Does strength training burn no calories??

Any physical activity burns calories. How many calories burned will vary depending on the type of activity you are doing. I wear a heart rate monitor while doing my strength-training workouts. Certain strength-training activities get my heart rate really going, such as squats and lunges. Others (some of the upper body work) keep me in more of a fat-burning zone. When I do a full hour of strength-training, rotating between exercises that do get my heart rate up and those that only moderately increase my heart rate, I typically burn 400-600 calories. You absolutely do burn calories when you weight train. It's a great way to burn fat since the lower heart rate zones are your fat-burning zones.

When I enter my strength-training workouts to MFP, I add them as cardiovascular exercises so I can record the burned calories. I am not really concerned with tracking how many reps I did on 15-20 different weight-training activities. That would take too long to enter. It's easier for me to enter a cardiovascular activity titled "Strength-Training, Full Body" with the time and calories burned.

The reason that strength training doesn't 'count' here is because there is no way to accurately judge. I may be lifting 10 to 20 pound dumbells while you may be lifting 45 - 50 pound bars, etc. and doing basically the same exercises, but burning different calories, etc. So they allow you to log it to track that you have done it, but they can't 'guess' at what you have actually burned... too many variables.

Exactly. The only way to know how many calories you've burned during a strength-training workout is to wear a heart rate monitor that calculates calories. That's what I do.

It would seem a HRM is the only way to accurately measure. Even execution of the routines vary so widely there is no way to create a standard measure.

Some of the d'bags at the gym spend so much time alternating between staring at themselves in the mirror and making eyes at the cardio bunnies I am sure that even though they spend hours at the gym their burn is less than it would have been sitting on the sofa.

You should definitely do a mix of both...cardio is a huge calorie burner but weight lifting isn't anything to slack off on! I wear my heart rate monitor while I lift, and while it's not quite as high as cardio, I burn plenty of calories. Plus building muscle has added benefits for calorie burning because muscle burns more calories than fat at rest. So while MFP may not count it for the multitude of reasons here, which are good points, have no fear you're still burning the cals!

It would seem a HRM is the only way to accurately measure. Even execution of the routines vary so widely there is no way to create a standard measure.

Some of the d'bags at the gym spend so much time alternating between staring at themselves in the mirror and making eyes at the cardio bunnies I am sure that even though they spend hours at the gym their burn is less than it would have been sitting on the sofa.

A customizable HRM is a good measure of cals burned.

I agree on the people staring in the mirror - they are lifting 10x as much weight as I am, but my avg HR is around 130 during my sessions since I alternate between muscle groups or circuit type activities (med ball, plyo, burpees, etc.). I have ZERO patience, so when I finish a set of 6 reps bench, I run over to the standing ab frame and do ab crunches, then run back and do another set. When I do squats, I run over to the mat and do crunches with a med ball, etc... No downtime. Certainly no mirror - there is time for that at home.

Greg

I agree, crosstraining with little rest between sets is the way I do it too. Way more efficient.

like above,.... but ... you dont burn that many in comparison to cardio at all during strength training. but... muscle burns fat, so you should do it for sure!

Strength training continues to burn calories hours after you are done. Cardio does not.

Actually cardio does continue to burn calories after you are done. Do HIIT and get even better results after you are done.

Just a wee side note here bout cardio...if you go on the treadmill and walk on an incline of 15 at around 6kmph then you burn around 1000 calories an hour.

I do weights but try to incorporate a bit of cardio into my session but I mostly do HIIT

^^ My HITT aint that long its maybe only 10 mins of jogging 1 min then running 1 min

If you go to the cardio database and scroll down you'l see strength training click it and I think it registers calories burned