Do you really burn all those calories cleaning?

I just spent all day digging, moving flower beds and pulling weeds. I entered in 6 hours general gardening and it gave me over 1000 calories. I just adjusted my time to about 2 hours and counted around 500. I think the estimates are high.

I dunno... if you're doing a lot of sweeping, carrying, moving, lifting, loading, vacuuming, dusting, reaching, garbage runs and shoving furniture around for a few hours, I imagine the calories can add up! But I'm ever the optimist, ha ha

I spend a lot of time in the garden sitting and pulling weeds, when I do log it, if I have been out there 2 hours, I will only log 30 minutes. I figure better to error on the side of lower calories burned.

I spend a lot of time in the garden sitting and pulling weeds, when I do log it, if I have been out there 2 hours, I will only log 30 minutes. I figure better to error on the side of lower calories burned.

That's a good idea, I spent several hours in the garden today and I know I worked, but I didn't know what to do with it.

MFP numbers tend to be high imo

MFP numbers tend to be high imo

This, plus they include your BMR.

Hi,

I am actually having a lot of problems with this. I work as a gardener and generally do 7 hours straight with very quick breaks for water and snacks. I have no idea how many calories I burn and do require more food on work days. I have been giving myself 400-500 extra calories and it feels right at the end of the day (not hungry or full). I like MFP because its so exacting and I would like to know how much I am burning. I've been looking into getting one of the wrist/arm bands that monitor your calories burned. Has anyone tried this? I've been swaying back and forth trying to justify the cost and the eye rolls from friends and family

I generally don't eat back my exercise calories, but I do log it to keep track. On something like that, I only log half the time. I feel like the estimated burn is high.

All calorie counters include BMR. which will be 100-180 calories an hour give or take. (and about 50 an hour while asleep) So 4 hours of doing XXXX activity will have burned 400-720 just from existing. so you have to subtract that from any total given to you.

Is it the same with an HRM?

most of the time yes.

Theres a way you can figure out how many calories you burned. I think you take your body weight times it by 0.98 (or 0.96 I don't quite remember) and times that number by the minutes you did the activity. Not sure how accurate that is. I think its just a ball park figure.

I don't think math on this one is correct. .98 is .02 away from being 1. Meaning you are claiming I burn 200cal/min when doing activity. the upper limit of human excretion is around 16cal/min for extended cardio. Most people will hit 12-14cal/min as their upper limit before they top out.

When I go to clean my Moms place, I don't just wipe a rag over everything, I am down in the mix to make sure it is as close to sanitary as possible. Yeah, I log mine and the calorie burn is pretty high.

It sounds right for 3 hours.

If your heart rate isn't increasing while you're cleaning, then I doubt you're burning off too many extra calories (ie beyond what your body naturally burns throughout the day).

I usually only log cleaning if I've done a lot of vacuuming and sweeping, and I adjust what MFP tells me down by a lot.

This is the best description ^

If your HR does not increase, then watch that calorie burn, because it will be nowhere near where you think it is, don't let it scupper your weightloss.

Gah.... I don't understand the reasoning behind this. You have a basic calorie amount given to you based on your amount of daily activity. I lowered mine and it was only about a 500 calorie difference. I don't buy into logging things you do around the house. I mow the lawn and do general yard work and don't enter it. I'm not working out. My heartrate isn't elevated enough for me to even consider it.

Look, no matter what you want to log, your body keeps an accurate account. Log that you burned 3000 calories doing house cleaning or whatever, your body doesn't read your MFP log. If you don't log those calories, your body still doesn't read your MFP log. I'd rather not log them and be safe than log them and overeat because of it.

Getting ready for a marathon cleaning session over here, where I put on my tennis shoes, blast the music, and dance around the house trying to clean and organize as much as I can, as fast as I can, followed by deep cleaning and shampooing the car by hand. I wasn't capable of doing housework at the same speed/intensity a year ago when I was out of shape, and my house was a lot less clean! I will log about half the time I spend at it to account for overestimates on MFP, but I definitely believe I will be burning a LOT more calories today than I would on a regular day at the office, and I'm sure I'll be hungrier at dinner time after all this. Since I'm close to my goal now, if I didn't eat a little extra to compensate for days like this, I would be a shaky, hungry, grouchy mess!