Calories Burn while doing strenght exercises

pamela651
pamela651 Posts: 4 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I have started to go to the gym, and i do a mix of treadmill, weights, machines etc..
I dont know how to calc. the calories i burned doing the machines and weights. Does anyone have some magic formula or something i can use to get some idea as to the calories i am burning.?

Replies

  • JojoV1977
    JojoV1977 Posts: 4 Member
    I myself am seriously wondering why the My Fitness Pal.app doesn't calculate the calories burned in strength training? It is ridiculous!
  • jenniferbertram7165
    jenniferbertram7165 Posts: 28 Member
    JojoV1977 wrote: »
    I myself am seriously wondering why the My Fitness Pal.app doesn't calculate the calories burned in strength training? It is ridiculous!

    Would love to know the answer to this as well!
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
    JojoV1977 wrote: »
    I myself am seriously wondering why the My Fitness Pal.app doesn't calculate the calories burned in strength training? It is ridiculous!

    Too many variables.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    JojoV1977 wrote: »
    I myself am seriously wondering why the My Fitness Pal.app doesn't calculate the calories burned in strength training? It is ridiculous!

    It does!!! Enter "strength training" in the cardio section to get an estimate of cals burned.

    Keep in mind that the benefits of strength training is not the cals burned but rather the retention/building of muscle and increase in strength and bone density, among others.
  • kettouji
    kettouji Posts: 16 Member
    Been wondering this for a while also.
  • paulawatkins1974
    paulawatkins1974 Posts: 720 Member
    In the database under cardio, you can find strength training and it will give you a calorie burn. Not sure how accurate it is...
  • Dave55412
    Dave55412 Posts: 88 Member
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

    I use a Fitbit. A quick glance at my wrist tells me what my calories burned are.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    paulawatkins1974 wrote: »
    In the database under cardio, you can find strength training and it will give you a calorie burn. Not sure how accurate it is...

    probably not very, but more reasonable than what an HRM would tell you for that type of activity.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    I use "strength training" under cardio in MFP and then calculate my treadmill/elliptical separately. Be careful though because MFP burns are always way higher than I what I actually burn.
  • paulawatkins1974
    paulawatkins1974 Posts: 720 Member
    erickirb wrote: »
    paulawatkins1974 wrote: »
    In the database under cardio, you can find strength training and it will give you a calorie burn. Not sure how accurate it is...

    probably not very, but more reasonable than what an HRM would tell you for that type of activity.
    I agree. Yet I cannot convince my friend of that and she continues to use it lol.
  • brisingr86
    brisingr86 Posts: 1,789 Member
    There are other posts in the forums on this. Because the burn will depend on the intensity (how much effort you exert to lift 100 lbs is probably different than how much effort I need to exert to lift 100 lbs), it's super hard to produce a magic formula. HRM is going to give you the best estimate, but if you aren't necessarily getting your HR up a ton, it may not give you much. Most people just know they have a few more (I get maybe 100 calories from about 30-40 minutes lifting routine), but don't bother logging.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Dave55412 wrote: »
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx

    I use a Fitbit. A quick glance at my wrist tells me what my calories burned are.

    HR is not a good indicator of cals burned for strength training, different physiological response that does not have the same oxygen uptake you will have with steady state cardio, which is what those calculators as designed to estimate.
  • JessNelson_
    JessNelson_ Posts: 38 Member
    There are too many variables to have an easy calculation. Buy a HR monitor and wear it during your workout. Its pretty much the only way you will know. I think its your best bet to treat it like you are burning no calories at all that way you do not over eat. Building muscle will increase your metabolism. More muscle more you burn, just keep that in mind as well! So stick to the weights and remember to lift heavy!! [in a safe manor of course ;) ]
  • kellienw335
    kellienw335 Posts: 1,745 Member
    I have often wondered this as well. I usually log the minutes done lifting weights and doing machines as "Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace". Not saying that is accurate, but want to see some calorie burn for that time!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    brisingr86 wrote: »
    There are other posts in the forums on this. Because the burn will depend on the intensity (how much effort you exert to lift 100 lbs is probably different than how much effort I need to exert to lift 100 lbs), it's super hard to produce a magic formula. HRM is going to give you the best estimate, but if you aren't necessarily getting your HR up a ton, it may not give you much. Most people just know they have a few more (I get maybe 100 calories from about 30-40 minutes lifting routine), but don't bother logging.

    HRM will be far from the best for this type of activity. I would suggest if you lift 3+ times/week to increase your activity level and don't log the cals burned from strength training at all.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    JojoV1977 wrote: »
    I myself am seriously wondering why the My Fitness Pal.app doesn't calculate the calories burned in strength training? It is ridiculous!

    Its not ridiculous
    1. you can enter them under cardio.
    2. They are almost impossible to calculate because of individual nature of strength exercises. Most people dont bother or put 1 calorie because of this. It burns significantly less than cardio. Your body still gets 100% of the benefit of any burn.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited April 2015
    JessNelson_ wrote: »
    There are too many variables to have an easy calculation. Buy a HR monitor and wear it during your workout. Its pretty much the only way you will know. I think its your best bet to treat it like you are burning no calories at all that way you do not over eat. Building muscle will increase your metabolism. More muscle more you burn, just keep that in mind as well! So stick to the weights and remember to lift heavy!! [in a safe manor of course ;) ]

    No no no, not for strength training as you don't have the same or even close to the same oxygen uptake which is the main component in the calculation embedded in the HRM.

    Also if you are in a deficit you are not building muscle to "burn more" what you are doing is helping retain the muscle you already have instead of losing a lot of muscle along with the fat you want to lose.
  • Whittedo
    Whittedo Posts: 352 Member
    I don't track my strength training calorie burn. Even though I use a Polar M400 HRM the calorie results vary too greatly depending how long I rest between sets, the type of exercise I am doing and the weight being lifted.
  • kamakazeekim
    kamakazeekim Posts: 1,183 Member
    The way I view it...it doesn't matter what I burn lifting because I'm not going to eat it back anyways...exercise is for fitness and diet is for weight loss.
  • hmrambling
    hmrambling Posts: 321 Member
    bit.ly/1HtBSMC
  • erockem
    erockem Posts: 278 Member
    edited April 2015
    During heavy sets my heart / blood pressure spikes. The set would last 10-25 seconds. My HR stays elevated long after the set, while I was sitting and waiting for the next set. So while I'm just sitting, breathing, and not moving a muscle, my HR looked much like it did when I was doing cardio. I have a HRM for cardio, and have tried it with just these results. Just an example of how inaccurate a HRM for strength training is.

    Strength training is for strength in my book. Cardio is for burning calories.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    edited April 2015
    LolBroScience wrote: »
    JojoV1977 wrote: »
    I myself am seriously wondering why the My Fitness Pal.app doesn't calculate the calories burned in strength training? It is ridiculous!

    Too many variables.

    This. If I was able to shadow this guy workouts we would not burn the same amounts of calories. So there no point of MFP trying to.
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