strength training and calories

indisguise
indisguise Posts: 235
edited November 10 in Fitness and Exercise
I have a noobish question: Does strength training burn calories or not? And if so, how do I figure out how many calories I burned? When I go to the gym, I use several different machines (pecfly, hip abduction, leg press, etc.) in addition to the stationary bike - but when I come here and enter it all in, the only one counting calories is the bike. I feel like I had to have burned at least a few calories using the strength machines, but they don't have calorie counters on them and the site doesn't register them as calorie burning either...
Any help appreciated, thanks!

Replies

  • mhotch
    mhotch Posts: 901 Member
    You need to track strength training under the cardio section.
  • KareninCanada
    KareninCanada Posts: 962 Member
    Absolutely. Under Cardio, look for Strength Training and it will give you a number to punch in... it's not really accurate, but it's something. LiveStrong.com has a page about this, too: http://www.livestrong.com/article/338469-how-to-calculate-calories-burned-weight-lifting/
  • indisguise
    indisguise Posts: 235
    Ahhh! Thank you so much!
  • ask4itall
    ask4itall Posts: 37
    The answer to your question is - YES...strength training burns calories...and believe it or not...it burns more calories than the same amount of time invested in cardio work like the "dread-mill."

    Here's why...when you build lean muscle mas (strength training)....you essentially cause your metabolism to work hours and hours after the exercise is finished; whereas, when you're doing cardio...you're burning calories while doing the exercise but as soon as you stop...the calorie burn stops.

    A 20-30 minute weight-lifting routine 3-4x/week will result in burning more calories than 30-minutes of cardio 5x/week.

    Good luck and let me know if I can help!!


    Ciao!!
  • carlie_carl
    carlie_carl Posts: 285
    The answer to your question is - YES...strength training burns calories...and believe it or not...it burns more calories than the same amount of time invested in cardio work like the "dread-mill."

    Here's why...when you build lean muscle mas (strength training)....you essentially cause your metabolism to work hours and hours after the exercise is finished; whereas, when you're doing cardio...you're burning calories while doing the exercise but as soon as you stop...the calorie burn stops.

    A 20-30 minute weight-lifting routine 3-4x/week will result in burning more calories than 30-minutes of cardio 5x/week.

    Good luck and let me know if I can help!!


    Ciao!!

    Couldnt have put it better than that, check out Elliot Hulse on youtube, he goes into great detail how strengh training can burn more than cardio, good luck
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