How many calories does lifting weights use?

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

So I'm planning on doing some research on this to really drill into my diet early next year and any input would be appreciated. My initial thought is that it will be hard to pin down because I suspect most of the energy used up due to lifting weights will be used by the recovery processes to rebuild muscle, which will vary widely with rep schemes, weight used, and even experience and how far removed you are from noob gains. The calories burned during the actual workout period and work being done I suspect are relatively low comparatively, for high intensity (% 1RM) anyway.

Worst case scenario I figure it will be a person to person, case by case thing and I'll just have to analyze the data and figure it out over time.

[guest439437484421]

I'm curious about this as well.

[msuroo]

I'm pretty sure Waldo (who has this nailed down as well as anybody) just uses the MFP calorie burn for calisthenics for his strength training. As long as you track your results, any difference vs actual just falls out in your BMR calculation anyway.

[Blueberries]

Worst case scenario I figure it will be a person to person, case by case thing and I'll just have to analyze the data and figure it out over time.

This is my best guess, but it would certainly be an interesting study.

I'm pretty sure Waldo (who has this nailed down as well as anybody) just uses the MFP calorie burn for calisthenics for his strength training. As long as you track your results, any difference vs actual just falls out in your BMR calculation anyway.

I do basically the same, using what LoseIt gives me based on doing "Weight Lifting (Light/Moderate)" for whatever (estimated) amount of time I spent lifting. I figure that it's not highly accurate, but better than nothing.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

I'm pretty sure Waldo (who has this nailed down as well as anybody) just uses the MFP calorie burn for calisthenics for his strength training. As long as you track your results, any difference vs actual just falls out in your BMR calculation anyway.

This is what I thought too but if I change up rep schemes and intensity it wouldn't work that way as it would just change my BMR for no reason. MFP is great for calisthenics which have well established values for caloric burn because it is highly aerobic and the burn can be measured through measuring the "exhaust" exhaled. With the high load on repair systems for lifting weights, the calories burned during the actual workout would likely not even account for half the total.

[Waldo]

I look at it like this.

The actual burn during lifting via almost any high effort lifting scheme can be captured with the high effort callisthenics entry in MFP. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 cal/hr for me. I use the light effort entry for warmup stuff.

The calorie burn is fairly constant across schemes with high effort as with high effort you aren't lollygagging, you are going as fast as your body can handle for the particular scheme. Whether that is low rep squat sets with 5 minutes between sets, or high rep pushups with a minute between sets. You are still working at your maximal physical output.

That entry may be an underestimate if you are working the typical NF way with mostly compound work (BW or weights). The chemical reaction that creates energy from sugar/fat is significantly more efficient when it uses oxygen (18x more efficient). Thus the cardio/lifting comparison isn't great, lifting is a gas guzzer. I've used this analogy before...if your glucose/fat supply is gasoline, jogging is like driving a Prius down the interstate, strength training is like drag racing with a Hummer.

On top of the burn during exercise, there is also the recovery cost. For me when I'm in a trained state, that is in the process of recovering from strength training full body (should take 2-3-4-5 days to recover, depending on how you work and ability), my BMR rises about 10% or so. When trained my non-exercise daily calorie burn is about 2800 cal. When untrained its about 2500 cal. It may have actually risen higher than that as of late, it could be closer to 20% as I've gotten stronger, its been unexplainably high in the last 5 weeks (3200 cal/day), which could be my body adapting to a surplus (the opposite of what happens to people who diet a long time), or it could be an increase in the caloric recovery cost from strength training. Dunno.

Other people I've talked to that keep detailed records like me and keep track of this sort of thing tend to see a 10-15% rise in BMR when in a trained state.