Washing DC Area - Snow shoveling

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rrlucero
rrlucero Posts: 24
in Fitness and Exercise
I live just outside of the Metro DC area, and yesterday between the hours of 4pm - 12am, I shoveled. And shoveled. And shoveled some more! :noway:

I'm logging that as exercise, but from Googling the amount of calories burned, I'm not sure that's accurate. Each 1 hour sessions of snow shoveling says I burned 702 calories per hour. My "exercise" calories were off the hook! There's no way I am going to be able to eat all of those. Should I just take it as a loss?

I just woke up this morning 6 hours after the last shovel and you can't even tell I did anything yesterday :grumble:

I guess the silver lining of all this snow, GREAT EXERCISE?! I'm just wondering if my calories burned is accurate. I did drop another 2lbs. Let's see what the total is after I dig myself out today :happy:

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  • geicko
    geicko Posts: 151
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    That's probably accurate !

    We didn't get much snow here this winter but I wore my Heart Rate Monitor the one time I had to shovel big time. It turned out I burned an amazing 700 calories during the 2 hours I played in the snow, pretty much similar to what online exercice calories calculators will give for my weight.

    I usually eat my exercice calories but don't necessarily do so when it comes to "household" activities, like shoveling or a day of gardening,

    Make sure you drink plenty though !

    I love shoveling :blushing:
  • jlvgriffin
    jlvgriffin Posts: 23 Member
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    How do you log snow shoveling in?
  • tlynnweb
    tlynnweb Posts: 201 Member
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    I live outside DC too and holy cow--what is up with this snow--do we have 3 feet yet? This is ridiculous! Anyway, someone told me its 400 cal/hour but who the heck knows. I'm sure it depends on height/weight, etc. Good for you for shoveling, I do not shovel. The hubs is out there now!
  • kcfva122
    kcfva122 Posts: 40
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    I live just outside DC as well. Isn't this a riot?

    I'm getting ready to go out for my usual walk. I can't walk my usual "brisk 3.5 mph". I'll be slogging through the snow. I'm thinking of logging it as cross-country hiking - any suggestions?

    Karen
  • Wolfena
    Wolfena Posts: 1,570 Member
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    Snow shoveling does burn lots of calories, I can believe you burned that much! ....and for those who asked, you can go to caloriesperhour.com and get an idea of what you'd burn doing all kinds of activities that are often no listed on other sites.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Snow shoveling will definitely burn some calories, but your HRM will overestimate the amount because of the emphasis on upper body work, and the stronger isometric component of the shoveling/throwing action.

    Take all the calorie burn you can get, but I would be very cautious about replacing those calories. If you are hungry and you HRM says 700, I personally wouldn't replace more than 200. Between the overestimation by tables and an HRM and the varied individual response to the exertion, there is going to be a big variation in the actual numbers of Calories burned vs estimated amount. Personally, I would just take the "bonus".

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