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Calories burned during strength training

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  • Calories burned during strength training

    Hello,

    Is there a way to know how many calories each strength training exercise burns? I'm fairly new to lifting and was just wonder so I can enter this information into MFP.

    Thank you.

  • #2
    Originally posted by joey2x View Post
    Hello,

    Is there a way to know how many calories each strength training exercise burns? I'm fairly new to lifting and was just wonder so I can enter this information into MFP.

    Thank you.
    Joey,

    Look into getting a heart rate monitor. I got one from Polar that's a chest strap that transmits through Bluetooth to my phone. It has an app that runs in the background that you can get your calorie count from after your workout is done. I was really surprised at my calorie count, I was definitely underestimating how much I was burning until I got my HRM. Definitely worth the money and hopefully at some point in the future they might integrate it into a future Jefit app. Honestly though, totally worth the money. I got mine for $60 on Amazon. It's the HR7 if you're interested. Good luck!

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    • #3
      Mfp

      I think it's easiest to enter strength training as a cardio exercise in MyFitnessPal. If you look up "strength training" in the MFP database, you can then enter the time you worked out and it does a reasonable job at estimating calories burned. It isn't precise, but it's good enough for comparison with food intake. As others have said, you'll probably be disappointed in the relatively low number of pure calories burned during a weightlifting session, but remember that you are building muscle and improving your overall metabolic state, so don't get discouraged!

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      • #4
        There are way too many parameters for precise number. It depends not just on the weights and reps, but how fast you lift (when you do 1 second up and 2 seconds down you probably burn less than doing 1 second up, 2 second hold, and 3 second down), how long are your breaks, and on the sequence of exercises as well. There's something called "death circuit" when you do a circuit of 3-5 heavy lifts, for example deadlift, bench press, squat, and row. Do a set of each, then back to the beginning and repeat 5-10 times. Since these exercises involve large muscles, the blood is pumped up and down into different body parts in succession, so the heart works a lot more than when you first do all deadlifts, then all squats, then bench presses, then rows. So, a well-constructed circuit would burn more than its separate components. Then there's a post-exercise effect - your base metabolic rate (the BMR) is higher, so for anywhere between 24 and 72 hours after your workout you burn more calories.

        If you're a beginner, you shouldn't be too concerned about how many calories you burn during exercise, get yourself a good workout and concentrate on proper technique. What I do to gauge my diet (and it works) - I just record the food I consume, and see how much I weight and what's my body fat percentage at least three times a week. If I don't change, then I'm spot on, and I adjust my diet based on my goals. This way I don't have to second-guess how many calories I bur during workout, what is my BMR, and how long is my post-exercise window.

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        • #5
          get a heartratemonitorwatch with chestband. The cheapest will do as long as you can program it with your age, weight and sex. +-20 euro

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          • #6
            HRM for Strength training

            While a heart rate monitor (HRM) can be used to calculate calories burned during aerobic workouts, the relationship between heart rate and calorie expenditure is not the same during a strength training workout. So whatever your HRM may tell you, is likely inflated because it thinks you're doing cardio (not strength training).

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