Why doesnt MFP track calories burned during strength??
chatty826
Posts: 47
I get really annoyed that there is no method of tracking calories when you do strength work through this site. I know calories are being burned with I lift and it has a more lasting effect than doing cardio but when I take into account my allowed calories for the day none of that lifting is included. Some days I just do a ten minute warmup and only lifting. If I am doing crossfit style metcons then I can figure the rowing/running/jumping part of the workout but the thrusters/situps/pushups ect are all for naught with this app. You can't tell me that running 800m doing 80 situps and then running 800m only burns the calories that the two runs did.
Sigh I wish this was the one thing this app fixed because I have no idea of what my calorie amount is. Yesterday my workout was this:
20 min walk warm up
Deadlift to find 1 rep max at 221lbs which was a 10lb PR
Bench press to find 1 rep max at 111lbs
2000m row for time
then 10 min walk cool down
I only burned 306 calories according to MFP. I call bull on that.
What does anyone else who lifts weights on a regular basis do? Right now I am concerned I am not getting nearly enough calories to maintain or build muscle mass if I look at MFPs info.
Sigh I wish this was the one thing this app fixed because I have no idea of what my calorie amount is. Yesterday my workout was this:
20 min walk warm up
Deadlift to find 1 rep max at 221lbs which was a 10lb PR
Bench press to find 1 rep max at 111lbs
2000m row for time
then 10 min walk cool down
I only burned 306 calories according to MFP. I call bull on that.
What does anyone else who lifts weights on a regular basis do? Right now I am concerned I am not getting nearly enough calories to maintain or build muscle mass if I look at MFPs info.
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Replies
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It's covered by the FAQs; not what you wanted to hear maybe, sorry.0
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You could always check into buying a heart rate monitor. Mine you enter height, age, and weight and it will calculate calories burned based of your heart rate. Good buy if you really want a more accurate calorie number. Hope this helps0
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Get a heart rate monitor. I wear mine during strength and cardio and put it all down as cardio cals. burned. I did an hour of strenght and an hour of cardio today and burn 967 cals. My HRM told me so. I like that it takes inconsideration me. My size, my age, my effort.0
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You don't need to track calories burned for any exercise. I eat maintenance and then use exercising to create a deficit.0
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In - for the first person to remind everyone that you can't track calorie burn for anaerobic activity with a heart rate monitor.
There - I said it.0 -
The easy part to address is the logging issue - log your calories under the cardio category "circuit training, general".
Estimating your calories is the hard part - options are to use the default numbers, guess, or use a HRM even though the numbers are likely to be very inaccurate as you aren't using a HRM in the way intended (or calibrated).
Whatever method you use you just have to accept that the numbers are more of a "guesstimate" than an estimate.
In the end you can adjust your calorie intake according to your actual results so no need to stress too much over something which is difficult/impossible to quantify.
I mostly wear my HRM as I use one anyway for my cardio and as I tend to train in a circuit training style with elevated heartrate the numbers I get seem a reasonable guess.0 -
You don't need to track calories burned for any exercise. I eat maintenance and then use exercising to create a deficit.
MFP calorie amount is set up for with a deficit as in I created a plan to loose x amount of weight and it gave me a daily calorie amount to do that. So that is less calories than needed to maintain. If I burn 600 of those calories I should eat them back ideally or get close to it. I lift heavy weights I don't want my muscle mass wasting away because I didn't eat enough.0 -
The calorie burn for strength training is under 'cardio', oddly. It seems to be more accurate than other estimates, weirdly.
1 Hour lifting puts me somewhere about 200 calories, which sounds about right.0 -
The easy part to address is the logging issue - log your calories under the cardio category "circuit training, general".
Wohooo great suggestion thanks! I don't really live by the calorie count here but I like looking at it as a ball park. I lost the weight I did before MFP (165lbs) by just clean eating and working out. Never tracked a thing but I have found the last bit of weight loss requires more effort. My body does not want to loose this last 40lbs.0 -
You don't need to track calories burned for any exercise. I eat maintenance and then use exercising to create a deficit.
