P90x Calories burned!

AprilN86
AprilN86 Posts: 9
in Fitness and Exercise
I just got a heart rate monitor, nothing special just 1 i got at walmart, I really wanted to try one out to get a better idea of the calories i was burning. I have only used it twice. I am 26 years old 5 ft 2 and 121 lbs, i am in pretty good shape, today is day 45 of my work out. I did 35 days of insanity and then swapped over to p90x for the muscle work. ok so I am just curious how other peoples calories burned compare to mine. Yesterday was plyometrics and it said i burned just shy of 700 calories, my heart rate stayed between 160-190 through the majority of the work out. Today was Arms and shoulders, so it was no cardio and all weights and i tend to not work very hard on the weight days because i want definition but not size so i use 5lb weights and do around 15-20 reps per exercise, i only burned 100 calories today. I always thought i burned more during weight days but my heart rate stayed around 90, it got over 100 on a few exercises but not very many. I just want to know what some other people around my size burn doing these days :) Thanks for listening and i appreciate your replies.
-April-

Replies

  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
    I just got a heart rate monitor, nothing special just 1 i got at walmart, I really wanted to try one out to get a better idea of the calories i was burning. I have only used it twice. I am 26 years old 5 ft 2 and 121 lbs, i am in pretty good shape, today is day 45 of my work out. I did 35 days of insanity and then swapped over to p90x for the muscle work. ok so I am just curious how other peoples calories burned compare to mine. Yesterday was plyometrics and it said i burned just shy of 700 calories, my heart rate stayed between 160-190 through the majority of the work out. Today was Arms and shoulders, so it was no cardio and all weights and i tend to not work very hard on the weight days because i want definition but not size so i use 5lb weights and do around 15-20 reps per exercise, i only burned 100 calories today. I always thought i burned more during weight days but my heart rate stayed around 90, it got over 100 on a few exercises but not very many. I just want to know what some other people around my size burn doing these days :) Thanks for listening and i appreciate your replies.
    -April-

    Depending on whether or not the exercises are compound exercises or isolation exercises the calorie burn doing weight training can either be tremendous or practically nonexistent. The muscle groups targeted by the arm & shoulder workout are very small muscle groups and the exercises are isolation workouts by nature so you burn practically no calories at all. Also remember you're using lighter weight than what's recommended. At NO POINT in the video does he say to push to 20 reps, even if your goal is lean/definition. If you can manage more than 15 your weight is too light. Get heavier weight.

    It's important to stop looking at these as "weight days." There is a very large difference between isolation training and compound training and the results they have. Learn the difference between the two and it will all become clear as to why the burns on days like today, when you're only focusing on a single muscle group at a time, and relatively small muscles at that, gives negligible calorie burns.
  • AprilN86
    AprilN86 Posts: 9
    True but he does say if you dont feel the burn at 15 that you can add a few more reps, so if im not feeling it i add a few more. I never go over 20, and i cant do 20 on the shoulder exercises. mostly just the bicep ones. I do need to get some 8lb weights though, and 10. i dont really want to do any more than that amount i dont think. I am curious what I will burn during yoga tomorrow.
  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
    True but he does say if you dont feel the burn at 15 that you can add a few more reps, so if im not feeling it i add a few more. I never go over 20, and i cant do 20 on the shoulder exercises. mostly just the bicep ones. I do need to get some 8lb weights though, and 10. i dont really want to do any more than that amount i dont think. I am curious what I will burn during yoga tomorrow.

    You're going to need more than 5 lb weights for lower body and back days. These muscles are significantly stronger and need heavier weights to challenge them. If money is an issue, try investing in bands.
  • AprilN86
    AprilN86 Posts: 9
    Money is no issue, i actually have bands already but i haven't tried using them in place of weights, i honestly havent even thought about it, i just automatically go for the weights lol. I only use the bands in place of pull ups, because i can't do one to save my life. Next week I will try them in place of the weights and see what kind of difference it makes.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
    Yesterday was plyometrics and it said i burned just shy of 700 calories,

    On strength training days your going to burn less calories because your HR doesn't get very high (which makes a HRM useless and very inaccurate for these days), strength training isn't so much for calorie burn as the other benefits it provides but normally your probably burning 100-300 calories depending on resistance.

    As for your plyo day, I have to say for someone your height/size that # has to be way off.. it should probably be around 300-400.. now if you were 5'2 and 190 ya.. It has a chest strap? Make sure your weight/height are in it, but I am gonna say thats off by a lot.

    If you want to do both Insanity and P90x for cardio/muscle workout, try the hybrid version.. it has p90x lift days, and replaces the cardio days with insanity workouts.
  • AprilN86
    AprilN86 Posts: 9
    Yeah i am kind of unsure about the 693 calories during plyo but i did push really hard and my heart rate was pretty high and i have been burning around 350-400 during a 38 min session of insanity and p90x is almost twice the length so isnt it possible that it could double? P90x says they are designed to burn 600 at minimum. idk i need to research it some.

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