how much is too much

thursdaystgiles

I mowed the lawn today and my HRM said I burned 850 calories. I rounded it down to 800, but it still seems a bit high. Our yard is .2 acre and it is on an incline, so I am going up hill a lot, plus it was warm, but not uncomfortably hot outside. It took me 80 minutes, including raking and carrying my heavy bags of grass around the yard to collect mulch. Does that seem right? Anyway, I was going to run tonight as part of my C25K routine, but I normally burn 400+ calories doing that. Is that too much for one day? I don't want to burn myself out.

What should be a rule of thumb for how much activity to get in each day?

LazSommer

Normally I'd say it's too much for just mowing, but you did a lot of extras. I'd probably call it at 600-700 though if you are counting calories so as to not overshoot.

brianpperkins

I mowed the lawn today and my HRM said I burned 850 calories. I rounded it down to 800, but it still seems a bit high. Our yard is .2 acre and it is on an incline, so I am going up hill a lot, plus it was warm, but not uncomfortably hot outside. It took me 80 minutes, including raking and carrying my heavy bags of grass around the yard to collect mulch. Does that seem right? Anyway, I was going to run tonight as part of my C25K routine, but I normally burn 400+ calories doing that. Is that too much for one day? I don't want to burn myself out.

What should be a rule of thumb for how much activity to get in each day?

What HRM are you using that has a lawn mowing formula?

ironanimal

IMO, don't count chores. 850 seems like a lot for yard work for 80 mins anyway.

RWTBR

MFP calculates way too high. I weigh 168 now and a 20-mile run only equals 2400 calories for me in reality, but MFP puts it well above 3000.

blakedebo

IMO, don't count chores. 850 seems like a lot for yard work for 80 mins anyway.

I am the same- I don't count my chores as calorie burn and would not eat them back (if that is something you were planning on). I treat them as just a "bonus" burn.

PinkyFett

I don't think it sounds off. You have a lot to lose. I burned 600 calories in 45 minutes of treadmill today. Mowing the lawn is hard work for us fatties lol. Especially in the heat.

CorlissaEats

Here is the way I look at it. Adding exercise to your diary and eating back calories already assumes a base of say 100 cals per hour just for life functions. Those types of entries should be lower in burn calories. A HRM doesn't account for or factor that in. With the HRM you are supposed to wear it all day and then that is your total burn for the day, subtract your calories and that is your deficit. If your heart rate monitor says 850 cals, its possible that was your burn. MFP entry should be lowered by at least 100 cals or just dont eat them all back.

brianpperkins

Here is the way I look at it. Adding exercise to your diary and eating back calories already assumes a base of say 100 cals per hour just for life functions. Those types of entries should be lower in burn calories. A HRM doesn't account for or factor that in. With the HRM you are supposed to wear it all day and then that is your total burn for the day, subtract your calories and that is your deficit. If your heart rate monitor says 850 cals, its possible that was your burn. MFP entry should be lowered by at least 100 cals or just dont eat them all back.

Ummmm ... no. HRMs are programmed to estimate calories burned only from specific steady state cardio events. Wearing one all day produces an incorrect estimate.

If you properly set up MFP your NEAT calories are nearly accurate. Most HRMs report gross, not net exercise, calories as well.


Everything you suggested is quite simply wrong.

thursdaystgiles

Just to be clear, I don't plan on eating back any of those calories. I only rarely exceed my base calorie limit, and then usually only by 50-200 calories maybe once or twice a week, when I've worked out hard. That isn't my concern. My concern is working my body too hard in one day. I get that you might not consider mowing the lawn as exercise, but I sure as heck do! I weigh 231lb at 5ft 7. I'm seriously overweight, and my lawn is on an incline. My heartrate was in the 160s and 170s--on average, a cardio workout has me between 165-175bpm, and a strength workout usually has me at 150-163bpm...so yeah, mowing had my heart really up there, and for a long period of time. On top of that, I'm planning a run for 30 minutes tonight that will get my heart up in the 180s, probably, though on average it will be around 174bpm. I just don't want to burn myself out or potentially injure myself. I've been reading a lot of links through here about people who do more and more cardio thinking it's helping, when it really isn't, and sometimes it even hurts your progress. I don't want to do that!

brianpperkins

Just to be clear, I don't plan on eating back any of those calories. I only rarely exceed my base calorie limit, and then usually only by 50-200 calories maybe once or twice a week, when I've worked out hard. That isn't my concern. My concern is working my body too hard in one day. I get that you might not consider mowing the lawn as exercise, but I sure as heck do! I weigh 231lb at 5ft 7. I'm seriously overweight, and my lawn is on an incline. My heartrate was in the 160s and 170s--on average, a cardio workout has me between 165-175bpm, and a strength workout usually has me at 150-163bpm...so yeah, mowing had my heart really up there, and for a long period of time. On top of that, I'm planning a run for 30 minutes tonight that will get my heart up in the 180s, probably, though on average it will be around 174bpm. I just don't want to burn myself out or potentially injure myself. I've been reading a lot of links through here about people who do more and more cardio thinking it's helping, when it really isn't, and sometimes it even hurts your progress. I don't want to do that!

I don't know many people who don't view using a push mower as exercise. The issue is that no HRM can accurately estimate the calories burned during that activity because the formulae just don't support it. Don't waste your time using numbers from a HRM except for specified steady state cardio events (primarily running, walking, cycling where lab testing provided enough data for a relationship between calories, VO2, and heart rate to measure exertion) ... for anything else the numbers provided by the device are wrong.

As for doing too much just listen to your body. One day of pushing doesn't lead to hurting progress. Repeatedly pushing too far and trying to go hard when you simply don't have the energy and haven't let your body recover leads to setbacks and overuse injuries.