Fitbit: calorie burn for strength training

sorchaedwards1991
sorchaedwards1991 Posts: 19 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hiya

I do around 4 strength training sessions a week for around a 45 minute mark.
Am just wondering if people find the Fitbit calorie burn for strength training to be fairly accurate? It seems to be between 200-300 calories for a 45 minute work out. I'm just concerned that its over estimating

Thanks

Replies

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    For strength training 200-300 seems high, probably half that, if even.
  • pkilbour
    pkilbour Posts: 6 Member
    its entirely dependant upon your size, how hard you are lifting, and how long your rest beaks are. if you are doing light lifting you are doing to burn an awful lot less than if you are doing 80% of max deadlifts.
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 600 Member
    I used to think that, now I just use the Circuit Training setting and the burns seem more realistic.
  • mrsloganlife
    mrsloganlife Posts: 158 Member
    I do strength training as well and depending on what I am doing that day I will burn around 125 calories for a 35 minute session. Although today I was doing a more intensive workout with less of a rest period and ended up burning 233 calories (and it also took 40 min) by the time it was said and done.
  • katnadreau
    katnadreau Posts: 149 Member
    I don't trust my calisthenics/strength training burn on Fitbit, mostly because I know I'm only working for maybe half the time (the other half is spent resting), so I just manually adjust the intensity level down by about half when I log it. Yea, I'm pushing myself as hard as I can, but only for about 12- 15 minutes of the 33 minute workout.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    Strength training really is difficult to nail down. It burns so few calories during... but helps you burn more calories throughout the day.

    My honest suggestion has always been to simply not log strength training at all. It's benefits are more for making the body look nicer after losing fat and retaining muscle mass than anything else. So, still useful.

    Best thing to do is go ahead and not log it. Then, look at your weekly weight loss and check if its matching expectations as if you didn't strength train. If you find yourself losing weight faster than expected, then you can do some simply math to find extra calories to add in.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Mithridites wrote: »
    I used to think that, now I just use the Circuit Training setting and the burns seem more realistic.

    Circuits burn more than strength training because there is cardio intervals.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Mine seems fairly accurate...I usually get in the neighborhood of 160-180 calories for 30 minutes or so. My program at the moment includes a lot of super setting with my accessory work and limited rest. I do get weird outliers every once in awhile...like it told me I burned almost 300 calories for 30 minutes the other day...I deleted it and entered my session in manually.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    edited March 2018
    Does your session not include the calories you burn just by being alive. Of course it does. So how many extra calories are you really getting (that would be a manual calculation).

    You can look at your saved activity summary for the average per minute activity burn your Fitbit assigned and compare that to your BMR per minute burn to figure out how many extra calories you got.

    Or just let it do its job automatically without extra input from you. Assuming your heart rate doesn't shoot up through the roof leading to a blatantly excessive overcalculation it is all part of the multiple errors and uncertainty our calculations have.

    You can adjust for an overall error by reviewing your trending weight results after a few weeks.

    Mine is less than 5% in any 2+ month time period these past 3 years.

    For perspective you are discussing a time period equal to 2% of your week.

    I note that if you input the activity manually on mfp you are actively overiding what Fitbit detected during the time period and telling it to use your value if integration is enabled in full.

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