Great idea!0 -
Calories burned on mfp is only an guesstimate anyway so if you are really concerned about getting the correct number then the best thing to do is invest in a heart rate monitor (although even that isn't a 100%).
MFP is a free tool, I think people expect too much.0 -
Calories burned on mfp is only an guesstimate anyway so if you are really concerned about getting the correct number then the best thing to do is invest in a heart rate monitor (although even that isn't a 100%).
MFP is a free tool, I think people expect too much.
I know its a free tool but it would still be nice to have that ability. Nothing is ever going to be 100% but right now if 90% of my workouts are lifting then all of that isn't tracked in calories. The person above made a great suggestion by logging it as circuit training. BTW not all people can afford a HRM I am currently volunteering in Uganda all my money goes to help other people out even if I could find one here I would not buy one.0 -
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You should not use a HRM for strength training...it will not be accurate.0
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Add exercise - Cardiovascular - Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)0
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I get really annoyed that there is no method of tracking calories when you do strength work through this site. I know calories are being burned with I lift and it has a more lasting effect than doing cardio but when I take into account my allowed calories for the day none of that lifting is included. Some days I just do a ten minute warmup and only lifting. If I am doing crossfit style metcons then I can figure the rowing/running/jumping part of the workout but the thrusters/situps/pushups ect are all for naught with this app. You can't tell me that running 800m doing 80 situps and then running 800m only burns the calories that the two runs did.
Sigh I wish this was the one thing this app fixed because I have no idea of what my calorie amount is. Yesterday my workout was this:
20 min walk warm up
Deadlift to find 1 rep max at 221lbs which was a 10lb PR
Bench press to find 1 rep max at 111lbs
2000m row for time
then 10 min walk cool down
I only burned 306 calories according to MFP. I call bull on that.
What does anyone else who lifts weights on a regular basis do? Right now I am concerned I am not getting nearly enough calories to maintain or build muscle mass if I look at MFPs info.
I'm not 100% sure how accurate it is, but this article gives a formula based on body weight and intensity
http://www.livestrong.com/article/338469-how-to-calculate-calories-burned-weight-lifting/0 -
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In - for the first person to remind everyone that you can't track calorie burn for anaerobic activity with a heart rate monitor.
There - I said it.
/thread0 -
you can log the length of time under cardio0
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strength training doesnt burn as many calories as you think they do. the majority of your calories were burned during the warm up, the row and the cool down.
from http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/exercise-and-weightfat-loss-part-1.htmlPeople always ask about calorie burn during weight training and it’s harder to pin down values. It also depends staggeringly on the type of activities done (e.g. whole body vs. isolation exercises), rest intervals, rep ranges, etc. Clearly repetition clean and jerk will burn a lot more calories than barbell curls.
On average, studies have found a calorie burn of 7-9 cal/minute seems to be about right (again with huge variability) but that only holds for the actual work time and a lot of time in the weight room is usually spent resting. When we have tracked calorie burn for various types of weight training (ranging from Olympic lifting to isolation machine work) with tools such as the Bodybugg/GoWearFit or Polar heart rate monitors, a calorie burn of 300-400 cal/hour is about the average.
so let's see, a lift probably takes 10 seconds, so 6 reps a minute... yay 9 whole calories per set if you're doing 5-6 reps laugh:0 -
You should not use a HRM for strength training...it will not be accurate.
i use an HRM during my strength training. just because it's not 100% accurate f the calorie doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's uses (ie tracking, you know...heart rate)0 -
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You should not use a HRM for strength training...it will not be accurate.
i use an HRM during my strength training. just because it's not 100% accurate f the calorie doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's uses (ie tracking, you know...heart rate)
It's way way way off, not just a little. But, yeah, if you're actually tracking heart rate, that's great. That's what it does. Calorie burn is crap though.
