How to count....

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Posetiew
Posetiew Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Good Morning:

I have a (hobby) farm and more than a little physical activity is done in activities related to the farm. I have 6 horses and spend approximately 1 hour a day cleaning and rebedding stalls, carying water, hay and grain. To break it down the time looks like this:

Cleaning and rebedding stalls along with pushing wheelbarrow through the snow to the manure pile - 45 minutes - Average 7.5 minutes per stall.

Sweeping and raking the aisle - 3 minutes

Emptying and re-filling water buckets - 4 minutes

Hay to each horse - 3 minutes

Putting each horse in its stall - 6 minutes (I can do it quicker if they are waiting at the gate)

Grain to each horse 2 minutes

I am able to work up a sweat during stall cleaning in 25 degree weather and I can finish the job much quicker if the music is good on the radio.

I don't count morning feeding since it usually takes less than 10 munites. My mom puts them out mid-morning.

Replies

  • micheleb15
    micheleb15 Posts: 1,418 Member
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    It would probably be easier to change your activity level to include these daily activities rather than try to come up with a calorie count.
  • Mia_RagazzaTosta
    Mia_RagazzaTosta Posts: 4,885 Member
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    It would probably be easier to change your activity level to include these daily activities rather than try to come up with a calorie count.

    This
  • rhoule76
    rhoule76 Posts: 217 Member
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    It would probably be easier to change your activity level to include these daily activities rather than try to come up with a calorie count.

    Agreed, I think changing your activity level will achieve what you are looking for.
  • LCFulmer
    LCFulmer Posts: 183 Member
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    Wear a HRM to track the calories burned... log it as vigorous cleaning or yard work those show up in the MFP database. Or you can create your own category and label it as farm work. The key is to wear a HRM.
  • marx4
    marx4 Posts: 236 Member
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    if you can afford it, buy a heart rate monitor, this will give you your calorie burn, a total for the hour, or you can stop and start it for each activity. This might be cumbersome stopping and starting so frequently, so a total seems more practical. Good luck!
  • sfbaumgarten
    sfbaumgarten Posts: 912 Member
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    It would probably be easier to change your activity level to include these daily activities rather than try to come up with a calorie count.

    Yup.
  • jay11284
    jay11284 Posts: 42 Member
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    It would probably be easier to change your activity level to include these daily activities rather than try to come up with a calorie count.

    What she said. Estimating how many calories your burn isn't easy.
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
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    Hi, I work at a horse farm and use a heart rate monitor to track my burns. But here's a link to a website that I used to use before I got my hrm.

    http://queryhorse.com/toppages/articles/caloriesmucking.asp

    When I started at around 220lbs I burn around 350 cal/hour, now at 175lbs I burn around 250 cal/hour but I don't have it broken down into stall cleaning, pushing wheelbarrows, bringing in/taking out, feeding/watering, etc.

    Hope this helps.
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
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    Here's another website that breaks things down more:

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

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