Cleaning Stalls, Calories? Strength or Cardiovascular?

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  • quietcoral
    quietcoral Posts: 64 Member
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    Even though it may not be enough to increase heart rate and improve cardiovascular fitness, she would still be burning more calories than her normal (especially if she put down sedentary as her activity level), so I think it is perfectly fine to log as exercise.

    Today, I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds/did yard work and even though I doubt my heart rate got too high I am very exhausted because I was doing this activity for almost 3 hours and it was hard work! And I logged it! I did however reduce the calorie burn because I do believe MFP overestimates the calories burned. Mostly I log it so I know what I did day to day because I want to keep track of my exercise. I never eat back all my exericse calories and only eat back maybe 100-200 calories if I am really hungry.
  • Debutante55
    Debutante55 Posts: 72 Member
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    Shovelling *kitten* is not "normal" in my book.

    Oh YES it is.... it's totally "normal" around my farm and is a twice-daily activity.

    I usually log about 45 calories for every 10 minutes spent mucking. On the days when I give the barn a really good clean-up I log some hours for "curling" -- the only sport I could find in MFP that duplicates the intense sweeping motion.

    I guess I could log some weight-lifting hours too for hauling hay, straw, tack and buckets but I don't bother... that's just bonus activity, like wrestling with the occasional hot horse.
  • misundrztood
    misundrztood Posts: 20
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    If it is not a regular chore for you then add it. You know how much effort you put into it. Did you break a sweat? Where you breathing harder than normal? I personally log it when I do because it is not a regular activity. We dont have stall mates yet so we have to scrub down the limestone daily. I use shoveling snow but I only log the actual time I was shoveling. I dont log walking back and forth to the compost heap because its just walking. Its really up to you and how much of a workout it was to you. Hope this helps. Give your pony a squeeze for me:)
  • javamonster
    javamonster Posts: 272 Member
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    What is exercise to your body is getting the heart rate up and using your cardiovacular energy system to power the muscles.

    I think there are some people that do next to no cardio and lift weights that would take exception to this comment. I always thought that was exercise. :wink:
  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
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    Even though it may not be enough to increase heart rate and improve cardiovascular fitness, she would still be burning more calories than her normal (especially if she put down sedentary as her activity level), so I think it is perfectly fine to log as exercise.

    Today, I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds/did yard work and even though I doubt my heart rate got too high I am very exhausted because I was doing this activity for almost 3 hours and it was hard work! And I logged it!
    to pick on you specifically, did you account for your BMR when logging this 'exercise'?? This is the main beef I have. People will do housework and see they burned say 700 calories in 3 hours of work, so log 700 calories.

    guess what, your BMR is 360 calories from doing nothing, and another 180 just from the act of standing up. Meaning of the 700 they burned, 540 would have been burned anyway just by living their everyday life. Meaning the actual calorie burn from their activity is ***160 calories*** from exercise... Ya, the body can be that efficient when using the fatty acid energy system. there isn't too much difference from walking compared to standing. This is why I say it's quite stupid marking down what amounts to every day activities. The burn is far less than people think because it fails to take into account the HUGE amount of calories that are burned just from doing nothing.
  • quietcoral
    quietcoral Posts: 64 Member
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    Even though it may not be enough to increase heart rate and improve cardiovascular fitness, she would still be burning more calories than her normal (especially if she put down sedentary as her activity level), so I think it is perfectly fine to log as exercise.

    Today, I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds/did yard work and even though I doubt my heart rate got too high I am very exhausted because I was doing this activity for almost 3 hours and it was hard work! And I logged it!
    to pick on you specifically, did you account for your BMR when logging this 'exercise'?? This is the main beef I have. People will do housework and see they burned say 700 calories in 3 hours of work, so log 700 calories.

    guess what, your BMR is 360 calories from doing nothing, and another 180 just from the act of standing up. Meaning of the 700 they burned, 540 would have been burned anyway just by living their everyday life. Meaning the actual calorie burn from their activity is ***160 calories*** from exercise... Ya, the body can be that efficient when using the fatty acid energy system. there isn't too much difference from walking compared to standing. This is why I say it's quite stupid marking down what amounts to every day activities. The burn is far less than people think because it fails to take into account the HUGE amount of calories that are burned just from doing nothing.