Most people think a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) is actually a CBM (Calorie Burn Monitor).
CBM's don't exist because it's impossible to do that. Lol. But, if you come across one, let me know. That would be amazing.
true.you have take those things with a grain of salt especially since so much can go wrong with the sensors. there are weird times when the HRM thinks my heart rate is like 205 and i'm barely breathing over rested state because i'm warming up on the bike. other times i'm sucking hair and it only registers at 135. both of those were because of weird positioning of the chest strap.
but yeah, i think 75% of the "i don;t know why i'm not losing weight" threads are because people are eating more than they think+not burning as much as they think and are eating those calories back0 -
It's actually 0% accurate for calories with strength training. Heart rate has nothing to do with calorie burn during strength training, as strength training uses the anaerobic energy pathway, which is completely unrelated to the aerobic system.You should not use a HRM for strength training...it will not be accurate.
i use an HRM during my strength training. just because it's not 100% accurate f the calorie doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's uses (ie tracking, you know...heart rate)0 -
You should not use a HRM for strength training...it will not be accurate.
i use an HRM during my strength training. just because it's not 100% accurate f the calorie doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's uses (ie tracking, you know...heart rate)
It's way way way off, not just a little. But, yeah, if you're actually tracking heart rate, that's great. That's what it does. Calorie burn is crap though.
Most people think a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) is actually a CBM (Calorie Burn Monitor).
CBM's don't exist because it's impossible to do that. Lol. But, if you come across one, let me know. That would be amazing.
Isn't that the doohickey where they put a tube in your mouth?
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I believe the heart rate bit is useful for resting between lifts.0 -
I believe the heart rate bit is useful for resting between lifts.
A bit OT with regard to calorie burn, but the better Polars have a strength mode, where they use HR to tell you when you are recovered enough to attempt the next set.
Never personally used it, but would be interested in hearing from anyone who has tried this function. Did it chime with your normal guestimated rest periods, or was it more/less aggressive?0 -
Very true for strength training - for high tempo circuit training a HRM sort of works as an aid to guesswork. But any indirect correlation is more likely to come from any increase/decrease in volume of weight lifted and not from heartbeats counted.It's actually 0% accurate for calories with strength training. Heart rate has nothing to do with calorie burn during strength training, as strength training uses the anaerobic energy pathway, which is completely unrelated to the aerobic system.
Still impossible to verify any accuraccy but that's life.0 -
In - for the first person to remind everyone that you can't track calorie burn for anaerobic activity with a heart rate monitor.
There - I said it.
Is that a problem?
While it may be said often, it is true. Many people don't understand this point at all, but it's very important to understand. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. They are not made for that type of up and down heart rate reading. They are made only for steady state heart beat reading. And, even then, who says they have any idea at all how many calories a person burns. Lol.
You read my post the wrong way around - we actually agree. You cannot use a HRM to estimate calorie burn for strength training; including lifting.
Sorry if my first post was misleading.0 -
1 - There are too many variables with strength training for any data base to be remotely accurate in RE to calorie burn. There are some reasonably decent formulas out there, but even then...
2 - As has been noted, a HRM is useless for anaerobic activities like strength training...whatever number you get is going to be very inaccurate. Your calorie burn has nothing to do with your HR...your HR is just used in an algorithm that assumes a steady state aerobic activity as a reasonable measure of what % of VO2 max you are at. Anaerobic activity is a piss poor gauge of VO2 max
3 - Strength training is about developing strength, preserving lean mass, increasing bone density, etc...it is not about the calorie burn right now...it is a long term investment in your overall body composition and health and well being. Also, there is no data base, calculator, monitor, etc that can estimate the after-burn of strength training over the next 48 hours.
When I was doing MFP and eating back exercise calories, etc I usually just chalked it up to a couple hundred calories for a good 60 minute session.0
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