Calories burned through lifting

mazasmusings

I always feel like I am burning more than my reports show. I am doing a 5-day a week program that requires weight training three days a week that essentially goes like this:
Monday - Lower body at the gym (followed by 20 minute run)
Tuesday - Cardio (Either a run or 40 minutes on a stationary bike)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Upper body at the gym (followed by 20 minutes of some form of cardio.)
Friday - Cardio (Either a run or 40 minutes on an elliptical)
Saturday - Total body at the gym
Sunday - Rest

So when I record my workouts, I don't even bother recording the weights because there isn't an accurate measure for the workouts because MFP intensity, etc. can vary so much.
Is there any kind of formula so I can at least somewhat estimate my calorie burn for those exercises?

Faintgreeneyes

Only way to really be able to calculate is getting a heart rate monitor and either figuring out how much you burned by the heart rate level you maintained- or getting a bodymedia fit or something that tracks and calculates your calories burned for you. I have one, and surprisingly, I burn less than what treadmills/ellipticals tell me that I do.

ItsCasey

I think you should try wearing a HRM and see what your average HR is during your lifting workouts. This will give you an idea of whether or not it would be accurate for calorie burn info. HRMs are best for steady-state forms of training because they are designed with the assumption that you are always working, but you are not always working during a weight training session. You are breaking between sets or circuits or whatever. If your average HR is still a high number, despite rest periods, that says you are maintaining a good level of intensity for most of your workout, so the HRM reading is going to be accurate enough. If the average is low, you're either not doing an intense workout, or your rest periods are too long to get an accurate calorie burn on your actual exercise.

My average HR during my strength training workouts (kettlebells) is consistently above 150, which is roughly 80% of my max. So I use a HRM to figure my calories burned, and the results track very closely with studies done by the ACE on aerobic burn during kettlebell workouts. Thus, I have no reason to believe my HRM count isn't accurate for calories burned.

missff

if you put "strength training" into the cardio section, you can record how many minutes you did and it will give you an approx calorie deficit ... better than nothing!

wellbert

heart rate monitor is not accurate in the least for strength training.

Sharyn913

heart rate monitor is not accurate in the least for strength training.

Why not??

JNick77

I always feel like I am burning more than my reports show. I am doing a 5-day a week program that requires weight training three days a week that essentially goes like this:
Monday - Lower body at the gym (followed by 20 minute run)
Tuesday - Cardio (Either a run or 40 minutes on a stationary bike)
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Upper body at the gym (followed by 20 minutes of some form of cardio.)
Friday - Cardio (Either a run or 40 minutes on an elliptical)
Saturday - Total body at the gym
Sunday - Rest

So when I record my workouts, I don't even bother recording the weights because there isn't an accurate measure for the workouts because MFP intensity, etc. can vary so much.
Is there any kind of formula so I can at least somewhat estimate my calorie burn for those exercises?

Even HRM's aren't entirely accurate, plus the do not account for the increased metabolic rate for the few hours following your workout so there's really little reason to even worry about tracking burned calories. Set a safe calorie deficit and don't worry about all that eating back calorie nonsense.

JNick77

heart rate monitor is not accurate in the least for strength training.

Why not??

It's really not accurate for anything except a brisk walk. You can Google a ton of articles related to this topic.

ItsCasey

Nothing is "entirely accurate" for any kind of exercise, short of having your blood lactate levels measured in a controlled lab. There are always going to be know-it-alls who think they know what constitutes "strength training" for every person here. The ACE study I read showed that fit men and women between the ages of 29 and 46 burned 13 calories per minute aerobically during a 20-minute kettlebell snatch workout (with rest periods) and an additional 7 calories per minute anaerobically. My HRM gives me an average of 9.2 calories per minute aerobically doing a mixture of various kettlebell lifts (ballistics and grinds), so I find my HRM reading to be quite accurate. I'll stick with that, rather than a Google article search.

Like I said, if you're doing intense strength training, an HRM is a better option than using whatever random number MFP generates for "strength training." You can't take any measurement as absolute gospel, no matter what kind of workout you're using, so to eat back every last one of your exercise calories is not smart. But it's equally pointless to just set your calories at a deficit from maintenance and not account for the energy your body uses during your strength training workouts and during recovery. It matters.