No calories burned for strength training?

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Casaria
Casaria Posts: 37
in Fitness and Exercise
anyone know why MFP doesn't give you calories burned for strength training. My sister did 75 minutes of it, worked up a right good sweat, but she felt deflated to see that MFP gave her a total of 0 calories burned. *she did this with a personal trainer so yes it was true honest to god work out.

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  • sugaree1202
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
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    I don't know if MFP does it for the same reason, but sparkpeople.com doesn't give you a calorie burn for strength because it's hard to give an accurate estimate especially since your body burns additional calories in the hours following strength training. That was the reasoning on that site anyway.
  • jojo4613
    jojo4613 Posts: 18 Member
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    I don't know if it is appropriate, but I just add "circuit training" to the cardio in order to show calories burned. It may not be accurate, but it at least it shows something. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what it shows, as long as you are doing it, though. :smile:
  • cabart26
    cabart26 Posts: 4 Member
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    I have been looking for the same thing. MFP allows you to track your progress for each type of weight/strength training you use. MFP also has three choices for strength training to track your calories. In order of most to least calories... Circuit Training, Curves Circuit Training and then strength training
  • rileamoyer
    rileamoyer Posts: 2,411 Member
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    I have used my HRM and then added categories to my personal data base to record various strength training routines in the cardio sections. I add the specifics in the strength section then the total calories under the cardio.
  • Hezzietiger1
    Hezzietiger1 Posts: 1,256 Member
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    I wish people would use the search feature..
  • Joehenny
    Joehenny Posts: 1,222 Member
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    Go to cardiovascular, and type strength training.
  • sugaree1202
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
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    I don't know if it is appropriate, but I just add "circuit training" to the cardio in order to show calories burned. It may not be accurate, but it at least it shows something. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what it shows, as long as you are doing it, though. :smile:

    It does matter because I could over or under eat I don't have accurate output numbers.

    OP, like others mentioned, I track what I burn with my HRM during the strength classes I do. Then I create a my own cardio category for each class - if you do the same routine each week make a category like "Back & Arms" - and put the info there. It's important to know that accurately tracking strength training burn can be difficult so you may be hungrier and need to eat more than your recommended calorie intake.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    Don't use an HRM for strength training. There is virtually no relationship between heart rate and calorie burn when it comes to lifting. HRMs are known to vastly overestimate calories burned while lifting.

    Anyway, the answer is to just log a custom cardio activity. Don't go overboard though - lifting doesn't burn all that many calories. I only add in about 50 extra calories per hour for my 5/3/1 weightlifting routine.
  • sugaree1202
    sugaree1202 Posts: 184 Member
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    Don't use an HRM for strength training. There is virtually no relationship between heart rate and calorie burn when it comes to lifting. HRMs are known to vastly overestimate calories burned while lifting.

    Anyway, the answer is to just log a custom cardio activity. Don't go overboard though - lifting doesn't burn all that many calories. I only add in about 50 extra calories per hour for my 5/3/1 weightlifting routine.

    What about lifting with movement, like combining squats or lunges with flys or curls? The dvds I use add lower body movements to traditional lifts and givese a much different workout than just using my arms. Usually 250-300 calories per 30 mins.
  • tootchute
    tootchute Posts: 392 Member
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    in cardo if you type in strength trainer they give a roof estimate
  • jojo4613
    jojo4613 Posts: 18 Member
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    I don't know if it is appropriate, but I just add "circuit training" to the cardio in order to show calories burned. It may not be accurate, but it at least it shows something. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what it shows, as long as you are doing it, though. :smile:

    It does matter because I could over or under eat I don't have accurate output numbers.

    OP, like others mentioned, I track what I burn with my HRM during the strength classes I do. Then I create a my own cardio category for each class - if you do the same routine each week make a category like "Back & Arms" - and put the info there. It's important to know that accurately tracking strength training burn can be difficult so you may be hungrier and need to eat more than your recommended calorie intake.

    I hadn't considered that. I don't eat back calories. I am just happy to have a way to track what I'm doing so I can notate what is working and what isn't. It would definitely make a difference if you were going to eat back the calories you burned.

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