Yard Work Question for the Men (and Women)

cnance

What do you use for exercise tracking with yard work? I have nearly 1/4 acre that I edge, weed-eat, and push mow weekly. Takes me around two hours start to finish.

I've been using Gardening which yields over 700 calories. I think that seems pretty reasonable sense I'm getting to be in pretty good shape (just finished week 10 of P90x) and its still a lot of work. Thoughts?

Oh, I don't have a fancy heart monitor that tracks calories and I won't be buying one soon.

erickirb

What ever the number works out to be, be sure to back out the calories you would have burned at rest anyway. say your body burns 1.5 cals at rest over a 2 hour period that is 180 calories (1.5*120min). So if the 700 is correct, the amount you should put into MFP is 520 (700-180) or there about.

Azdak

I have mixed feelings about this type of activity logging. I guess if you are at a point in your program where are really trying to be detailed about every aspect of intake and expenditure, you would want to account for some of this work, but, in my opinion, it is not advisable.

First of all, most people vastly overestimate the calories they expend during this type of "work". Secondly, because it is normally only an occasional event, the effect of the calorie expenditure is pretty minute when averaged over time.

And speaking of averages, your activity level factor is an "average" as well. Since we don't do the precise same amount of activity every day, that factor assumes that some days you will be more active than others and it will average itself out over time. It's like the guy at work who wants extra credit (or pay) for the one day he stayed 1/2 late to finish something, but ignores the 10 other days he came in 5 min late or left 5 min early.

Just my personal opinion, not a professional one.

MercuryBlue

For me, whether I track this sort of thing or not depends on the type of activity it is. Basic, every day tasks (doing laundry, etc) are lifestyle calories. However, a month ago I spent a good 8 hours cleaning out my storage room. Moving boxes, sorting through boxes, etc. I counted those calories because it was so completely out of the ordinary for me.

If you're going to count those calories, I'd err on the side of caution and split them in half. Like, if MFP says you burned 700 I'd only 'count' 350 of them. But then, I almost always did this with calories MFP claims I burned because they're not super-accurate (which is why I got a HRM).

cnance

I understand your point about activity and averages. However, I sit at a desk 5 days a week and as such have that figured into my MFP settings. I spend almost all day every Saturday and Sunday doing some type of work on my house, yard, etc. I log all of these weekend activities of some nature. I work hard when I'm doing these activities, I know its not an aerobic activity but I'm not sitting at a computer either.

I may not eat all the calories associated with the activities, but I do feel I need more calories on those days and this is how I compensate for that.

canstey

I have mixed feelings about this type of activity logging. I guess if you are at a point in your program where are really trying to be detailed about every aspect of intake and expenditure, you would want to account for some of this work, but, in my opinion, it is not advisable.

First of all, most people vastly overestimate the calories they expend during this type of "work". Secondly, because it is normally only an occasional event, the effect of the calorie expenditure is pretty minute when averaged over time.

Just my personal opinion, not a professional one.

I think this is part of the attitude I talked about in another post about our repackaged lives. Why is it only "exercise" if we are out running, biking, using an eliptical, etc.?. As in if it isn't done for the specific purpose and focus of exercise, it doesn't count. Working in the yard, mowing, weed whacking, fertilizing, and such burn as many calories in an hour as walking and no one has a problem with counting the exercise calories from an hour walk. I looked at my heart rate profile and calories burned from walking and from pushing a drop spreader around the yard for an hour. They are both the same. Our grandparents and great-grandparents were just living their lives doing normal chores and that was enough exercise to keep them sufficiently fit and a healthier weight.

I am conservative when counting exercise calories from such relatively low effort activity and it needs to be at least an hour before I count it but it still counts. I have changed my attitude about the heavy yard work from something that interferes with my "real exercise" into seeing it as an opportunity to have productive exercise. I also don't double count it since my lifestyle is sedentary.

lmr9

For me, whether I track this sort of thing or not depends on the type of activity it is. Basic, every day tasks (doing laundry, etc) are lifestyle calories. However, a month ago I spent a good 8 hours cleaning out my storage room. Moving boxes, sorting through boxes, etc. I counted those calories because it was so completely out of the ordinary for me.

If you're going to count those calories, I'd err on the side of caution and split them in half. Like, if MFP says you burned 700 I'd only 'count' 350 of them. But then, I almost always did this with calories MFP claims I burned because they're not super-accurate (which is why I got a HRM).

