Polar HRM...or HRM in general that show calorie expenditure

lahlie

Ok, please correct me if I am wrong, but I have always been told that when working out with weights or resistance of some kind, you burn calories faster than just an aeorbic workout.

So, I guess I need clarification today because my hubby bought me a HRM that shows calories burned, and in an hour of cardio, I burned 466 calories. Now, I havent used it in my weights class yet, but I am wondering IF this is true, how does the HRM know when you are resistance training and when you are aerobic training?

Nikki_Marz

It's a bit of misnomer to say that weight training will burn more calories than aerobic activity because it's simply not true. What is true is that muscle burns more calories than fat does. When you are weight training, you aren't burning more calories, you are building muscles, and it's that muscle that will burn the calories. The more muscle you have, the more you burn just on a daily basis (even when not exercising).

If you were to do only weight/resistance training for a short period of time, you would actually burn way LESS calories than aerobics. It takes women between 4-6 weeks of regular weight training before you will notice any muscle gain. It's at this point that your body will begin to burn more calories just naturally. Then the more muscle you put on, the more you burn.

The HRM won't tell the difference between aerobics and resistance training. Though your heart rate will increase with weights/resistance, it's generally for a short period of time, and you wont be seeing the benefits immediately when burning calories. As I mentioned previously, you'll actually burn quite a bit less with the weight training.

Because of this its actually best to mix both the aerobics and the weight training at least for the first while in order to keep your caloric burn high through the aerobics, but also build the muscle so eventually the body will just naturally take over and burn more for you.

The aerobic is the burn now, the weights/resistance are the burn later.

lahlie

Thanks. That is what I thought from the things I have read, and learned in school....but my trainer sure has has information not quite right....I am glad to have it anyway. I figure if I am gonna monitor to the "t" what's going in, I might as well monitor with the same scrutiny what is going out (per se).

Azdak

Ok, please correct me if I am wrong, but I have always been told that when working out with weights or resistance of some kind, you burn calories faster than just an aeorbic workout.

So, I guess I need clarification today because my hubby bought me a HRM that shows calories burned, and in an hour of cardio, I burned 466 calories. Now, I havent used it in my weights class yet, but I am wondering IF this is true, how does the HRM know when you are resistance training and when you are aerobic training?

It doesn't. You can't use an HRM to calculate calories burned during strength training. The HR that occurs during strength training is NOT associated with an increase in oxygen uptake or increased caloric burn like it does during cardio exercise. HRMs just measure heart rate--they don't measure calories--they "estimate" them.

Which is not to say that strength training does not burn calories or does not burn fat--it just doesn't do it in a way that can be calculated by an HRM.

The training effects and caloric burn from aerobic exercise are more immediate. The effects and the caloric burn from strength training tend to occur over a longer period of time. Plus the effects from strength are much more variable--it depends a lot on the specific exercises performed and the individual performing them.

There is some new (within the last couple of years) research being done that suggests there might be a greater immediate calorie burn from strength training than previously thought because the effect cannot be measured by the usual method of indirect calorimetry. I am still trying to get my hands on the actual research papers so I can get more details.

So bottom line: HRM--no good for calculating strength training calories.

Strength training: very good--no, essential--for achieving permanent weight (fat) loss and overall health benefits.

See: http://www.exrx.net/FatLoss/WT&End.html

lahlie

Thank you so much. Please let me know what you find. I would love to learn more...