wieght training

Log weight training under "cardio". It is very hard to get an accurate burn for weight lifting.

Cherimoose wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

It is very hard to get an accurate burn for weight lifting.

They should still gave an estimate, like..

If your dumbbells are pink = low calorie burn
Lifting heavy and sweating = good calorie burn
Beast mode, people staring at you in gym = high calorie burn

haha I like that

I've always been frustrated with how MFP sort of "doesn't count" weightlifting in it's caloric records. I love strength training, and I've worked with several physical trainers who assert that a hard lifting workout is equal to, if not more than, a jog for the same duration of time. I want to believe them, because there are times I've been more tired after lifting than after running!

I want to take the advice of physical trainers over the workings of an app, but it's still dejecting to add in the weight lifting and feel like, even though I've worked my tail off, I can't have a cookie after because the weight lifting doesn't negate the cookie, in my calorie calculations.

SO I got frustrated and went out and bought a Fitbit HR/Charge. I've only just got it, but I've heard it'll take lifting into account, as long as my heart rate increases. We'll see how it goes at the gym tonight.

JayFox60 wrote: »

I've always been frustrated with how MFP sort of "doesn't count" weightlifting in it's caloric records. I love strength training, and I've worked with several physical trainers who assert that a hard lifting workout is equal to, if not more than, a jog for the same duration of time. I want to believe them, because there are times I've been more tired after lifting than after running!

I want to take the advice of physical trainers over the workings of an app, but it's still dejecting to add in the weight lifting and feel like, even though I've worked my tail off, I can't have a cookie after because the weight lifting doesn't negate the cookie, in my calorie calculations.

SO I got frustrated and went out and bought a Fitbit HR/Charge. I've only just got it, but I've heard it'll take lifting into account, as long as my heart rate increases. We'll see how it goes at the gym tonight.

MFP does give calorie burns for lifting; it's under the cardio section. The weight lifting section is set up for recording reps and sets. Nonetheless, it's extremely difficult to formulate calorie expenditures from lifting as there are just way too many variables.

OP, use the cardio section and search "weight training" and don't eat it all back. It's just trial and error.

I usually put some time "Calisthenics (pushups, sit-ups), vigorous effort" but the time equivalence is an estimate at best. The important thing is to not let it be an excuse to reward myself with a fat pill. MyFitnessPal is a wonderful tool for keeping myself honest about what I eat, but it really has no accurate way of telling you your calorie bur for non-steady state activities.

The thing is, scale weight is mostly what you eat (calories in/out) but body composition is from exercise. Compare the body of a long distance runner to the body of a sprinter, gymnast, non-heavyweight Olympic lifter, wrestler, boxer, etc. Clearly, periodic intense exercise is superior to steady state low intensity exercise for body composition but measuring calories for what we can call circuit training, be it wind sprints, or lifting with some work/rest ratio can't accurately be done by the app.

At this point I track my weight daily and ask myself, "Is it working?" If the answer is no, I must decide if it's bad estimates on how much I eat (I don't weigh my food, that's too obsessive for me), or over estimating extra calories from exercise (if I eat them). It's actually not that hard to see.

A BIG thing that I noticed is that MyFitnessPal does not automatically adjust target calorie intake as you loose weight. My fat loss rate slowed and I thought about that and re entered my goals and weight and it gave me a new total calories per day that was lower. It needed to be since your current weight is part of it's formula. Kind of a bummer since I had to figure out how to eat less every day. At this point, to enjoy a hearty dinner I must eat lower calorie breakfast and lunch. If I want to eat hash browns with my bacon and egg breakfast I must hope that my wife doesn't cook one of my favorite meals for dinner because I'll only get to smell it cooking ;0)

My goal is sustainable weight loss and maintenance. I've lost 75 lbs only to put 40 back on before. MyFitnessPal seems like just what I need to meet my goal (sustainability). It's far easier to loose weight than to keep it off if you lost is in some non-sustainable way. Control eating and lift heavy things.

