Do you log your strength training calories or only cardio?

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ohheytoned
ohheytoned Posts: 34 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
When I first started here at MFP, I didn't have a heart rate monitor and relied solely on MFP's calorie estimations for calories burned. I was eating at 1240 and grossly underestimating my exercise calories - I lost weight QUICK. I only logged cardio available in MFP's database. I was also starving, grumpy and feeling very deprived of my favourite foods. Since then, I've bought a polar HRM which I adore - I usually log all my calories burned (I subtract anywhere from 20-50 cals just in case it's inaccurately high), eat 1300-1450 cals and I go on with my day. My HRM has taken a lot of guesswork out of calorie counting, thank god. On a typical leg strength training day for example, I will burn about 300 calories and I don't want to exclude that. However, I sometimes get the sense that my weight loss would be so much quicker if I just excluded those strength training cals and logged my cardio only, like in the "olden days" lol.

What do you guys do?

Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.
  • cindyj7
    cindyj7 Posts: 339 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.

    Completely wrong too high or too low?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.

    ^ This. Cals burned on a HRM will overestimate strength training cals by a large margin. You can log "strength training" in the cardio section and will give you a much smaller caloric burn.
  • ohheytoned
    ohheytoned Posts: 34 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.

    Hmmm...I've been told otherwise by everyone and their mother. Personal trainers, health blogs, good ol' research. I believe that it DOES in fact measure calories burned for anaerobic exercises - your heart rate it up, you're moving, you're not static. Perhaps the HRM will report a higher number burned but I wouldn't necessarily say it's extremely inaccurate or wrong. Open to further discussion though, I don't know everything...
  • itodd4019
    itodd4019 Posts: 340 Member
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    I have just added lifting to my routine. I do not plan to add calories for that. With acardio burn on average of nearly 700 per day on average, I get plenty of food to eat.

    Once my lifting gets more intense as I progress, I plan to have a protein shake after my workouts (about 300 cals) and just call it even. I won't log the lifting or the shake.

    Not a big deal
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    What Aaron said ....HRMs are designed for steady state cardio. Strength training calories won't be as accurate as you hope.

    But eating calories back becomes more important as you get closer to goal, your body has less in reserve. The point of strength training (for me) is to keep existing muscle mass. I just want to lose "just" fat. I can't lose "just" fat if I don't eat enough. With 5 pounds to lose 1/2 pound a week is good progress.
  • swaggityswagbag
    swaggityswagbag Posts: 78 Member
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    It will overestimate seriously. Your heart rate will go up at the peak of the exercise but quickly goes down once the weight is put down. It's not a stable high heart rate like cardio produces. It's not a good idea to trust it.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.

    Completely wrong too high or too low?

    Completely wrong. If there was a specific amount they were too high or too low by then there could just be an in-built correction.

    The caloric burn from anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting is not correlated to your heartrate so an HRM isn't going to relate to your burn.
  • luffins
    luffins Posts: 12 Member
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    I normally just log my cardio. As for my strength training, I keep track of it using Fitocracy. It keeps me working out and you're always pushing yourself to reach the next level (like a video game but real life lol).
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.

    Hmmm...I've been told otherwise by everyone and their mother. Personal trainers, health blogs, good ol' research. I believe that it DOES in fact measure calories burned for anaerobic exercises - your heart rate it up, you're moving, you're not static. Perhaps the HRM will report a higher number burned but I wouldn't necessarily say it's extremely inaccurate or wrong. Open to further discussion though, I don't know everything...

    Can you provide a link to some of your research where it states that anaerobic exercise caloric requirements are accurately tracked utilizing a heart rate monitor?
  • dfranch
    dfranch Posts: 207 Member
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    I only log cardio.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Explains it better than I:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Heartrate monitors are only designed for steadystate cardio. They will not give you an accurate burn reading for anaerobic exercises such as strength training.

    It is a tool but like with any tool it only works if you use it as intended. Its intended use is to measure caloric burn in your aerobic range during steadystate cardio and nothing else. If you use it for something else, like strength training, it will still give you a value but that value will be completely wrong.

    Hmmm...I've been told otherwise by everyone and their mother. Personal trainers, health blogs, good ol' research. I believe that it DOES in fact measure calories burned for anaerobic exercises - your heart rate it up, you're moving, you're not static. Perhaps the HRM will report a higher number burned but I wouldn't necessarily say it's extremely inaccurate or wrong. Open to further discussion though, I don't know everything...

    Here is the thing, calorie burn is actually not based on Heart Rate, it is based on oxygen uptake, HRM's assume a certain V02 Max and % exertion based on HR and runs a formula, HR is elevated from anaerobic for different physiological reasons were oxygen uptake is completely different, and much lower than with cardio which make the calculation pretty much useless for non cardio.

    HRMs will also not be accurate for interval training, though if aerobic will be closer than for anaerobic activity.
  • ohheytoned
    ohheytoned Posts: 34 Member
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    Thanks guys! I will reconsider logging my strength training cals :)
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    I do both but I don't take those calories seriously. Just log it for reporting purpose.

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