Using hand weights whilst walking, but how to I log it??

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lifelovehealth
lifelovehealth Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all, I walk 4 -5 days a week, for about an hour or 6-5km. Ive just started carrying 3kg of hand weights (1.5 per hand) but im not sure how to track this. Do I add it as an additional work out with weights? Any advice or help would be appreciated. Cheers!

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  • janemem
    janemem Posts: 575 Member
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    bump
  • DrMAvDPhD
    DrMAvDPhD Posts: 2,097 Member
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    Why would you add more? If anything, I believe there might be an option for hiking with a load that you could use, but (no offense meant to you) that isn't much weight.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,248 Member
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    I doubt it would make any measurable difference in the amount of calories burned... probably about the same amount of difference as weighing an extra 3 kg / 6 lbs would make. If I plug my stats into the database, for one hour of walking at 3.5mph, I burn 231 calories. If I add an extra 6 pounds to my weight, I burn 241 calories per hour.

    As always, a heart rate monitor might be your best bet.
  • Amcolecchi
    Amcolecchi Posts: 260 Member
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    You should use a heart rate monitor. I found out that when I used to log exercises from mfp they weren't accurate. The best way to know EXACTLY how many calories you burn is to get a heart rate monitor! I got mine on sale foe $20 and use it everyday!
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    it wouldnt be a working with weights work out

    I wouldnt bother with logging anything extra for your walk but just consider it a bonus for positive mental purposes

    any additional calories for that amount of weight would be minimal at best but it is a good thing to do in general
  • Nikiki
    Nikiki Posts: 993
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    if you're just holding them while walking you're not going to be burning much more than you would without and you're not going to accomplish much in the way of "toning" your arms but I did find a livestrong article you can check out that gives some specific workouts that you can do while walking http://www.livestrong.com/article/36154-walk-hand-weights/ these will add a little more to your workout (how much I couldn't say, it depends on your fitness level, how fast you're walking ect... for this you might want an HRM)

    However I should point out that 3kgs isn't much, if you're doing workouts with them you'll advance past them pretty quickly unless you have some sort of injury that prevents you from using heavier weights. for significant results you'll want to look into specific weight lifting workouts.

    Try working some lifting workouts into your walks and see how you feel in a few weeks, I'll bet you'll be ready to step up the weight!
  • Nikiki
    Nikiki Posts: 993
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    oh and as for calorie burns from it, at that low weight you're not going to add a whole bunch to your burn count maybe just an extra 1-2 calories per minute on top of your walking unless you are extremely out of shape. I'd just log it as straight walking and let that little extra be a bonus that you don't actually log and eat back.
  • shydaisi
    shydaisi Posts: 833 Member
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    Basically it woul be the difference between the burn for a walk for a person at your current weight and the burn for a walk for a person who weighs 3 lbs. more than you... It won't be very much of a difference burn-wise. That's not to say you should stop doing it though, as there are other benefits aside from caloric burn.
  • MelissaGraham7
    MelissaGraham7 Posts: 403 Member
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    and most orthopedists and sports medicine physicians will say it is inadvisable to add extra weight while walking, running, etc. as that puts unnecessary extra weight on your joints and really do not do anything significant to your burn. If you want to use hand weights, etc. do that as a separate workout with weights but leave them at home for walking as it isn't really doing a thing for you but adding stress to the joints. The object is to get rid of extra weight on the joints when walking and running.
  • lifelovehealth
    lifelovehealth Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your responses. It requires more energy to move a heavy body therefore you are burning more calories. I am also giving my upper body a work out. Nikki, Im working those arms whilst walking definitely , and am feeling it today! Thanks for the link! Its actually where I read about hand weights and the benefits of it. I appreciate that you posted it here for me. Thanks everyone for your advise I wont log the weights as a separate exercise! Cheers!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Carrying hand weights will not provide any substantial upper-body weight training. A person may "feel" something at first, but that's just the initial adaptation from doing something new--sometimes even though one might feel "soreness" there is still not a lot going on.

    Carrying small hand weights will add almost nothing to the cardio effort of walking, nor to the calorie burn.

    The idea of carrying hand weights while walking was promoted probably 25-30 years ago with the introduction and promotion of a product called Heavyhands. The initial popularity of these products was very useful for graduate students in exercise physiology who were looking for thesis topics.

    One of the better studies did a good job of describing in detail the physiologic effects of walking w/hand weights. In summary, it showed that: a) carrying hand weights was essentially useless; b) swinging the weights using a vigorous arm swing that raised the hand in front up to shoulder height DID significantly increase VO2 (and thus calorie burn), however c) with the lower weights, 85% of the increased VO2 (calorie burn) came from the arm swing itself, not the weights.

    Bottom line--if you want to incorporate upper-body work to increase the cardio effort (and thus calorie burn) of walking, the best thing to do is just swing your arms in a wide amplitude.

    Holding weights or doing biceps curls with small weights in an attempt to "strength train" while walking is not effective.
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
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    i would just log it as walk. the weight isn't enough to really do anything.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
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    ^^^I agree, clothing weight more than this.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    I would just log it as walking... if you want to figure your calorie burn, wear a heart rate monitor... or you could use a little calorie burning calculator but add that weight on to your body weight. You aren't carrying very much so there's likely not going to be much of a difference. There is an option for carrying a 15 pound baby or something in the database LOL. You could carry more and then use that.

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