When your body breaks down food, energy is released, called a calorie. You believe that intake of calories increases body fat. Right?
But do you know, a calorie is essential for our body to get energy for workouts. It only turns into body fat when you intake an increased quantity of it. And do not think that fat-free food doesn’t have calories. They may have more than calories a fatty food can contain.
Now, you try to burn calories by intense workouts, aerobic and anaerobic exercises. And must be curious to know how many calories are you burning. Right? So, let us dive deeper into one of the anaerobic exercises, weight lifting!
Weight lifting
Weight lifting is muscle-building resistance training. It involves short bursts of high-intensity movements. Therefore, oxygen is not enough to gain energy for lifting weight. So, the body also gathers energy from sugar present in the body.
Training with heavy weights increases the strength of your muscles and helps build up self-confidence. It may also improve cognitive functions, fight to age, and enhance endurance. Weight lifting strengthens your bones and connective tissues, which prevents injury. It also helps cut fat from the body, and various hormones increase their production when you lift heavyweights.
Now, let’s focus on one of the benefits weight lifting provides you: calorie burn. Do you know how many calories you can burn by lifting heavyweight? And what are the factors affecting calorie burn? If not, read on!
What are the factors affecting calorie burn?
The amount of calorie burn by weight lifting depends on several factors. And it may vary from person to person. Let us see what the factors are!
1. Age
As we age, we tend to lose muscle mass, and therefore it becomes difficult for us to burn calories by lifting weight. Our body does not have that much strength and energy to lift a heavyweight at old age.
2. Gender
Male and females burn different amounts of calories by weight lifting. A man burns little more than a woman in the same duration. But, why? Men’s bodies are usually muscular and have high muscle mass compared to women’s.
3. Bodyweight
Calorie burn by lifting weight mainly depends on the person’s body weight. As it predicts the limit of calories your body can burn.
4. Type of workout
The more intense your workout is, the more you will burn calories. Do not focus on one muscle. Focussing on all the body parts will help you burn more calories.
5. Lifted weight
If you lift a heavyweight, you could achieve the goal faster and burn more calories. So, strengthen your training session if possible to get effective results.
6. Muscle type
If you focus more on larger muscles while lifting heavier weights rather than focusing on smaller muscles, it may increase the amount of calorie burn.
7. Nutrition
You must follow a nutritious diet that includes all the essential elements your body requires to stay healthy. But, when you do an intense workout or lift heavy weights, you must fuel your body with the required amount of protein, calories, fat, micronutrients, fluid, or fibers to produce energy in your body. So, the calorie burn also depends on how nutritious your diet is!
8. Resting time
The calorie burn also depends on the rest you take between workouts. Why? Because your body needs to get some recovery time to work harder for the next set. And if you will not allow any rest time to your body, you may feel tired and may lose to achieve the goal of enough calorie burn.
How many calories can you burn by lifting heavyweights?
Depending upon the factors mentioned above, you may predict the calculation of the number of calories you can burn. Now, as you know, the amount of calories also depends on gender and body weight. Therefore in this article, we will differentiate the calorie burn levels based on gender and body weight.
An average man can reduce around 224 calories in 30 minutes, only if he lifts weights around 87 kg. And an average woman can reduce approximately 180 calories in 30 minutes if she carries around 69 kg of weight.
And depending upon the weight of a person, if they weigh between 50 to 60, they would be able to burn around 90 calories. And if they weigh around 70 to 80, they may be able to burn 108 calories. And a person with 80 to 100 kg weight may burn 126 calories at a time of heavy weight lifting.
Tip: To burn more calories in an hour of the session, you can include a few bodyweight exercises with weight lifting. For instance, you can do push-ups, lunges, squats, situps, crunches, planks, jumping jacks, or pull-ups while lifting heavyweights. It may increase the calorie burn count by 400 to 500 calories.
How to calculate calories burned by weight lifting?
To calculate the number of calories, you burn after lifting heavy weights; you can use online calculators, which ask for your body weight and the time you worked out. This calculator is called the Calorie Burn Rate calculator. Or you can go for the METS Calorie calculator, where METS stands for Metabolic Equivalent of Task or simply metabolic equivalent. METS calculator will ask your body weight, duration of any physical activity, and activity level according to METS.
MET value is 4.8, and to calculate calorie burn, this value of MET is multiplied with your body weight in kgs. Whatever the number you get by multiplying, the value is multiplied again to 0.0175 and the duration of your workout. The result would come between 90 to 126 calories for men and 18 to 252 calories for women if the duration was 30 minutes.
FAQs
1. Does weight lifting help you lose weight?
If you will continue weight lifting for a longer time and build muscles. It will automatically burn fat by reducing weight over time. Even later, your body will start burning fat at rest more than at workout time. But, you have to maintain a calorie deficit diet to get the results.
2. Can older people lift weights?
Yes, why not! Older people must lift weights if their body is capable enough. They can lift light or free weights to maintain their health and body posture. They may be able to beat age-related issues like muscle loss, metabolic disease, cardiovascular risks, chronic diseases, and their overall lifestyle. Weight lifting may also provide them with better mobility, mental sharpness, and metabolic health.
3. What should a calorie deficit diet include to get the best results from weight lifting?
A diet that includes fewer calories of juices, food, vegetables, and fruits is a calorie deficit diet. You must deficit at least 500 calories from your meal every day. Forget junk and fast foods and start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, and drink lots and lots of water. Apples, asparagus, beets, broccoli, sprouts, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, fennel, grapefruit, lettuce, kale, mushrooms, onion, papaya, radish, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes, turnips, watermelon, and many more vegetables and fruits are low in calories and best to consume on a calorie deficit diet.
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Diet Vs Exercise: The Truth About Weight Loss?
Bottom line
Weight lifting is muscle-building resistance training. It provides many health benefits, including calorie burning. You may not be able to burn too many calories only by weight lifting, but yes, you can burn a little.
The amount of calorie burn varies based on your age, gender, body weight, weight lifted, muscle type, nutrition, and resting time you take. The higher the weight you lift, the more calories you will burn. An average man can reduce around 224 calories in 30 minutes, and a woman can reduce 180 calories in the same duration.
We hope you found this article helpful. In the comment section below, please share with us how many calories you burned by lifting heavyweights.
