Groundworks - Calories per hour?

rbrookbanks

Any idea how I can figure out how many calories per hour I would burn doing groundworks (digging, shovelling, moving barrowloads of muck and general heavy duty gardening type work?

I currently put it down as leisurely walking (2.5 MPH) but I'm not sure how good an estimate that is.

ukaryote

This will take a little time but it will be as accurate as possible.
Search for "Compendium of Physical Activities"
The site will have a very comprehensive list of activities with an MET value.
That is a multiplier for your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
MFP and other sites have BMR calculators

- determine your BMR, the calories per 24 hours.
- find your activity in the Compendium of Physical Activities and the associated MET
- Multiply your BMR * MET to find calories per 24 hours.
- divide by 1400 to find calories per minute.
- multiply by how many minutes

download the PDF version of the Compendium here
https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/compendia

47Jacqueline

You can also wear a HRM while you work.

Jazz_2014

I love the two posts answering your question. Both helpful but so different.

ukaryote

MFP and other sites probably base their calorie estimates on the Compendium. HRMs are fine, there is probably a site to log your HRM and activity.

Just for giggles, I extracted the PDF to Excel and wrote a spreadsheet for calculations. I should really create a small site that calculates against all the activities. BTW, if you see "Taylor Code" mentioned with activities, it is a taxonomy, a numeric code for each activity. E.g., general body building and weight lifting is Taylor Code 210.

Azdak

MFP and other sites probably base their calorie estimates on the Compendium. HRMs are fine, there is probably a site to log your HRM and activity.

Just for giggles, I extracted the PDF to Excel and wrote a spreadsheet for calculations. I should really create a small site that calculates against all the activities. BTW, if you see "Taylor Code" mentioned with activities, it is a taxonomy, a numeric code for each activity. E.g., general body building and weight lifting is Taylor Code 210.

There are two cautions to consider when using the Compendium as a resource:

1. Many of the occupational-type activity values are based on doing continuous work, with no pauses or breaks.

2. The Compendium is based on collections of research studies. The authors of the compendium admit that there is no systematic process of evaluating the accuracy quality of studies admitted into the compendium. So the reliability of the values is variable.

thecraftinista

HRM would be my suggestion as well. I wear one when I do things like helping friends move, etc.

rbrookbanks

`Thanks for the advice folks I was hoping for a rule of thumb type answer, I'm not that fussed if it's totally accurate as I'm heading in the right direction and most of my cycling etc is accurately logged thanks to Strava integration.