Counting yard work as exercise??????

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selfmom5
selfmom5 Posts: 30 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The last couple of weeks I haven't had time to "workout" on my elliptical. It's spring and I have a HUGE garden. So I have been spending atleast 4 hrs outside a day working in it. It is a lot of hoeing, weeding, tilling, pulling up sticks ect... Saterday alone, I hoed between 20 acres of corn! I have only been logging half of my gardening time in, but should I log in all of it? It's so hard for me to say I am "exercising" when I am doing my garden work.... Lol I know it's hard work though!!! I lost 3 lbs last week :)

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  • h7463
    h7463 Posts: 626 Member
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    Right there with you! Logged 4 hours with the weed eater today...wearing my heart rate monitor... 880 calories of cardio! Yay...!
  • kmbweber2014
    kmbweber2014 Posts: 680 Member
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    I log half of my gardening time when it is not normal things I do. Like Friday I did a lot of weeding, I push mowed our lawn (we have a riding lawn mower too but I didn't use it), and I used the weedeater. I was at it for about 5 hours but I logged two hours of gardening.
  • Roaringgael
    Roaringgael Posts: 339 Member
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    Put it into MFP exercise.
    Mowing with a motorised push mower comes in around 600 cals an hour.
    Most weeding and lopping and digging has impressive calorie burn look it up.
    Its all exercise.
  • suncluster
    suncluster Posts: 539 Member
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    raked my front and back lawn for an hour yesterday and it was definitly work :)
  • LauriePar
    LauriePar Posts: 239 Member
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    I worked hard in my gardens today--up and down, raking, moving the full wheelbarrow, etc. You better believe I count it as exercise calories!!
  • h7463
    h7463 Posts: 626 Member
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    Put it into MFP exercise.
    Mowing with a motorised push mower comes in around 600 cals an hour.
    Most weeding and lopping and digging has impressive calorie burn look it up.
    Its all exercise.
    I cross-checked some of the exercises listed in MFP with a different app that I have been using (daily burn tracker), and I noticed, that the calories for the activities are generously high. Most of activities that I like to track, have not even be close to what I tracked for my body stats with the heart rate monitor. I would take the numbers with a grain of...well...potting soil... :happy:
  • HikeCyclist
    HikeCyclist Posts: 153 Member
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    Hmmm . . . I've never hoed before (hah!), but it sounds kinda like shoveling snow. If I were you, if you don't normally do that, then I'd wear my HRM and input the cals into MFP. And then get a back massage!
  • Tigg_er
    Tigg_er Posts: 22,001 Member
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    I log half of my gardening time when it is not normal things I do. Like Friday I did a lot of weeding, I push mowed our lawn (we have a riding lawn mower too but I didn't use it), and I used the weedeater. I was at it for about 5 hours but I logged two hours of gardening.

    Thats usually the way I do it also if heavy hoeing and shoveling moving dirt etc. I will log 1/2 the time spent.
  • jerber160
    jerber160 Posts: 2,606 Member
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    I do. using my HRM
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
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    I cross-checked some of the exercises listed in MFP with a different app that I have been using (daily burn tracker), and I noticed, that the calories for the activities are generously high.
    Yup, MFPs calorie burn numbers are. Notoriously high. I typically log only 75% or less of my time.
  • ew_david
    ew_david Posts: 3,473 Member
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    Hoeing doesn't burn the calories people think it does.
  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 941 Member
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    It's OK to log it as a burn. You either log it as a burn, or if you do it on a regular basis, you set your activity level higher and don't log it. Either way the calories burned get counted, as they should be, because they are real.
  • selfmom5
    selfmom5 Posts: 30 Member
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    Ok I will just continue to log in half my time..... And hoeing is MAJOR work around here! Bermuda and weeds are tuff buggers!! And not to mention I have 2 acres that is my "personal" garden....we compost a lot and I move a lot of dirt.... Carry 40lb bags around and throw lots of sticks. You want a good biggest loser workout? Drag/pull 4 hoses connected ;) you feel the burn lol!!

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