Calories burned during wt lifting?

MayaNelson
MayaNelson Posts: 62 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
without a HRM, anyone have insighhts into calories burned during weight lifitng, you know when you get going all those reps ans start sweating and feel like you can not do it --- that has got to be worth a few cals!!

Replies

  • ZyheeMoongazer
    ZyheeMoongazer Posts: 343 Member
    I will give you the same answer MFP does. It is very very very hard to estimate calories burned during weight lifting. There are far too many variables.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/faq/91-doesn-t-strength-training-burn-calories-why-don-t-you-show-any-calories-burned-for-strength-training

    It does burn calories yes, but it is far less then what you may think. I used to wear my HRM during strength workouts and was surprised at the number. I gave up tracking it, wasn't worth the effort. The only thing I enter now is my cardio sessions.
  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
    I will give you the same answer MFP does. It is very very very hard to estimate calories burned during weight lifting. There are far too many variables.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/faq/91-doesn-t-strength-training-burn-calories-why-don-t-you-show-any-calories-burned-for-strength-training

    It does burn calories yes, but it is far less then what you may think. I used to wear my HRM during strength workouts and was surprised at the number. I gave up tracking it, wasn't worth the effort. The only thing I enter now is my cardio sessions.
    It's relevant to your intensity. As your strength increases, so does your calorie burn. Strength athletes eat a crapton of food from their supercharged metabolism. And ask anyone actively lifting heavy and trying to gain weight. Even with no cardio they have to eat craptons of food. So don't kid yourself, strength training burns a ton of calories if you're good at it.
  • ChantelleFowler
    ChantelleFowler Posts: 208 Member
    Also, an important thing to note is that your body burns more calories AFTER a weight lifting session than it does, say, after a cardio session! :) PLUS, the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you burn when your body is at rest (i.e., when you're lounging on the couch!). It's a win-win situation, really! <3 lifting!
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    It really depends on what exercises you're doing, and how hard you're going at it. My leg or deadlift days I'm sure burn a ton more than my chest/arm days. But you know what? I enter the same 60 min strength training 300 or so calories that MFP gives for all my workouts. Because I don't lift weights to burn calories so I don't really care about the number entered.

    What's more important is that long after your lifting session is over, your body is taking the calories you feed it to repair the muscles you worked, both so you can be stronger the next time you lift, and so you can look awesome at the beach with minimal clothing. I think you'll find that you'll have less body weight fluctuations because so a high percentage of the calories you eat go to muscle repair.

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