Lifting weights and calories...
Jadu786
Posts: 141 Member
Hello Everyone!
Do you add calories to your daily allowance for strength training?
I have set up a goal to lose 1 lb a week and I am tracking calories - so for weight lifting - I'm just adding 300 calories for my whole weight lifting session...
I do eat the calories I burn...
What are your suggestions?
Do you add calories to your daily allowance for strength training?
I have set up a goal to lose 1 lb a week and I am tracking calories - so for weight lifting - I'm just adding 300 calories for my whole weight lifting session...
I do eat the calories I burn...
What are your suggestions?
1
Replies
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Yep. Exercise calories taste the best!5
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How are you coming to the 300 calories for your session?
If you use MFP as designed, then yes you should eat them back. If you are uncertain as to the number, eat 1/2 to 3/4 back and see if your weight loss averages 1 lb over 6-8 weeks. Adjust as needed.
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I do eat back most of my exercise calories, although I average my calories by week so I'm not super strict about exactly when and how many more I eat. That said, I believe many people don't add/eat back calories for weight lifting, as it generally doesn't burn much and heart rate monitors are basically useless for estimating what it does burn. That said, if you're losing weight at a rate you're happy with, keep on keeping on.0
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If I were using an MFP goal, yes I would add the calories. If you are having trouble finding them (common question from new people) you need to search "strength training" in the cardiovascular exercise section.0
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How long are you weight lifting for? 300 sounds like a lot unless you are very overweight...3
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Personally, no I don't... not for strength training. It's too hard to measure/estimate cals burned, so I don't log them and use that as a bit of a buffer to help account for any inaccuracies in my logging.5
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300 sounds like too much, unless you are lifting for 1.5-2 hours. another option is to enter "strength training" in the cardio section on this site and see what MFP gives you.
Alternatively, if you lift 3+ times/week you may want to increase your activity level from sedentary to light active and don't log cals from lifting.3 -
I eat back every single lifting calorie.
At 100-105 lbs that works out to 200 per session.
When I first started following a barbell routine I didn't, I followed the general advice that it wasn't a big burn so not worth it.
However, after a few weeks I found myself tired and dropping weight (in maintenance).
Initially I used the MFP cals, but I also tracked my cals so I could estimate my actual burn. There was less than 20 cals difference so I rounded to 200.
I think one can ignore lifting calories if one has a lot of calories available, but if one has 1200-1400 cals it is probably better to eat back the cals.
Cheers, h.3 -
If you're able to, you can purchase a HRM watch to better track your weight lifting cals.10
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alondrakayy wrote: »If you're able to, you can purchase a HRM watch to better track your weight lifting cals.
No. HRMs are not designed for this - they're designed for steady-state cardio.7 -
alondrakayy wrote: »If you're able to, you can purchase a HRM watch to better track your weight lifting cals.
Wrong!!!! HRMs calculate heart rate, there is a calculation embedded in some that give an estimate of calories burned. That calcualtion is based on steady state cardio, the further you get away from steady state (which weights are the furthest away you can get) then the estimate will be way off and have no basis on what drives calorie burn from lifting (which is not oxygen uptake as it is with cardio)5 -
middlehaitch wrote: »I eat back every single lifting calorie.
At 100-105 lbs that works out to 200 per session.
When I first started following a barbell routine I didn't, I followed the general advice that it wasn't a big burn so not worth it.
However, after a few weeks I found myself tired and dropping weight (in maintenance).
Initially I used the MFP cals, but I also tracked my cals so I could estimate my actual burn. There was less than 20 cals difference so I rounded to 200.
I think one can ignore lifting calories if one has a lot of calories available, but if one has 1200-1400 cals it is probably better to eat back the cals.
Cheers, h.
I can never understand why people describe strength burning calories as "not many calories." 200 calories is likely 10-15% of a lot of women's total calorie burn per day. To me that is significant.12 -
Yes the way it's designed is that you do more you get to eat more to keep the rate of loss you have chosen.
Your basic calorie goal is for a day with no purposeful exercise.
Just log duration of the workout under the cardiovascular part of the diary under category "strength training".
It's just a rough approximation based on weight and METS but it's simple and free.
1 -
I don’t because I can’t figure out how to measure the calorie burn with any accuracy whatsoever. I do log the total amount MFP gives me for cardio knowing full well it may be inflated and figure somewhere it’s evening out by not logging a calorie burn for strength training.1
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What program are you running? Is that burn calculation from a HRM?0
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alondrakayy wrote: »If you're able to, you can purchase a HRM watch to better track your weight lifting cals.
Wrong!!!! HRMs calculate heart rate, there is a calculation embedded in some that give an estimate of calories burned. That calcualtion is based on steady state cardio, the further you get away from steady state (which weights are the furthest away you can get) then the estimate will be way off and have no basis on what drives calorie burn from lifting (which is not oxygen uptake as it is with cardio)
Ok. The watch I own (Polar 360) has the option for me to calculate calories burned during my weight lifting workouts... so that's what I do. Worked just fine for me but if OP would rather add 300 calories to her day no matter what then she can.
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alondrakayy wrote: »alondrakayy wrote: »If you're able to, you can purchase a HRM watch to better track your weight lifting cals.
