Calories burned from lifting?
stonel94
Posts: 550 Member
When I lift I usually don't wear my HRM, just when I do cardio. However, I work up a major sweat in lifting and my heart rate goes way up so clearly I am burning calories. I've heard that the reason people don't log lifting (like if they do it doesn't put any calories) it's because it's very hard to estimate because it depends on weight and how fast you're doing it, etc. I was wondering, if I wear my HRM will the calories burned be accurate? Or does it just not really work like that?
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I feel like my HRM accurately tracks what I'm burning while I'm wearing it. I usually wear it while lifting, it seems I average about 150-300 calories depending on what I'm doing, how long, etc. so I can't just estimate based on duration. I like to log it because I like to see progression in how i'm doing and what i'm burning but I am also tracking weights and reps (in a spreadsheet).0
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Yeah, i'm doing NROL so I have all that sorted out with reps and what exercises I'm doing0
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I use my Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) every time I am engaged on physical activity, even gardening.
I log the calories burned at MFP.
I found this is the most accurate way to monitor my calories burned.
I do not use MFP definitions for calorie burned. I create my own titles for the activity, like "Gardening" etc.0 -
A HRM is only accurate with a significantly increased HR so if you are sitting and lifting especially with machines it probably isn't going to give you an accurate burn. You can wear it and see what kind of HR's you get when you lift to know if it would be tracking properly. The fact that you feel like you're really working hard because things are heavy doesn't mean it's necessarily raising your HR a lot.0
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I use my HRM when lifting sometimes. Resistance training is an investment with a long term pay off, cardio is more immediate. Lifting should be included in ANY fitness plan. Keep doing it!0
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No. HRMs are only effective for steady state cardio. Lifting is neither steady state nor cardio.0
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When I wear mine to lift, my hr stays between 140 and 150, which is the fat buring area for me. I generally see between 50 and 700 cals burns for a 60mmin lifting session. That doesnt seem accurate to me, seems way too high.0
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your heart rate has 0 bearing on calories burned while lifting.When I wear mine to lift, my hr stays between 140 and 150, which is the fat buring area for me. I generally see between 50 and 700 cals burns for a 60mmin lifting session. That doesnt seem accurate to me, seems way too high.0 -
When I wear mine to lift, my hr stays between 140 and 150, which is the fat buring area for me. I generally see between 50 and 700 cals burns for a 60mmin lifting session. That doesnt seem accurate to me, seems way too high.
Cant edit...between 500 and 6000 -
Just to offer as a point of reference, my BodyMedia Link records a calorie burn of roughly 350 (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) during my lifting sessions (between 1 to 1.5 hrs duration). Note that this does include a 10 minute warmup on the treadmill and a 20 min, 4mph (#4 elevation) walk afterward.0
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Lifting not only burns calories while you're doing it, but for up to 39 hours after as your body repairs it's self.
I had myself a RMR test maybe 18 or so hours after doing 'the big three' and came out at a smidge under 2400 for just my RMR.
When looking at how much I was eating and not putting weight on, that about made sense.
(RMR is basically BMR - so we're talking a good chunk in to 3000 for TDEE.)0 -
No. HRMs are only effective for steady state cardio. Lifting is neither steady state nor cardio.
yup HRM is worthless for measuring weight training calories. Google it0 -
A HRM is not accurate for resistance training. You have to understand that it's not your actual HR that is determining your calorie burn. Your HR is only used in a formula that the monitor uses in determining roughly the % of VO2 max you are working at. For the formula to actually be accurate you need to be performing an exercise that would accurately reflect that %...i.e. an aerobic activity.
A HRM assumes you are doing an aerobic activity...in the absence of an aerobic event, the formula becomes not applicable. You don't actually burn that many calories in the act of lifting...the magic happens in the 48 hours after you lift...that's where you burn the calories...during the muscle repair. Also, lifting isn't about the right now and how much you're burning right now...resistance training is a long term investment in your overall body composition. If all you care about is calorie burn just go do **** tons of cardio...you'll burn **** tons of calories. If you want to have an overall good level of fitness...a rockin' body and be strong then lift along with moderate cardio.
