Strength training does not increase my calorie intake

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Rstacy2014
Rstacy2014 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I exercise 6 days a week. On cardio days, after I log, it tells me the amounts of calories I've burned and gives me more to eat. I strength train 3 days a week and work hard. It only gives me calories burned for my mile warm up? Why is this?

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  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    To get a calorie burn estimate, log strength training under cardio.

    Strength training is really tough to estimate.
  • theologyjohn
    theologyjohn Posts: 3 Member
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    How do you do that? When I search for bench press under cardio it does not show up.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
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    theologyjohn wrote: »
    How do you do that? When I search for bench press under cardio it does not show up.

    search for strength training. Again, you don't burn a lot of calories doing strength training. I log it and typically eat back the calories and have had success, your results may vary. If you are losing faster than your planned rate, then eating back strength training calories would be fine, if you are losing slower than planned, then you shouldn't.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    Add "Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)" to Cardiovascular to get estimated Calories burned added to your Diary. Please note that the Calories burned for Cardiovascular exercises provided by MFP are based on published metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs), which are estimates for a general population and may differ for you as an individual. If desired, add individual strength training exercises, such as "Biceps Curl," to Strength Training to have a log of sets, reps, and weights as individual exercises.

    Please see these articles, and search for other helpful articles on the MFP Help pages...
    myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/11170-why-don-t-you-calculate-calories-burned-for-strength-training-
    myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/topics/455842-exercise-diary-and-exercise-database/articles

    btl8652brnow.jpg
  • SpecialKH
    SpecialKH Posts: 70 Member
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    You don't burn a lot of calories in strength training. It's good to build up muscle which will burn more calories long term and rev your metabolism while at rest but the biggest burn is in active, high intensity exercise or during HIIT.

    For a year I wore a Body Media which is certified as a medical device and 95% accurate in estimating calorie burn. There was barely an uptick during weight training. And my weight loss coupled with food tracking proved that data to be true. Log it to track your progress but I wouldn't count any calories burned during that time any more than you burn during a leisurely stroll.
  • armylife
    armylife Posts: 196 Member
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    You have to select just "weight training" and select the time.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    It's difficult to estimate the number of calories burned while lifting weights, especially if you are doing the typical lift heavy then minute or so break in between.

    The estimator on myfitnesspal is going to over-estimate and a heart rate monitor will not be accurate.

    My opinion? Don't log it at all, instead include this in your "activity level" you choose. I will log "strength training 1 calorie burned" no matter how long i was at it or what i did for strength training that day. This works for me.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    rainbowbow wrote: »
    It's difficult to estimate the number of calories burned while lifting weights, especially if you are doing the typical lift heavy then minute or so break in between.

    The estimator on myfitnesspal is going to over-estimate and a heart rate monitor will not be accurate.

    My opinion? Don't log it at all, instead include this in your "activity level" you choose. I will log "strength training 1 calorie burned" no matter how long i was at it or what i did for strength training that day. This works for me.

    This is what I do.
  • theologyjohn
    theologyjohn Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you all for your responses! What about a program like P90x? It is weight lifting but moves at a pace that keeps your heart rate up.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    theologyjohn wrote: »
    Thank you all for your responses! What about a program like P90x? It is weight lifting but moves at a pace that keeps your heart rate up.
    The activity name is not important. Choose an activity with a METs value that represents your perceived intensity level for the actual amount of time you performed the activity.

    METs - Activity
    3.0 - Walking, 2.5 mph, leisurely pace
    3.0 - Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)
    3.5 - Calisthenics, home, light/moderate effort
    4.0 - Water aerobics, water calisthenics
    5.0 - Aerobics, low impact
    5.0 - Walking, 4.0 mph, very brisk pace
    6.0 - Teaching aerobics class
    6.5 - Aerobics, general
    7.0 - Aerobics, high impact
    8.0 - Circuit training, general
    8.0 - Calisthenics (pushups, sit-ups), vigorous effort
    8.5 - Aerobics, step, with 6-8 inch step
    10.0 - Aerobics, step, with 10-12 inch step
  • Inkratlet
    Inkratlet Posts: 613 Member
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    theologyjohn wrote: »
    Thank you all for your responses! What about a program like P90x? It is weight lifting but moves at a pace that keeps your heart rate up.

    It's using weights as cardio. It isn't really strength training.

    ie. if I do 20 deadlifts at 40% of my 1 rep max then I'm using a small amount of weight in high repetition to increase my heart rate = cardiovascular exercise. CrossFit does it all the time. P90x and other circuit based programmes do it too.

    Long story short, I'd log that as circuit training.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    Inkratlet wrote: »
    theologyjohn wrote: »
    Thank you all for your responses! What about a program like P90x? It is weight lifting but moves at a pace that keeps your heart rate up.

    It's using weights as cardio. It isn't really strength training.

    ie. if I do 20 deadlifts at 40% of my 1 rep max then I'm using a small amount of weight in high repetition to increase my heart rate = cardiovascular exercise. CrossFit does it all the time. P90x and other circuit based programmes do it too.

    Long story short, I'd log that as circuit training.

    same
  • theologyjohn
    theologyjohn Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you, everyone. This is very helpful.

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