How Many Calories Do You Burn Lifting Weights?

Ever finished an intense workout and wondered how many calories you burned? We break down the science of calorie burn to help you perfect your fitness program and hit your goals.

Key Takeaways

• Strength training burns calories, though it's usually not as efficient as cardio.
• How many calories weight lifting burns depends on your body weight, workout intensity, workout duration, and other factors.
• Strength training can also enhance your body's calorie burn in the short- and long-term, providing potential benefits long after you stop your workout.

See More: What Does "Natty" Mean in the Gym?

How to Burn Calories for Fat Loss

Carriejune, founder of Minibeast, says:

"A typical weight training session can burn anywhere from 100 to several hundred calories, depending on various factors. Strength training can also enhance your calorie burn in the long-term."

If you've ever looked into losing weight, you've probably encountered people who insist that aerobic exercise is the only way to do so.

That's simply not true.

Cardio workouts are great for burning calories, true. But strength training is also a worthy component of any weight-loss program.

That's true no matter how you approach weight training. There are ways to structure your training to optimize calorie burn, but even strength training optimized for muscle gains can help you torch calories.

The question, though, is how many calories weight lifting burns.

The short answer is that it's hard to say. Many factors influence this, including your body weight and composition, workout intensity, and more.

We'll cover these factors to help you figure out how many calories you burn during your lifting sessions.

However, weight training's impact on fat loss goes far beyond the calories you burn during each session. To fully understand how many calories weight lifting burns, we need to explore these wider changes, too.

How Weight Lifting Burns Fat

Weight lifting burns calories in two ways. First, your body burns more calories while working out than at rest. That's the obvious part.

But weight lifting can also change your body composition and metabolism in subtle ways that can enhance calorie burn.

Lighter Weights

If your goal is building lean muscle mass, experts often recommend aiming for sets of 8-12 reps. But if your goal is fat loss or overall health, you might want to try other kinds of resistance training.

For example, you could lift lighter weights, aiming for more reps and shorter rest periods to keep your heart pumping. That can help you burn more calories while still providing some benefits in terms of improvements to your strength and endurance.

Bonus: How Do I Motivate Myself to Workout?

Factors that Influence Calories Burned

Two people could do the exact same workout and burn a different number of calories. That's because multiple factors influence how many calories you burn while lifting weights.

One of those factors is your body weight. People with a higher body weight tend to burn more calories. It takes more energy to move a heavier body through the movements.

Another factor is the type of exercises you do. Compound exercises, which recruit multiple large muscle groups, tend to burn more calories than isolation exercises, which target smaller muscle groups. Examples of compound movements include squats, bench presses, and deadlifts.

Proper form is also important, and not just because it helps protect you from injury. Lifting with good form means avoiding momentum, like swinging, which might release your muscles from being under tension and decrease potential calorie burn.

The intensity and length of your strength training sessions also matter. As you might imagine, exercising harder for longer increases energy expenditure.

Reducing rest periods also helps enhance calorie burn. Minimal rest helps keep your heart rate high and can result in you burning more calories.

Afterburn Effect

Here's where things get interesting. Weight lifting's effect on calorie burn doesn't stop when you finish your final exercise.

As you might know, lifting weights damages your muscles. Your body repairs the damage, building back the muscle stronger and larger than before. This is the process behind muscle growth.

To sustain that repair process, your body needs to consume oxygen at a higher rate than usual. This is called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC.

EPOC can enhance calorie burn anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours after you finish working out. A higher-intensity workout may enhance the effects of EPOC.

According to one study, EPOC results in a 6-15% increase in estimated calorie burn.

More Muscle Mass

In effect, EPOC temporarily enhances your resting metabolic rate. That's the number of calories your body burns while at rest.

Building muscle can also enhance your resting metabolic rate. Muscle tissue is metabolically active. That means it burns calories while at rest.

Well, the muscle tissue itself isn't actually burning calories. But maintaining that muscle mass requires greater calorie burn than maintaining, say, fat tissue.

How Many Calories Weight Lifting Burns

So, we've covered some of the ways weight lifting can help you burn calories both in and outside of the gym. But you probably want some hard numbers.

As we discussed, many factors can influence the precise number of calories you burn during strength workouts. These figures are estimates.

In general, weightlifting burns 180-500+ calories per hour, or 90-250 calories every 30 minutes, or 3-11 calories per minute. But that figure can vary widely.

Take intensity and duration. A 30-minute session of light weight training might burn about 110 calories, while an hour-long session of vigorous weightlifting could burn 440 calories.

Or take body weight. A 155-pound person might burn about 108 calories during a 30-minute weightlifting workout. A 200-pound person, the average weight for American men, might burn 136 calories doing the same movements.

One way of measuring energy expenditure is called the Metabolic Equivalent of Task, or MET. A higher MET value usually means more energy expended doing a task.

You can multiply the MET value for a particular task, like weight training, by body weight and exercise duration to estimate calorie burn.

Typical MET values for resistance training range from 3.5 for low-intensity workouts to 8 for high-intensity workouts.

Weight Lifting vs. Cardio Workouts

It's worth comparing some of these estimates with cardiovascular exercise for context.

Generally, cardio workouts can burn anywhere from 250-400+ calories in 30 minutes. High-intensity interval training is a fantastic way to maximize calorie burn during cardio workouts.

On paper, then, you can burn calories more efficiently by doing cardio than lifting weights. But remember, weight lifting can elevate your metabolism for hours after your workout is done, and building muscle can enhance your resting metabolic rate. Cardio doesn't necessarily provide these same benefits.

How to Lose Weight and Build Muscle

All this is why experts often recommend combining cardio and strength training.

Now, doing that can be complicated, especially if you're a beginner. You need to learn many different exercises and techniques, know when and how long to rest, and more.

Then there's nutrition. Whether your goal is fat loss, muscle building, or both, your diet is crucial. As Minibeast founder Carriejune says, "Diet is nearly 70% of our results."

One great way to jumpstart your progress, or invigorate it if you've hit a plateau, is joining a workout challenge. Minibeast's 8-Week Workout Challenge gives you access to five full workout programs, personalized calories and macros, a 24/7 support group, example meal plans, demonstration videos, supplement recommendations, and much more.

Conclusion

Weight lifting burns calories, though often less than cardio. However, strength training can also enhance your body's calorie burn in both the short- and long-term.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Calories Do You Burn Lifting Weights?

The calorie burn from lifting weights varies based on many factors, such as workout intensity, workout duration, and body weight. A popular general estimate is 180-500 calories per hour.

Can I Lose Weight by Lifting Weights Only?

If your body burns more calories than you consume, you should lose weight. Therefore, you could theoretically lose weight by lifting weights. However, it's often best to combine it with a balanced diet and other forms of exercise, like cardio.

What Is the 3-3-3 Rule for Weight Lifting?

The 3-3-3 rule for weight lifting is a simple, viral framework for structuring your week. It calls for doing three weight training workouts, three cardio sessions, and three days for rest or active recovery each week.

Keep Reading: What Dumbbell Weight Is Best for Men?

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