Calories Burned by Lifting Weights

I've seen a lot of people asking about how many calories they burn by lifting weights. The research is not there yet, as its hard to use the proper equipment and have a large group of individuals to get more accurate quantifiable results. Here is an article to answer some of your questions. If you aren't into reading journal articles here is a quick breakdown:

- 8 male, 7 female study (fit, but not elite athletes)
- mirrored recreational (typical) weightlifting that most people would do, vs. rigid specific weightlifting of previous studies
- obtained individual VO2 max using Cosmed K4b2 portable metabolic system (a gas mask instrument that I don't think you'll find at your average gym)
- Participants did both 85 and 100% intensity with 1:2 work to rest cycles.

In the study participants averaged 10-12 kJ (2.39-2.87 Calories) per minute energy expenditure. This in contrast to the 28-39 kJ (6.69-9.31 Calories) per minute energy expenditure from the Hickson (1989) study. The main difference between the studies is that in the Morgan study participants worked out as one would do normally, waiting for machines to free up, rest in between sets, etc. whereas the Hickson study everyone participating was doing circuits with minimum rest in between machines.

Where does that put us? Well without fancy instruments to record our EXACT energy expenditures and the lack of studies on this subject the best we can use are estimates. If you are the average weight lifter that has to wait for machines during peak hours at the gym and get a decent amount of rest between sets, the caloric burn isn't going to be astronomical. The people in the study only burned 2-3 METS doing 28 minutes of weightlifting, or using the average kJ burned about 66.9 - 80.2 Calories in almost 30 minutes of lifting weights.

In contrast, if you are truly doing a circuit of different machines, don't know how most gyms are designed, but my gym has them lined up in 2 rows and you go up and down each row. Say 30 seconds on each machine at 85% max and no rest in between machines (save for moving to the next one and adjusting it). You would burn more Calories than the traditional weightlifter.

Reading the forums I see that there are resistance training categories in the aerobic sections, and I haven't used them, ut its like someone said earlier, take it with a grain of salt. If you put in your info and it comes up with high triple digits calores burned you may want to pause before adding it to your daily total. As you may have been at the gym for 120 minutes, but actually doing the lifting and performing the work would be 25-35 minutes of actual weightlifting.

Comments? thoughts? Anyone have any further insight onto the weight lifting vs. calories burned question? I know some people advocate the HRM, but I'm just seeing the science to back it up with concerns to weight lifting.

EDIT: forgot to post the article link: http://www.jssm.org/vol2/n3/8/v2n3-8pdf.pdf