[Request] Strength Training App that doesn't count calories during rest periods

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hello

Can anybody on this forum please tell me if there is a app for weightlifting workouts that only counts the calories expended during the work sets and not during the rest sets? I currently use 'Strength' by bizonxx on my Vivoactive HR but it doesn't have this feature. I'd like it so that when doing a strength workout I can ensure the amount of calories burned is as close to accurate as possible, as it seems a lot of the apps are meant to be used in cardio without rest periods. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am also asking if such an app doesn't exist, could one be created? I'm not a developer/coder so I wouldn't know whether this is possible or not.

Thanks.

Nikeow over 8 years ago

AFAIK, NONE of the apps 3rd party creates will do any actual calorie counting. It's all in Garmin FW. It's all programed into the watch's FW as part of either First beat algorithm or something else.

What the 3rd party watches does is just collect the data, Garmin will do the counting by itself.
If you do not want the rest periods to count, take off the watch. Don't let it track your HR (one of the algo is it uses your HR to determine your caloric expenditure)

ASmugDill over 8 years ago

If you do not want the rest periods to count, take off the watch.

Would pausing the app/activity work, without actively removing the wearable device and/or disabling its HR sensor?

Former Member over 8 years ago

AFAIK, NONE of the apps 3rd party creates will do any actual calorie counting. It's all in Garmin FW. It's all programed into the watch's FW as part of either First beat algorithm or something else.

What the 3rd party watches does is just collect the data, Garmin will do the counting by itself.
If you do not want the rest periods to count, take off the watch. Don't let it track your HR (one of the algo is it uses your HR to determine your caloric expenditure)

Hello

Am I right in saying that this is not possble? That is what your post reads as? I mean, that's quite unfortunate, it only limits the watch to steady state cardio to have the calories expended remotely accurate? I was hoping that I could use it for strength training while not seeing the calories expended during rest sets. Is there any way that the watch (in app or settings) could display the calories expended only during working sets, maybe not display the calories expended during the rest sets?

travis.vitek over 8 years ago

Yes, this is possible.

An app or data field can grab the calorie count (exposed by the ConnectIQ API) when the user starts a set, and does the same when they stop. The difference between the values is the number of calories burned while doing exercise.

That said, I would do some tinkering with the built-in calorie data field to see if this is done for you automatically.

I'm curious why you only want to count calories burned during the set and not during rest periods. As long as your heart rate is elevated, you are burning more calories than your basal rate. It seems that if you want accurate calorie counts, you'd want that data too.

Former Member over 8 years ago

Yes, this is possible.

An app or data field can grab the calorie count (exposed by the ConnectIQ API) when the user starts a set, and does the same when they stop. The difference between the values is the number of calories burned while doing exercise.

That said, I would do some tinkering with the built-in calorie data field to see if this is done for you automatically.

I'm curious why you only want to count calories burned during the set and not during rest periods. As long as your heart rate is elevated, you are burning more calories than your basal rate. It seems that if you want accurate calorie counts, you'd want that data too.

Hello

I say the reason I'd like to do this is because when I do steady state cardio I am always moving and using energy, and I burn a certain amount of calories, but when I do resistance exercise, even if I burn the same amount of calories the exercise done is less because of the rest periods where calories are being counted by the app for work not done. I'd like for an app which would allow me to use resistance exercise which necessitates rest periods while allowing me to get a read of the calories expended solely during my working sets. Do you know of any way to do this, or any apps that do this this? I am not a coder/developer, so I don't know how to rectify this.

travis.vitek over 8 years ago

As I mentioned above, the built-in calories data field will count only calories burned while the activity is recording. If you use one of the built-in apps on your device, press start when you start doing a work interval, and stop when you finish your work interval, it will display only the calories that you burn during the period where the device was recording. You can press start/stop as many times and as frequently as you want.

My question was trying to determine exactly what you are trying to measure, and why is it important to only include calories burned as part of your interval periods and exclude those that are burned during rest periods. The issue that I have with your technique is that calories burned is not directly related to work performed. The calories burned during your work interval include basal metabolic rate calories, as well as those that are being burned to fuel muscles from your previous exercises in the workout.
Given your definition of 'accurate', I'm led to believe you'd want to exclude both of these. That makes me think that calories burned is not the right measurement for what you want.

Travis