30 Min of Intense Strength Training an NO Stinking Calories?

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My heart was pounding. I was breathing heavy to complete a round of about 5 machines at LA Fitness. Legs, biceps, pull-up bar. I just want to record this in my exercise journal but I'm prompted to detail each activity by name and list the reps and weight.

And then... NO CALORIES are recorded.

Certainly I burned some calories as my muscles were burning. Is there a general way to record an intense 30 minute strength training? Does anyone know a good estimate of how many calories are burned?

Thanks!

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Log it under cardio as "strength training."
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    Not very many calories burned, unfortunately. I lift heavy and don't even record them.
  • glennstoudt
    glennstoudt Posts: 403 Member
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    What you are describing is "circuit training" if you keep moving along from set to set. If I have a 30 min weight workout, I record as 15 mins as MFP appears to over-estimate calories burned. Seems to work out for me for a few years.
  • tiffanylacourse
    tiffanylacourse Posts: 2,985 Member
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    You can log them as 'strength training' under cardio - but if you do, make sure you don't eat back all of the calories it gives you. I usually try to eat back about 1/2 of the exercise calories MFP gives me. I'd rather underestimate my burn, have a bigger deficit, and get better results than overeat without realizing it and not lose.

    Best of luck! :flowerforyou:
  • blazergrad
    blazergrad Posts: 603 Member
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    There's a "Strength Training" option under Cardiovascular... if you use that one, it will prompt you for your start time and how long you exercised and it will give you a 'calories burned' number. However, I don't think the MFP calculation is very accurate.

    I use a formula that I found on LiveStrong. I can't find it there now, though, but this is the same formula: diethealthclub.com/calories-burned/calories-burnt-weight-lifting.html
  • djprice_69
    djprice_69 Posts: 115 Member
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    This is where a heart rate monitor would come in quite handy. I've used one for my first few months of various training, and now I know a pretty darn good estimate of where I am for caloric burn for my workouts. Circuit training for me is usually about 10-11 kcal/min. Insanity is closer to 14-15 kcal/min. Even walking 4mph with a slight incline is almost 10 kcal/min. (Note: I'm pretty big & overweight at 6'1", ~270lbs.) As someone else has already mentioned, MFP's entries seem to be quite exaggerated. I don't think cutting it in half is quite accurate, but it usually is a good 30-40% higher than what my heart rate monitor records.
  • DeeTee68
    DeeTee68 Posts: 198 Member
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    formula approx for weightlifting is your body weight x 6 (MET) x duration as a percentage of 1 hour. so say you did 30 mins and you weigh 75kg it would be, 75kg x 6x 0.5=225 calories burnt. Just work it out for your own weight.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    You can log them as 'strength training' under cardio - but if you do, make sure you don't eat back all of the calories it gives you. I usually try to eat back about 1/2 of the exercise calories MFP gives me. I'd rather underestimate my burn, have a bigger deficit, and get better results than overeat without realizing it and not lose.

    Best of luck! :flowerforyou:

    I find it easier to change the MFP default number as I'm logging, so then I can forget it and trust the 'calories left" display. Same-same tho.

  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
    edited January 2015
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    The strength training section of the exercise log exists solely for the purpose of keeping track of your lifting progress and is totally independent of the calorie calculator function that is under cardiovascular.

    Please use the site's search function. These question gets asked literally MULTIPLE times a day on these forums.