Calories burned in a sprint workout?

Options
m0radell
m0radell Posts: 26 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello!
So I've been trying to get myself back into sprinting shape and whatnot, but I'm finding logging the calories from my workout hard.
For my workouts, I let myself recover fully between every sprint. If I sprint 400 meters, I walk or slowly jog 400 meters, etc. etc. Logging this is hard though. I've been logging the sprints as 10.9 miles per hour and the walks/slow jogs as moderate walking, but I really feel that this is an inaccurate representation of the calories I've actually burned.
Does anyone know anyway to calculate how many calories are burned in a sprint? I've read that it isn't the calories you burn during the workout that are important, but that you burn more calories after.. If that's the case, how do I account for those in my MFP journal? Or am I not doing the sprints correctly to get that after burn?
I'm really confused and I only want to make my university's track team next year and I don't have any kind of trainer or anything, so I really appreciate all help :)

Replies

  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    Options
    It's hard to calculate cause it has many factors like your weight, how long your run etc. there's heartrate monitors that estimate how many calories you burn but I don't know how accurate they are. But maybe that's something for you.
  • m0radell
    m0radell Posts: 26 Member
    Options
    It's hard to calculate cause it has many factors like your weight, how long your run etc. there's heartrate monitors that estimate how many calories you burn but I don't know how accurate they are. But maybe that's something for you.
    I'm only hesitant to buy a heart rate monitor because I read that they are often incorrect when trying to calculate short spurts of cardio, rather than longer cardio.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Options
    It's hard to calculate cause it has many factors like your weight, how long your run etc. there's heartrate monitors that estimate how many calories you burn but I don't know how accurate they are. But maybe that's something for you.
    I'm only hesitant to buy a heart rate monitor because I read that they are often incorrect when trying to calculate short spurts of cardio, rather than longer cardio.
    Your heartrate will still be raised in the recovery period so they will be fine. I use one all the time for intervals as do most runners and the estimates are pretty consistent. The algorithm used is designed to measure when the heart rate is raised for a consistent period of time which it will even for intervals.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    An HRM might be helpful for determining recovery between intervals, but, you are correct, would not be accurate for estimating calories expended. For calories, it would be a waste of money.

    I would just follow a TDEE plan if you need to lose weight.
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    Options
    You'll need one anyway. The garmin forerunner 110 is a wonderful thing.
    How much do you weigh?
  • KyleB65
    KyleB65 Posts: 1,196 Member
    Options
    Seems like you have two different issues?
    #1 - Performance (to get a place on a team)
    #2 - calories burned - lose or manage weight

    For #2, are you trying to lose weight? If so, how is it going? My experience is that there is a fairly large error tolerance in the calculations for calories burned and consumed across most methods of estimation. Best method of measurement is the result. Are you losing, gaining or maintaining your weight?
    As for the actual estimation, what I have done to log the calories for sprint training is to measure the overall distance run (sprint & recovery) and the time to complete the whole workout. From there you can get an average pace which can be plugged into MFP for a calorie burned estimate.

    With regards to #1. Be very careful about weight loss goals vs performance! Competitive athletes include some amount of resistance/weight training geared to strengthening muscles. Lean muscle is much denser than other tissue types like fat. It is very possible to gain weight while training. Make sure you are eating the right amount and mix of food for your sport and health.
  • donnam40
    donnam40 Posts: 246 Member
    Options
    Honestly I would get a good HRM like a Polar. No method is absolutely perfect but I can tell you MFP is way over on it's estimations. As someone else said, it will help you measure your recovery too in terms of your HR. As your fitness increases your recovery time should get shorter.

    I use my HRM (Polar) or my Garmin (with HRM) for all of my workouts. I rarely eat back all of my exercise cals anyway and just look at my average over the week, aiming for about 1900/day in food cals. I have been improving my body comp and fitness with this method.

    Donna
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
    Options
    A HRM with a GPS etc SHOULD be better - as it can tell if you're moving.
    At the moment I'm using endomondo with an Ant+ sensor on my phone.
    I'd say the best solution I've found so far is the now discontinued motoactv - it works as a pedometer pretty well too, so can tell your running pace as well. So it should understand that a high bpm, with slow steps/speed on GPS doesn't mean a high calorie burn.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    No device can accurately estimate calories burned during sprinting. These devices ALL must use some type of algorithm to translate the data signals into calories. There is no existing algorithm for sprinting. If you must track something, just pick a reasonable number--e.g. 300--and see what happens.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    Options
    Aerobic vs anaerobic .... fat vs glycogen ... all part of the sprinting compared to distance running discussion.

