Calories burned during weight training??

ecphillips1286
ecphillips1286 Posts: 331 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Does anyone know why MFP doesn't calculate calories burned when you add in strength training in the diary? It has height,weight and what your goals are....shouldn't there be some sort of calculation for it just like it does with cardio. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

Replies

  • yummyboogereaterr
    yummyboogereaterr Posts: 23 Member
    My understanding is that your not neccasarily burning fat as much as you are building muscle. My trainer told me that an hour of weightlifting burns about 100 calories.

    EDIT: I found a good article about it. http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=you_asked_how_many_calories_does_strength_training_burn
  • ecphillips1286
    ecphillips1286 Posts: 331 Member
    Sorry it says blog cannot be found. Thank you for the tip
  • kherrons
    kherrons Posts: 99 Member
    I know there is an option for strength training under the cardio section. Not sure why it's there. As for calories burned, I track using my HRM and it usually burns 1/3 of what I do during cardio. So like 3 cals for every minute round about.
  • Stage14
    Stage14 Posts: 1,046 Member
    You can enter it in the Cardio section under strength training, but the truth is that there is no good way to accurately calculate weight lifting burn. The numbers are pretty low if you're lifting heavy and taking adequate rest periods in between each rep (at least for beginners), so you're likely better off not counting it towards your calorie intake if you're using mfp's method.
  • larrodarro
    larrodarro Posts: 2,512 Member
    For my weight {176} and age {53} 75 minutes of strength training: weight lifting, gives me credit for 300 calories burned. Of course the true number could be higher or lower according to how hard you are working.

    Larro
  • ecphillips1286
    ecphillips1286 Posts: 331 Member
    I weigh about 180 and do an hr and half to 2 hrs of intense lifting with a resting session of about 15-20seconds. Just enough time for my brother to finish his set. So judging off of what you guys are saying, maybe about 300 calories per workout. Only reason I was wondering is I have been lifting and eating decent for about 5 weeks now and have lost only 2 pounds total but my waste has slimmed a lot. Looks like I have lost weight but not on the scale. Thanks for the help everyone!
  • larrodarro
    larrodarro Posts: 2,512 Member
    I weigh about 180 and do an hr and half to 2 hrs of intense lifting with a resting session of about 15-20seconds. Just enough time for my brother to finish his set. So judging off of what you guys are saying, maybe about 300 calories per workout. Only reason I was wondering is I have been lifting and eating decent for about 5 weeks now and have lost only 2 pounds total but my waste has slimmed a lot. Looks like I have lost weight but not on the scale. Thanks for the help everyone!

    If you buy a scale with a body fat % you can see the progress you are making. At only 180, you may even gain weight as you do more strength training. As long as your body fat % is going down, and you are getting more fit, that is all that matters.

    Good luck, Larro
  • douglashutsell
    douglashutsell Posts: 1
    Wow I didn't know scales could calculate body fat %. I will have to check that out.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Wow I didn't know scales could calculate body fat %. I will have to check that out.

    They can calculate a BF% number. Calculating an ACCURATE BF% number is a different thing altogether.
  • ecphillips1286
    ecphillips1286 Posts: 331 Member
    I actually bought 1 yesterday. It calculates BMI, body fat %, percentage of water in body, daily caloric intake based on my goals (similar to MFP), bone mass (estimate of how much the bones in the body weigh, and muscle mass. I'm sure the numbers it reads out are not accurate but it at least gives a general idea. For instance it says my body fat % is 10.7 but I would put myself more at an %18 range from visually comparing my self to graphs that I have seen of people at different percentages
  • pikselinka
    pikselinka Posts: 154 Member
    Weight training is not there to burn calories during the workout, you're misunderstanding the whole thing. When you weight train you burn more calories throughout the day AFTERWARDS. Under circumstances that you eat appropriate.
  • ecphillips1286
    ecphillips1286 Posts: 331 Member
    I have hear that before and completely agree with this. I was just curious how much I was burning since MFP doesn't break it down at all when it's entered like it does with cardio.

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