywhere from 350-450 cals depending on how long I do my active rest breaks. For just generic strength training, the burn is definitely less, but I keep my heart rate up by not resting between exercises (Save of course for moving to a different area/switching weights/bench set up). I don't see any reason not to trust the HRM....30 minutes of general weight training is usually around 250. My cal goal is 1600 per day and I don't eat back my exercise calories.

**using a 25lb and a 20lb bell~15 minutes of active warm up, 5 ladders (10 swings, snatches up the ladder to 5, then 10 swings and clean/press down the ladder from 5), in between each ladder we do an active rest which usually entails windmills, or dead leg raises or something of that sort, then 10 minutes of stretching/cool down.

krissypea79

There was a blog posted on MFP recently which talked about this... I will try to find it.

This one??
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698

Aperture_Science

There was a blog posted on MFP recently which talked about this... I will try to find it.

This one??
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698

That's the one. Thanks!

Lisa: you may want to look away!! Bad news I'm afraid.

Smuterella

BOO! I'm going to starve tonight now.

So, I can log the cardio calories burned but it is probably safer to log no calorie burn for stregth - just in case?

I have a very small deficit - just 250/day and i'm very wary of going over it.

jrich1

Probably still a good estimate..

krissypea79

BOO! I'm going to starve tonight now.

So, I can log the cardio calories burned but it is probably safer to log no calorie burn for stregth - just in case?

I have a very small deficit - just 250/day and i'm very wary of going over it.

I know, it's very disappointing because I have been counting my strength training as well - I lift as heavy as I can, my heart rate gets up there, I'm sweating, all of that good stuff....thinking I will start just counting my calories from cardio and anything from strength is just a "bonus," since there doesn't seem to be any way to even estimate...unless you continue to use your HRM for strength and decide that you will use 1/3 of whatever it says, or something like that. Of course, I am sure there are people that do, and will continue to log whatever their HRM says, I definitely would rather under-estimate my calorie burn so that I am not over-eating!!!

wareagle8706

This is a small excerpt from an article I found:

However, at very low intensities, like the type of intensity involved with the daily tasks of brushing your teeth, typing on your computer, or doing 12 oz curls with a Kokanee, the system was fairly accurate. And that's good news for those of us who obsessively wear out heart rate monitors to squeeze every extra ounce of data from the super-computer on our wrists.

http://www.trifuel.com/training/heart-rate-training/can-a-heart-rate-monitor-really-tell-you-how-many-calories-youve-burnt

So, it's basically saying that even at low intensity exercises (such as sitting around) that it's fairly accurate. This would imply it's accurate for something a little more intense than brushing our teeth, such as strength training.

Smuterella

BOO! I'm going to starve tonight now.

So, I can log the cardio calories burned but it is probably safer to log no calorie burn for stregth - just in case?

I have a very small deficit - just 250/day and i'm very wary of going over it.

I know, it's very disappointing because I have been counting my strength training as well - I lift as heavy as I can, my heart rate gets up there, I'm sweating, all of that good stuff....thinking I will start just counting my calories from cardio and anything from strength is just a "bonus," since there doesn't seem to be any way to even estimate...unless you continue to use your HRM for strength and decide that you will use 1/3 of whatever it says, or something like that. Of course, I am sure there are people that do, and will continue to log whatever their HRM says, I definitely would rather under-estimate my calorie burn so that I am not over-eating!!!

Exactly. Though I am going to wear a black armband whilst lifting tonight, to mourn the loss of those 250 calories.

krissypea79

I found this on livestrong.com - could use as a guideline, maybe

Caloric Burn
The exact number of calories burned during strength training workouts depends on intensity, time and your body composition. According to the Harvard Medical School, on average, caloric burn ranges from 90 calories per hour of moderate training by a 125-pound person to up to 266 calories per hour of vigorous effort by a 185-pound person. Circuit training burns even more. Christopher Scott, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at the University of Southern Maine, began using a modified method to estimate energy expenditure and found that weight training burns up to 71 percent more calories than originally thought. By his calculations, just one circuit of eight exercises taking about eight minutes can expend 159 to 231 calories, or about the same as running at a 6-minute-mile pace.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/256854-calories-burned-through-strength-training/#ixzz1kxgV8mfs

nml2011

I'm inclined to agree with the article posted by Krissypea79 by Dean Anderson;

However strength training can cause your body to burn more calories for a longer period after completing the workout, I've heard as long as 48-72 hours.

Aperture_Science

First thing to say is "I don't own a HRM".

But this is what I do: I downgrade ALL my Cardio exercise by 1/3. So a 1 hour run would be logged as 40 mins. This is because in the past (when I didn't do much strength work) I found if I logged it all, and ate all those cals I put on weight.

Weirdly I do log my strength work outs in MFP "as is"; I don't drop the 1/3, so a 45 mins strength session (which MFP calculates as about 150 cals) gets logged as 45 mins.

I do three 45 mins strength work outs and three runs (from 45 to 90 min) per week.

so far I'm losing at the rate I would expect. But this may be because I'm significantly under estimating the running cals and slightly overestimating the strength cals (if you get what I mean?)

I offer a simple message:

if your current eating plan and work outs are giving you what you want (weight loss, strength gains, etc) stick with it.

If you are not meeting your goals stick with it, you may be on a temporary plateau.

If you are not meeting you goals over a period of a few weeks, tweak either your w/o or your cals and monitor from there.

RAFValentina

This is one of the reasons why Jillian Michaels likes to use compound movements during strenght training, in order to get things burning and counting more like a cardio workout to get the actual calorie burn.