    For purely sprint workouts, a HRM and GPS are unnecessary. If you're incorporating sprints as part of a distance running plan (fartleks, sprint intervals, etc) those tools can provide benefits.
  • m0radell
    m0radell Posts: 26 Member
    Options
    Thanks everyone for your input!
    An HRM might be helpful for determining recovery between intervals, but, you are correct, would not be accurate for estimating calories expended. For calories, it would be a waste of money.

    I would just follow a TDEE plan if you need to lose weight.
    Hmmm... can you show me somewhere reliable I can learn about TDEE a little bit? I've seen a lot of people talking about it, but I'm not really so sure what it is.
    Seems like you have two different issues?
    #1 - Performance (to get a place on a team)
    #2 - calories burned - lose or manage weight

    For #2, are you trying to lose weight? If so, how is it going? My experience is that there is a fairly large error tolerance in the calculations for calories burned and consumed across most methods of estimation. Best method of measurement is the result. Are you losing, gaining or maintaining your weight?
    As for the actual estimation, what I have done to log the calories for sprint training is to measure the overall distance run (sprint & recovery) and the time to complete the whole workout. From there you can get an average pace which can be plugged into MFP for a calorie burned estimate.

    With regards to #1. Be very careful about weight loss goals vs performance! Competitive athletes include some amount of resistance/weight training geared to strengthening muscles. Lean muscle is much denser than other tissue types like fat. It is very possible to gain weight while training. Make sure you are eating the right amount and mix of food for your sport and health.
    Both really. I need to lose weight so that I can sprint faster. I've lost 1.2 kilos in the past two weeks that I've been working out and eating well, so it's going well so far. Hmmm, figuring out the average pace makes sense as a rough estimate.
    I'm not really SO worried about gaining weight as long as it looks like I'm losing. I have a bit of fat I'd like to lose but ultimately my goal is to just get into better shape so I can be faster.
  • Springfield1970
    Springfield1970 Posts: 1,945 Member
    Options
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    TDEE is really a superior method because you simply monitor the results and make changes as necessary. There's very little guess work if you stick to the plan. You just eat and train and don't worry about how many calories you burn. When you're done losing weight, you increase calories until you stabilize. If you find yourself gaining for some reason, you drop some calories. It's way easier than using the MFP method.

    Often, some people find that TDEE and MFP are essentially the same, if you accurately account for calories burned. In my case, this is true. But, I just find TDEE easier because I don't care how many calories a gym session burned that day. I'm looking at longer-term overall results.

    On the other hand, if she is going to be training hard, some days she may have twice the calorie needs of others.

    I don't use tdee for this reason. A big training day needs refuelling properly. Additionally, rest days need less carbs and adequate protein. There's no point loading up.

    It depends how hard her training routine is, but those high school track teams are going to be pretty brutal.

    I think she should only cut while training aerobically, in the lower heart rate zones and once she's at racing weight, fuel properly and intensify the training.

    OP check out Racing Weight by Mat Fitzgerald. Combine it with a -10/15% cut from maintenance (your daily calorie needs minus exercise calories), and eat your exercise calories back. It takes time and searching the threads but the answers are all on MFP.

    I burn 440ish cals an hour cycling and swimming and slow running
    600 ish hour running hard
    200 walking
    300 weight training hard
  • dtimedwards
    dtimedwards Posts: 319 Member
    Options
    Bodymedia Link would work pretty well for this. It is kind of amazing that I can look at the graph of my calorie burn and know exactly where I was on my run at that given moment.

    But at the end of the day, you'll find that it really ends up being all about the total distance you moved, so just logging the distance and total time to get an average will be a decent estimate. And no matter what tool you sue, it will only be an estimate.

    When it comes to the calorie burn, speed is more an issue of time management than how many calories you actually burn. You'll find that over a given distance, whether you walk or run balls out, you'll pretty much burn the same amount of calories. The only difference is one will get you out of the freezing rain quicker.
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
    Options
    On the other hand, if she is going to be training hard, some days she may have twice the calorie needs of others.
    This.

    Today I did an 8.8 mile fell (off road) run with a 1450ft elevation change each way.
    Another alternative I was considering was a 'social' run with some slower runners that would have been 5.5 miles on flat tarmac and likely at a slower pace than running up a mountain.
    A final alternative would have been nothing at all - I'm doing weights too anyway, as it goes.

    As it is, I burnt over 1600 calories or so. Another week it could be 0.
    TDEE isn't going to be very accurate there and I'm looking to maintain as much muscle as possible.

Categories