How to get strength training to show calories burned?

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jesse_323
jesse_323 Posts: 49 Member
edited January 2018 in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
When you guys log your workout (squats, bench press, etc) how do you get MFP to show the calories it has burned? Thus far I have not been doing so.

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  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
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    jesse_323 wrote: »
    When you guys log your workout (squats, bench press, etc) how do you get MFP to show the calories it has burned? Thus far I have not been doing so.

    Log it as strength training under cardio.
  • jesse_323
    jesse_323 Posts: 49 Member
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    Maybe I'm misunderstanding, when I go to the plus sign and choose exercise > strength > I can choose the exercises there but they don't have calories burned. If I choose Cardio the bench press etc is not there. Are you saying I need to manually enter the calories it burned?
  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
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    You would have to track in both places. Under exercise>cardio>strength training you'll get a calorie burn. Under exercise>strength you can track your sets and reps. I personally don't use either. I set up my calorie goal based on my average TDEE and log my sets and reps in the app WorkIt.
  • AgentFlex
    AgentFlex Posts: 211 Member
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    Calories burned with strength training is a bit of a crap shoot really, because there is rest between sets, etc. What the above poster meant was log "Strength Training" under "Cardio" for the number of minutes you lifted. You can also log your lifting stats under Strength training, but as you already saw, it doesn't give credit for a calorie burn.
  • gwyneth1362
    gwyneth1362 Posts: 1 Member
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    The generic choice of "weight workout" shows calories burned.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    jesse_323 wrote: »
    Maybe I'm misunderstanding, when I go to the plus sign and choose exercise > strength > I can choose the exercises there but they don't have calories burned. If I choose Cardio the bench press etc is not there. Are you saying I need to manually enter the calories it burned?

    For a rough calorie estimate (based on METS) then log entire duration of your workout in the CV part of the diary as "strength training".

    The strength part of the diary has no calorie functionality - just a note pad if you like to record what exercises you did.
  • jesse_323
    jesse_323 Posts: 49 Member
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    AgentFlex wrote: »
    Calories burned with strength training is a bit of a crap shoot really, because there is rest between sets, etc. What the above poster meant was log "Strength Training" under "Cardio" for the number of minutes you lifted. You can also log your lifting stats under Strength training, but as you already saw, it doesn't give credit for a calorie burn.

    I track my workouts in another app that shows progression and everything, I just saw someone post on my feed the calories they burned. Honestly I probably just won’t count it I suppose rather than take a wild guess.. thanks for all the replies though
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    jesse_323 wrote: »
    AgentFlex wrote: »
    Calories burned with strength training is a bit of a crap shoot really, because there is rest between sets, etc. What the above poster meant was log "Strength Training" under "Cardio" for the number of minutes you lifted. You can also log your lifting stats under Strength training, but as you already saw, it doesn't give credit for a calorie burn.

    I track my workouts in another app that shows progression and everything, I just saw someone post on my feed the calories they burned. Honestly I probably just won’t count it I suppose rather than take a wild guess.. thanks for all the replies though

    You know for sure it's not zero - it's not exactly a wild guess but it will vary greatly between individuals based on the amount of weight shifted.

    With a low calorie burn like strength training accuracy isn't that vital, it's completely dwarfed by any food logging inaccuracy.

    The art of estimating is to do the best you can IMHO, otherwise you are skewing the numbers to fit an outcome rather than estimating the numbers to help guide you towards an outcome.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,978 Member
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    I use 120 cals/hr for lifting and body weight exercises, including rest bet sets (but NOT rest bet lifts/exercises).

    This is a pretty minimal cal assessment and I haven't gained any weight by eating these cals back. Works for me.
  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    jesse_323 wrote: »
    AgentFlex wrote: »
    Calories burned with strength training is a bit of a crap shoot really, because there is rest between sets, etc. What the above poster meant was log "Strength Training" under "Cardio" for the number of minutes you lifted. You can also log your lifting stats under Strength training, but as you already saw, it doesn't give credit for a calorie burn.

    I track my workouts in another app that shows progression and everything, I just saw someone post on my feed the calories they burned. Honestly I probably just won’t count it I suppose rather than take a wild guess.. thanks for all the replies though

    You know for sure it's not zero - it's not exactly a wild guess but it will vary greatly between individuals based on the amount of weight shifted.

    With a low calorie burn like strength training accuracy isn't that vital, it's completely dwarfed by any food logging inaccuracy.

    The art of estimating is to do the best you can IMHO, otherwise you are skewing the numbers to fit an outcome rather than estimating the numbers to help guide you towards an outcome.

    Yeah, I've noticed I burn almost twice as many cals on my lower body days as I do on upper body days. This is tracked through my Garmin, which I know isn't completely accurate, but it's interesting to note the difference in exertion.

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