Burning calories lifting weights

manolocort
manolocort Posts: 1 Member
edited November 28 in Fitness and Exercise
Hey guys, I am lifting weights several times a day and my goal is to get a lean cut, but I can’t figure out how many calories I am burning. Any suggestions in how to keep track with this? It will really help me!
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Replies

  • Hogan1956
    Hogan1956 Posts: 13 Member
    Its listed under cardio exercises(strength training), tell MFP how many minutes, and it will add the calories for you based on your weight.
  • taunto_
    taunto_ Posts: 91 Member
    Calculate your TDEE (I like the calculator on http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ the rest of the website is crap but the calculator is pretty good) and work with that. Make custom workout and count only 1 calorie for all your workouts (though its not really needed, it just helps you with the logging your exercise part).

    This way you're working with your overall fitness level and the calories burned typically. I have found working with TDEE much better than using the calories mentioned in MFP database since I have found the calories can be upto 30% off from the real burn. If you prefer accurate calories burned, there are devices for measuring your calories burned.

    Hope this helps.

    Stay crunchy.
  • candicew70
    candicew70 Posts: 74 Member
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    Blackwatch2000 wrote: »
    kami3006 wrote: »
    candicew70 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    aside from the calorie burning why are you lifting several times a day? once a day for 30-60 min is sufficient enough if lifiting heavy(proper form is needed of course).

    This ^^. And I wouldn't bother trying to track calories burned during weight lifting. It's inconsequential, and it's not the reason one lift weights.

    I don't lift for calories but I track them and eat them because having the extra food helps with my recovery and my lifts. I feel a distinct difference when I don't add them in. I'm petite and a couple hundred calories make a big difference.

    I agree. It make a difference for me as well.

    And I will third the sentiment. I can't lift and be active without eating my lifting calories. Lethargy, through lack of adequate fuelling, is not pleasant.

    Cheers, h.

    Agreed--you want to eat more when you lift, especially protein. I guess I meant that the actual calories burned from lifting is going to be low (compared to cardio). And I think on MFP you have to enter in individual exercises, which is the answer to the OP's question. I think you could also just add in a "generic" calories burned (which, depending on how much you weigh, could be 100 calories for a half hour). Tracking calories burned from weight training though seems like (imo) treating it like its cardio, and it's not. If you lift weights for an hour, you need a different kind of recovery meal than if you ran for an hour.
  • kjm3579
    kjm3579 Posts: 3,974 Member
    I have a setting on my Garmin 920XT for strength training that just tracks time and heart rate -- that will give me an estimate of how much my body has been working during lifting as far as cardio.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    candicew70 wrote: »
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    aside from the calorie burning why are you lifting several times a day? once a day for 30-60 min is sufficient enough if lifiting heavy(proper form is needed of course).

    This ^^. And I wouldn't bother trying to track calories burned during weight lifting. It's inconsequential, and it's not the reason one lift weights.

    So do you also not track the calories in a banana because the calories are inconsequential?

    I don't eat bananas so no to that one, but I will say that when putting in a recipe in the recipe calculator I won't include things like fish sauce because the calories in a two tbsp of fish sauce (~12 calories) in a recipe that will end up being four servings is inconsequential. If I had a reason to track sodium then I would, but don't and thus.
  • clintonfry
    clintonfry Posts: 2 Member


    @clintonfry
    It's really not possible to estimate outside a sports science lab and the numbers are most likely going to be tiny.

    https://bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/research-review-effects-of-exercise-intensity-and-duration-on-the-excess-post-exercise-oxygen-consumption.html/[/quote]

    this is another interesting issue. i have been reading articles like the one that you linked that indicates the recovery burn is less than previously thought. but that doesn't reconcile the anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

    ive struggle with weight maintenence on and off for the last decade. and i can observe much better weight loss results with heavy lifting (60%-70% of max) and mild cardio than with just cardio. but I'm pretty heavy. is this possibly a "diminishing returns" sort of deal?

    what i mean is: can the afterburn effect be more pronounced in people who are further away from "ideal" body mass? and the closer to ideal that you get, the less the afterburn effect is?
  • jsong123
    jsong123 Posts: 4 Member
    Maybe I should take this class: https://www.coursera.org/lecture/science-exercise/7-fat-metabolism-during-exercise-LKsKa
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    As accurately measuring calories spent lifting is incredibly difficult (weight, and distance moving the weight are major factors). I did a "best guess estimate" of what I thought I averaged on lifting days as leg day burns a lot more for me than upper body: I lift more weight with my legs than arms and the distance I move the weight is greater as well, therefore I used a guesstimate average. I started with 250 calories. Then I just monitored my expected weight loss. If I was losing faster than expected, I know I was undereatimating. Losing slower = overestimating. Turns out I was fairly accurate. So on lifting days I add 250 exercise calories to my day. As I'm doing more strength maintenance than trying to build (I'm eating at a 250cal/day deficit), I'm not trying to increase the weights.
  • belladamjc
    belladamjc Posts: 55 Member
    I tried 'eating back exercise calories' using MFP's numbers and found my weight went up. Now I log the exercise (both cardio and strength) so I can note the changes over time, but I ignore them completely from a food perspective and my weight loss is steady but still short of target. I do try and hit my protein goal to limit muscle wastage in the process.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    I usually use cardo-->circuit training.

    But, it totally depends on how you lift weights. If you take significant breaks between sets (which is not necessarily bad), you will not burn many calories (although you may gain strength). If you are really pushing through the various lifts (such that you maintain an elevated heart rate) then you will burn some extra calories.

    Also, my experience from years of lifting weights is that "afterburn" is a small effect.

    Cardo activities are the calorie burners. And even medium-effort cardio burns significant calories if done for many hours.
  • joemac1988
    joemac1988 Posts: 1,021 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Not many. That's not why you're lifting. You're lifting to preserve or build muscle.

    If you enter it into MFP under cardio it will give you a guess.

    Not many? I burn more calories on an intense leg day or doing volume deadlifts than by doing the same time of HIIT.
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    joemac1988 wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Not many. That's not why you're lifting. You're lifting to preserve or build muscle.

    If you enter it into MFP under cardio it will give you a guess.

    Not many? I burn more calories on an intense leg day or doing volume deadlifts than by doing the same time of HIIT.

    And you are also not the average person working out in the gym...
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