Record Calories Burned During Weight Lifting?

Hi, I tend to find out my calories from Google then I type it into as a new database exercise. When it searches and cannot find it that is when you can add a new exercise but only in the CV bit. Look on my diary as I added my "5km jogging" and entered in what my machine told me because I entered my weight and age and it worked it out. I hope that helps :drinker:

I use a heart rate monitor. It will tell me how many calories I burned after I work out on the watch. Then I go into the cardiovascular section and add in strength training and put in however many minutes until the calories match what my hrm said.

Hope that makes sense!

HRMs are not at all accurate for weight lifting.

First thing to understand: HRMs do not measure calories burned! They measure Heart Rate.

Second thing to understand: Your HR can change for any number of reasons. Caffeine, fear, adrenaline, excitement, etc.

Next thing to understand: A faster beating heart does not burn significantly more Calories. You can check this yourself by sitting perfectly still and hold your breath as long as you can. Repeat over and over. Watch your HR soar. Are you burning more calories? No. What if you burn 100 calories in a walk, then repeat the walk the next day immediately after having 3 cups of espresso. Are you burning more calories? No. Well, your HRM will say you did.

Important bit about HRMs: They use a calculation based on the volume load from steady state aerobic exercise to estimate the calories burned.

Volume load: When doing aerobics, your HR rises to move a greater volume of oxygen through your body. When you lift weights, your HR rises while blood vessels constrict to increase the blood pressure in the appropriate area. This is called Pressure Load. Pressure load is not volume load. Your heart is beating faster for a different reason than with aerobics. So, the calorie formula is no longer accurate.

Steady state: When you are doing aerobics, you are constantly moving with very little rest, and you are moving large portions of your body. When you lift weight, you are often not using your whole body, and taking longer rests. So, it's not accurate.

Aerobic exercise: Aerobic exercise is when your body mixes oxygen and fat to produce energy. This happens when the energy requirement is low. Lifting weights is anaerobic exercise. That means it uses the glycogen stored in the muscles for energy. Different energy source from aerobics (what most people call cardio), so the formula is inaccurate. (This is a simplifed explanation, the reality is a little more complicated, but the effect is the same).

To recap: The three important factors in determining a calorie burn from HR are all using different things. There is NO WAY for it to be even remotely accurate. Ditch the HRM for weights.

I was wondering about this too. I know it is difficult to measure calories burned while weight lifting, but I must be using energy when I pick up heavy things.
I call me daily activity "sedentary" should I bump up my activity level on days I lift?

I was using map my run linked to my fitness pal. It gave me a rough calorie count for the hour on upper or lower weight work out. However recently for an hour the app now gives 1/3 of the calories burnt for the same hour! so im totally lost. i thought i had a rough idea and now im not sure at all. theres a massive difference in whats burnt