Don't you burn calories while lifting weights?

snappled
snappled Posts: 48
in Fitness and Exercise
I add my bench presses here and there but it doesn't add any calories to my food.

Am I just not doing enough lifting or does it not calculate this

Replies

  • FlaxMilk
    FlaxMilk Posts: 3,452 Member
    It doesn't calculate the calories on MFP. You can do so individually by creating your own exercises under cardio. Overall, it would be too difficult to give accurate calorie burns because of things like pace.
  • bitten2better
    bitten2better Posts: 39 Member
    I add my bench presses here and there but it doesn't add any calories to my food.

    Am I just not doing enough lifting or does it not calculate this

    If you put individual exercises under strength training, it doesn't add in calories. If you search for strength training under the cardiovascular section, it will. You have to enter how long you lifted for - I however, think it over calculates the calories burnt!
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    The problem is two/three/four/infinity fold.

    MFP has no idea: how long your rest periods are; if you're a half-repper; how fast your reps/sets are; if you do pauses; where your strength levels are; a bunch of other things.

    As such, it can't really tell how many Cals you really burned. We won't (for the moment) get into if the Calorie estimations MFP defaults to for cardio exercises are accurate or not. The point is - there really are just too many variables to be able to accurately predict Calorie burn for strength training.


    But, as the above poster mentioned - you can input some time into Strength Training / Weight Training into the Cardio section and MFP will spit out a number that may (as a starting guide) be useful going forward.
  • tyrsnbdr
    tyrsnbdr Posts: 234 Member
    I think this site is set up for the new dieter who may/may not work out consistantly. Thus giving you a TDEE w/o exercise, now it will change when you exercise, so add in those calories. If you exercise every day, then thats part of your TDEE and you have no reason to add in exerices calories. Even if you take 1-2 days off from exercising a week, it doesn't really matter.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I add my bench presses here and there but it doesn't add any calories to my food.

    Am I just not doing enough lifting or does it not calculate this

    If you're just doing a couple sets of bench here and there, you're really not burning many calories at all...like maybe a calorie or two more than if you were just sitting on the bench itself. It really wouldn't be worth logging.

    Even a full strength routine doesn't particularly burn that many calories....like maybe 300 calories in an hour of really killing it...but really, there are just way too many variables involved here. Strength training really isn't about the calories you are burning now...it is more about long term investment in body composition and burning more calories at rest and maintaining the metabolism you have if not improving it with added muscle.

Categories