Strength training and calorie burn

swoglom
swoglom Posts: 8
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm curious, when I input strength training exercises like pushups, lunges, ab work, etc. to the exercise diary, MFP doesn't give an estimate of calories burned. Why is this? Doesn't any type of activity burn calories, even if it's just a few?
It's only annoying because I don't get any "credit" in my food diary for my exercise.

Replies

  • d_creasman
    d_creasman Posts: 17 Member
    Look up strength training on cardio to add it there in order to get your burned calories, then you can add the specific exercises under strength training.
  • craftywitch_63
    craftywitch_63 Posts: 829 Member
    Look up strength training on cardio to add it there in order to get your burned calories, then you can add the specific exercises under strength training.

    That's what I do too.
  • swoglom
    swoglom Posts: 8
    Awesome, thank you! Just what I was looking for.
  • November_Fire
    November_Fire Posts: 165 Member
    It does burn calories but it's hard to estimate how many - MFP's estimates can be crazy, and heart rate monitors can't pick up accurate calorie burn for strength training (they will wildly overestimate, as they're only clocking your heart rate, not what you're actually doing with your muscles.)

    So the log will probably be inaccurate anyway. Log cardio for calories, do strength for strength.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    Yeah, I don't log my cals from lifting, only from cardio. I figure that it's impossible to know how accurate my HRM is counting since my HR is not consistently elevated while lifting. Also, I'm sure that I've underestimated my food calories somewhere. I log and eat back my cardio, and consider lifting calories to be a buffer.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I'm curious, when I input strength training exercises like pushups, lunges, ab work, etc. to the exercise diary, MFP doesn't give an estimate of calories burned. Why is this? Doesn't any type of activity burn calories, even if it's just a few?
    It's only annoying because I don't get any "credit" in my food diary for my exercise.

    I always logged bodyweight stuff as circut training...even if I had hand weights...

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