If you are involved in weight training, then you might be more interested in the muscle-building attributes.

However, some people are looking to burn calories in the hope that they’ll lose a lot of fat.
There will be numerous factors that will determine how many calories you burn during a session.
One of the main ones will be how well conditioned your muscles are, as well as what foods you have consumed before your workout.
So how many calories are burned when you have lifted weights hard for an hour?
How can you increase or decrease the number of calories your burn? What foods should you eat to increase your calorie burn?
Well, if you want to know the answers to these questions and more, we would suggest that you keep reading.
What Is The Reason For Lifting Weights?
Lifting weights is an important part of gaining strength in your body, which has been linked to longer life in general.
If you have more developed muscles as you get older, then you can be sure that you will maintain a good physique.
This is also a really good way of conditioning your muscles, which will actually be great for other sports.
The main aim of weight lifting is to increase the amount of weight that you are lifting over time.
This will help you to develop your muscles in order for them to get larger and to ultimately lift a greater and greater weight.
If you have been lifting weights for a while and you are thinking of increasing the number of calories burnt, then you should think about pushing your body for an extra 5 to 10 minutes at the end of your weight-lifting session.
So How Many Calories Do You Burn When Lifting Weights?
On average, when you are lifting weights, you can burn around 10 calories per minute of weight lifting.
So, to calculate how many weights you are lifting, then simply multiply this number by however many minutes of training you are doing.
If you can’t be bothered to figure out the maths, then it follows thus: you’ll burn off 200-300 calories per hour of working out.
Ideally, if you are looking to lose weight when you are training, then you’ll have to maintain a delicate balance when it comes to diet and exercise.
You’ll want to be in a calorie deficit if you want to lose fat yet put on muscle.
This calorie deficiency will all depend on the amount you’re training. Ultimately you’ll want to be expending more calories than you are consuming.
To do this, you’ll have to accurately calculate the number of weights you’re lifting over a period of time.
Great Weight Exercises For Losing Weight

There are many weighted exercises that you can do for weight loss and muscle growth. These can be done without weights at first, although you can add more weight as you go along.
Lunges
This exercise is great for the quads and the glutes, involving deep knee bends that will push these muscles right to their limits.
This will also get your heart rate up, which is very important if you are trying to burn calories.
Squats
This is another great exercise for your lower half, giving you plenty of stretch in those glutes and hams.
Once you have gotten the hang of it, you can add light dumbbells to really tax those muscles.
This exercise will also help to tighten up your core. Just make sure that you are engaging these muscles when you are raising yourself up off the floor.
Kickbacks
These exercises will really help you to build up those biceps as well as work on the calf and glute muscles.
This is great if you want that full-body exercise that will get you sweating and help you burn off those precious calories.
Bicep Curls
These curls are ones we will all have heard of in the past. You can start with a smaller weight and build up over time until you get a real sweat on.
This will also help you to get your heart rate up and will ultimately help you to burn off those excess calories.
How To Warm Up Properly Before Weight Lifting
One of the best methods of preparing your body for weight lifting is to do roughly 10 or 15 minutes of cardio.
Another great method of getting your muscles ready to be pushed to the limit is stretching.
A good way of warming up your muscles is to do some practice weights without actually holding the weight in your hand. This way you can get used to the movement and avoid injury.
Which Is Better For Burning Calories: Weights Or Cardio?
If you are measuring by the estimates we have listed above, one hour of weight training will actually burn off a lot more calories than one hour of cardio.
However, this will all depend on the type of cardio that you are going to be doing.
Hiking and running burn around 185 and 295 calories respectively. Walking is the lowest intensity exercise, burning around 140 calories.
What Is The Best Training Program?
You should try and get a mix of various different types of exercise so that you can work all parts of the body. Here are all the target groups to hit:
- Cardio – you should perform cardio three times a week for anywhere between 30 – 60 minutes.
- Strength – you should be lifting weights in a way that exercises all parts of the body. You should try compound exercises, as they work more than one muscle group at a time.
- Stretching – this will help to improve your flexibility and should be done at least once a day.
- Rest – this is as important as your exercise days, as it will give your body ample time to recover. You should allow one or two days of rest per week, although you can still do yoga and light stretching on these days.
Conclusion
We hope that this article has helped give you more information on the calories burned when you are working out and how best to maximize this process.
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