How should I log bodyweight/body toning workouts?

[HopeGraceLove]

Hello! Almost a month with my Fitbit Flex and it's really motivating me to be more active. I didn't realize how sedentary I was until I had to reach 10,000 steps. Wowzers! Well, I'm getting there most days, but not without some effort.

I'm not sure, however, how I should log a body toning class I'm participating in. It's 45 minutes of lunges, squats, planks, push ups, ankle bands, some hand weights, crunches, leg lifts, and any host of other exercises. There is no "bodyweight or toning" pre-set category, yet I know they should be active minutes based on the sweating, huffing, and puffing going on. But that time isn't registering on my Fitbit, and there aren't many steps being logged during that time either.

For now I've just been logging it as "weights" but wasn't sure if that was the most accurate.

Any suggestions?

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

Maybe you could use Calisthenics?

Here is what the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide gives:

calisthenics (e.g., push ups, sit ups, pull-ups, jumping jacks), vigorous effort: 8.0 METs (*)
calisthenics, (e.g., push ups, sit ups, pull-ups, lunges), moderate effort: 3.8 METs
calisthenics (e.g., situps, abdominal crunches), light effort: 2.8 METs
calisthenics, light or moderate effort, general (e.g., back exercises), going up & down from floor (Taylor Code 150): 3.5 METs

(*) For additional info about Fitbit & METs, see this article.

[chrisxr2]

There is no such thing as toning up.It is a modern myth.

[HopeGraceLove]

Dominique, you answered my question. Thank you!!! I wanted to know how to log the time doing the exercises, which should still clearly be active minutes. 

Chris... As far as toning being a myth, I respectfully disagree, but that disagreement is based on my personal experience and the results of seeing defined muscles in my arms and core that I couldn't see before. Perhaps a better term we could agree on is strength training, which has also been a result. Either way, I enjoy the class and will continue taking it. 🙂 Have a great day!

[Dominique]

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@chrisxr2 wrote:

There is no such thing as toning up.It is a modern myth.

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Regardless, it's still a workout that is going to be mostly unnoticed by Fitbit (since it's not step-based for the most part), so it's legitimate to want to log it as an activity.

[DominicJ]

I probably wouldnt bother.

The actual calorie burn in that will be insignificant.

From a weightlifting point of view, a k/cal is a fantastic amount of energy.

Lifting a 200kg weight 2m is about one k/cal, and thats the world record more or less.

[Mickib]

When I entered calisthenics, it showed that I burned over 2,000 calories for my 20 min. workout.  I entered the time I started and the time I ended.  Even though I work hard, I doubt that I burned that many calories.

Is there another way of entering my crunches?

Micki

[Raviv]

It's going to vary widely depending on a lot of factors, including just how fast you're doing them.  2,000 sounds like a lot, though.

I found this without too much effort:

"The number of calories burned doing exercise ball crunches is minimal. Sixty seconds of crunches only burns about five calories for a 155-pound person, according to HealthStatus.com. Doing crunches on an exercise ball may slightly increase the number of calories burned due to the fact you must balance yourself on the ball, and that may burn additional calories. Nonetheless, it would take 20 minutes of moderately-paced crunches each day just to burn 100 calories."

[Heybales]

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@Mickib wrote:

When I entered calisthenics, it showed that I burned over 2,000 calories for my 20 min. workout.  I entered the time I started and the time I ended.  Even though I work hard, I doubt that I burned that many calories.

Is there another way of entering my crunches?

Micki

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So when you make an activity record to view the stats the Fitbit came up with - you title it yourself.

When you manually enter a workout you pick an exercise from the database or create your own.

I can't decide on what you did exactly to have this issue.

Entering 2 times instead of time and duration sounds like Activity record.

In which case, indeed, 2000 calorie burn in 20 min is impossible. But it should have shown steps and distance that Fitbit saw and calculated too in there.

What were those figures, since that's what calories was based on - distance and time?

And yes, using the database entry of calisthenics where you enter start time and duration would be more honest level if you are getting tons of false steps. I'd actually think you'd get under-reported steps and calorie burn, and manual workout logging would give you better estimate anyway.

[BunnyHop]

Interesting perspective.

My weight workout is similar to the OP and it burns ~400 calories an hour because the pace is high and heart rate is in the aerobic zone once beyond the warm up phase.  I usually log it as 350 calories.

Maybe the calorie consumption of the lower citations are based on a slow paced, non-aerobic workout with large rest periods or a single rep.