I love compound movements, so I like to clean and press kettlebells with deep squats, do raises and lunges together, bicep curls with a squat etc... and do what I call "blood shunts" when I'm strength training. Jillian Michaels does similiar in 30DS with the cardio circuit in between. This is where I'll either hop on a cross trainer/treadmill/bike/rower for a couple of minutes and smash out some interval stylee sprint.

Very dynamic strength training such as plyometrics and some calisthenics will probably read relatively accurately on your HRM as they are pretty much cardio using your own body weight as resistance, as opposed to air or magnets on the fly wheel of the bike, or incline / wind when running etc.

I particularly like walkaways with a press-up/push-up, burpees, squat thrusts, sprinters to name a few for this... I always get knackered, sweaty, panting ... especially when done very quickly....

However I appreciate some people see strength training as moving steadily from on exercise to the next, number of repsx number of sets with rest breaks. But I like relatively, short, sharp, explosive circuit routines.

On Initial Officer Training, they showed us a workout to "get fit and stay fit" that we could do anywhere where we had about 7 foot of length space and about 4ft wide... and they were right...

Consisted of 20 burpees, 15 squats, 10 pushups, 10 situps - repeat for about 20 minutes... You can add in other stuff too between the squats, pushups and situps like squat thrusts, jumping jacks, skipping, kettlebells/small free weight exercises, to really get your HR up and you in a sweat, And even add a shoulder press in to the squats. Also, things like gun drills (jumping lunges).

The only problem is with this it's quite heavy impact on your joints so doing it for more than about 30 minutes every day would probably end up with some nasty RSI or impact related injuries. But this kind of strength training will give you a great booty, toned arms, burn calories and work you heart and musculuar endurance and should give a HRM read out that is accurate.

Val

RAFValentina

First thing to say is "I don't own a HRM".

But this is what I do: I downgrade ALL my Cardio exercise by 1/3. So a 1 hour run would be logged as 40 mins. This is because in the past (when I didn't do much strength work) I found if I logged it all, and ate all those cals I put on weight.

Weirdly I do log my strength work outs in MFP "as is"; I don't drop the 1/3, so a 45 mins strength session (which MFP calculates as about 150 cals) gets logged as 45 mins.

I do three 45 mins strength work outs and three runs (from 45 to 90 min) per week.

You could also be overestimating your food calories and be way fitter than you thought and underestimating your "out" calories!

It works for you though... but be careful as you get fitter your burn may change! VO2 max dependent and as your ACTUAL Max HR increases....

Just some thoughts.

irisheyez718

I log my strength training calories according to my HRM, and I eat back my calories burned. I'm losing just fine.

sarahnicolexoxo

Why do you think HRM aren't accurate for strength training? The monitor is based specifically on the statistics you put in about yourself: height, weight, activity level, male/female etc. I go by my HRM for calorie burn weather it's cardio or strength.

^^ this is how I feel

MisterDubs303

Do you have a better gauge with which to measure? If not, just go with it. If you need to make adjustments, make adjustments.
People can discredit almost anything, even with good reason, but if there is no better alternative, you've got to go with the best measure available to you. For most people, that's going to be their HRM.

rbrannock

Ok, since we're talking about HRM's let me ask this question....I just recently bought one but just the cheapest one they had at Walmart...like $28 or something, just for the time being. I wanted to see what that was vs. what the treadmill was saying. This one asks age and M/F but I didn't have to enter my height or weight....anyone have an opinion on whether I'm really getting an accurate reading? I know I can get a better one...that does ask that, and I do plan to, but just working with what I have for now. Thanks!

jlr_12

i have been reading today that HRMs aren't accurate for strength training calorie burn.

So, I'm doing Power 90 Sculpt and my HRM is telling me I burn around 250 calories in that roughly 30 minute time span. I am getting sweaty and my heart rate is elevated so.... is that burn possible?

I am concerned as my plan was to eat those 250 back...

Power 90 Sculpt...isn't that more like circuit training? I mean, you don't just stand there only moving one muscle at a time do you? I've taken a look at the Power 90 workouts before, and I feel like it was pretty fast moving, from one exercise to another. That means that what your HRM is saying is most likely accurate. I think what those articles are stating is that they become inaccurate with HEAVY lifting, or lifting with only 1 muscle group at a time, with breaks in between. Most dvd workouts that involve strength training are more like circuit training.

dad106

Why do you think HRM aren't accurate for strength training? The monitor is based specifically on the statistics you put in about yourself: height, weight, activity level, male/female etc. I go by my HRM for calorie burn weather it's cardio or strength.

^^ this is how I feel

That may be how you feel.. but it's not true.

HRM's require a whole host of things to estimate calories.. including oxygen uptake.

When doing strength training it will look like you are taking more oxygen into the blood stream, even though you aren't(and the reason why it looks like you are is do to pressure from lifting, over head/arm work, etc) and thus can skew the calorie burn... and make them less than 80% accurate.

I weight lift(machines and dumbells) and when I enter it on my gyms system, I get about 225-280 calories each time for a 30-60 minute session. When i'm with my trainer it says I burn closer to 500-600 but I never count all of those because I know how inaccurate it can be.

Here is another thread on this topic.. I suggest all read the post by Adzak.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/468382-hrm-inaccurate-for-strength-training

beachman42

My experience has been that the best information on calorie burning comes from a periodic hydrostatic weigh-in. I do this 2X a year and part of the report is a list of calories burned for 30 or so different activities. vigorous weight lifting is only about 60% of the same amount of time spent at moderate running (10 min mile) or elliptical.

BTW, it changes as my RMR and BMI changes!