How to know calories burned by weight lifting??

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WJMont
WJMont Posts: 41 Member
edited January 2015 in Fitness and Exercise
this might have been addressed multiple times but I'm relatively new to the forums.

What is the most accurate way, process, or device to track and estimate calories burned during a session of resistance training/weight lifting??

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    There is no accurate way.

    Best thing to do, IMO, is to take the number of minutes you lift (actual lifting, not including rest between sets) and multiply that by 5-9. Use a higher number for greater intensity and/or compound lifts, lower number for lower intensity and/or isolation lifts.

    So I end up doing something like this -

    60 minute workout, that's probably 20ish minutes of actual lifting... I do mostly compound lifts, and mostly heavy weight/low reps, so it's moderate to moderate/high on the intensity scale....

    7 * 20 = 140... so 140 cals burned for the session.
  • JeffseekingV
    JeffseekingV Posts: 3,165 Member
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    I use the mfp strength training in the cardio section. 60 min for me is 230 calories. but I'm usually in there for 1.5 hours and I superset everything. I'm sweating a decent amount so I believe it's fairly accurate for how I'm logging
  • loveliftlaughxo
    loveliftlaughxo Posts: 72 Member
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    I use a heart rate monitor and then add in the workouts to MFP. Most accurate way to do it.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    loveliftlaughxo wrote: »
    I use a heart rate monitor and then add in the workouts to MFP. Most accurate way to do it.

    I've read quite a few times that a HRM is not accurate for lifting weights. I never tried though...Just got that from reading.
  • grantwashere
    grantwashere Posts: 171 Member
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    I count all weight-lifting as 1 calorie burnt in the cardio section. Seems to work for me. I've read that HRM isn't accurate for this, too.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    I thought a HRM was a very inaccurate wau of doing it becayse they are really inly suited to steady cardio. Many people just put 1 calorie or nothing. I don put anything for resistance training. Overestimation is the danger to a deficit.
  • Hollywood_Porky
    Hollywood_Porky Posts: 491 Member
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    If you do circuit training and have a HR monitor, then you can reflect a calorie burn on weight lifting - but you have to get your HR into the aerobic threshold at minimum to have any effective calorie burn - otherwise, there's no real calorie burn happening. Low aerobic HR zones reflect the lowest calorie burn possible - why many people love doing HIIT etc - to burn more calories in a short period of time - with the after-burn effect.
  • WJMont
    WJMont Posts: 41 Member
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    Thank you to everybody who replied! The overall consensus seems to be that there is no "sure-fire" or accurate way :confused: . So, it seems the best way for me is to avoid overestimation by not considering my lifting sessions into calories burned. Just going to maintain my moderate calorie deficit while slimming, and use the tape measurer, mirror, and occasional scale to adjust macros one way or the other.

    Thanks to everybody who responded! It helped bring some clarity to my journey.
  • WJMont
    WJMont Posts: 41 Member
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    P.S....
    jacksonpt wrote: »
    There is no accurate way.

    Best thing to do, IMO, is to take the number of minutes you lift (actual lifting, not including rest between sets) and multiply that by 5-9. Use a higher number for greater intensity and/or compound lifts, lower number for lower intensity and/or isolation lifts.

    So I end up doing something like this -

    60 minute workout, that's probably 20ish minutes of actual lifting... I do mostly compound lifts, and mostly heavy weight/low reps, so it's moderate to moderate/high on the intensity scale....

    7 * 20 = 140... so 140 cals burned for the session.

    Though maybe not the most "accurate," using the lower scale of this method seems to be great advice. Similar to at home caliper testing not being "accurate" but consistent. This might be a good way to estimate without overestimating, to avoid to large of a deficit. And if nothing more, a little peace of mind to us "way to detAil oriented" type of folks! Lol thanks for the advice!
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    WJMont wrote: »
    this might have been addressed multiple times but I'm relatively new to the forums.

    What is the most accurate way, process, or device to track and estimate calories burned during a session of resistance training/weight lifting??

    1 calorie per hour man. There's no legit method to track it reasonably, unfortunately.

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