Wrong!!!! HRMs calculate heart rate, there is a calculation embedded in some that give an estimate of calories burned. That calcualtion is based on steady state cardio, the further you get away from steady state (which weights are the furthest away you can get) then the estimate will be way off and have no basis on what drives calorie burn from lifting (which is not oxygen uptake as it is with cardio)
Ok. The watch I own (Polar 360) has the option for me to calculate calories burned during my weight lifting workouts... so that's what I do. Worked just fine for me but if OP would rather add 300 calories to her day no matter what then she can.
FYI - most HRMs don't have that kind of setting or algorithm.
The basic ones are just using HR as a proxy for oxygen uptake - only (somewhat) applicable to aerobic exercise.1 -
middlehaitch wrote: »I eat back every single lifting calorie.
At 100-105 lbs that works out to 200 per session.
When I first started following a barbell routine I didn't, I followed the general advice that it wasn't a big burn so not worth it.
However, after a few weeks I found myself tired and dropping weight (in maintenance).
Initially I used the MFP cals, but I also tracked my cals so I could estimate my actual burn. There was less than 20 cals difference so I rounded to 200.
I think one can ignore lifting calories if one has a lot of calories available, but if one has 1200-1400 cals it is probably better to eat back the cals.
Cheers, h.
I can never understand why people describe strength burning calories as "not many calories." 200 calories is likely 10-15% of a lot of women's total calorie burn per day. To me that is significant.
I said it because I've seen so many other people saying it. My bad! I don't actually lift weights myself so I don't have any first-hand knowledge. I'd totally count a couple hundred calories - most of my workouts are in the 100-150 range as it is and I count those.
/hangs head in shame3 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »How are you coming to the 300 calories for your session?
If you use MFP as designed, then yes you should eat them back. If you are uncertain as to the number, eat 1/2 to 3/4 back and see if your weight loss averages 1 lb over 6-8 weeks. Adjust as needed.
OP, I am also curious how you come to 300 calories for your session???0 -
Being (now) a fairly small l'il ol' lady (5'5", 120s, 62 y/o), I only get a whopping 160-some calories per hour of weight training. Regardless, I'm eating them: Weight training makes me ravenous.
I think the calories are described as "small" in contrast to more intense cardio: If I machine row for an hour (at about the hardest pace I can actually do for that long), I get more like 400 calories per HRM.
Rowers need off-season weight training, though . . . just like anybody else.5 -
Yes the way it's designed is that you do more you get to eat more to keep the rate of loss you have chosen.
Your basic calorie goal is for a day with no purposeful exercise.
Just log duration of the workout under the cardiovascular part of the diary under category "strength training".
It's just a rough approximation based on weight and METS but it's simple and free.
This is what I always did until I just switched over to the TDEE method.
OP, it's quite difficult to determine energy expenditure from lifting as there are so many variables whereas aerobic activity is usually pretty straight forward...
Lifting regularly was one of the main drivers for me switching over to the TDEE method.0 -
No, I'd be surprised if I'm burning over 100 calories in 45 minutes of lifting. Seeing as in that 45 minutes it's probably 10 minutes or less of actual lifting if it was back to back to back.2
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Maybe I'll cut it down from 300 to 150. just something a little extra... even with the 300 - I don't think I'll use them.. but just to be safe I'll change it to 150 or 1002
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Check out the answers in your other thread...4
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Maybe I'll cut it down from 300 to 150. just something a little extra... even with the 300 - I don't think I'll use them.. but just to be safe I'll change it to 150 or 100
Use the MFP entry under Cardio 'weight lifting. And do eat them- fuel you work outs.
If you are not losing as planned after a month you can adjust.
Cheers, h.5 -
middlehaitch wrote: »Maybe I'll cut it down from 300 to 150. just something a little extra... even with the 300 - I don't think I'll use them.. but just to be safe I'll change it to 150 or 100
Use the MFP entry under Cardio 'weight lifting. And do eat them- fuel you work outs.
If you are not losing as planned after a month you can adjust.
Cheers, h.
Okay, thank you for the feedback!
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middlehaitch wrote: »Maybe I'll cut it down from 300 to 150. just something a little extra... even with the 300 - I don't think I'll use them.. but just to be safe I'll change it to 150 or 100
Use the MFP entry under Cardio 'weight lifting. And do eat them- fuel you work outs.
If you are not losing as planned after a month you can adjust.
Cheers, h.
ditto. (FYI- their estimate is ~0.0239 calories x weight in pounds x number of minutes).2 -
You should use the strength training the mfp has. At 4'11 and 149lbs i only burn maybe 120-140 during a 30- 40 minute of weight lifting. And I'll usually take off 5 or 10 minutes to account for time between sets, walking around, etc.
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Thank You! that advice helped - I was able to find the tool under cardio...0
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Before nursing school and when I had time, I was lifting with a personal trainer. My goal was to get strong enough to compete and while that never happened, I was still lifting 4 times a week for about an hour and a half (20 minute warm up) at 70-80% my 1 rep max, which was determined when my trainer helped me max me out.
I was 5'6" and weighed about 143 pounds and ate on average 2,200 calories a day.
Now, thanks to nursing school, I work out 2-4 times a week for 45 minutes with a 5-15 minute warm up. I am not lifting nearly as heavy, probably only 50%-60% of what my old 1 rep max would be. I average about 1,800-2,200 calories a day and weigh 148.
Are you trying to build muscle or lose weight or a combination of both? What does your weight lifting program look like?0
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