Strength Exercise

homemomfreda
homemomfreda Posts: 50
in Fitness and Exercise
Why don't we get calorie points for strength exercises?

Replies

  • AlisaRN
    AlisaRN Posts: 65 Member
    Look up weight lifting or strength training under cardio exercise and it will give you a calorie amount. It only gives calories under the cardio heading. :)
  • wheezybreezy
    wheezybreezy Posts: 313 Member
    They're more for your records. Under cardivascular exercises, you can type in strength training and it will count calories for you though. I just log mine in both sections.
  • jasonpclement
    jasonpclement Posts: 146 Member
    You can choose to log them if you'd like. I'd recommend wearing a heart rate monitor that takes in your weight to calculate calorie expenditure...otherwise you are looking at making some vague guesses. My preference however, is to use cardio as an excuse to eat more food, but never log any calorie burn for my weight training. This insures that as long as you don't exceed your caloric goals, you'll be in a calorie deficit.
  • dbarchus
    dbarchus Posts: 42
    I thought that was odd too. You can always create an exercise and calculate the calories used.
  • fairc3jam
    fairc3jam Posts: 136 Member
    Look up weight lifting or strength training under cardio exercise and it will give you a calorie amount. It only gives calories under the cardio heading. :)

    Thanks for tip. Someone also,said they used HRM to log on their calories.
  • RobynMWilson
    RobynMWilson Posts: 1,540 Member
    I thought that was odd too. You can always create an exercise and calculate the calories used.

    That's what I do..add them to my exercises...then I log in as cardio under "ChaLEAN Extreme Push Circuit 1" or "P90X Chest & Back" and then it gives me a general idea and I haven't gained any weight in the last 3 months doing it that way (my intention is to maintain, not lose lol)
  • Maurice1966
    Maurice1966 Posts: 419 Member
    You can choose to log them if you'd like. I'd recommend wearing a heart rate monitor that takes in your weight to calculate calorie expenditure...otherwise you are looking at making some vague guesses. My preference however, is to use cardio as an excuse to eat more food, but never log any calorie burn for my weight training. This insures that as long as you don't exceed your caloric goals, you'll be in a calorie deficit.

    I'm almost positive (not 100%) but I think it calculates based on the weight you've recorded in MFP
  • homemomfreda
    homemomfreda Posts: 50
    Thank you!
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    You can choose to log them if you'd like. I'd recommend wearing a heart rate monitor that takes in your weight to calculate calorie expenditure...otherwise you are looking at making some vague guesses. My preference however, is to use cardio as an excuse to eat more food, but never log any calorie burn for my weight training. This insures that as long as you don't exceed your caloric goals, you'll be in a calorie deficit.

    HRMs do not accurately record strength training calories burned..
  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
    You can choose to log them if you'd like. I'd recommend wearing a heart rate monitor that takes in your weight to calculate calorie expenditure...otherwise you are looking at making some vague guesses. My preference however, is to use cardio as an excuse to eat more food, but never log any calorie burn for my weight training. This insures that as long as you don't exceed your caloric goals, you'll be in a calorie deficit.

    HRMs do not accurately record strength training calories burned..
    ^^ this.
  • nheilweil
    nheilweil Posts: 82 Member
    You can choose to log them if you'd like. I'd recommend wearing a heart rate monitor that takes in your weight to calculate calorie expenditure...otherwise you are looking at making some vague guesses. My preference however, is to use cardio as an excuse to eat more food, but never log any calorie burn for my weight training. This insures that as long as you don't exceed your caloric goals, you'll be in a calorie deficit.

    HRMs do not accurately record strength training calories burned..

    That's right -- be careful of believing a HRM if you're doing strength training as it will overestimate your caloric burn. There's a physiological response when weight lifting that cranks up the heart rate without the corresponding high oxygen rate that would happen with aerobic exercise. This is because weight training triggers the high heart rate but only needs to send oxygen to one muscle, like your biceps.. The formulas that HRMs use assume the high heart rate is based on lots of muscles firing and therefore a much higher oxygen rate. And it's the oxygen, not your heart rate that's tied to calories burned -- thus the overestimation. This is the case even if you feel like you are doing circuits and keeping your heart rate elevated. If you are "eating back" those calories, you could find yourself without as big a deficit as you'd think!

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