You can work out the minimum calories when weight-lifting very precisely:

Energy = Force X Distance (Force is measure in Newtons, and on planet earth it's about 10 x Weight in kilos)

So a 50 kg bench press, moving the weight 0.5m vertically, you get:

500 x 10 x 0.5 = 2500 joules

converted to calories: 2500 x 0.000239005736 = 0.6 kcalories

So 30 reps of 50 kg bench press will burn 18 calories!

I say minimum because the above calculation assumes the body is completely efficient, in reality you'll lose energy in heat and inefficient movements. I don't know what the efficiency typically is, but at least can very safely assume you've burned all the E=FD calories.

hamlet1222 wrote: »

You can work out the minimum calories when weight-lifting very precisely:

Energy = Force X Distance (Force is measure in Newtons, and on planet earth it's about 10 x Weight in kilos)

So a 50 kg bench press, moving the weight 0.5m vertically, you get:

500 x 10 x 0.5 = 2500 joules

converted to calories: 2500 x 0.000239005736 = 0.6 kcalories

So 30 reps of 50 kg bench press will burn 18 calories!

I say minimum because the above calculation assumes the body is completely efficient, in reality you'll lose energy in heat and inefficient movements. I don't know what the efficiency typically is, but at least can very safely assume you've burned all the E=FD calories.

Very nice!!

I think I'll get a heart rate monitor that will give an average over time. I just made a spreadsheet that will calculate based upon that. If it works out I'll post the results. It will be a while until I have statistically relevant data. There's got to be a valid way to do this, even if I'm not big on eating exercise calories.

I understand. I use kettlebells and rings and my workouts are a akin to circuit training where I reach high heart rates (for me) with rest intervals that don't let it drop to my normal. I am curious what the average will be. I expect that it will be higher than low intensity "cardio" where you can watch TV while doing it, but I won't know until I measure it.

I know without a doubt that intense interval training is far better exercise that low/medium intensity steady state exercise so I'd like to see if I can correlate it. It may turn out to be an exercise in futility, but if I can do it at a reasonable price I might try just because. The formulas above certainly don't begin to show the benefit of strength training for weight loss based upon observable results.

dlm7507, the 500 comes from gravity (9.8 m/s/s) multiplied by mass (50 kg). Force, measured in Newtons is for our purposes a measure of how gravity acts on a mass. On the moon gravity is much less of what it is on earth (1.6), so doing the 30 reps would only burn 0.3 calories :-(

I found that cross training helps me. Sweat while weight lifting. I get on the elliptical, or switch with jumping jacks for ten minutes between sets to keep my heart up. Rest is only 60 seconds then on to the next set. 30 plus min workout wit the heart at an accelerated rate.

Thanks. I'll read it after work.

Last night I looked up the formulas and verified them against MyFitnessPal. Also ordered a Polar Ft4. It was on my doorstep when I got home from work. The calories calculated by the FT4 and my spreadsheet also matched exactly, so I'm satified that I understand exactly what MFP and the FT4 are doing.

Tonight was a kettlebell routine called Simple and Sinister. I measured the warm-up (halos, bridges & goblet squats) along with the workout (Turkish Get-ups and swings). I was so anxious to see the results that I forgot that I was supposed to do loaded carries when I was done. Next time. The is more metabolic conditioning than a regular weight training session. Peak heartrate 94% of calculated max with average at 83%. It suits me better than steady state cardio. My conclusion is that the calories from heart rate will work with weights in a metcon workout.

Saturday is rings day (leveraged calisthenics). I'm anxious to see the result for comparison since tonight's 23.5 min kettlebell workout had the calorie total of 25 min Calisthenics (pushups, sit-ups), vigorous effort. Since I am meeting my fat loss goals I figured that I've been guessing right in the absence of that category in MyFitnessPal.

I'm not doing standard weightlifting at the moment, but I have a business trip coming up and I might do that in the hotel gym just to see.

That was a bit long winded but the bottom line seems to me if you are doing whole body compound exercises without a bunch of long rests, you can do reasonable calorie calculations while lifting heavy things. I'm still not convinced about it working with bodybuilding (Frankenstein's monster muscle isolation stuff). Time will tell.

glad I was able to offer a useful angle on this issue. I wish there was a simple formula for adding in the bodies inefficiencies to the equation, there is a lot of energy still lost in balancing the weights, lowering them, given off in body heat.