I created a exercise called Crossfit as well but haven't use a heart rate monitor so am guessing at my cals burned. I Would be interested to hear what the ave cals burned are for everyone?

I feel the same way I've been logging my workouts as Circuit too and logging the time that we begin the WOD to the end, then noting the WOD and the warm up time. This is my fourth week in, I've just started loggin my work outs so it will be interesting to see the progress.

Absolutely LOVE crossfit....

I created an exercise called "CrossFit" and I based the original estimate on how hard I work when running the same distance. For example, I typically do a 10 minute mile, 100 calories. If I do 20 min of CrossFit, I compare that to how hard I would have worked running 2 miles and log those calories.

I quit logging food and exercise. I did it for a year and weened myself off of both. Felt like MFP was a crutch and I had to see if I could stay true without it.

Great Idea,
I was having trouble figuring out how to calculate calories burned for a CF workout as well. Was wondering what kind of heart rate monitor you have and would you suggest it as something you love and would buy again?
Theresa

1 calorie burned

Seriously though, try a TDEE approach and don't log exercise.

Also, HRMs are HIGHLY inaccurate for non-steady state cardio activities.

Just as a gauge, typical weightlifting burns are 200 cals an hr, figure depending on the metcon you could be anywhere from 50-200 calories for that. I would say you're not burning more than 400 cals for an hour of CrossFit.

ATHLETES (not your avg gym goer or even CrossFitter) burn about 10cals/min so anything exceeding 600 cals is probably wrong. You're not going balls to the wall for a full hour of CrossFit... 15-30 minutes of strength work, balls to the wall during a WOD for 15-30 minutes, and some stretching.

For logging calories burned, for better or worse, CrossFit culture frowns on heart rate monitors. For logging CrossFit in MFP, I enter the total number of minutes the actual WOD takes, subtracting out rest intervals. So it we have a 15 minute WOD with 4 minutes of rest intervals in there, I would log 11 minutes as either Calisthenics or Circuit Training (both are the same amt of cal/minute). Unfortunately, it is too difficult for MFP to figure out how much calories weight lifting burns so it does not give you any calories for logging squats, bench press, cleans, etc which sucks because it IS burning lots of calories.

Here is what I have found. I have a desk job so MFP suggest to remain at my current weight I should eat 2,300 calories/day. Over a 16 week period I have averaged about 2,900 calories/day (gross) and 2,500 cal net and lost 13.4 lbs. So in reality, if 1 lb=3,600 calories then I would need to eat 3,300 calories/day to maintain my current weight. That means that for me, as a CrossFitter, the recommended daily caloric intake to maintain current weight is off by 1,100 calories. That is a ****load of discrepancy and shows the shortcomings of this otherwise awesome website to accurately predict caloric needs for anything other than traditional cardio.

The reason, from what I can gather, is that the standard model for calories burned during workouts has some holes in it for the combination of the type of weightlifting and interval training that we do. The only way to really determine how much you need is to log your meals and calories and see what happens. I keep a detailed spreadsheet which has helped me determine how much cal I need to gain and loose weight. I recently hit a point I never imagined that I would be in that I wanted to stop dropping weight.

I created a "CrossFit" exercise, and I have a Polar FT4 that I wear. My burns vary from a few hundred to over 700, depending on the level of *kitten* kicking. LOL! I don't log my food anymore, but continue to log my burns. I like to look back and see my progress throughout my history.

Assuming you do a typical CF workout of 60 minutes... well, I hate to break it to you but you aren't burning over 700 calories in that time. Weighlifting for 30 minutes burns roughly 100 calories, like I explained above.

Typical CF session at all boxes I've been to:
5-10 min warm up - up to 50 calories
5 min mobility - 25 calories
15-20 min strength work - 75 calories
15-30 min WOD - 200-300 calories
5 min cash out/stretching - 25-50 calories
500 cals burned on a good day

Like I said, CrossFit is too complicated for the simple algorithms in MFP to calculate. Yes, your HRM may show that it is nearly impossible to burn more than 500 calories in a 1 hour CrossFit session but this is really shortsighted. The hormonal and metabolic benefits that occur as a result of such an exercise program continue around the clock. There is a lot of science supporting this. My fear is that such comments will make CrossFit look less attractive to those serious about changing body composition than an hour of running on a treadmill. I am not trying to attack you. Obviously you have found the value in CrossFit. I just wanted others that are desperately seeking fat loss to consider that MFP calculations for anything other than traditional cardio are flawed.

Why does the CF community dislike people wearing HRMs?????

Also you suggest not to wear them because they are inaccurate??? What's the logic behind it? I'm really curious

I created a "CrossFit" exercise, and I have a Polar FT4 that I wear. My burns vary from a few hundred to over 700, depending on the level of *kitten* kicking. LOL! I don't log my food anymore, but continue to log my burns. I like to look back and see my progress throughout my history.

Assuming you do a typical CF workout of 60 minutes... well, I hate to break it to you but you aren't burning over 700 calories in that time. Weighlifting for 30 minutes burns roughly 100 calories, like I explained above.

Typical CF session at all boxes I've been to:
5-10 min warm up - up to 50 calories
5 min mobility - 25 calories
15-20 min strength work - 75 calories
15-30 min WOD - 200-300 calories
5 min cash out/stretching - 25-50 calories
500 cals burned on a good day

That's very general. I wear mine every single WOD and start it during warm up and stop it after the WOD or stretching depending on when I remember and I consistently burn 500-700 depending on the WOD. Isn't that more accurate than estimating? I'm not planning on eating the calories or even tracking what I eat since I eat mainly Paleo but I just like to know what I"m burning. Who cares if someone wants to wear a HRM and others don't?