Weight training and calorie adding

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mikeshealth2016
mikeshealth2016 Posts: 17 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Good morning everyone I'm trying to figure out how to calculate how many calories I'm burning during weight training the exercises that I do are squats bench press overhead press bent-over rows and deadlifts normally 5 sets of 5 I'm doing the StrongLifts 5x5 program if any of you have any help please give it I'm lost on this one

Replies

  • shagerty777
    shagerty777 Posts: 185 Member
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    I gave up on tracking weight training calories on here. I just figure they are "bonus" calories in case I mistrack or get a little wild eating.
  • KatzeDerNacht22
    KatzeDerNacht22 Posts: 200 Member
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    Hi, it's pretty hard to do it, since to measure those calories accurately you'd need..I don't know what, but a HRM won't do it, I just don't log it and write it down instead with weight used to check my progress.
  • markymarrkk
    markymarrkk Posts: 495 Member
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    Add your weight training to the "cardio" section of exercise logging. It's a rough estimate and you should probably shave off 30% from the burn estimate.
  • Michael190lbs
    Michael190lbs Posts: 1,510 Member
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    263 exactly 263 per hour...
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Go into cardio - search "strength training" - log your time - accept that it is probably completely inaccurate and decide how many to eat back with that in mind.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
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    There are just way too many variables to be able to get anything more than an approximation that can be off by a factor of ten or more.

    Resistance used, rest period duration, number of reps, speed of reps, muscle groups involved in a given lift, whether your bodyweight affects the resistance (squat, deadlift, etc.) or not (most isolation work), etc.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    I don't bother logging strength work in MFP and I don't really count those gym sessions with respect to calories. Believe me, trying to estimate the calories is more hassle than it is worth.

    Consider it as part of your TDEE figure and monitor your weight to tweak calories according to your goals.
  • Birdygirl15
    Birdygirl15 Posts: 88 Member
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    I've been trying to log strength training using the MFP exercise tool and nothing seems to happen, only cardio calories used are been added to my daily log when I've been walking and log that. Given the replies here I shan't bother trying to make it work, so thanks all.

    I'm a beginner at this kind of training, very overweight, and hoping that despite my age I can do something about bingo wings and other areas if I do manage to lose weight. I'm following some exercises at home with hand weights and a bullworker that I've had for years. I know the bullworker stuff won't use many calories but was hoping the dumbbell rows (I think they are called) and similar would burn off something :)

    Oh well, back to my Nordic walking poles (another form of exercise not on the database as far as I can see).
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    Birdygirl15 wrote: »
    I've been trying to log strength training using the MFP exercise tool and nothing seems to happen, only cardio calories used are been added to my daily log when I've been walking and log that. Given the replies here I shan't bother trying to make it work, so thanks all.

    I'm a beginner at this kind of training, very overweight, and hoping that despite my age I can do something about bingo wings and other areas if I do manage to lose weight. I'm following some exercises at home with hand weights and a bullworker that I've had for years. I know the bullworker stuff won't use many calories but was hoping the dumbbell rows (I think they are called) and similar would burn off something :)

    Oh well, back to my Nordic walking poles (another form of exercise not on the database as far as I can see).

    Bad idea... please don't ditch the strength exercises.

    I'd ecourage you to think about it this way:

    Just because MFP does not allocate any calories to strength work that does not mean that it has no benefit, quite the opposite is true. When losing weight, a proportion of the weight lost will be lean body mass (LBM). This is bad, it rarely produces an attractive result and reduced LBM is a problem in old age.

    So, how can you reduce the amount of LBM lost during dieting?
    1. Incorporate strength work into our weekly exercise schedules
    2. Ensure that you are eating adequate protein (which spares LBM in calorific deficit)
    3. Keep the deficit, and therefore rate of loss, low - in other words NO CRASH DIETS, slow and steady wins the race
    4. There is an argument that we should avoid long steady state cardio sessions but I think this applies more to those who are looking at multiple +1hrs session per week - I think making a blanket statement of avoiding long steady state cardio is counter productive for most.

    So, please reconsider the strength work and maybe look into one of the at home strength work out plans such as those found on FitnessBlender, or in Convict Conditioning or Mark Lauren's You are Your Own Gym books.
  • Birdygirl15
    Birdygirl15 Posts: 88 Member
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    StealthHealth wrote: »
    Bad idea... please don't ditch the strength exercises.

