how many calories is there for heavy yard work ?

fplakecrest
fplakecrest Posts: 8 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Spent 2 hours doing heavy yard clean up at Youth Half Way home. Hauling leaves on tarp, raking leaves and lots of walking.

Replies

  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
    Thats something you used to do before. Only log things that you are doing extra since starting to lose weight or be healthy.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    There's an entry in the MFP database of exercises for that. And if you've set your activity to "sedentary" it absolutely does count according to your body because it's energy expendature.
  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 994 Member
    Ironandwine69 wrote: »
    Thats something you used to do before. Only log things that you are doing extra since starting to lose weight or be healthy.
    No, unless it's something you do daily for work that you considered when choosing your activity level, you log it. Your body doesn't care if you went to the gym or did strenuous yard work.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 38,243 Community Helper
    There's a "Gardening, general" entry in the database you can use. I view those calorie estimates with a little skepticism for myself. I usually compare the perceived exertion and calories against some form of activity/exercise that's more standard & familiar for me, and adjust the gardening calories downward if it seems excessive. With what you were doing, it may be fine. For general weeding & such, it overstates dramatically IMO.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    I would think the calorie estimates are pretty suspect for something like raking leaves. I did some community service with a grout from work and the ones that complained about how hard it was were the ones that spent most of the time leaning on the rake
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    I plugged 60 minutes into "gardening, general" and it gave me 298 cal/hour. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me at all, it's about the same as walking for an hour at an easy 3 mph place. I dare say I think it's more effort to do heavy hard work like cutting back shrubs and brush, turning over soil, and raking. So no, I don't think the calculator is that far off.
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