eating exercise calories... does this make sense?

StrengthInPain

first, i do not disagree with eating exercise calories. But, i'm just wondering if the way we calculate exercise calories makes a difference as to what we should eat...When i first started using MFP, i noticed putting Strength Training in didn't calculate a calorie burn. i came on MFP and did some research and found that i could find "strength training" under a cardio workout and it would put calories in. So i would eat the calories from my weight lifting. Now i'm thinking maybe MFP had it right, and we shouldn't be eating our weight training calories... But it's not black and white... things like circuits or insanity/P90X probably should be counted. But when i'm going around the gym doing my 3 sets of 10 reps on the machines, i don't think I should eat those. Anyway, that's my idea, i'm gonna see how it works.

kwardklinck

I put in strength training and I still lose, but it's up to you if you want to count those or not.

Tamishumate

I wear a HRM when I workout, I enter in all the calories I burn during my gym time. I do weights, then cardio. I do this, cause I wear the HRM and it tells me how many calories I have burned. I dont eat them all back, but I log them all.
I notice that sometimes MFP has calories set high for some burns, I see what is showing up on my friends newsfeeds, and I am hoping for their sake they are not eating all those back, cause I dont think all are correct. I could be wrong, but having worn a HRM for the last 16 months, I know what each kind of workout gets what kind of calorie burn out of me.

Bleux

I agree with Tamishumate about what MFP has in for some of the cardio exercises. I usually enter my time and then have to change the calories burned so it equals what is on my HRM. As for eating calories for strength training, it depends. I do a circuit training with cardio intervals, so 4-5 strength moves and then 1 minute sprint on the eliptical, then back to 4-5 different strenth moves, then sprints, etc for 45 mintues. Doing this, I keep my heart rate up to where it is when I am running for an hour, around 80-85% of my MHR. In which case, I count this in my calories to eat back. However, when I am doing just normal circuit training, no cardio intervals, then I don't. It burns calories, but not enough to really worry that much about. Count it as bonus burn!