Burning calories with Strength Training?

dbmanawat
dbmanawat Posts: 6
in Fitness and Exercise
How come none of the strength training gives how much calories are burned? Do you not burn calories?

Replies

  • warrior63
    warrior63 Posts: 46
    I am not sure how accurate they could get on Strength Training. It kinda annoys me, too. If I am wearing a heart monitor and really working out hard, I can just about get a 90% accurate reading, but I would have to log it under Cardio. I guess the strength training is just there to show what you have done. Not sure, what good that would be. I would rather track weight and reps on bodybuilding.com.
    All I know is I burn the inches when lifting weights and I care more about body fat than I do my weight. Hope someone can provide an answer for you.
  • supermodelchic
    supermodelchic Posts: 550 Member
    I know really kind of a pet peeve for me. I love weightlifting but do not list. But it does burn serious calories, Just kickass in the gym and it all works out.
  • Lady_Bane
    Lady_Bane Posts: 720 Member
    I made my own.....bicep day in no way can touch my leg day calories. So I have 2 options for my own exercise, one for my leg day, and one for all the other days.
  • bradwwood
    bradwwood Posts: 371 Member
    For the purposes of MFP, just log it as cardio (assuming you track cals burned with a heart monitor).
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    How come none of the strength training gives how much calories are burned? Do you not burn calories?
    Sure, you burn calories while strength training - it's just difficult to quantify because there are so many variables. You can log it in the cardio section under "Strength training (weight lifting, weight training). MFP provides an estimate, which may or may not be accurate depending on what your workout consists of. If you're using MFP's estimate and eating your exercise calories back, it would probably be prudent to only eat a portion of what they estimate.

    Edit: Don't rely on a HRM to track your strength training calories. The accuracy goes downhill fast when you're doing something other than steady-state cardio and the reading you get will most likely be very inflated over what you actually burn.
  • bradwwood
    bradwwood Posts: 371 Member
    I made my own.....bicep day in no way can touch my leg day calories. So I have 2 options for my own exercise, one for my leg day, and one for all the other days.

    I guess that's what I actually do. I created my own exercises and log them as such
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    Enter "strength training" under the cardio section. This is for heavy weightlifting. Its not a lot of calories and can vary greatly depending on what lifts and rest times and such. MFP give me 220/hour and that has been pretty accurate for me.

    If you do more of a circuit training routine then enter it under "circuit training".
  • downtheadders
    downtheadders Posts: 26 Member


    Edit: Don't rely on a HRM to track your strength training calories. The accuracy goes downhill fast when you're doing something other than steady-state cardio and the reading you get will most likely be very inflated over what you actually burn.

    I was wondering about this earlier today. I used my HRM and got an estimate pretty close to what MFP suggested for 20 minutes of strength, so I went with that anyway. But if you're doing something like 30 Day Shred where weights are a big part of the workout, is the HRM reasonably accurate? I read online that if it's more of a circuit training things where you are moving rapidly through different motions the HRM is more accurate than just lifting. Is that fair to say?
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    ...I read online that if it's more of a circuit training things where you are moving rapidly through different motions it is more accurate than just lifting. Is that fair to say?
    Here's an article from Azdak's MFP blog about HRMs and strength training that's worth a read (and it addresses circuit training as well):

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698
  • DarthH8
    DarthH8 Posts: 298 Member
    Another thing to look more into is how much your body is working after you do strength training. Muscle repair/construction happens for well over a day after you do the damage to it. That's where strength training becomes a major factor in efficient weight loss.
  • GlowingBonesAndRedSatin
    GlowingBonesAndRedSatin Posts: 32
    You do, but the strength training bit doesn't tell you how many. The formula is 0.039 times the weight's weight times repetitions.

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