Lifting- How many calories burned?

waldo56

Has anybody that says strength training doesn't burn many calories....

Actually tried and been successful at bulking whilst controlling calorie intake (thus would need to know how many calories strengthttraining burns)?

You will find very few people that have been successful at bulking that believe that strength training doesn't burn a lot of calories.

PetulantOne

If someone startles you, your heart rate goes up too, even though you don't move. It might go as high as when you are sprinting.
Therefore, being startled burns the same calories as sprinting.

I'm going to go watch two scary movies at once and burn a thousand calories.

I just heard that on the radio the other day. Someone did a study and said you burn more calories when watching a scary movie, because it elevates you're heart rate. :laugh:

wackyfunster

Most calorie burn in weight training comes from recovery, which cannot be estimated by a HRM. I have seen estimates ranging from 4-9 calories per calorie your HRM will show over 72 hours in terms of recovery costs for high-intensity workouts (i.e. training to total failure). Simply put, there is no solid science around this yet, so take that as you will. You DEFINITELY burn WAY more calories/hour doing weights than steady-state cardio (unless maybe you are maintaining a 90+% HR max level during your cardio workouts). Theoretically you could probably burn about the same doing HIIT, as anaerobic expenditures have large recovery costs, and the cardio burn would be a lot higher, which should make up for the reduced cost of muscle repair.

Overall, weight training is more efficient in terms of preservation of LBM, while huge cardio calorie burns result in loss of LBM (which is why marathon runners/endurance athletes calibrate their caloric intake over the course of an event to maintain body weight and/or eat huge pre-post training meals... some of my friends do 10k+ cals in a day, which is just nuts).

PetulantOne

Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?

Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day. I started doing this about two months ago but I never know how to track the exercises on myfitnesspal.

Anyone else have any advice or are you wondering the same thing?

Please and thank you!

I'm doing NROL4W. I've worn my HRM a few times, even though I know they aren't as accurate on strength training. Anyway, my HRM reads almost exactly what MFP says for strength training (under cardio exercises). For me it's about 100 calories for a half hour.

wellbert

Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?

Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day. I started doing this about two months ago but I never know how to track the exercises on myfitnesspal.

Anyone else have any advice or are you wondering the same thing?

Please and thank you!

I'm doing NROL4W. I've worn my HRM a few times, even though I know they aren't as accurate on strength training. Anyway, my HRM reads almost exactly what MFP says for strength training (under cardio exercises). For me it's about 100 calories for a half hour.

interesting. MFP puts me at about 350/hr I think.
My HRM put me at something crazy like 1400... (polar ft7) for a little more than an hour.

jealous_loser

Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?

Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day. I started doing this about two months ago but I never know how to track the exercises on myfitnesspal.

Anyone else have any advice or are you wondering the same thing?

Please and thank you!

I'm doing NROL4W. I've worn my HRM a few times, even though I know they aren't as accurate on strength training. Anyway, my HRM reads almost exactly what MFP says for strength training (under cardio exercises). For me it's about 100 calories for a half hour.

interesting. MFP puts me at about 350/hr I think.
My HRM put me at something crazy like 1400... (polar ft7) for a little more than an hour.

I have been wearing mine for strength training too. It tells me about 350-400 depending on the warm up I do.

wellbert

Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?

Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day. I started doing this about two months ago but I never know how to track the exercises on myfitnesspal.

Anyone else have any advice or are you wondering the same thing?

Please and thank you!

I'm doing NROL4W. I've worn my HRM a few times, even though I know they aren't as accurate on strength training. Anyway, my HRM reads almost exactly what MFP says for strength training (under cardio exercises). For me it's about 100 calories for a half hour.

interesting. MFP puts me at about 350/hr I think.
My HRM put me at something crazy like 1400... (polar ft7) for a little more than an hour.

I have been wearing mine for strength training too. It tells me about 350-400 depending on the warm up I do.

