How many calories does strength training burn in one hour?

Generally speaking, the calorie consumption of an average bodybuilder for one hour of strength training ranges from 200 to 600 calories, and the fluctuation can be up to 3 times, depending on your weight and training status.

Last week I met a young girl who was new to the gym. She weighed 51 kilograms. She always had to sit there and check her friends circle for messages between sets. In one hour, she practiced 4 sets of hip thrusts, 3 sets of high pull-downs with fixed equipment, and two sets of light-weight arm curls. The ordinary sports watch she wore measured only 227 calories, which was not as high in calories as the bottle of orange-flavored sports drink she drank before training. Turning around, I looked at the eldest brother in our gym who often trains legs. He weighed 78kg. He was aiming for a deadlift PR that day. He did back squats, Bulgarian scissor squats, and leg raises in rotation. He rested for a minute and a half at most between sets. He didn’t even bother to wipe himself with a towel during the whole process. Later, he measured 590 calories with a watch with EMG monitoring. The difference between the two of them was more than double.

Speaking of measurement values, there has been a debate in the fitness circle in the past two years: Is it reliable for ordinary photoelectric heart rate watches to measure the consumption of strength training? Many enthusiasts who like to dig up data think that strength training is mainly based on anaerobic energy supply, and the heart rate goes up and down with no accuracy. By relying solely on the heart rate and aerobic consumption formula, it is easy to overestimate the instantaneous high heart rate consumption when pressing weight. It is common to falsely increase the energy consumption by one or two hundred calories, so it cannot be fully believed. ； Some enthusiasts who have been to professional metabolic chamber tests said that the error of new equipment with muscle activity monitoring has been reduced to less than 10%, which is sufficient for daily reference.

To be honest, there is really no need to focus on the precise consumption of this hour. I also made this mistake when I first started working out. I would keep an eye on my watch for 30 seconds between sets, for fear of burning fewer calories. Later, after learning from the coach, I realized that the "invisible benefits" of strength training are better than the current ones. This consumption is much more cost-effective - in the 48 hours after training, the body needs to repair the muscle fibers that were slightly torn during training and maintain a higher basal muscle metabolism. The extra calories consumed add up to one or two hundred calories, which is equivalent to burning half a cup of milk tea even if you lie down after training. To use an inappropriate analogy, the consumption of aerobic training is pocket money that is settled on the spot. It is paid into the account after the training and is gone after it is spent. The consumption of strength training is the basic salary plus subsequent performance, which can be paid one after another in the next two days. Calculating the general ledger is actually no less than doing aerobic training at the same time.

If you really want to get a rough estimate, don’t worry about the number that pops up on your watch. Just calculate it according to your own condition: for fishing-style training (more than 3 minutes between sets, and checking your phone for half the time), calculate it as 3 to 4 calories per kilogram of body weight, and follow the normal training If you plan to walk (1 to 2 minutes between sets, with compound movements accounting for more than half), calculate it as 6 to 8 calories per kilogram of body weight. If you are doing high-intensity training that does heavy lifting on the same day and does not fish between sets, calculate it as 8 to 10 calories per kilogram of body weight. The error will not be too big.