How many calories does strength training consume

There is no unified fixed value. A 60-minute regular strength training session for ordinary fitness enthusiasts will consume mostly 200-500 calories in real time. The specific value is directly linked to your weight, training intensity, and the size of the participating muscle groups - a 60kg person does shoulder and arm training. For small muscle groups, if you rest for 1-2 minutes between groups, you will consume about 220-300 kcal in one hour. If you switch to a leg training day that consists entirely of compound movements such as squats and deadlifts, the same weight can reach more than 350 kcal. An 80kg male can even touch the 500 kcal line on a leg training day.

Some people’s first reaction when seeing this number may be, “Isn’t this as much as running for half an hour?” This is also the most controversial point in the fitness circle about the consumption of strength training – whether to include the “afterburn effect” after training, which is often referred to academically as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).

Most people who hold the view that "strength training consumes less" only count the immediate consumption during exercise. It is true that for the same duration, it is normal for most people's immediate consumption of strength training to be 100-200 kcal lower than that of medium-to-high-intensity aerobics. If the training weight is small and the rest between groups is long, the consumption will be even lower. I have seen many people doing strength training for an hour, and the consumption is less than 200 kcal. It is better to go out and walk briskly for 40 minutes to burn more.

However, many practitioners and people who train for a long time will include the afterburn effect in the total consumption. Strength training causes micro-tears in the muscles and requires more energy for metabolic recovery. In the 12-24 hours after training, the body's resting metabolism will be higher than usual, and it is possible to burn an extra few dozen to two hundred calories. If this is taken into account, the total consumption may not actually be aerobic. I have specifically tested it with two male members who are both 72kg. On a leg training day, I arranged 10 sets of squats and 8 sets of deadlifts, with only 45 seconds of rest between sets. The immediate consumption after the exercise was 410 kcal, and the additional consumption in the subsequent 24 hours was 1 More than 80, the total consumption is nearly 600, which is higher than his consumption of running for an hour; the other is doing arm training that day, and always checking Moments to fish for fish between groups, and the immediate consumption is only 210 calories. The afterburn effect is almost negligible, and the total consumption is indeed pitifully low.

However, there is no need to exaggerate about the afterburn effect. There is now a large number of studies showing that only strength training that reaches a certain intensity will have an obvious afterburn effect. If you go to the gym every time and do two sets of exercises and rest for five minutes, the extra consumption may not be as high as the calories of drinking an extra sip of milk tea. There is no need to use the "afterburn effect" to compensate for your laziness.

In fact, there is no need to be so specific when it comes to caloric consumption. The core gain of strength training is not just the calories burned at the moment. The muscles that are enlarged after long-term training can help your daily resting metabolism to burn an extra 180 calories a day, which is equivalent to walking an extra thousand steps every day while lying down. This long-term account is much more cost-effective than the consumption of a single training session.