Strength exercises have no calories?

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incito05
incito05 Posts: 2
in Fitness and Exercise
When I look up an exercise like bench press, you cant enter calories like you can for cardio?

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  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/faq/91-doesn-t-strength-training-burn-calories-why-don-t-you-show-any-calories-burned-for-strength-training

    use exercise > CARDIO > add exercise > search "strength training" and enter minutes of workout if you need a calorie burn
    use exercise > STRENGTH > add exercise > to track your progress with weight / sets / reps over time
  • AndyStanford
    AndyStanford Posts: 154 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/faq/91-doesn-t-strength-training-burn-calories-why-don-t-you-show-any-calories-burned-for-strength-training

    use exercise > CARDIO > add exercise > search "strength training" and enter minutes of workout if you need a calorie burn
    use exercise > STRENGTH > add exercise > to track your progress with weight / sets / reps over time
    And I guess do both if you're trying to track everything?
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/help/faq/91-doesn-t-strength-training-burn-calories-why-don-t-you-show-any-calories-burned-for-strength-training

    use exercise > CARDIO > add exercise > search "strength training" and enter minutes of workout if you need a calorie burn
    use exercise > STRENGTH > add exercise > to track your progress with weight / sets / reps over time
    And I guess do both if you're trying to track everything?
    when i was lifted i did both - but eventually i went to just paper for tracking my progress with weight/sets/reps
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,583 Member
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    I add strength training as a cardio, but I feel that the estimate is really... really high. As far as calories burned during lifting, I'm on the verge of picking up a HRM to get a much closer estimate.
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 Member
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    you could use the exercise notes field (app or website) to track your weight / sets / reps if the strength training field doesn't cut it for you while you want a calorie burn, you can even note the "exact" exercise being done whether it's a leg day or an upper body day etc.
  • Dauntlessness
    Dauntlessness Posts: 1,489 Member
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    Get an HRM, its the best way to figure that sort of thing out. Estimates cant measure effort.
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    HRMs arent really accurate for lifting - theyre meant for cardio
  • wswilliams67
    wswilliams67 Posts: 938 Member
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    USE THIS: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_burned.htm

    Find out what an hour of strength training is and enter a custom cardio exercise using 60 minutes/xxx calories as your baseline. Then when you enter less than or more than 60 minutes you get a rough ballpark of calories you burned.

    Of course you can't do like 5 minute rests or anything silly.
  • wswilliams67
    wswilliams67 Posts: 938 Member
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    HRMs arent really accurate for lifting - theyre meant for cardio

    HUH? An HRM is perfectly acceptable for weight lifting. You track your average HR during your lifting split and calculate the calories burned. If you don;t think your HR soars while lifting then you aren't doing it right. :wink:
  • ecw3780
    ecw3780 Posts: 608 Member
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    your heart rate is elevated when you strength train depending on how intense you lift. I would use a body bug or something that tracks your movement and heart rate.

    With strength training, it isn't a rapid calorie depletion like running, but more of a slow burn. So yes, you are burning calories- but not as fast as you do with regular cardio. I usually track 75-150 calories when I lift- and just eat that back as protein- usually a shake or eggs.
  • Jkmumma
    Jkmumma Posts: 254
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    It's a rough estimate, but look up "strength training" in the cardio section for cardio.

    Cardio is "how many calories" It's mislabeled. A lot of stuff in the list is definately not a cardio workout, but lists calories burned.
    Strength is for keeping track of weights, reps, sets, ETC. Putting strength in the cardio section will fix the calories burned part of it
  • vorgas
    vorgas Posts: 741 Member
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    I answered this question recently in this topic. It goes into the math behind weight lifting.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/814214-strength-exercise-calories

    And no, HRMs arent accurate for weight lifting calories. That's because your rate isn't responding solely to demands for oxygen. It's responding to other kinds of pressures. HRM calories are based on oxygen demand. In addition, the increase due to oxygen uptake is only supplying oxygen to the muscles under load. Your heart doesn't know if it's an isolated muscle or lots of muscle. Whereas cardio exercise is generally multiple muscle, and so the estimate is far more accurate.

    For example, your bicep needs energy to contract. You're isolating your bicep on a curling machine and so it needs a lot of oxygen. Your heart rate goes up to supply that oxygen. However, not all of that oxygen is going to go to that bicep. So the calorie burn is inaccurate.
  • Dauntlessness
    Dauntlessness Posts: 1,489 Member
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    HRMs arent really accurate for lifting - theyre meant for cardio

    HUH? An HRM is perfectly acceptable for weight lifting. You track your average HR during your lifting split and calculate the calories burned. If you don;t think your HR soars while lifting then you aren't doing it right. :wink:

    This^^^. Thank you.

    I do however think there is truth in the "after burns" calories and maybe that's what your thinking is inaccurate. Cardio only has an after burn or a few hours and Strength I think has an after burn up to 12 hours while your muscles are repairing. So, yes you burn more calories from strength than it says on the HRM but you dont track those no matter what exercise your doing. Trust me, HRM during strength is the way to go. Plus you can monitor how much effort you are using to maximize your results.
  • bdamaster60
    bdamaster60 Posts: 595 Member
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    HRMs arent really accurate for lifting - theyre meant for cardio

    HUH? An HRM is perfectly acceptable for weight lifting. You track your average HR during your lifting split and calculate the calories burned. If you don;t think your HR soars while lifting then you aren't doing it right. :wink:

    Yet the purpose of strength training (obviously to build strength) is to break down muscle fibres so they can use more calories to repair muscle tissue. If you are chasing the heart rate, you might as well forget the strength training and run on a treadmill. Most of the calorie burning related to strength training happens up to 48 hours after the resistance workout.
  • cad39too
    cad39too Posts: 874 Member
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    I add strength training as a cardio, but I feel that the estimate is really... really high. As far as calories burned during lifting, I'm on the verge of picking up a HRM to get a much closer estimate.

    I find I get a much higher burn with my HRM than MFP estimates.
  • walterafable
    walterafable Posts: 9
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    I add strength training as a cardio, but I feel that the estimate is really... really high. As far as calories burned during lifting, I'm on the verge of picking up a HRM to get a much closer estimate.

    I use a Wahoo HRM everytime I lift. I use the Digifit app to monitor my HR and it calculates calories burned for the session. I've found that 5-10 minutes on the treadmill to warm up helps get my HR into the zone (for me) and taking only 45-60 sec between exercises helps keep me where I need to be to burn calories and also breakdown muscle.

    I used to use Epic Fitness to log and track exercises but I've gone back to pen and paper because it's easier to go back to previous workouts and see what you lifted previously. Good luck everyone!
  • walterafable
    walterafable Posts: 9
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    I add strength training as a cardio, but I feel that the estimate is really... really high. As far as calories burned during lifting, I'm on the verge of picking up a HRM to get a much closer estimate.

    I find I get a much higher burn with my HRM than MFP estimates.

    This is my experience as well. It's led me to question (as others have on this forum) whether an HRM is indeed appropriate for strength/weightlifting exercises. Can anyone point to an article or other resource for more definitive information?

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