Does anyone enter calories burned when lifting machine weights?

I log all my Cals burnt whether it be weights or cardio.

I include all exercise in my exercise log, however I don't eat all of them back because for anything other then steady-state cardio machine calculation can be way off. 400 calories for weight lifting sounds high. If you plan on eating them back I would suggest eating only 50% and track your weight loss. If you're losing more than expected then adjust accordingly.

I count both cardio and weights and eat them back. Both when losing weight and maintaining.

I enter my calories for weightlifting ... usually 30 or 40 calories for about 30 min of weightlifting because 30 min of weightlifting is not really 30 min of weightlifting what with all the little rest breaks in between exercises.

Nope. But when I was doing cardio I would eat back all the cardio calories MFP gave me even though I knew they were inflated. I figured it would even out. I would never count 400 calories toward weight training though.

I never count my strength training, 60 minutes 3X a week. I think 400 calories is vastly overestimated.

loulamb7 wrote: »

I include all exercise in my exercise log, however I don't eat all of them back because for anything other then steady-state cardio machine calculation can be way off. 400 calories for weight lifting sounds high. If you plan on eating them back I would suggest eating only 50% and track your weight loss. If you're losing more than expected then adjust accordingly.

Bingo. Why not try TDEE instead of eating calories back?

400 seems like a lot for weightlifting, even for a 90 minute workout.

I don't track my lifting calories but if you really want to, I'd cut the number in half. Better to underestimate calories burned than over IMO.

anonmomof3 wrote: »

I go to the gym and they have a series of weights called technogym. I put a key in and it tracks my weights lifted, reps, sets,etc. At the end of my workout, I have to close out my key and it tells me exactly how much I lifted and how many calories I burned. Should I include this in my exercise log? I would have to put it under cardiovascular because there is no option for calories burned under weights. I burn around 400 calories so of course I want it to count! What would you do??

Personally I don't as the amount of calories expended in weight training isn't enough for me to worry about, c 200 cals per hour. It does depend on how tight your margin for error is as when I'm running I'll burn somewhere between 600 and 1200 for most sessions so that 200 gets lost in the noise.

anonmomof3 wrote: »

I don't normally eat the calories back.

If you're not eating back, and your hitting a 1200cal net goal then you're consuming less than 1200 cals, which isn't the wisest move in the world. That's the minimum level of intake recommended by a number of national bodies to maintain good health in the round.

That's essentially what I was getting at when mentioning whether 200 cals was important or not. For you, it is important as if you don't eat it back your stacking up problems for yourself in the long term.

That said, I agree with the comment that it's highly unlikely that you're burning 400 calories doing resistance training using machines. Your own weight has little impact as it's more about how heavy the weight is that you're moving, and how far you move it.

Twice last week I made bad food choices and went over but some days I kept it around 1200 calories so it all evened out. I lost 7 lbs so I must not be doing that bad.

Two points, don't worry too much about bad choices, learn from your decisions and think about how to modify your behaviour in the future. Take a look at your longer term trends. That said, if you really are eating as little as you seem to be, your bad choices are as likely a symptom of under-eating as anything else. That in itself is something to learn from.

And 7 lbs in a week is a lot. MFP is only set up to plan for up to 2lbs per week. I'd suggest contemplating a more reasonable loss rate that'll be sustainable long term.

mrp56839 wrote: »

so I'm curious... if weight training increases your heart rate, makes you sweat like you've run 5 miles and leaves you exhausted afterward (all very similar to cardio), why does it not earn you any "exercise" calories?

@mrp56839 - log it under the cadiovascular section of your exercise diary.
But also - it may feel as tiring as cardio but it's really not that similar to cardio and heart rate when weight training is an irrelevance as regards calories.

I sweat when it is hot where I'm sleeping. My heart rate increases when I drink a lot of coffee. Does that mean I'm exercising?