Doubting calories for gardening

Junisahn

Hi,

I garden between 1 and 3 hours every day, and have been entering that for my exercise. I have my settings at "sedentary," otherwise - I'm a stay-at-home-mom. Sometimes I work my *kitten* off - shoveling, transporting dirt, building raised beds. Other times, I'm weeding or planting - planting is particularly low-energy.

My question is kind of weird... I REALLY enjoy gardening - to the point that I get into a flow mindset where time just speeds by. I don't notice that I'm expending much energy, and so when I come in and log the time, it seems like cheating. For instance, today I gardened for 120 minutes, and that gives me (I weigh 118) a whopping 428 calories!!! I'm afraid that that just can't be right.

At this point in the season, gardening and the rare walk or yoga session is the extent of my exercise. I'm worried that I'm not actually burning the amount of calories the website tells me I am, and because this is my primary activity, it's important that I get it right, I think.

Any comments?

Thanks,
Wendy

erickirb

My question is kind of weird... I REALLY enjoy gardening - to the point that I get into a flow mindset where time just speeds by. I don't notice that I'm expending much energy, and so when I come in and log the time, it seems like cheating. For instance, today I gardened for 120 minutes, and that gives me (I weigh 118) a whopping 428 calories!!! I'm afraid that that just can't be right.

That works out to about 3.5 calories per minute so that seems reasonable to me. But you have to minus off the calories you would have burned at rest.

Say your body burns 1.5 calories per minute over that 120 minutes you would have burned 180 calories sitting on your couch, so the amount of calories "extra" you should eat would be 248 (428-180). The 428 shows total calories burned, not extra calories burned through exercise.

Hope this helps, most people do not back out the calories they would have burned at rest leading them to think they burned more calories than they actual did as the 180ish would be taken into account in your Basic Metabolic Rate, and is included in your daily caloric allowance.

smae1980

My question is kind of weird... I REALLY enjoy gardening - to the point that I get into a flow mindset where time just speeds by. I don't notice that I'm expending much energy, and so when I come in and log the time, it seems like cheating. For instance, today I gardened for 120 minutes, and that gives me (I weigh 118) a whopping 428 calories!!! I'm afraid that that just can't be right.

That works out to about 3.5 calories per minute so that seems reasonable to me. But you have to minus off the calories you would have burned at rest.

Say your body burns 1.5 calories per minute over that 120 minutes you would have burned 180 calories sitting on your couch, so the amount of calories "extra" you should eat would be 248 (428-180). The 428 shows total calories burned, not extra calories burned through exercise.

Hope this helps, most people do not back out the calories they would have burned at rest leading them to think they burned more calories than they actual did as the 180ish would be taken into account in your Basic Metabolic Rate, and is included in your daily caloric allowance.

Wait, isn't that calculated into the calorie calculator?

kelli_panzera

If you're going by the calories here, they are a general number put in by MFP members. If I gardened at 177 pounds and put that in, thats what the calculations would be for you as well. Go to fatburn.com and enter your activity and your weight. It's much more accurate for your body than the information here has been IMO. I used to way overestimate the calories I was burning when I used the calculator here, but it's a bunch of different bodies putting in a bunch of different numbers. I love my HRM!

erickirb

If you're going by the calories here, they are a general number put in by MFP members. If I gardened at 177 pounds and put that in, thats what the calculations would be for you as well. Go to fatburn.com and enter your activity and your weight. It's much more accurate for your body than the information here has been IMO. I used to way overestimate the calories I was burning when I used the calculator here, but it's a bunch of different bodies putting in a bunch of different numbers. I love my HRM!

Although a HRM is better, MFP's numbers are based on your weight and maybe your sex as well, would have to check with Mike on this one. Even with your HRM you still have to back out the calories you would have burned at rest or risk over estimating daily caloric burn as some of those calories are included in you BMR.

erickirb

I don't believe resting calories are taken into account when entering exercise, so they do have to be backed out.

Junisahn

Makes sense about subtracting the calories - not as big a deal for people who do, say, 3 or 4 mile runs in 30 minutes, but when you do a lighter or more moderate activity for a long period, those "at rest" calories really add up.