I'm pretty sure my heavy use of the valsalva maneuver has a lot to do with the reading being so high.

bostonwolf

As others have said, it's very difficult to measure calories burned during weightlifting for a number of reasons.

1. you are stopping and starting frequently
2. We have no idea of your current body composition, the exercises you are doing, weight involved, etc.

I might also suggest that instead of doing a split routine switch to a full body routine three days a week. These tend to include more multi-joint exercises (deadlift, squats, rows, presses) and burn much more energy than doing only barbell curls, etc.

I do the routine linked below and have had good success with it. Each workout really incorporates your whole body and surprisingly my abs and trunk are usually my sorest regions the next day.

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/forget-steroids-5-fullbody-workouts-for-serious-gains.html#2

jofjltncb6

And in response to a comment that was made (but then edited/deleted), the typical definition of "work" doesn't, well, work for determining calories burned. We're interested in energy expended, not work. Think of someone pushing against an immovable wall. If the wall doesn't move, then no work was accomplished, but that doesn't mean energy wasn't expended. In other words, plyometrics still burn calories.

PamelaKuz

What if you do 2 mins of cardio (like jumping jacks) in between each set? Would that be considered circuit training in the mfp exercise database? I know I'm jumping into a *kitten* show thread here, I'm trying to learn about strength training and legitimately curious.

mmapags

bump

jofjltncb6

What if you do 2 mins of cardio (like jumping jacks) in between each set? Would that be considered circuit training in the mfp exercise database? I know I'm jumping into a *kitten* show thread here, I'm trying to learn about strength training and legitimately curious.

I think you're missing the overall big picture and confusing the goal (which happens a lot here). Don't change what you're doing to fit the measurement. Just understand that an "accurate" measure of calories burned from strength training is not possible (or at least not practical). The important thing is to choose some estimated amount of burn per minute, use it consistently over time (while also consistently logging food), and then weeks/months from now, make adjustments as necessary to your calories in/calories burned depending on how quickly you are/are not progressing towards your goal. Ultimately, it isn't the number on a website that dictates your success or lack thereof...it's the actual results. Don't fall into the trap of manipulating the measurement at the expense of actual results.

ssteinbring677

I don't know how intense everyone's weight lifting sessions are, or how heavy they're lifting...but the general consensus seems to be that you don't burn many calories weight lifting. In my personal experience, my heart rate gets as high if not higher during a lifting session than a cardio session...and I typically have a sopping wet shirt to prove it. I don't use an HRM or even log weight lifting in MFP but I feel like lifting can potentially burn a lot more calories than people think, depending on the intensity of the lifting session.

Heart rate and sweat are not a indication of number of calories burned

True, good point.

PetulantOne

Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?

Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day. I started doing this about two months ago but I never know how to track the exercises on myfitnesspal.

Anyone else have any advice or are you wondering the same thing?

Please and thank you!

I'm doing NROL4W. I've worn my HRM a few times, even though I know they aren't as accurate on strength training. Anyway, my HRM reads almost exactly what MFP says for strength training (under cardio exercises). For me it's about 100 calories for a half hour.

interesting. MFP puts me at about 350/hr I think.
My HRM put me at something crazy like 1400... (polar ft7) for a little more than an hour.

I have been wearing mine for strength training too. It tells me about 350-400 depending on the warm up I do.

I'm pretty sure my heavy use of the valsalva maneuver has a lot to do with the reading being so high.

Hmmm, interesting. I use TDEE for the calories I eat everyday instead of MFP + exercise calories. I just keep track of calorie burn, because I'm a hopeless number cruncher. I have spreadsheets for everything lol. The interesting thing is, as I've increased weight, the calorie burn has stayed pretty much the same.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

Bahahahahahaha! Amazing!

If someone startles you, your heart rate goes up too, even though you don't move. It might go as high as when you are sprinting.
Therefore, being startled burns the same calories as sprinting.

