Crossfit calories burned

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Cesoucy
Cesoucy Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I do Crossfit 3 times a week and jog about 40 minutes 4 times a week for extra cardio. I'm working with a nutritionist for weight loss and I've stalled at 35 lbs. She thinks perhaps I'm not eating enough for the exercise I'm doing. It's impossible for me to tell just exactly how many calories I burn at CF but I always underestimate because the WODS aren't that long - 15-20-30 minutes. We do a full hour workout but that includes stretch, warmup, WOD and cool down. Today I had the 17.5 CF Games WOD and finished in 15:23 minutes. My partner went first and finished in 14 minutes, so for 14 minutes I just stood around. A very long explanation for a short question - how the hell do you account for calories in CF to help with weight loss?

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Don't use a HRM - unless you want a hugely inflated burn for bragging rights.

    How about selecting calisthenics from the database for a very rough estimate of something that can't be measured?
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
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    I think I burn just under 100 calories per mile I run. It takes me about 9 minutes to run a mile. I perceive the exertion I do at crossfit about equal to running. So for 9 minutes of crossfit I would approximate around 100 calories. I would probably subtract a bit if the workout wasn't as intense or if there is a lot of standing/rest.

    The last WOD I did took me 8 minutes. It was intense so I'd probably guess around 80-90 calories. I wouldn't really count the warmup or teaching part.

  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,728 Member
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    The important question is how do you account for the calories burned by talking about crossfit?
  • sbrandt37
    sbrandt37 Posts: 403 Member
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    Google it. There are good articles online about it, including some that summarize university research studies on how much Crossfit burns.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I would suggest using TDEE instead of NEAT and get an estimate of cals based on hours of exercise a week. Stick with that for 4 weeks or so and adjust as necessary.
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
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    I'd log it as circuit training but don't include the cool down/warm up time. So for one hour maybe log 50 mins circuits.
  • Cesoucy
    Cesoucy Posts: 4 Member
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    I'm not trying brag about Crossfit at all, but account for calories because my nutritionist thinks I'm under-eating, causing some headaches and weight loss stalling. So, I need to understand an approximate caloric burn to eat properly without over or under eating. That's all. I have a fitbit but it doesn't work well at CF, and counts burpees as steps, etc. Maybe I just need a better HRM specifically for that kind of workout. I've googled extensively and found some resources, but haven't found specific exercises for example. I thought that posing this question here would be a good next step.
  • Cesoucy
    Cesoucy Posts: 4 Member
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    Has anyone used this? http://www.fitclick.com/calories_burned?Crossfit&oc=734#.WNVznzvyvct
  • JB035
    JB035 Posts: 336 Member
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    @cesoucy

    If you've stalled on weight loss then you are at maintenance.

    Drop your cals and see what happens.

    I do crossfit as well mixed with strength training and I monitor my cals vs weight gain or weight loss or no movement to see where in need to be on cals.

    What's your current cal levels?

    As far as the headaches; pay attention to how your head is positioned when lifting, if you are very tense in your neck, headaches will happen. Also be aware of how you are breathing during the WOD's, this can effect a lot.
  • Cesoucy
    Cesoucy Posts: 4 Member
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    I'm at 1300-1500 cals/day depending on how much exercise I do.
  • JB035
    JB035 Posts: 336 Member
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    Something to consider is the fact that you could be building muscle and loosing fat at the same time, so you're seeing no change in weight.

    Is your strength increasing or your measurements changing? These would be some things to watch to see progress.


  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Cesoucy wrote: »
    I'm not trying brag about Crossfit at all, but account for calories because my nutritionist thinks I'm under-eating, causing some headaches and weight loss stalling. So, I need to understand an approximate caloric burn to eat properly without over or under eating. That's all. I have a fitbit but it doesn't work well at CF, and counts burpees as steps, etc. Maybe I just need a better HRM specifically for that kind of workout. I've googled extensively and found some resources, but haven't found specific exercises for example. I thought that posing this question here would be a good next step.

    You are trying to measure something that is inherently unmeasureable. As an upper-level number, and assuming your activity is mostly continuous, I would allot 7-8 calories per kg of body per hour. So, if you weigh 80 kg, that would be 7 560-640 calories in an hour. Multiply that by 60 to get cals/min and multiply that by number of minutes of real exercise. There is no way to get it any closer than that.
  • msiamjan
    msiamjan Posts: 326 Member
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    I just use 300 calories for a normal cross fit session. If there's a lot of standing around, I drop it down a little. That was my take away after reading a bunch of stuff and comparing it to other activities.

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