Gardening - really?!?!?!

joilet
joilet Posts: 99
edited September 27 in Health and Weight Loss
So I did an hour and a half of gardening on Saturday, and MFP said I burned 418 calories.

I just didnt' believe it, so to be safe I cut it in half. That doesn't seem possible.

Would a HRM be accurate while gardening?
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Replies

  • tracylee1980
    tracylee1980 Posts: 15 Member
    I'm curious about this too! I do a lot of gardening! :)
  • nurse_carolyn
    nurse_carolyn Posts: 348
    I was wondering the same thing.....(hoping it was correct) but still wondering
  • vickiele1
    vickiele1 Posts: 394 Member
    Gardening is great exercise - mostly because you really DON'T know how much you are doing because you are so focused. But it you think of the bending over, kneeling, reaching, pulling, pulling, etc. as being exercise similar to the kind of aerobic exercises you do (at least in the warm up stages) and then also some strength building exercises, then it is easier to see how you can burn so many calories. Think about how sore your muscles are after you have spent 4- 5 hours in the yard or garden. The backs of your legs, abdomen, arms, shoulders, lower back - all usually ache and are sore for several days. This indicates those muscle groups are being worked more than your usual exercise pattern. I would believe any number an HRM gives me. If Exercise isn't your "normal" routine, then count it - I certainly do.

    Blessings as you continue on your journey to a healthier and happier you.

    Vickie
  • ronda_gettinghealthy
    ronda_gettinghealthy Posts: 777 Member
    I wore a hrm and mfp was a bit high-- and I was hoeing/making rows/putting up trellis and planting a big garden
  • timadotcom
    timadotcom Posts: 653 Member
    Yesterday i did some major cleaning in my house, my HRM said I burned 600 over a 4 hour period.

    I think gardening does burn a lot of calories, isn't that the reason why a lot of women have affairs with the gardener:laugh:
  • breezymom81
    breezymom81 Posts: 499 Member
    I spent 2 hours mowing yesterday, with my HRM, stayed in my target zone for most of it, and burned 914 calories!! It is a lot of work!
  • Jujubie
    Jujubie Posts: 130 Member
    Yes, gardening burns calories. In my case, an hour's worth of gardening is just over 300 calories burnt on MFP. And I believe it might actually be more in reality.
    I call gardening "useful yoga" :)
  • nurse_carolyn
    nurse_carolyn Posts: 348
    all right people I gotta get out in the garden, lol
  • brafordrm
    brafordrm Posts: 19
    Not to be devils advocate, but daily chores like gardening, or laundry, or walking to the mailbox are a general part of life. Is it really necessary to log in EVERYTHING? Besides, I think most would agree that myfitnesspal doesn't always have the best judgement as to how many calories you burn, I think it tends to overestimate. Sorry to sound all pessimistic. :/
  • wewon
    wewon Posts: 838 Member
    "Gardening" is a pretty broad term.

    It encompasses everything from tilling top soil and carrying bags of mulch to planting flowers around the borders of the yard.

    A HRM would give you a better picture of what you are burning.
  • miclavd
    miclavd Posts: 15
    I wouldn't say that is accurate. MFP never matches up with what the treadmill says when it comes to calories burned. MFP is always a little over, but who's to say MFP is correct and the treadmill is wrong???
  • Shweedog
    Shweedog Posts: 883 Member
    I wore a hrm and mfp was a bit high-- and I was hoeing/making rows/putting up trellis and planting a big garden

    I think it really depends on just what you are doing while gardening. This MFP member did gardening that required a lot of effort. Likewise, another member pushed around a lawn mower which probably burned a lot. If you were just sitting on the ground putting seeds in holes then you probably didn't burn much. The item "gardening" is extremely vague. I would not trust the number because you do not know what the makers of MFP considered gardening when creating this item.
  • liz11599
    liz11599 Posts: 220 Member
    If it's true then it kinda motivates you to have the best landscaped yard on the block, doesn't it...lol.:laugh:
  • jtp5184
    jtp5184 Posts: 138 Member
    I was moving this weekend and was tempted to wear my hrm but then decided to pretend i didnt burn them and save them for a raining day when im not doing something so productive :)
  • Fancy_Nancy2
    Fancy_Nancy2 Posts: 545 Member
    I don't add garden but I do add when I mow since it only happen once a week or once every other week but garden happens almost every day and just like cleaning is daily.
  • heather0416
    heather0416 Posts: 118 Member
    Not to be devils advocate, but daily chores like gardening, or laundry, or walking to the mailbox are a general part of life. Is it really necessary to log in EVERYTHING? Besides, I think most would agree that myfitnesspal doesn't always have the best judgement as to how many calories you burn, I think it tends to overestimate. Sorry to sound all pessimistic. :/



    If you don't garden all the time.. I don't see a problem with adding it. We recently uprooted two plants and planted two bushes and a tree. I u
  • hockeyman28
    hockeyman28 Posts: 136
    I know nothing of the gardening debate. i know that when I'm done gardening( I mean mulching, pulling ivy, mowing, digging,hedge trimming, raking- the harder stuff, not just maintannence pruning or weed pulling) I am sweating through a shirt, and while it is not an aerobic exercise, I know I am burning calories. I like the idea of cutting it in half though.

