Eat back lifting calories??

jaharrison763

I've read over and over about eating back exercise calories, and MFP adds back our cardio calories, but nothing for weight lifting. I wore my HRM this morning during my training session this morning and I burned 183 calories in 25 minutes. I try to eat my cardio calories back, but do any of you eat your lifting calories back? I feel like I should because otherwise I'll be in a higher deficit than I really want to be. :ohwell:

jcmartin0313

When I lift (which is rare) I chose strength training under the cardio section of exercise. This will add a general or average number of calories. Since your HRM tells you accurately, then you know how many calories to subtract from your intake. I am not sure why this is so baffling to posters? Your body is quite simple. Calories in and calories out. How a calorie is gained or lost does not matter strictly speaking. Someone could most likely lose weight on a 1000 calorie per day diet of milkshakes and cookies, but they would be in otherwise terrible health. If you daily calorie goal is set low so you can lose weight, you need to try and reach that goal each day. If you burn calories doing exercise, you should try and add lean proteins to help reach that goal. Obviously, burning off 183 calories lifting weights than going to eat a pizza buffet is counterproductive, but burning 183 calories and then drinking a protein shake to help you recover and reach your daily goal is fine. It is not a myth that if your daily calorie intake it low, regardless of why, your body will slow its metabolism. A couple of hundred calories, or even a thousand on really intense days is not bad, but hundreds per day below your goal for an extended period of time can hamper weight loss.

mmapags

A couple of things. First, a HRM is useless for measuring the burn from strength training. They are designed for steady state cardio where you heart rate remains consistently elevated. Totally inaccurate. Secondly, log your strength training under cardio. It won't give you much but it'll show an likely close estimation of calorie burn during workout. The real benefit to strength training is Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consuption or EPOC. This is the elevation of your metabolism and calorie burning for some time period after your workout. There is no accurate measure of calories for this that I am aware of. I follow the Leangains method where I eat at a deficit on rest days and at maintenance on strength days. I am trying to burn fat and maintain muscle mass. If I were trying to gain muscle mass, I would eat at a surplus on workout days.

Either way, eat back you exercise calorie on strength days. I'd say what you burn during plus a 100 or 150 calories. Keep up the good work!

thelovelyLIZ

I always eat a high protein snack right after lifting to help my muscles rebuild. Even if it's just a cup of milk with half a scoop of whey powder.

aproc

Normally I would not since it usually isn't much and without a hrm hard to get any idea. I would just add a little extra into my daily allowance to help fuel the workout. But technically right now I am and then some since I'm eating a surplus of calories.

mcrowe1016

A couple of things. First, a HRM is useless for measuring the burn from strength training. They are designed for steady state cardio where you heart rate remains consistently elevated. Totally inaccurate. Secondly, log your strength training under cardio. It won't give you much but it'll show an likely close estimation of calorie burn during workout. The real benefit to strength training is Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consuption or EPOC. This is the elevation of your metabolism and calorie burning for some time period after your workout. There is no accurate measure of calories for this that I am aware of. I follow the Leangains method where I eat at a deficit on rest days and at maintenance on strength days. I am trying to burn fat and maintain muscle mass. If I were trying to gain muscle mass, I would eat at a surplus on workout days.

Either way, eat back you exercise calorie on strength days. I'd say what you burn during plus a 100 or 150 calories. Keep up the good work!

^^^^^^Listen to the above poster - he knows what he is talking about.

Personally, I lift intensley for 25 minutes. My HRM says that I burn about 200 calories. I just look up strength training under the cardio exercise section and add that.

It comes out to about 80 calories.

I try to underestimate calories burned and eat back all the calories I enter in.

SPNLuver83

YES YES YES!!! so important, ESPECIALLY when lifting!!! Your body NEEDS that extra fuel to build and repair your muscles!!! You just can't build muscle w/o the added fuel.

hesn92

well the amount of calories that it gives you under "strength training" in the cardio database is really low... I usually try to eat a couple hundred calories over maintenance on my lifting days. *shrug*

mmapags

I always eat a high protein snack right after lifting to help my muscles rebuild. Even if it's just a cup of milk with half a scoop of whey powder.

This is a good idea but not critical. It's critical to get enough protien, at least .8 grams per lb of lean mass, but the timing is not. The anabolic window is 24 hours. So as long as you get your protein in that time frame, you are good. I do the same thing you do. I just like to do it that way. I love the refreshing taste and hydration of a nice protein shake right after. (actually, I think I have an addiction to chocolate Myofusion lol!)

Briski1411

As stated previously all-be-it indirect you can enter your weight lifting in the cardio section, it's really just the time you spent lifting . It won't give you much but it still will let you know how many more calories you need to eat to make up for the weight lifting you have done.


Down below in the weight lifting part is where you can enter in each individual exercise you did with weight, sets, reps.

jaharrison763

Thanks for your responses, everybody. I had no idea I could enter strength training under cardio! I'll check that out. I have been entering my reps/sets in the strength section. I had read here that a HRM is useless for weight training, so I didn't want to rely on that for calories burned, but I definitely want to fuel my muscles! Thanks again!