    Yeah I do realize that even if I had been doing nothing I probably would have burned half of those calories anyway. I just log to keep track of exercise and I like to know what I did day to day and it's nice to see approximately how many calories that I burned doing that. I know it's technically not all extra calories but when you run 6 miles and burn 600 calories doing so, you really only burned 500 extra calories since you prob would have burned the other 100 calories watching TV or whatever. So, I do get what you are saying....
  • SaintOnEarth
    SaintOnEarth Posts: 160
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    Wow, so people come on the forums to bash others for wanting to put something as a workout. I think people should be able to put anything they want as a workout and not be harassed by others. I hope you figured out what to put it into MFP as :D
  • breezy62037
    breezy62037 Posts: 16
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    Amen sister!! Mucking is hard work!!
  • breezy62037
    breezy62037 Posts: 16
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    Well, it's all relative. I muck 7-10 stalls in two hours, give or take. I've got a BodyMedia FIT and comparing a day where I do stalls compared to one I don't, I burn about 500 more calories, at my weight. Before I got my BMF and was logging on here I just had my activity level set as active to account for that, as for me it was pretty much a daily activity. If yours is set at sendentary, and you are just starting this activity, then I would log it, personally.

    This site might help, noting that these figures are for a 150lb, 5'8 human:

    http://www.equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/training/general/countingcalories_122006/

    I'd like some of you normal human beings to come muck stalls at my place for a couple of weeks. :flowerforyou: Then tell me you don't burn calories. :smile: Want great-looking arms? Do barn work! :happy:

    Amen sister!! Mucking is hard work!!
  • hippy2skippy
    hippy2skippy Posts: 98 Member
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    If you're just shoveling poop, I would agree about using gardening. If you're going slow, scooping and scrubbing urine-soaked shavings, then I would log 20 minutes of each hour as "shoveling snow" because that stuff gets heavy.

    In our barn, wet shavings can definitely get heavy, you're right! =) I log it as gardening as well, though I think now I'm going to use shoveling snow on days where I do harder work cause that's more like the effort that goes into it sometimes.

    Thanks for the tip!

    Roxanne
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
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    When I had an internship at a local horse showing stable, I dropped 14 lbs and got really toned arms. I dunno whether to define it as cardio or strength! I was loading up and lugging around 50 lb barrels up and down a ramp for about 2 hours, and then I got to be a barn manager and was doing haybales too. It's definitely a fat blaster, that's for sure!
    Get yourself an HRM and find out what you're burning.
  • meangreen11
    meangreen11 Posts: 42 Member
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    Love this thread (and can we start one about calories burned cantering?)...

    If it just takes a quick 10 or 15 minutes to do my barn chores, I don't log anything. If I work out there for a significant time, I will log as light/moderate cleaning. If I am stripping stalls, dragging shavings, and hay bales, etc. I will log as heavy cleaning.

    I could really get something started if someone saw the "Exercise" I created for logging "Showmanship Practice." :-)
  • Midnight444
    Midnight444 Posts: 23 Member
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    Thank you so much everyone!!!! Most of you have been EXTREMELY helpful!!!!!

    I have been extremely sedentary for the past couple of years due to health problems. So this year I have been very, very slowly, trying to build back up my strength and fitness, and lose many extra pounds too. Mucking out stalls has not been a regular activity for me in a few years. When I mucked out our 3 stalls in two hours, it was the first time I was able to do it, by myself, without feeling like I was going to collapse after a couple of shovel-fulls.

    I have been doing just the basic activities of daily living the past few years, and have not been able to do average things like cleaning the house, or washing dishes, etc. ... Sooo, I consider mucking out the stalls to be a great achievement for me.... I am working towards having it been a routine daily activity, but for now I am considering it as exercise that burns calories. I usually do underestimate because I'd rather be pleasantly surprised the disappointed each time I weigh myself...

    Thanks again for all of your wonderful help... I really do appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!:flowerforyou:
  • Midnight444
    Midnight444 Posts: 23 Member
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    I've always said why go to a gym when there are so many barn chores to do :wink:
  • Kippie1985
    Kippie1985 Posts: 11 Member
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    Hey good on you for getting out to clean the horse stalls! I do agree with the others around here though - be careful about logging that sort of work. I look after 17 horses and teach lessons regularly, but I don't log those calories. The reason I don't log them is because it's stop and go work, not consistent. Ie: You're not constantly moving your fork for the whole two hours straight. Yes you do burn calories, but, there is no clear way to log them. It's sort of like how we don't log every step we take all day. Ie: We don't log grocery shopping as walking, even though we walked most of the time. I also am not a fan of logging housework, gardening, or any other stop/go activities.