To fuel my lifts, I just had an extra protein shake on lift days...about 140 calories. Never worried about logging it and eating back those calories...just my extra protein shake.0 -
EDIT: Answered above.0
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Just to offer as a point of reference, my BodyMedia Link records a calorie burn of roughly 350 (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) during my lifting sessions (between 1 to 1.5 hrs duration). Note that this does include a 10 minute warmup on the treadmill and a 20 min, 4mph (#4 elevation) walk afterward.
Most of that burn would have come from your before and after and not the during.0 -
Just to offer as a point of reference, my BodyMedia Link records a calorie burn of roughly 350 (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) during my lifting sessions (between 1 to 1.5 hrs duration). Note that this does include a 10 minute warmup on the treadmill and a 20 min, 4mph (#4 elevation) walk afterward.
Most of that burn would have come from your before and after and not the during.
Not necessarily. I already deducted the caloric burn for the post workout cardio. The 350 is just for the 10 min. warm-up, which is generally around a 50 - 65 calorie burn plus the lifting session. Also, the 1 - 1.5 hr session is lifting time only.0 -
So, a new person comes on the forums and is told to 'eat back' their calories.
They do cardio exercises and record the calories and eat them back.
Then they are told that cardio is not good, that they should be lifting heavy instead.
So they start lifting weights.
Now they know they are supposed to eat back their exercise calories so they won't get yelled at on the forums, but when they log their strength training exercises, it shows no extra calories added.
So they use their HRM to figure their calorie burn for the workouts.
And now they are still told that they are doing it wrong.
No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.0 -
Just pick a random low number and eat that back. It's just as accurate as anything a HRM will give.So, a new person comes on the forums and is told to 'eat back' their calories.
They do cardio exercises and record the calories and eat them back.
Then they are told that cardio is not good, that they should be lifting heavy instead.
So they start lifting weights.
Now they know they are supposed to eat back their exercise calories so they won't get yelled at on the forums, but when they log their strength training exercises, it shows no extra calories added.
So they use their HRM to figure their calorie burn for the workouts.
And now they are still told that they are doing it wrong.
No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.0 -
So, a new person comes on the forums and is told to 'eat back' their calories.
They do cardio exercises and record the calories and eat them back.
Then they are told that cardio is not good, that they should be lifting heavy instead.
So they start lifting weights.
Now they know they are supposed to eat back their exercise calories so they won't get yelled at on the forums, but when they log their strength training exercises, it shows no extra calories added.
So they use their HRM to figure their calorie burn for the workouts.
And now they are still told that they are doing it wrong.
No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.
Or maybe they learn that every action doesn't need a food reward. Lifting doesn't burn a lot so there's no need to eat anything back. Same as washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, etc. Food is for sustaining life, not a reward for actually doing something.0 -
Bump0
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One of the benefits of lifting for me is that it CAN burn quite a lot of calories overall.
However, when not at a large deficit, I'm happy to have my deficit increased.
If I've set a deficit of 500 calories and I burn 850 one day, I'm not going to get struck down by that mythical god starvation-mode and hopefully at least (with lots of protein etc), I'll have a good chance of not losing muscle.
Welcome to the internet.No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.
One of the tricks of using the internet as an informational tool is being able to work out who's offering good advice and not - ideally by further research, rather than by the "just going with the person who agrees with what you want to do" method which so many use. 0 -
One of the benefits of lifting for me is that it CAN burn quite a lot of calories overall.
However, when not at a large deficit, I'm happy to have my deficit increased.
If I've set a deficit of 500 calories and I burn 850 one day, I'm not going to get struck down by that mythical god starvation-mode and hopefully at least (with lots of protein etc), I'll have a good chance of not losing muscle.
Welcome to the internet.No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.
One of the tricks of using the internet as an informational tool is being able to work out who's offering good advice and not - ideally by further research, rather than by the "just going with the person who agrees with what you want to do" method which so many use.
I use an hrm when lifting, because it helps me keep track of intensity and the watch doubles as my timer.
While the formula used by the hrm may not be accurate, it can still be useful data. Especially if your resistance training is based on compound moves. In other words, if you use it consistently, then adjust your deficit/surplus based on overall results (as in whther you are losing as predicted or not), you can make pretty good progress. No, it's not accurate, but it can be close enough to be effective if you apply a broad error correction. In my case, if I do a TRX workout with speed rope, then deduct 100 cals per hour from the total, I lose or gain pretty much as predicted by MFP. If this stops working, I will update my calorie goal based on actual results.
