How do you measure working out with weights?

[Given]

How do you measure working out with weights? 

[Colinm39]

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@Given wrote:

How do you measure working out with weights? 

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@GivenYou Log, Activities and  enter a manual activity by entering Weight into the database search area and select the one of three that you rerquire. Try that

[guyburton]

Morning or Evening..

I typically dont log any of my weights workouts.. I dont think the time is worth the accuray of each recording as the variables are far too high ie: Your weight, body mass, muscle mass, length of arm/leg etc all play in to factors when calculating energy expenditure during workouts.. and MFP and Fitbit are so generic I dont think its' worth while.

I record cardio (outside of walking) ie: Ice Hockey, Jogging manually but everything else i just use as a bonus.

Two things I wont record eating or doing: Weight Lifting or Eating Raw Veggies 🙂

Best of Luck,

[slysam]

Kind of cumbersome, but my preferred way to track and estimate weight workouts is the Spark People Activity Tracker. You enter the exercise, sets, reps, weight used and time working during the exercise (not rest time). It estimates a calorie burn base on your stats and the accepted intensity for that exercise. I add my rest time as "yoga, general stretching". I do this because it has a low calorie burn, I want the duration to match my actual duration, and because I actually do dynamic stretching (often mini yoga flows) during my rest time. I log that as my calorie burn. I find it believable because it is generally higher than if I log "weight training, light to moderate effort) here and lower than if I were to log "weight training, vigorous effort". I have the Spark People app on my phone so I can log the exercises during my first rest for each exercise. I log the total here. Usually the number it gives me is actually pretty similar to my heart rate monitors estimate. So why I prefer this? HRM's are not really designed to track anaerobic exercise like strength training. That and the record this method gives is very useful. If I feel lazy, I use the calorie burn from a similar, recent workout rather than entering each exercise and set. It is helpful to do a detailed log frequently though as it is nice having a record of my progression. And I often forget which weights I used previously.

[slysam]

I did experiment for a month of not logging non-step workouts and following my Fitbit allowance. I lost weight faster than expected on paper--so I definitely was burning more than Fitbit estimated. I do log non-step exercise (usually, sometimes I don't bother). Otherwise my allowance is very low--ie 1000 calories, 1200 if I am lucky on a day when I didn't do any step based cardio. If I swam, did circuit training, went to spin class, etc then I would feel very weak and hungry on that allowance. The month I didn't log, my nonstep activity was fairly moderate intensity--pilates, yoga, a couple strength workouts a week. So if you need to may depend on how much nonstep activity you are doing and how vigorous it is. And also what your allowance would be like without logging. For me the sweet spot seems to currently be 1400-1600 calories allowance (in terms of my feeling, and results long term) and to see that I need to log my non-step exercise.

[VinceD]

I have an inexpensive heart rate monitor, Synch HR chest strap, and wear that during my workouts.  It synchs to Mapmyfitness and that will in turn report the calorie burn to the fitbit app.  Its a little cumbersome, but rather than have the fitbit estimate my workout based on telling it I am doing strength training.  Will give you an appreciation for the calories burned doing a few sets ofd squats as well.

[Heybales]

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@VinceD wrote:

I have an inexpensive heart rate monitor, Synch HR chest strap, and wear that during my workouts.  It synchs to Mapmyfitness and that will in turn report the calorie burn to the fitbit app.  Its a little cumbersome, but rather than have the fitbit estimate my workout based on telling it I am doing strength training.  Will give you an appreciation for the calories burned doing a few sets ofd squats as well.

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Sadly the calorie burn calculations that are associated with HR is ONLY valid in steady-state aerobic exercise, same HR for 2-4 min.

NOT anaerobic and non-steady-state like lifting should be. The increased HR there has nothing to do with increased needs to get oxygen. During the rest while it's inflated it does, but standing there breathing deep hardly needs the calorie burn of a HR probably 60-80 higher than normal standing resting causes.

So you are actually getting inflated calorie burn, likely 2 x what is it.

Because actually the database entry is more accurate than your HRM.

But then again, the database entry for Weights is more than you get credit for based on steps, which is vastly under-estimated.

[bullchow]

Personally, I think that all calorie estimates are just that - to give you an idea of what you are doing - there is no way it can be 100% accurate becuase of the number of elements involved.  That said - an estimate of calories burned during wieght lifting is better than trying to guess.  I use a site called fit click - where I select the weight lifting exercise and other parameters - it gives me an estimate on each execise and then I enter the total based on a 45min to 1 hour weightlifting session,  This way I have an idea as to whether I need to increase or decrease my calorie intake and a better estimate of what I burned.  Now what I would like is the fit bit to be able to do that for me - set up a timer - like for the sleep log, enter the workout you plan on doing - the fit bit should be able to sense the increase and decrease on pulse rate and do a generic calculation based on the database that fit click uses -  that would be helpful  Again - we need to realize that all or these tools are just that tools and they are not 100% acurate but they are a good indicator or activity and estimate of calories burned each day - I particularly like the heart rate monitor because I tend to do a lot of circuits during my weight lifting to keep my heart rate elevated...

[TandemWalker]

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@Given wrote:

How do you measure working out with weights? 

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I like this site - weight lifting is there, under Exercise (Lifting Weights). I use it all the time to get a reasonable estimate for custom activities.

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

 TW  

[Heybales]

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@TandemWalker wrote:

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@Given wrote:

How do you measure working out with weights? 

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I like this site - weight lifting is there, under Exercise (Lifting Weights). I use it all the time to get a reasonable estimate for custom activities.

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

 TW  

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That's actually the same database as most of the sites use, MFP, Fitbit, others.

Besides Fitbit, that's one of the few that actually uses your BMR in the calculation, making it a tad better.

They do include some of the entries that Fitbit has been removing lately, so that's nice. But I noticed Fitbit had a couple they don't.

They all get the database from here.

1 MET being your resting calorie burn, which is actually a tad higher than BMR that Fitbit and that site are using.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxjb21wZW5kaXVtb2ZwaHlzaWNhbGFjd...

[TandemWalker]

@Heybales - Yes, I know. Actually, I only use that web site for custom activities. I think Fitbit was a little over zealous in its trimming, throwing away some of the meat along with the fat. While this is certainly not a showstopper for me, as long as the 'custom activity' functionality remains, it makes the user experience a little less pleasant.

 TW  

[stabja]

I have to say, doing a high intensity squat session will burn more calories than running 3-5 miles, so not recording it would be cutting yourself short. Try squatting a century set with at least your body weight on your shoulders 🙂 You won't be able to walk for a week. If you want to lean up quickly - weightlighting is the only way to go. I have been exercising in one manner or another for over 35 years and weightlighting has to be part of your plan. Good luck and keep pushing forward.  

[Dominique]

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@stabja wrote:

I have to say, doing a high intensity squat session will burn more calories than running 3-5 miles, so not recording it would be cutting yourself short. Try squatting a century set with at least your body weight on your shoulders 🙂 

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I would run 5 miles in about 50 minutes and burn 500+ calories. What would a "high intensity squat session" look like? I can see myself doing 3-4 sets with 10-12 reps (though not with my body weight on my shoulders!) and that would take me maybe 10 minutes (including pauses between sets), but no way I'd burn 500 calories doing that. Not saying lifting is not useful (it is), but burning more calories doing it than in cardio is definitely challenging.

[bullchow]

The pint behind the question - regardless of how many calories - they are
still calories burned and need to be recorded in order to be a little more
realistic about your plans


Kathy Jacobsen
Rely-A-Bull Bulldogs