strength training vs weight lifting vs weights vs workout

[karolinaxooox]

I have the Versa 4 since yesterday ! I took it for the first time at the gym today while I was doing my workout. I selected the exercise type as Strength Training. I'm nearly 90kg and the workout was 45 min. I burnt nearly 400 calories and I wasn't sure if this stat was accurate.

I used some dumbbells, cable machines and barbell plates. I wasn't sure if my workout would fall under weight lifting or weights or a simple workout when I select the exercise type on my Fitbit.

Any opinions about this? I want to get the most accurate stats when I'm at the gym.

Thanks 😄

[JohnnyRow]

It really shouldn't matter as far as calorie burn. That is based just on heart rate.  The workout type selected is mainly for your own historic reference.

Here's the only thing Fitbit has to say about this:

[Dopovo]

If you want the most accurate calories tracking when you do weight lifting abandon Fitbit and use a HR chest strap such as the Polar H10. You can then associate it with your phone, no need for a watch, and you can use also an app to track your exercises.

[t-parker · Accepted solution]

@Dopovo one clarification, that would be most accurate HR tracking but not calories tracking. Anaerobic activities like weight lifting (or in my case, also rock climbing) usually, if based on HR, provide very so-so estimation of burnt calories. There is a simple reason for that. When you perform the set you perform work (in physical sense) HR elevates and after the set you rest for a while (doing no work, no outputing joules/watts). It takes HR a few moments to settle down but that doesn't mean you burn anything but resting (maybe resting plus some irrelevant peanuts from using mobile phone like most people in the gym 🤣). Also, there is a case when calories may be lower when set is too short to elevate HR. Physically, lifting X lbs you perform always the same work, producing same output of energy but HR will not be constant (that's why power meters on bikes, smart trainers, rowing machines etc. are considered as most accurate energy output estimators). That's why most accurate (or rather most consistent because hard to speak of accuracy without ground-truth reference, although could be compared with power meters for some activities) calorie count usually counts from steady state activities because HR follows effort closest (and that not always). Bottom line is that calories from weight training are not that relevant (as well could be random) and usually we burn less than we think. Heart in that case doesn't follow physics so well.

[Dopovo]

Excellent clarification, thanks.