The other reason I do resistance training with a hrm is to get an idea of how my fitness is improving based on recovery time. When I started, my recovery times were significantly lower than they are now. That's what I like to see! Also interesting that jumping squats us to send my heart rate into the 190's , and the same move only gets me to 160 or less these days.
I think people here are often letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. No, I have no idea how much I am actually burning, but I have some idea of intensity and I can compare that to a different day, and as long as I apply a broad error correction that is updated on a regular basis, I will continue to make progress. The actual number doesn't need to be accurate as long as I can loosely figure out some relationship with what I am eating.0 -
calories burned from lifting come form the "afterburn" over the next 36-48 hours whilst your muscles are repairing. The lifting activity itself is only about 300cals per hour, and if you're lifting heavy enough you should only be able to do 30-45 mins0
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calories burned from lifting come form the "afterburn" over the next 36-48 hours whilst your muscles are repairing. The lifting activity itself is only about 300cals per hour, and if you're lifting heavy enough you should only be able to do 30-45 mins
I love when people talk in definites and absolutes.0 -
So, a new person comes on the forums and is told to 'eat back' their calories.
They do cardio exercises and record the calories and eat them back.
Then they are told that cardio is not good, that they should be lifting heavy instead.
So they start lifting weights.
Now they know they are supposed to eat back their exercise calories so they won't get yelled at on the forums, but when they log their strength training exercises, it shows no extra calories added.
So they use their HRM to figure their calorie burn for the workouts.
And now they are still told that they are doing it wrong.
No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.
the problem is that people generally ask fairly narrow questions, "Hi. I'm trying to lose 2lbs per week. Ive been doing insanity for a few weeks now and am thinking about adding in 30DS. Would that be too much?" Sounds pretty straight forward, right?
The problem is that the conversation should be much bigger than that. Its a narrow question to which people usually give narrow advice. But as the conversation broadens to things like specific goals, diet, exercise and food preferences, health issues, etc, the advice changes (or more accurately evolves) to reflect the additional factors that came out.
People need to realize that everything affects everything else. You can't have conversations or make changes in a vacuum.0 -
Well I wore my Polar HRM during my last lifting session and my heart rate varied between 120 ish when I was laying down doing ab exercises, and all the way up to 180 when I was doing like stepping things with my absolute max weight, so clearly at a HR of 180 I'm burning significant calories, for the whole 35 min session it said I burned 260 calories which doesn't sound too off to me..is it really that inaccurate? I don't eat them all back so if it's less it should still be fine, but I like having an idea0
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Well I wore my Polar HRM during my last lifting session and my heart rate varied between 120 ish when I was laying down doing ab exercises, and all the way up to 180 when I was doing like stepping things with my absolute max weight, so clearly at a HR of 180 I'm burning significant calories, for the whole 35 min session it said I burned 260 calories which doesn't sound too off to me..is it really that inaccurate? I don't eat them all back so if it's less it should still be fine, but I like having an idea
Have you ready through this thread, or do you just refuse to believe that HRMs aren't designed/meant to work with strength training?0 -
I always use my HRM when lifting. It's the only way to approximate how many cals i'm actually burning. Since MFP doesn't accept lifting as burning cals, I put it under general aerobics.0
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So, a new person comes on the forums and is told to 'eat back' their calories.
They do cardio exercises and record the calories and eat them back.
Then they are told that cardio is not good, that they should be lifting heavy instead.
So they start lifting weights.
Now they know they are supposed to eat back their exercise calories so they won't get yelled at on the forums, but when they log their strength training exercises, it shows no extra calories added.
So they use their HRM to figure their calorie burn for the workouts.
And now they are still told that they are doing it wrong.
No wonder people get frustrated with all the conflicting advice on the forums.
^^This!0 -
I do everything in super sets, no rest between sets other than the time to move stations for another super set. I then enter weight lifting as circuit training.
Until this week, an HRM wasn't an option. But now that I am off the beta blocker, I can buy one.0
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