How many calories can you burn from lifting weights is one of the most trending topics nowadays. According to experts, weight training can boost up your metabolism as well as strengthen your muscles and bones. But keep it in mind that lifting weights can’t burn as many of your calories as cardio but yes, of course, its impact is long-lasting.
What if you start doing gym, jogging, aerobic, or anaerobic exercises but don’t know how much is required for your body? This may devastate your health and fitness rather than help to lose calories and weight. You must follow any exercise under the guidance of fitness experts.
No matter what you choose like resistance bands, dumbbells, weight machines, or weight-bearing exercises. Just move on with your healthy fitness routine. Let’s have a look at how lifting weights can help you lose fat in a healthy way and how many calories can you lose with it!
What is Weight Lifting?
Any form of resistance training, such as cardiovascular activity (anaerobic) or any form of exercise intended to boost muscle mass or athletic performance, including strength training, sled work, muscular hypertrophy (muscle growth), high intensity interval training (HIIT) comes under the term ‘weight lifting exercises.
Strength training and muscle-building exercises can both be the part of weight training and include a variety of workouts using free weights, dumbbells, and barbells.
Common Weight Training Variables
There’re some basic rules or fundamental approaches to achieve your calorie burning goal by lifting weights. Sometimes, these variables may vary to some extent depending on the purpose of workout, body needs, and specific guidelines of training coach; however, the basic rules remain the same. The most vital steps you must follow during weight training sessions are mentioned-below:
- Ensure progressive overload
- Use loads between the range of 70-90% RM
- Manage adequate rest between sessions
How to Lose Calories by Weight Lifting?
Weight lifting is a type of strength training exercise that helps to build and tone up your muscles. Thus, bulking up your muscles leads to making your metabolism fast.
Strength training or weight lifting workout causes muscle damage resulting in a higher post-workout calorie burn. This is due to the reason that your body expends calories to repair and regenerate damaged tissues. As a result, you’ll burn calories for longer after the end of a strengthening workout.
Generally, in terms of weight loss, you may expect to lose more calories during 30 minutes of a cardio workout than a weight training session of the same time period.
How many Calories Does Weight Lifting Burn?
The number of calories burned from lifting weights can be determined by your body weight. In general, the more weight you have, the more calories you’ll burn as compared to a person with less weight but only if you’re doing a workout with the same intensity.
You can lose approximately 90-252 calories for about 30 minutes of weight lifting based on your body weight and workout intensity. According to calories burn chart by Harvard Health Publishing, the 30 minutes of weight training may lose calories in the following order:
- 90 calories burn with 57-kilo weight
- 112 calories burn with 70-Kilo weight
- 133 calories burn with 84-kilo weight
However, you can enhance the calories burning by doing strenuous weight lifting exercises. By doing vigorous weight lifting, you can increase the number of calories burned up to 252.
You can increase the phenomenon of calories loss either by lifting heavier weights with little or no rest at all. However, heavier compound exercises such as squat or bench press may also have a more positive impact in losing calories fast.
Does Lifting Weights Burn Calories?
All adults should do muscle-strengthening activities (involving all major muscles of the body) at least twice a week, according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.
You should know that vigorous-intensity activity may prove to be more time-efficient to burn calories as compared to moderate-intensity activity. Stick to fair heavyweights that you can handle for 6 to 12 reps with the lowest possible rest period.
Weightlifting typically burns about 1100-1400 calories per week, but it can practically be undone by consuming one more soda per day. To put it another way, your diet has a significantly bigger impact on your body when it comes to weight loss than exercise ever would. Limiting your calorie intake plays a huge role in burning your fat.
Factors Affecting Calories Burning from Lifting Weights
Burning calories in a strength training session depend upon several factors such as:
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The intensity of Weight Lifting
The first and foremost point is the amount of weight you are lifting to lose calories. If your ultimate goal is weight loss then you have to increase your level of weight training. Lifting a heavier weight increases your metabolism and muscle mass. This eventually leads to burning more calories even if it is with few repetitions.
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Duration of Weight Lifting Workout
Minimum 20 minutes and a maximum of 30-45 minutes of weight training are enough to accomplish your weight loss goal. Never try to extend this period to 1-2 hours. Just focus on minimizing the rest interval with the continuous workout that will increase your heart rate and thus metabolism.