I'm going to go watch two scary movies at once and burn a thousand calories.

You can increase your heart rate simply by breathing faster sitting at a desk too... what drmerc is saying is that HR ALONE is not enough to indicate how many calories you are burning. *not trying to put words in your mouth. Even with a HR monitor you are still estimating how many calories you are burning by entering your numbers in an equation that is an estimate based on your age hight and CW. Its not 100%.

"Not trying to put words into your mouth"...if he meant it, he should state it rather than assume as most do.
And going back to the ORIGINAL Question.... Combining Cardio WITH weights burns more than either Cardio OR Weights Alone.

Way to lose topic people.

I bolded the part I'm addressing, I lift heavy and I lift for endurance and I do circut training. To me each of those things has different meaning, different pros and cons, and different expected calories burns.
If you are lifting to increase your max strength your calorie burn is difficult to establish without a monitor specific for that, you rest between sets and your hr spikes and lowers. You can not equate this to hiit training, it's like apples and oranges, hitt training your hr never gets to a resting rate.
If you are lifting for endurance you are doing a crap ton of reps, getting your hr up over a long period of time. Think of a group fitness body sculpting class where you're doing the same movement or group of movements at lower weights for 3.5 to 6 minutes straight (200 squats in a row).
Circuit training you don't rest, you move from exercise to exercise lifting and then go back through them and possibly mix some cardio (jumping rope, etc) along the way, your hr don't come down and while you can lift heavy you'll never lift as heavy as you could by lifting and fully resting between sets (my decrease for the same number of reps is anywhere from 10 - 15 pounds in squats).

This discussion is a bit of apples and oranges, so I think it's important to know what kind of "lifting" we're talking about.

VorJoshigan

I don't know how intense everyone's weight lifting sessions are, or how heavy they're lifting...but the general consensus seems to be that you don't burn many calories weight lifting. In my personal experience, my heart rate gets as high if not higher during a lifting session than a cardio session...and I typically have a sopping wet shirt to prove it. I don't use an HRM or even log weight lifting in MFP but I feel like lifting can potentially burn a lot more calories than people think, depending on the intensity of the lifting session.

Heart rate and sweat are not a indication of number of calories burned

Actually they are. They're just not very good ones.

PamelaKuz

Thanks, you're spot on there. I could easily fall into that trap, I do like seeing all those numbers, lol.

What if you do 2 mins of cardio (like jumping jacks) in between each set? Would that be considered circuit training in the mfp exercise database? I know I'm jumping into a *kitten* show thread here, I'm trying to learn about strength training and legitimately curious.

I think you're missing the overall big picture and confusing the goal (which happens a lot here). Don't change what you're doing to fit the measurement. Just understand that an "accurate" measure of calories burned from strength training is not possible (or at least not practical). The important thing is to choose some estimated amount of burn per minute, use it consistently over time (while also consistently logging food), and then weeks/months from now, make adjustments as necessary to your calories in/calories burned depending on how quickly you are/are not progressing towards your goal. Ultimately, it isn't the number on a website that dictates your success or lack thereof...it's the actual results. Don't fall into the trap of manipulating the measurement at the expense of actual results.

EatClean_WashUrNuts

You said ORIGINAL question...Original meaning belonging or pertaining to the origin or beginning of something. so the original post was "Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?"

Please, Continue your brilliance..."Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day."

Do you see the Cardio AND lifting....If not, I'll buy you some glasses, because I care.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

You said ORIGINAL question...Original meaning belonging or pertaining to the origin or beginning of something. so the original post was "Is there any surefire way to count the calories that you burn while lifting?"

Please, Continue your brilliance..."Every day, I try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then I move onto the weights, working a different muscle group each day."

Do you see the Cardio AND lifting....If not, I'll buy you some glasses, because I care.

I see cardio AND lifting, but I fail to see cardio WHILE lifting.

ZoeLifts

Interesting....and how many calories can I burn doing this?