650+ calories for mowing the grass?

titletown

OK, I lost track of exact time, somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes, but I ran out of gas and had to go get more.

Doesn't 650 calories seem a bit high even for 90 minutes of pushing a mower around?

If it's true, I won't be paying the kids to do it anymore LOL

recipe4success

I would say yes. I find the calorie estimates on this site to be a bit high when I compare the estimates to what my HRM says. I would take what it says with a grain of salt and use your judgement

fteale

I don't believe you burn more pushing a mower for 90 mins then you do running for an hour.

suzooz

The calorie count on MFP for mowing the grass might be a little high. (kinda like my grass right now!)

I just bought a Body Bugg and was so excited to mow part of my lawn last night. If I had logged my hour through MFP, it would have been 450. With the Body Bugg, it was more like 256, which includes the "normal" calorie burn, too.

I'm still going to mow the lawn, but perhaps I might not enjoy it as much. That, and I won't be able to eat as many calories back as I thought!

LauraLLee

Actually I have found that they are about Mfp are about right or even a little low, compared to my heart rate monitor. They do it by your weight, time and activity. The calories will become less as you lose more weight.

titletown

Yeah, I thought as much, so I cut the estimate in half, oh well.

Guess I'll go out for a walk to make up for the lost calories

Worse case scenario, I'll have burned more than I thought, nothing wrong with that.

jlewis2896

I wear my HRM and mow all the time. I am 5'1" and 149lbs. I don't have a self-propelled mower, and I burn around 750 calories for 100 minutes of mowing.

It's an AWESOME workout. I run, so it takes a lot for me to get a calorie burn that high. I've been mowing my neighbor's lawn since I found out how nice the burn is, ha!!

eeeekie

is this per your HRM or per mfp? MFP tends to be lower than HRMs so if it's per your HRM I'd say no. If it's MFP database then I'd say it might be lower than an HRM but it could be higher...just depends on how hard you were pushing lol

YMTaylor

Just my two cents, my treadmill says I burn an average of 800 calories per hour of running at 5mph based on my current weight so 650 for 60-90 minutes of pushing a lawn mower doesn't sound too crazy to me.

CriticalX

i do bc ur loading ur muscle and walk...

LuckyLeprechaun

The calories will become less as you lose more weight.

this surprised me when it occurred. My walk with my dogs has always been 91 calories, and then one day, it was 86. I was like, Where did my 5 calories go!? LOL One of my darling friends pointed out that means the plan is WORKING!!! Haha and then I felt much better:laugh:

alienblonde1

I would say so. I sweat like crazy mowing the lawn. Maybe it depends on how level/smooth your yard is. If you have correct weight etc logged in on here I would think its close.

johnwhitent

All yards are not created equal! My yard is large, rough, on a steep grade, and full of obstacles. Parts are so steep that I cannot push up the slope but can’t come down due to a fence at the top so I cut across, fighting for footing and dropping as I go. I do not have a HRM, but I am confident that I am burning more calories push mowing than I do running or cycling for the same time. Might be way different for a city lot, but my yard is a full body workout!

chrisdavey

google eccentricless leg workouts. Fancy term bodybuilders use. Basically, just pushing a mower around haha.

I love mowing my lawn haha.

titletown

My yard is good sized, but pretty flat.

I had sweats on as it was in the low 60's, but I did work up a pretty good lather, so maybe it isn't that far off after all.

My mower is self-propelled, but that function does not work. Makes the mower much heavier than a normal one with the non working motor on that part of it.

I'll still estimate on the low end to make sure I guess.

Yeah, the more weight you lose, the less calories you burn doing the same exercise, that's for sure. You are carrying around that much less weight for the entire time, makes sense to me for sure.

Brandicaloriecountess

I do not count any calories for any thing I would normally do. I only count activities that I specifically do for fitness/weight loss. I don't count cleaning the house because I clean to have a clean house. I do count swimming bc if I wasn't counting calories I wouldn't get in the pool I'd sunbathe lol.

titletown

I don't normally mow the lawn, my kids do

It was so nice out today and my legs were a bit sore from my first couple days jogging, I thought I'd fit something a bit less strenuous in for the day and give my legs a rest.

kelsully

I don't believe you burn more pushing a mower for 90 mins then you do running for an hour.

Depends...that would be way too high for me...and I can run 7 mi in an hour thus burning about 650 cals in an hour...the reason 650 would be too high for me is because I have a small flat yard...about a mile away from me there are some big *kitten* yeards that have huge hills...if I mowed there for 90 minutes...like I meant I really meant business I could hit 650 in 90 minutes.

msheldon88

I wear a HR monitor while mowing and I burn more than it says on my fitness pal.

XFitMojoMom

I wore my HRM today and for 1 hour it was 368 calories... but I forgot to put the mower in a higher gear and I really fought to push the bloody thing around, and the grass was pretty long.

trink68

that could depend on what your lawn is like.Lots of hills and your using a push mower....then you certainly can burn a ton of calories.I dont believe for a second its as many as MFP says.But I have actually researched this.Pretty much every fitness site says the same thing.Roughly 3-400 an hour using a push mower.I dont know why and am very skeptical.But even WebMD talks about it...just saying