Kettle Bells & Calories

cherissepatnode182
cherissepatnode182 Posts: 18 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I am surprised that this app won't let me look up any exercises with kettle bells. I do swings, snatches, cleans, and presses. Any idea how many calories these exercises burn? I usually do 5 sets with 5 reps on each side.

Replies

  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    The whole calorie in/calorie out model is all about estimates. So, don’t lose any sleep over trying to come to some special level of accuracy. Make a guestimate based on your level of exertion. Log that for a while and if it is working for you, charge on. Otherwise, tweak it. Our ancestors went for thousands of years without knowing what a calorie was, and yet they figured it out. If it isn’t working, change it.
  • SweatLikeDog
    SweatLikeDog Posts: 320 Member
    I worked kettlebells hard most of last year. Same exercises. 30 minutes of intense snatches with 16kg was good for about 400 calories doing 36 second high-speed intervals. Great workout.
  • Bj0223
    Bj0223 Posts: 133 Member
    Love Kettlebells! Before I got my HRM I used "circuit training"
  • Pickles175
    Pickles175 Posts: 211 Member
    Love kettlebells too and i use circuit training also as dont have hrm. :)
  • cherissepatnode182
    cherissepatnode182 Posts: 18 Member
    Thanks everyone :)

    I will also remember to use circuit training!
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    Some clarifications...

    An HRM will not be accurate for measuring these activities. This is not what an HRM is designed to do.

    Anytime you don't have an estimate for what you are burning, a good estimate is usually about 4-5 per minute. Anything over that is most likely a massive exaggeration.
  • SweatLikeDog
    SweatLikeDog Posts: 320 Member
    Google kettlebell snatches calorie burn. At full blast they're good for almost 20 cals per minute using vo2 measurements
  • rachellamella
    rachellamella Posts: 10 Member
    I'm a beginner with kettle bells - I do a short session sandwiched between my cardio workout and I wear a heart rate monitor so I know what I burning. I usually do about 15 mins and burn about 200 cals.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    rachellamella wrote: »
    I'm a beginner with kettle bells - I do a short session sandwiched between my cardio workout and I wear a heart rate monitor so I know what I burning. I usually do about 15 mins and burn about 200 cals.

    Your calorie burn is probably closer to 100-125 for 15 minutes. Kettlebells can be good exercise tools, but the calorie burns tend to be exaggerated.

    If trying to estimate calories, one has to start first with analyzing the movement. A kettlebell is not some unique object with its own calorie-burning capabilities. There are different things one can do with a kettlebell. Using it for strength-building moves? The calorie burn will be the same as any other weight training. Using it for complexes? The calorie burn will depend on intensity and, again, the nature of specific moves. Kettlebell swings? Depends on weight, speed, effort, and duration.

    As is true in so many other situations, a HRM will not be very accurate when used with any kettlebell exercise. It won't be accurate for the strength moves because HRMs are not accurate for strength moves. And it won't be accurate for kettlebell swings, because, during the movement, there is an exaggerated HR response that is not matched by the same amount of increase in oxygen uptake. (Ex: for sustained KB swings, HR was reported at 85% of Max, while VO2 was only 62% of Max).


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