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    Calories burned during massage??

    Posts: 9 Member
    edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
    Does anyone know how many calories are burned in a 1 hour massage? I'm an LMT and would like to include that in my daily activity. I know I work harder when it's a deep tissue or a 90 minute too.

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    Replies

    • Posts: 9 Member
      Bummer, I wish there was a way to figure it out, but maybe not. Sometimes if it's hot and I have a client who wants super deep pressure I can actually break a sweat! Not the case for a medium pressure Swedish massage.
    • Posts: 35,719 Member
      wildbeachrose wrote: »
      Bummer, I wish there was a way to figure it out, but maybe not. Sometimes if it's hot and I have a client who wants super deep pressure I can actually break a sweat! Not the case for a medium pressure Swedish massage.

      Why does it matter? Set an actibity level and if after 4- 6 weeks you're losing faster than expected then you can add more calories
    • Posts: 9 Member
      That sounds good, but my schedule can vary every day. I could have nothing one day and 4 massages the next. I guess the good thing about raising the activity level is it would encourage me to keep up the activity to feel like I am staying at that level every day. Is that something you have tried?
    • Posts: 9 Member
      I probably also shouldn't make things more complicated than they need to be! LOL!
    • Posts: 147 Member
      If you know you have had an extra hard day with a lot of massages just allow yourself some extra calories.
    • Posts: 13,342 Member
      edited March 2018
      Don't include it, it won't amount to much.

      Edited to add, Oops I thought you were the one having the massage!!

      But still I wouldn't log it, its work and will be included in your activity setting already here - unless you have it at sedentary....
    • Posts: 1,388 Member
      You're over thinking it. What is your activity like on average? Plug that into your stats, and work from there.
    • Posts: 8,281 Member
      trimi1104 wrote: »
      Why don't you wear an heart rate monitor? Then once you have an average heart rate for the average massage you can calculate the calories burned with a simple calculation.
      I think you definitely burn some, depends what kind of massage but some deep tissue massages must be like exercise for the therapist.

      The calculation is:

      Using VO2max:

      Men: C/min = (-59.3954 + (-36.3781 + 0.271 x age + 0.394 x weight + 0.404 x VO2max + 0.634 x HR))/4.184
      Women: C/min = (-59.3954 + (0.274 x age + 0.103 x weight + 0.380 x VO2max + 0.450 x HR)) / 4.184

      Without VO2max:

      Men: C/min = (-55.0969 + 0.6309 x HR + 0.1988 x weight + 0.2017 x age) / 4.184
      Women: C/min = (-20.4022 + 0.4472 x HR - 0.1263 x weight + 0.074 x age) / 4.184

      where weight is in kilograms and C stands for Kcals.
      Source: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm

      Those calculations are only valid for steady-state aerobic effort, at a minimum of 30-40% of VO2 max—and even then will vary quite a bit.

      It is pointless to use something like this for massage—the movement is completely different, the muscle action is different, HR can be affected by things—temperature, changes in body position, for example—that have zero effect on calorie burn.
    • Posts: 176 Member
      I log about 300 calories/hr for a massage. Depending on which essential oil is in the diffuser, this number can go up or 10%.

      Measure with a micrometer, cut with an ax.
    • Posts: 9 Member
      Wow, thanks for the input everyone! I haven't done formulas since high school algebra, LOL! Seems too complicated to fuss with it. I was just curious. ☺
    • Posts: 4,838 Member
      Since you're doing a physically demanding job, then I would agree with increasing your activity setting on MFP. There's just not always an easy way to measure your calorie burn at work. If you lose more slowly or quickly than expected, you can always readjust.
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