Why bother with stregth training

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  • RobynMWilson
    RobynMWilson Posts: 1,540 Member
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    MFP doesn't factor in how many MORE calories you're burning at rest when you pack on the muscle. Look at my before and after pics...that's the point of strength training! MUSCLE BURNS FAT!!
  • thathockeychick23
    thathockeychick23 Posts: 87
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    If you know what you're doing, you can go online and find calculators that can tell you how much you have burned. Keep in mind that it's an estimate and is different for everyone. Strength training is super important for losing weight, keeping the weight off, and kicking up that metabolism. You build muscle. Muscle will help burn more calories during your workout and at rest. The benefits of strength training are not limited to the amount of calories burned but to everything it else it brings to the table.
  • Adina81
    Adina81 Posts: 252 Member
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    I like sexy muscles.

    Strength training = sexy muscles.

    Thats why.
  • LiftHuff
    LiftHuff Posts: 131
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    If you do want an app to track your strength training progress, I strongly recommend Jefit. Big improvement over my pad and pencil days.

    I'm a big fan of Fitocracy, myself.
  • hotsambatcho
    hotsambatcho Posts: 9 Member
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    I've found the Livestrong website to be a good resource for estimating calories burned doing different types of strength training.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    Liking this thread. Coulda been a sinker, but you guys made it float. :bigsmile:
  • SomeoneSomeplace
    SomeoneSomeplace Posts: 1,094 Member
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    This is where a Heart Rate Monitor comes in handy.
    From what I understand HRM's aren't really accurate for lifting and strength training. They tend to over estimate from what I've been told and research I've done has confirmed that. Just a warning! I don't actually log calories burnt during strength training because I haven't found an accurate way to do so.
  • CDG1013
    CDG1013 Posts: 106 Member
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    Use strength training under cardio (or calisthenics)...wear a heart rate monitor to get a good burn estimate.

    Strength training adds muscle, which increases metabolism --> more calories your body burns even at rest. Also makes you stronger and makes you look better.

    Even better mix of weight and cardio training...do 20 min of aerobic activity first (elliptical, stair stepper, treadmill, etc...) to elevate heart rate. Do supersets so that you don't get much break...HRM will show that you're burning quite a lot of calories and you will be building strength at same time.
  • JenKillough
    JenKillough Posts: 474 Member
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    You enter it in but it doesnt affect calories and doesnt tell u anything but what u did. Adding in cardio shows calories burned why doesnt stregth????????

    Are you trying to say that MFP's exercise calories are accurate and strength training accomplishes nothing so why bother? I want to come up with analogy for why this is so absolutely ridiculous but I think it'll just cause an aneurysm.

    OK, to stop being rash and move to informative:
    First and foremost, resistance training burns more energy that cardio. Period. This is not debatable.
    Second, calories burned during cardio begin and end with exercise. On the other hand strenght training is a continual metabolic process of 3 phases durating anywhere from 6-48 hours. The inital workout burns massive amounts of energy then the rebuilding/recovery process also utilizes calories, now that you've increased lean muscle tissue either in size, density or shape you will require MORE energy to maintain this lean body mass.
    Third, endocrine function in regards to resistance training also support the processes of fatty acid oxidation through release of important anabolic hormones such as testosterone, glucagoan, epinepherine, norepinepherine, IGF, seretonin, and the suppression of things like ghrelin. Other cell signals such as AMPK, GLUT4, and cAMP are also increased during resistance training and peak in a post-workout phase where somatic muscle tissue is in a state of insulin sensitivity and enabeling storage of nutrients into the liver and muscle instead of hanging around the blood stream or depositing into adipose tissue.

    I could go on and on but why bother?

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

    :laugh:
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    If you do want an app to track your strength training progress, I strongly recommend Jefit. Big improvement over my pad and pencil days.

    I'm a big fan of Fitocracy, myself.

    I've heard good things about Fitocracy, but have yet to try it. It was on my list to try, but I liked Jefit so much I upgraded to the paid version and didn't look back. The points/rating system of Fitocracy is intriguing although I don't understand the what or why of it.
  • FearlessRobb
    FearlessRobb Posts: 249 Member
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    If you do want an app to track your strength training progress, I strongly recommend Jefit. Big improvement over my pad and pencil days.

    I'm a big fan of Fitocracy, myself.

    I've heard good things about Fitocracy, but have yet to try it. It was on my list to try, but I liked Jefit so much I upgraded to the paid version and didn't look back. The points/rating system of Fitocracy is intriguing although I don't understand the what or why of it.


    i just looked up both of thise site confused on how to use it but seem interesting
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    Speaking for Jefit, you can put in your exercises, sets, reps and even set a rest timer for your workouts. There are a couple of sample workouts loaded but you can modify those or just put in your current workout by day of the week that you do them.

    Then you'll go to the gym or whereever and log in what you actually did. And right next to your current set are your results from your previous time doing those exercises. So when benching, it will show you the exact weights and reps that you did the previous time. Makes it very easily to progressively load (lift more). Even if you haven't done an exercise in months, the next time you do it you will know exactly what weight you use and how much to increase.

    It lets you know your theoretical max lift based on how many reps you do with a lower weight. It stores your actual max lifts for you. It syncs to the cloud so you can log on at home and change your routine or just look at the graphs to track your progress.

    It's solid.

    edited to add: If you're looking at the site, it's a bit of a cluster****. Download the app to see what it's about. Leaner and cleaner. Still takes a bit of poking around, but that website is a ********* disaster area.
  • FearlessRobb
    FearlessRobb Posts: 249 Member
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    Speaking for Jefit, you can put in your exercises, sets, reps and even set a rest timer for your workouts. There are a couple of sample workouts loaded but you can modify those or just put in your current workout by day of the week that you do them.

    Then you'll go to the gym or whereever and log in what you actually did. And right next to your current set are your results from your previous time doing those exercises. So when benching, it will show you the exact weights and reps that you did the previous time. Makes it very easily to progressively load (lift more). Even if you haven't done an exercise in months, the next time you do it you will know exactly what weight you use and how much to increase.

    It lets you know your theoretical max lift based on how many reps you do with a lower weight. It stores your actual max lifts for you. It syncs to the cloud so you can log on at home and change your routine or just look at the graphs to track your progress.

    It's solid.

    edited to add: If you're looking at the site, it's a bit of a cluster****. Download the app to see what it's about. Leaner and cleaner. Still takes a bit of poking around, but that website is a ********* disaster area.



    yea i downloaded it. i like it alot. but u cant log any of it into MFP lol
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    yea i downloaded it. i like it alot. but u cant log any of it into MFP lol

    why would you want to? Currently I'm on a 3 day per week split routine. But no matter which day I do or what exercises, I log it as Cardio-strength training for 60 mins. MFP has no need for me to entire the actual routine into it. That would be a waste of time.

    Log at MFP to lose the weight you want. Log on Jefit to get the body you want.
  • 20tulipgirl20
    20tulipgirl20 Posts: 99
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    Strength training is important as this adds more muscle enabling you to burn more calories.
  • AmberFaith90
    AmberFaith90 Posts: 904 Member
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    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 didn't know that. I learn something new every day.

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