    Hi, and thank you for the helpful tips. I didn't explain myself too well, I am going to keep up my home exercises with hand weights, currently @ 1kg each, planning to buy heavier ones in due course. Anything is better than nothing, right? I just meant that I would stop worrying about getting MFP's tools to show me calories used in strength training. As an ex-database bod, it really annoys me when such things don't work as the user should expect them to. :)

    I have lost and gained loads of weight in the past, I need to find motivators to keep me on track each time I try again, and logging extra calories used during the exercise I can do does help get me into the swing of things again. I have an old ankle injury that plagues me but will hurt less if I can just lose some d*mn weight and then keep it off! :D.

    Again, thanks for the suggestions, the LBM and protein are good points - and I never managed to stick with a crash diet, so no worries there :D. I turn 60 this year, although no one believes I look that age. If I do manage a considerable weight loss, I know I am likely to have excess skin issues due to my age and hope the strength and "tightening up" exercises will help a little in that regard.

    Using my Nordic poles when walking are great for helping to stop my ankle hurting quite so much, they take the strain off the legs, and is good exercise too, my arms can really ache after an hour! As MFP doesn't have an entry for that kind of "sport", I log it as moderate or fast walking. Now our English winter is losing its grip, I need to be more disciplined at doing this kind of walking several times a week.
  • Scotty2HotPie
    Scotty2HotPie Posts: 143 Member
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    I disagree that utilizing a heartrate monitor during lifting doesn't help with calculating calories. It seems to be best way for estimating.

    Any calorie estimate for Weight Lifting that doesn't take heart rate into account is going to be seriously off. Even with a HRM it's going to be high.

    But I see too many guys in the gym who take their time, chatting up their friends and screwing around. lol, there's no estimating that...

    However, when I'm in full swing, I take 60-90 seconds between sets and when I'm doing moderate to high reps on deadlifts or squat, my heart rate does jump up significantly. Throw in supersets or dropsets, then you get the idea.

    The flipside is true too. If your doing isolation exercises, like curls. Those muscles may be burning, but your heart rate won't really go up.

    It's never going compare to other cardio exercises like spinning or running. There's just too many breaks. But a HRM will let you know how hard you were pushing your body.

    Just my lame 2 cents
  • sarahkw04
    sarahkw04 Posts: 87 Member
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    I like what @Scotty2HotPie said. I wear an HRM when I lift and appreciate the calorie/HR tracking for what it is. The quickest way to get under my coach's skin is to "stand around." We were doing banded box speed squats this morning - heavy weights, heavy band tension, 30 second break between sets, 12 sets of 2. The HR, BP, and calorie burn all jumped... But it settled back down on the back half of the workout, I'm sure.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    Scotty2HotPie wrote: »
    I disagree that utilizing a heartrate monitor during lifting doesn't help with calculating calories. It seems to be best way for estimating.

    Any calorie estimate for Weight Lifting that doesn't take heart rate into account is going to be seriously off. Even with a HRM it's going to be high.

    But I see too many guys in the gym who take their time, chatting up their friends and screwing around. lol, there's no estimating that...

    However, when I'm in full swing, I take 60-90 seconds between sets and when I'm doing moderate to high reps on deadlifts or squat, my heart rate does jump up significantly. Throw in supersets or dropsets, then you get the idea.

    The flipside is true too. If your doing isolation exercises, like curls. Those muscles may be burning, but your heart rate won't really go up.

    It's never going compare to other cardio exercises like spinning or running. There's just too many breaks. But a HRM will let you know how hard you were pushing your body.

    Just my lame 2 cents

    You're wrong I'm afraid -The heart rate increase when lifting weight is due to a pressure response rather than increased 02 usage and energy consumption. HRMs are hopeless at even getting close, to possibly suggesting, a rough ball park figure, of what one may, (in certain circumstances), be considered the back of an envelope, finger in the wind, just for fun, indication of the calories used during strength exercise.

    @Azdak 's excellent blog on the subject of HRMs is available here, details the conditions in which that heats rate can increase and the assumptions that a HRM must make to convert heart rate to calories : http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    It's worth pointing out that, if your goal for a specific work out session is maximal (or somewhere near maximal) lifts then standing around doing nothing (or better still sitting) a.k.a. resting between sets, is a sensible tactic.

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