    As for the treadmill, eliptical etc. The trainer at my gym says that the machines are too low.
  • heather0416
    heather0416 Posts: 118 Member
    * I put it in my phone because its a lot of work. I also mowed for over an hour yesterday. MFP was pretty accurate in my calories burned because I looked it up on two other websites as well. Both good burns.
  • cuerpito
    cuerpito Posts: 65 Member
    It's tricky. A friend of mine lost 30 lbs a few years ago staying on a diet and mowing her 2 acres lawn EVERY day with a push mower. On the other hand, last Saturday, I cut and removed 5 trees, cut them for fire wood and stacked it on a pile, shlepped all the branches away, raked an entire acre of lawn. It took me 6 hours - technically I burned 2000 calories just doing that - and ate about 1600. The next day I registered a weight gain of 2 lbs. Go figure!
  • breezymom81
    breezymom81 Posts: 499 Member
    It's tricky. A friend of mine lost 30 lbs a few years ago staying on a diet and mowing her 2 acres lawn EVERY day with a push mower. On the other hand, last Saturday, I cut and removed 5 trees, cut them for fire wood and stacked it on a pile, shlepped all the branches away, raked an entire acre of lawn. It took me 6 hours - technically I burned 2000 calories just doing that - and ate about 1600. The next day I registered a weight gain of 2 lbs. Go figure!


    Your muscles held on to the water! They will do that on really hard work outs.
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,716 Member
    I wouldn't say that is accurate. MFP never matches up with what the treadmill says when it comes to calories burned. MFP is always a little over, but who's to say MFP is correct and the treadmill is wrong???

    The treadmill is not very accurate either.
  • breezymom81
    breezymom81 Posts: 499 Member
    Not to be devils advocate, but daily chores like gardening, or laundry, or walking to the mailbox are a general part of life. Is it really necessary to log in EVERYTHING? Besides, I think most would agree that myfitnesspal doesn't always have the best judgement as to how many calories you burn, I think it tends to overestimate. Sorry to sound all pessimistic. :/


    Gardening is not daily, very few people spend that long in a garden every day. For me mowing the lawn is seasonal and not built into my activity level. Neither is my once a week house cleaning that I do from ceiling to floor. So yes I log these things, I enjoy seeing how high I keep my heart rate and good it is for me to do these activities. Is it necessary to bring people down for what makes them feel good?
  • cuerpito
    cuerpito Posts: 65 Member
    That's interesting, nreezymom81, I didn't know that. What's the solution. Will it go away on its own or is there something I should do?
  • Lsnitkin
    Lsnitkin Posts: 9 Member
    I also doubted the calorie "credit" for gardening, but then I wore my HRM one day. My heart rate was solidly in the Zone 1 aerobic training zone (65% - 75% max HR) while mowing, and at times reached the lower edge of Zone 2. The HRM had me in Zone 1 while I was doing general trimming and weeding. I work out 6 days a week (sometimes twice a day), so it's not because I'm out of shape.

    One thing to keep in mind is that you must eat back what you burn, or your body will go into starvation mode and preserve fat. The formula here at MFP is the most effective I have ever used. I'm comfortably losing 1 pound per week, and adding muscle.
  • Debinapril
    Debinapril Posts: 53 Member
    It's funny I did about 3-4 hours gardening yesterday but only decided to count half because I couldn't believe the figures and yet I feel really tired today as though I'd done a lot of work (I work out most days too so I should be used to it) Makes you think!
  • mk820
    mk820 Posts: 137 Member
    I have been rehabbing a 30 by 20 plot, pure clay soil for 3 weeks. I count this as gardening. I subtract 90 cal an hour from the total per hour because for me that is what I would burn sitting on my butt for an hour.(maintenance cals) I eat a quarter back and have lost 5 lbs in that time. I can't exercise unless I see a reason, my garden is done now so I need to find something else.
  • breezymom81
    breezymom81 Posts: 499 Member
    That's interesting, nreezymom81, I didn't know that. What's the solution. Will it go away on its own or is there something I should do?


    Drink more water! LOL
  • ampjorgensen
    ampjorgensen Posts: 86 Member
    for those who thik gardening isn't a good burn perhaps you can come finish breaking the ground for me! haha spent an hour working the land today (someone that knows what there doing when breaking the ground for the first time should i use round up twice to kill all the grass?) back to the work out I'm feeling it. I probably won't add it after the plants are in for weeding, unless i have my toddlers out with me then it is a work out! haha
  • h3h8m3
    h3h8m3 Posts: 455 Member
    Obviously a timely topic as many of us northern hemisphere folks get our yards ready.

    I spent 4 hours on Saturday helping a friend tear apart his back yard to do serious landscaping changes. Swinging a sledge, using a jackhammer, carrying railroad ties, etc etc. When I finished I logged in here to see if I could find a good category to log the activity, but in the end decided not to, because I just had no idea how much I'd really burned.

    Yesterday was one of the more painfully sore days ever. I also work out twice a day more days, and I've never been sore like I was yesterday. Even today I'm still feeling it really seriously. So, I decided to weigh myself this morning, and I was up a couple of pounds. I couldn't believe it, since I hadn't gone over my calories...

    I'm hopeful that it's as someone mentioned before, and my muscles are just holding onto the water. I'll do my normal weekly weigh-in on Thursday, and hope that by then everything is moving in the right direction.
  • Homer3D
    Homer3D Posts: 318
    I guess it really depends on what kind of work you are doing. I am pretty sure trimming the rose bush for an hour is not the same calorie burn as mowing the lawn.

    I did some gardening this weekend too. But the heavy work kind. Like moving 50 lbs bags of soil around. Digging a hole for a new rose tree for the wife. Lot of bending over, squatting, picking up heavy things. I am sure that burned tons of calories, but I didn’t know how to “record” it.
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