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    How donyou calculate calories for lifting!

    Posts: 92 Member
    edited January 12 in Fitness and Exercise
    How do you calculate calories for lifting? Ju

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    • Posts: 1,027 Member
      I really don't actually. But it comes up as 180cals per 30 minutes on the site. It's under cardio as Strength training (weight lifting, weight training).
    • Posts: 8,176 Member
      Curious how people do it. I don't because most of the time I am recovering between sets.
    • Posts: 92 Member
      Ooops!

      Looking for a way to ballpark calories burned for strength training and lifting. I know it depends on how strenuous, but an average for a 5'5female around 140 pounds?
    • Posts: 3,924 Member
      Ooops!

      Looking for a way to ballpark calories burned for strength training and lifting. I know it depends on how strenuous, but an average for a 5'5female around 140 pounds?

      I dunno. Are you doing tricep kickbacks with a 2lb dummbell, or doing a power clean and press with a 135lb barbell?
    • Posts: 53 Member
      I use a heart rate monitor. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I plug in my age, gender and I guess it calculates my calories lost by my heart rate and how long I am doing the exercise. I do exercise videos for strength training (not lifting alot of weight) so I don't know if it would help at all. Mostly good for cardio.
    • Posts: 92 Member
      lifting with 5-10 pounds is what I am usually doing!
    • Posts: 92 Member
      I use a heart rate monitor. I'm not sure how accurate it is but I plug in my age, gender and I guess it calculates my calories lost by my heart rate and how long I am doing the exercise. I do exercise videos for strength training (not lifting alot of weight) so I don't know if it would help at all. Mostly good for cardio.

      Great idea! And simple :)
    • Posts: 1,046 Member
      As far as I can tell, there's no really good way to estimate, even with a HRM (I found this MFP blog post very helpful in explaining that: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698)

      I usually don't even bother trying to count calories for it, although I do log it under cardio since a) it helps me keep track of which day I do arms, chest, legs, etc, and b) I like to have it show up in my feed :laugh: But the actual calorie count is usually pretty negligible - I lowball the estimates MFP gives that that I've found on other websites. I don't lift for the calorie burn, and I'm not really sure what people do who burn a lot more than I do (I'm comparatively small, only 5'2, so some of the bigger guys, especially, burn a lot more, I am sure).
    • Posts: 9,026 Member
      lifting with 5-10 pounds is what I am usually doing!


      why?? your purse probably weighs more then that, and you lug is around all day.

      you want to get a good burn, and really help with changing your body composition? pick up some real weights. 15lbs at least. stop doing 20 reps, and do 10-15 tops. do more sets.
    • Posts: 303 Member
      I think it honestly depends on how your lifting. Days where I am doing squats and heavy weights, i sweat as much as if i was doing cardio. It all depends on how high you get your heart rate.
    • Posts: 512 Member
      I wore a HRM to check my calorie burns for various exercises. My limited research (I am 6' 0" and 180 lbs) resulted in:

      >>>When I do something that gets my heart rate up to 145 or so (i.e. - pure cardio - cycling, Insanity, inclined treadmill)...I typically burn 9 to 12 calories per minute.

      >>>When I do something strenuous like Les Mills Pump (between cardio and pure lifting), I only burn 2 or 3 calories per minute.

      >>>When I lift regular, like what you are describing, I do not count any calories burned.
    • Posts: 3,924 Member
      lifting with 5-10 pounds is what I am usually doing!

      I'd stick with the site's "strength training" option under cardio then. It should be close enough.


      heart rate has very little to do with caloric burn with weights. I'll let someone else beat that dead horse though.
    • Posts: 1,145 Member
      I don't- I just calculate cardio. I figure any over estimating from my cardio will be made up by the lifting. It's worked thus far!
    • Posts: 27,167 Member
      As far as I can tell, there's no really good way to estimate, even with a HRM (I found this MFP blog post very helpful in explaining that: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698)

      This. HRMs are not accurate for strength training.

      I log using MFP. It gives me less than 200 for an hour of heavy lifting. The way I see it, 200 gives me enough to add a little food for fuel, but no so much that if it was off, even by 100, it's not throwing me off one way or another.
    • Posts: 92 Member
      show previous quotes


      why?? your purse probably weighs more then that, and you lug is around all day.

      you want to get a good burn, and really help with changing your body composition? pick up some real weights. 15lbs at least. stop doing 20 reps, and do 10-15 tops. do more sets.


      You are right! Thanks for the feedback. I will try heavier amounts with less reps!
    • Posts: 92 Member
      As far as I can tell, there's no really good way to estimate, even with a HRM (I found this MFP blog post very helpful in explaining that: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/hrms-cannot-count-calories-during-strength-training-17698)

      I usually don't even bother trying to count calories for it, although I do log it under cardio since a) it helps me keep track of which day I do arms, chest, legs, etc, and b) I like to have it show up in my feed :laugh: But the actual calorie count is usually pretty negligible - I lowball the estimates MFP gives that that I've found on other websites. I don't lift for the calorie burn, and I'm not really sure what people do who burn a lot more than I do (I'm comparatively small, only 5'2, so some of the bigger guys, especially, burn a lot more, I am sure).

      Thanks so much for the info!
    • Posts: 805 Member
      It is hard to tell how many you are burning. I use a HRM but its obviously not accurate when im lifting heavy for 30- 45 minutes and the sweat is pouring off me when it says Ive burned 140 calories at the end of it my hardout session. Also you continue to burn calories while resting when lifting for some hours so monitoring that I would imagine to be impossible
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