    You also have to keep in mind that even though it took you two hours to clean the stalls, you wouldn't have burned the same amount of calories someone else might have, since three stalls typically takes 15 - 40 minutes depending on the type of bedding, whether you're stripping the stalls or not, and whether you include other chores as part of that (ie: In my barn you muck, knock down cobwebs, dump and scrub the water/feed buckets, hay, and sweep the area near the stall as part of mucking, other places they literally just muck.)

    That said, ultimately it's just personal preference what you do and don't log. You should be really proud of your accomplishment!!!
  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
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    What is exercise to your body is getting the heart rate up and using your cardiovacular energy system to power the muscles.

    I think there are some people that do next to no cardio and lift weights that would take exception to this comment. I always thought that was exercise. :wink:
    fair enough, I consider exercise anything that uses the cardio energy system and higher. so that also includes ATP-CP and lactic acid. should have made that clearer. That said, any anaerobic movement will still elevate heart rate so it makes a decent catch all comment.
  • Midnight444
    Midnight444 Posts: 23 Member
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    So... According to MFP, 60 minutes of:

    Gardening, general is 412 cal.
    Shoveling Snow is 638 cal.
    Walking, 2.0 mph, slow pace is 257 cal.

    So... I think I'm going to use the calories for Walking, 2.0 mph, slow pace to make it a low estimate because at this point I am only able to go slowly at mucking stalls... and this way if I burn more then that, I might be pleasantly surprised when I weigh myself... and if not, that's ok... at least I am working on getting stronger...

    I think that mucking stalls is both cardiovascular and strength... Doing the mucking really gets my hear pumping and shortens my breath a little. Also when I need to empty the wheelbarrow I am using strength to push it to the manure pile and dump it. And walking to and from the pile is walking that is not normally in my routine daily activities... And manure and wet bedding is REALLY heavy, and sometimes there is ALOT of it if the horses have been in longer than usual... so, each time I lift the pitchfork I use strength to do it... And even it the coldest weather I sweat when I am working out there... way too much actually...

    So... yeah....

    Keep any more ideas about it coming... I really appreciate all of the wonderful ideas and suggestions... Thanks!!! :flowerforyou:
  • DrBorkBork
    DrBorkBork Posts: 4,099 Member
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    So... According to MFP, 60 minutes of:

    Gardening, general is 412 cal.
    Shoveling Snow is 638 cal.
    Walking, 2.0 mph, slow pace is 257 cal.

    So... I think I'm going to use the calories for Walking, 2.0 mph, slow pace to make it a low estimate because at this point I am only able to go slowly at mucking stalls... and this way if I burn more then that, I might be pleasantly surprised when I weigh myself... and if not, that's ok... at least I am working on getting stronger...

    honestly I think it's closer to shoveling snow. Even at my fittest, shoveling snow kicks my butt.
  • mnlght535
    mnlght535 Posts: 84
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    I personally log a lot of my regular activities because when I did my initial setup with MFP, I marked myself as having a sedentary lifestyle because for the most part I did. If I do 1 hour of cleaning I may log it as 20-30 min of light housekeeping because I want to be realistic about the calories I may be burning. Also, I like to have something to look back on to see what I had been doing the past month and see where that has gotten me. Additionally, I do get cardio from walking, jogging, water aerobics, biggest loser workout, etc and I log that as well.

    With that said, I also watch what I put into my mouth and I choose not to eat my exercise calories back (if I am hungry I will eat some back). Keep in mind, I am not working right now (for pay), I stay at home and take care of my grandson who keeps me going to. Right now, this is what is working for me. I have been successful at consistently losing weight for the past few months and even won a weight loss challenge in my community. So, what I have been doing has worked for me. I guess that's it in a nutshell. You need to log what you choose and measure your results over time and make your own adjustments as needed.

    I am sure you can really work up a sweat mucking stalls so I personally would log that but that's my opinion. Good luck and keep up that hard work :)
  • ninjakowski
    ninjakowski Posts: 158
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    Cleaning stalls is definately a workout!!! BUT considering how slow you are going you aren't working at a high intensity so be careful how you log it.

    As someone mentioned it also depends on a few other factors - I used to have some you could muck out in 2 minutes, no sweat and others that you practically had to empty the box every morning.

    When I worked in Germany we did 20+ boxes in 2 hours! That definately woke me up at 7am.

    Nice to see some other horsey girls on here :) Ahh, I miss my riding body - 5 horses a day kept me damn fit :ohwell:

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