Why bother with stregth training

This is where a Heart Rate Monitor comes in handy.

HRMs aren't really very accurate for that type of exercise, they're really best for steady-state cardio.

I kind of thought he was asking "why bother logging it"

I'm pretty sure that's what he was asking, yeah. MFP is more about tracking food and cardio than tracking weights, but they give you the option to.

Yes my main thing is why bother logging it lol

If the query is why bother logging it (as opposed to why bother doing it) the answer for me is that is a useful record of weights and reps which I may wish to look back on in the future.

If you lift 100 pounds of weight one foot, you've done 100 foot-pounds of 'work' which equals 0.032 calories.
Do 10 reps and you've burned about 3/10 of a calorie.
You'll burn almost as much keeping track and then logging it into MFP.

Strength training does not include calories because there is not really a formula that would cover all body types, how the training technique is preformed, the energy that each individual puts into it etc. which basically varies to each individual on any given day. But you can enter your program into the cardio section if you know how many calories you are expending during the strength training activity in order to track your total calorie count if you so wish. There is information available that will tell you what a typical workout activity will burn but not sure how accurate it would really be but it may ball park it to give you a rough idea.

If you do want an app to track your strength training progress, I strongly recommend Jefit. Big improvement over my pad and pencil days.

Thanks! I was actually looking for something better than my notebook :flowerforyou:

LOggging the strength in the case will only be for your personal records. I log strength under the cardio tab that MFP has in the database but I do tons of cardio so whatever the number mfp gives me i don't care too much. (I personally do that to keep track that i did strength this and that day. ) Also I do not suggest using a HRM monitor doing weights. I did that one day and it said I burned 400 some calories in about 30mins which i found really ODD because thats about how much i burn in 30 mins of spin class and my heart is normal sky high for that workout where as my heart rate was pretty low for the strength training. also if u want to take the time to read it, read wht i copied and pasted:




A HRM won't give you an accurate idea of how many calories you burn during strength training, because the relationship between heart rate and calorie expenditure is not the same during strength training as during cardio exercise, which is what the HRM's estimate is based on. Unless your weight training is very vigorous circuit training, the heart rate monitor will be overestimating your calorie burn by a fair amount.

The problem is a technical one. Calorie burning isn't determined by heart rate, it's determined by the number of muscle cells that are activated to perform a given activity. It's the working cells that actually use the energy (calories) and consume oxygen. When working muscle cells need more energy and oxygen, your heart rate goes up to deliver these things to the cells via the blood stream.

Any muscle that performs a high intensity or maximum effort (strength training) will trigger an increase in heart rate and blood flow. But if only a single muscle group is on the receiving end to utilize that extra oxygen (doing a strength exercise that isolates your biceps, for example), only a relatively small amount of oxygen (and calories) will actually be consumed.

So while a series of strength training exercises may elevate your heart rate like aerobic exercise does, you're not actually using as much oxygen and burning as many calories as you would be if you were steadily using several large muscles all at once, as when walking, running, swimming, or doing aerobics for example.

The heart rate monitor doesn’t know whether your increase in heart rate is due to several large muscle groups working (cardio), an isolated muscle group lifting a weight (strength training), or even if adrenaline or excitement is increasing your heart rate. It just knows your heart rate, and the formulas it uses to estimate calories are based on studies of aerobic exercise, not other activities. So, it's going to overestimate your calorie expenditure when the rise in heart rate is stimulated by using isolated muscles at maximum intensity, which is what occurs during strength training.

There's a strength training entry in the cardio section. It's just a ballpark, but it gives me about 89 calories per half hour.

So you can have abs like LorinaLynn.

Simple - strength training increases muscle mass - increased muscle mass = increased metabolism - increased metabolism = greater weight loss for the same amount of calories consumed/cardio output

Simple - strength training increases muscle mass - increased muscle mass = increased metabolism - increased metabolism = greater weight loss for the same amount of calories consumed/cardio output

Not to be critical in any way but just for clarity. The "increased muscle mass = increased metabolism" is true. But it is negligible. Most recent research puts the increased burn at about 6 to 11 calories per lb of lean muscle. So assuming one increases lean muscle by 10 pounds, that is only 60 to 110 calories per day more. It is an increase. But not one that is going to make a major difference. There are so many other fabulous reasons for strength training and I am a huge proponent. This is one but not a major one.

Deep breaths brother! Deeeeeppp breaths! I am in complete agreement with your accurate and scientific post.

Sorry, I haven't had carbs in a while... I've been apologizing left and right to people for being moody. LOL. 2 more days... sigh.