Kickboxing (Muay Thai) class calories burned question

[ericwindmill]

Hey there. 

One form of "exercise" I do is muay thai. But it's a class. Sometimes we sweat like crazy, sometimes we're learning and doing drills. Sometimes we do heavy bag work, and sometimes we don't. About the only form of exercise that I know I'll be doing each day is warming up with jumping rope, calestenics and possible burpees. 

Does anyone have an advice on how many calories I'm burning while doing a martial arts class and not martial arts fighting. (Actually fighting is exhausting.)

I recently got a fitbit flex 2 to help me get into fighting shape (aka burn body fat while retaining muscle), and I'm hoping to track it pretty accurately.

[MBfitness]

It's all going to differ week to week, depending on the intensity and duration of activity. In an hour exercise class, you could be looking at anywhere from about 200-600 calories. The best way to get an accurate reading would be with a fitbit that has a heart rate tracker so it can record exactly what kind of effort you're expending. But as long as you're enjoying the exercise and getting moving, the exact number of calories isn't important!

[Dominique]

I agree with @MBfitness having an HR-enabled Fitbit would provide some additional information about the intensity of your activity. However, non-HR-enabled Fitbit are usually good at detecting impacts and the intensity of your movements, so my guess is your Flex 2 should work for Thai boxing.

You may also want to have a look at the Compendium of Physical Activities, which gives a METs of 10.3 (which is pretty high) for a number of martial arts, including Muay Thai boxing:

Multiply the METs by your BMR per minute (= BMR divided by 1440) and the duration (in minutes) of your activity and compare that to what your Flex 2 reports when logging the activity.

I’ve watched fights while in Thailand and I can confirm it’s pretty intense stuff .

[keything]

My recommendation would be to use a chest strap Heart Rate Monitor to track your heart rate and calories burned.  I have a Fitbit Charge HR and an Under Armour Heart Rate monitor which I use

when doing the UFC Fit program which replicates a lot of the warm-ups and punch/kick/elbow drills in a typical martial arts class.  I have found that the calorie burned calculation by the Fitbit is usually off by about 200-300 calories during a 45 minute workout.  The UA chest strap monitor registers that I burned about 600 calories whereas my Fitbit Charge HR would indicate about 300 calories burned.  I would tend to believe the UA chest HR monitor because my heart is practically bursting out of my chest during the workout and the UA HR monitor says my average HR is around 145-150, whereas the Fitbit reports 100-105.