It’s often thought that when you do strength training, rather than cardio, you might not burn many calories. However, research has shown that for every 10 minutes of strength training, the average person can burn an impressive 90 calories.
Read this article to find out what factors can affect how many calories you can burn while strength training if you can lose weight by just strength training and the benefits and drawbacks of doing so.
Calories burned Strength Training Calculator
How many calories can you burn while strength training?
On average, you can burn around 90 calories per 10 minutes of strength training, but this can differ from person to person and depending on the type of strength training that you choose to do. Some strength training exercises burn far more calories than others, depending on if any equipment is used or not.
Why should we do strength training?
Strength training is ideal for people who are overweight or possibly cannot do cardio workouts to burn away excess fat. The resistance of the muscles is a good way to start working out towards your ideal weight goal. Also, if you are someone who often does cardio workouts and wants a change, strength training can be just as effective in burning calories.
What exercises are classed as strength training?
Basically, any exercise that involves applying resistance against your muscles in order to make them fatigue is strength training. Squats, lunges, push-ups, sit-ups and Russian twists are all strength training exercises that you can do without any equipment, they simply encourage you to use your body weight against your muscles. On the other hand, deadlifts, chest presses, pull-ups, chin-ups and leg presses use pieces of gym equipment to help to achieve the correct amount of resistance.
What factors can affect how many calories I can burn while strength training?
Two main factors affect how many calories you can burn while strength training: The type of exercise that you do and your fitness level.
The type of exercise
The type of exercise that you do will have a big effect on how many calories you burn. If you choose to do self-resistance training like push-ups and sit-ups, for example, these are good workouts but you use only your weight as a resistance amount, putting a small amount of pressure on the muscles.
However, exercises that use equipment such as leg presses and chest presses allow you to add extra weight and therefore encourage your muscles to work harder to resist the pressure, equaling in you burning more calories.
Your fitness level
If you are someone who has never worked out before then starting with strength training is a great choice, it will mean that your body will burn many more calories for quite some time as your muscles have to work particularly hard to begin to tone and form shape.
However, if you are someone who has done cardio workouts for some time and wants to try strength training then your muscles will already be toned and used to working out, therefore you will need more resistance in order to burn more calories.
How many calories are burned while doing strength training for 30 minutes?
As stated above, on average you can burn 90 calories per 10 minutes of strength training, therefore 270 calories per 30 minutes. If you were to create a full workout routine from just strength training, with rests and breaks in between, for around an hour-long then you could burn around 500 calories.
It’s recommended that you do strength training 3 times per week and no more in order to give your muscles time to help and grow in between workouts.
Can I lose weight by doing strength training every day?
As strength training is a form of exercise, of course, you can lose weight while doing it, but you need to remember that strength training is best combined with some form of cardio. This ensures that all your muscles are getting a workout and this is what achieves the best results for weight loss.
If for some reason you cannot do any form of cardio, if you do strength training over a period of time with a correct and organized workout schedule, you will begin to see the results within 6-8 weeks.