These are pretty much my feelings too. If it's an every day thing, I don't count it, but I do definitely count yard work. I'm out there sweating, walking, pushing a *manual push* mower for appx 45 minutes - that's a work out to me! There are activities in the system for raking and mowing - I use those conservatively.

MercuryBlue

I think this is part of the attitude I talked about in another post about our repackaged lives. Why is it only "exercise" if we are out running, biking, using an eliptical, etc.?. As in if it isn't done for the specific purpose and focus of exercise, it doesn't count. Working in the yard, mowing, weed whacking, fertilizing, and such burn as many calories in an hour as walking and no one has a problem with counting the exercise calories from an hour walk. I looked at my heart rate profile and calories burned from walking and from pushing a drop spreader around the yard for an hour. They are both the same. Our grandparents and great-grandparents were just living their lives doing normal chores and that was enough exercise to keep them sufficiently fit and a healthier weight.

I am conservative when counting exercise calories from such relatively low effort activity and it needs to be at least an hour before I count it but it still counts. I have changed my attitude about the heavy yard work from something that interferes with my "real exercise" into seeing it as an opportunity to have productive exercise. I also don't double count it since my lifestyle is sedentary.

I don't think it's so much that it 'doesn't count'... it's just that, as far as MFP is concerned, there's a risk of 'double-counting'.

Like, if I tell MFP that I'm an active person, because I spend a lot of time during the day doing housework and mowing the lawn, etc, then MFP does a calculation and determines that I burn X amount of calories a day. If I THEN go and count those activities individually as exercise, I'm basically 'giving myself credit' for calories that MFP had already calculated I would burn that day. Make sense?

In my case, I work at a desk. My activity level is set at sedentary. BECAUSE it's set at sedentary, I DO have to calculate the calories burned in a major task (such as 2 hours of yardwork) because it's so out of the ordinary for me.

From a PHYSICAL standpoint, yes. Exercise is exercise, and it's all good. But when we're talking about counting and tracking calories, it's better to be as accurate as possible.

canstey

I don't think it's so much that it 'doesn't count'... it's just that, as far as MFP is concerned, there's a risk of 'double-counting'.

Like, if I tell MFP that I'm an active person, because I spend a lot of time during the day doing housework and mowing the lawn, etc, then MFP does a calculation and determines that I burn X amount of calories a day. If I THEN go and count those activities individually as exercise, I'm basically 'giving myself credit' for calories that MFP had already calculated I would burn that day. Make sense?

In my case, I work at a desk. My activity level is set at sedentary. BECAUSE it's set at sedentary, I DO have to calculate the calories burned in a major task (such as 2 hours of yardwork) because it's so out of the ordinary for me.

From a PHYSICAL standpoint, yes. Exercise is exercise, and it's all good. But when we're talking about counting and tracking calories, it's better to be as accurate as possible.

I get it about double counting and I think most other people get it like the original poster. I just see many times about not counting hard work chores as exercise or calories because they aren't "real exercise". If you haven't counted as part of your daily activity rate then it is just a countable as exercise.

MercuryBlue

I don't think it's so much that it 'doesn't count'... it's just that, as far as MFP is concerned, there's a risk of 'double-counting'.

Like, if I tell MFP that I'm an active person, because I spend a lot of time during the day doing housework and mowing the lawn, etc, then MFP does a calculation and determines that I burn X amount of calories a day. If I THEN go and count those activities individually as exercise, I'm basically 'giving myself credit' for calories that MFP had already calculated I would burn that day. Make sense?

In my case, I work at a desk. My activity level is set at sedentary. BECAUSE it's set at sedentary, I DO have to calculate the calories burned in a major task (such as 2 hours of yardwork) because it's so out of the ordinary for me.

From a PHYSICAL standpoint, yes. Exercise is exercise, and it's all good. But when we're talking about counting and tracking calories, it's better to be as accurate as possible.

I get it about double counting and I think most other people get it like the original poster. I just see many times about not counting hard work chores as exercise or calories because they aren't "real exercise". If you haven't counted as part of your daily activity rate then it is just a countable as exercise.

Oh, I completely agree. Exercise is exercise. Just because it's a chore (like yardwork) or you enjoy doing it (like swimming or playing golf) doesn't mean you're not doing your body some good.

But I also agree with Azdak that people tend to over-estimate calories burned. Also, it is amazing how many people do double-count their exercise calories, then wonder why they're not seeing a loss.

I think, in the end, what matters is that people are not only getting exercise, but that they're aware of the difference between exercise calories and lifestyle calories. Over counting (or under counting) can lead to real headaches for people looking to lose weight or become healthier.