Getting Fit

rhousfeld

We had some pretty heavy snow two days ago. I shoveled my driveway without resting for 30 minutes and owe it all to my gym visits.

AwesomeSquirrel

Nice! Love to see the hard work paying off in day to day activities 🙂 and as an added bonus shovelling snow was an excellent way to boost your NEAT for the day which is always fun.

AnnPT77

So many day to day activities do get easier with both weight loss and improved fitness . . . and especially with both. Snow shoveling is one, for sure!

Speaking for myself, I don't just count snow shoveling as NEAT, I log it as exercise. Of course, it takes 2 hours and up to shovel my whole driveway if I work along steadily at it, depending on how deep, heavy, and icy the snow is. It's a workout!

I think the MFP exercise database entry for snow shoveling may be a little generous in calories, but it's got to use more calories than for walking moderately for the same amount of time, since it's almost all walking, plus Plus.

nossmf

I absolutely log snow shoveling as exercise calories, though I agree MFP is generous in calories burned so tend to log half my actual time. But if I get in a minimum of 20 minutes of shoveling, I consider that my cardio for the day and skip whatever cardio would have occurred at the gym.

Just try to alternate arms periodically, not only to divide the work across muscles but to lower chance of injury from overuse. And lift with your legs, not your lower back!