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Break Interval in Weight Training Sessions
Your resting time between the weight training workouts matters a lot in determining the success of your aim of losing weight. Try to lower your resting period as it can enhance your loss of calories. It is since your body has to work harder to repeat the session that causes more energy or calories loss.
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Kind of Weight Lifting Exercise
Choosing a combination of weight lifting exercises is a more appropriate way to lose calories than doing a particular exercise. Full-body exercises such as dumbbell bench press, dumbbell lateral raise, and overhead shoulder press contribute more to the fat and calories burning process in the body.
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Continuous Self Motivation
Taking yourself out of your comfort zone is never too easy. To get your desired results, you always have to change your life pattern and working routine. That’s why you have to motivate yourself to continue getting your calories and weight loss goal.
Do more Calories Burn in Fat People?
A calorie represents a unit of energy required to move your body during any physical activity or exercise. People with more weight need more calories or energy to move their bodies for workouts or any routine life activity. Hence, more calories are burned in this process.
Does Weight Training Offers Permanent Weight Loss?
It is scientifically proven that weight training essentially loses the calories and in turn weight as well as keeps it off for the long term. Regaining weight after losing it once is a most horrible imagination as it can not only cause depression but also damage your self-esteem.
Here, we mentioned the positive contributing factors of lifting weights for weight loss:
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During Weight Lifting Workout
Weight lifting increases your metabolism that in turn increases your heart rate. Increased metabolism helps to burn calories at a faster rate just like in cardio exercises.
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Long Term Results
Building muscle mass burns more calories due to high metabolic rates even in the resting period. For one extra pound of muscle building, your body utilizes 50 extra calories in a day. The reason is that your muscles are more active than fats so, burn more calories as compared to other body tissues even at rest.
Moreover, one pound of muscle covers almost ¾ of the area covered by one pound of fats. Thus, strength training assists you to lose weight fast even without aiming for weight loss.
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Quality Sleep to Burn Calories
Studies published in the journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet demonstrated that depriving quality sleep disrupts the complex and essential metabolic processes in the body. The reduced metabolism causes systems of the body (such as digestive, cardiovascular, skeletal systems) more sluggish leading to difficulty in weight loss.
How to Calculate Calories Burned From Lifting Weights?
Calories Burn Calculator is an online tool to identify the calorie burn count based on your body weight and physical activity.
Cornell University’s METS to Calories Calculator is another helpful calorie calculator. The term MET is a short form of ‘Metabolic Equivalent of Task’. This calculator determines how many calories a person burns by taking into account their weight, activity level (METS), and period of physical exercise.
Furthermore, the Omni Calculator estimates a person’s overall calorie burn based on the exercise type and duration. It also aids in estimating how much weight a person can expect to lose.
General Guidelines for Burning Calories from Lifting Weights
- First of all, get medical consultation and clearance
- Strictly follow the guidelines of your fitness trainer
- Pay huge attention to your breathing pattern during a workout
- Avoid eating at least before 2 hours
- Try to do a pre-workout warm-up
What to Expect for Cardio and Weight Training?
Both cardio (running, swimming, cycling, etc) and strength or weight training are essential for weight loss and overall health maintenance. Each type of workout has its own set of advantages that can help you to stay healthier and fitter in the long run.
Cardio workouts may reduce the risk of chronic health diseases such as heart attack and diabetes. Moreover, it is the best choice for your cardiovascular health as well as muscle and bones strength.
Strength training or weight lifting workouts keep your bones, muscles, and connective tissues strong and healthy. It is also helpful to increase your metabolism that in turn helps you to lose more calories. It should be included in your workout schedules at least twice a week.
Strength training also generates more muscle spasms and damage than cardio, resulting in a higher post-workout calorie burn. Why? This is because your body expends energy (calories) to repair and regenerate damaged tissues. As a result, you’ll burn calories for longer after a strength workout than you will after a cardio workout.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, strength training may reduce the risk of osteoporosis by increasing bone density and bone mineral mass.
Concluding Remarks
Lifting weights burns calories and offers long-term health benefits, according to research. The type of exercise that is best for a person, however, is determined by his set goals, physical fitness, and aptitude. For optimum health and fitness, most fitness experts suggest a combination of cardiovascular and weight-lifting workouts. This will prove to be an efficient way to burn your calories safely.
