How many calories do you lose landscaping

JayZ1488
JayZ1488 Posts: 258 Member
edited June 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
I own my own landscaping business and work from 7 AM to 7PM Monday through Saturday I'm not constantly on machines as I travel and talk with clients. I do I walk over 8 miles a day, I weed whack cut with a walk behind lawnmower, rake and more. I'm 29 years old 5 foot 10 and weigh 213 pounds. My body fat is 22%. My goal is to go down to 180 pounds and 13% body fat. I'm just trying to figure out how many calories I burn a day through all this landscape work

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,023 Member
    JayZ1488 wrote: »
    I own my own landscaping business and work from 7 AM to 8 PM Monday through Friday and 8 to 6 on Saturday Sunday.I walk over 8 miles today weed whack cut with a walk behind lawnmower. Just trying to figure out how many calories I burn so I know how many I can eat

    You should probably set yourself as "Active" which will give you more calories and start from there. After a few weeks see what's happening with your weight and adjust if you need to.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    Get a step counter, preferably one that can sync with MFP. That'll give you a baseline on activity (I promise, you're MORE active than that step counter, but exercise calories are notoriously unreliable anyway).
  • WayTooHonest
    WayTooHonest Posts: 144 Member
    edited June 2017
    Get yourself a nice fitness tracker, that should give you a good estimate. But probably a LOT. One Saturday of good, heavy yard work and I can easily burn over a thousand calories.
  • JayZ1488
    JayZ1488 Posts: 258 Member
    Right now I'm at 23k + steps for the day and still have 5 house left for the day. The steps mainly consist of me lawnmowing holding a Weedwhacker or backpack blower. Again I'm just trying to figure out how many calories I lose so if I decide to ever go over my calories I can at least calculate my weight loss from work
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    edited June 2017
    heybales wrote: »
    I'd suggest Very Active just to cover the long day.

    Very Active was meant for the traditional 8 hrs workday x 5 days on feet most of the day - so it'll still be under-estimated for your longer days, perhaps more days too.

    But it'll get you closer to fuel you properly.

    Ditto...

    I used to do landscape construction and maintenance and it's hard *kitten* work!!!
  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 997 Member
    Yes, choose "very active" for your activity level. I just use Google Fit on my phone to track activity; it works well enough and didn't cost an extra $100-200. Your steps would be somewhat more calories than simply walking, but starting by counting it as walking will get you in the ballpark.
  • JayZ1488
    JayZ1488 Posts: 258 Member
    I really appreciate all the help so far I will change to very active. My second question is should I add any exercise to my daily plan.

    For instants if you were to jog, swim, jump rope or do any type of cardio. The app has a calorie counter for it. However walking a person's property with a 15 pound Weedwhacker or 20 pound blower are not listed haha. Also I'm constantly walking up and down in lines on people's properties with my machine.

    On top of work, I go to the gym every single day. One reason is because I don't have a shower at my apartment so I use the one at the gym. Are usually spend 30 minutes on weights and 15 minutes in the sauna. Are usually get home around nine 930 and that's when I have dinner. But like most people i eat a little heavy at night. Specially after work. I'm just wondering if I can add in any exercise so I may be allowed more calories some nights
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
    JayZ1488 wrote: »
    I really appreciate all the help so far I will change to very active. My second question is should I add any exercise to my daily plan.

    Log the calories for what's done in the gym but not for anything from work because you're already accounting for the work calories by changing your activity level.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,849 Member
    JayZ1488 wrote: »
    I really appreciate all the help so far I will change to very active. My second question is should I add any exercise to my daily plan.

    For instants if you were to jog, swim, jump rope or do any type of cardio. The app has a calorie counter for it. However walking a person's property with a 15 pound Weedwhacker or 20 pound blower are not listed haha. Also I'm constantly walking up and down in lines on people's properties with my machine.

    On top of work, I go to the gym every single day. One reason is because I don't have a shower at my apartment so I use the one at the gym. Are usually spend 30 minutes on weights and 15 minutes in the sauna. Are usually get home around nine 930 and that's when I have dinner. But like most people i eat a little heavy at night. Specially after work. I'm just wondering if I can add in any exercise so I may be allowed more calories some nights

    You'll account for 7 AM to 7PM Monday through Saturday via your Very Active activity level. Activity other than this you could count as Gardening.

    Some people count weight lifting; others do not. I count it and log it in the Cardiovascular section of my exercise diary as "Weight training, free weights". (The Strength Training section is just for notes.)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    JayZ1488 wrote: »
    I really appreciate all the help so far I will change to very active. My second question is should I add any exercise to my daily plan.

    For instants if you were to jog, swim, jump rope or do any type of cardio. The app has a calorie counter for it. However walking a person's property with a 15 pound Weedwhacker or 20 pound blower are not listed haha. Also I'm constantly walking up and down in lines on people's properties with my machine.

    On top of work, I go to the gym every single day. One reason is because I don't have a shower at my apartment so I use the one at the gym. Are usually spend 30 minutes on weights and 15 minutes in the sauna. Are usually get home around nine 930 and that's when I have dinner. But like most people i eat a little heavy at night. Specially after work. I'm just wondering if I can add in any exercise so I may be allowed more calories some nights

    Every day 30 min lifting.

    While the calorie burn is much smaller than cardio for equal time, for daily - it counts. Even if not much.

    And your day underestimated already.

    Log it and enjoy the extra so body can make improvements.
  • JayZ1488
    JayZ1488 Posts: 258 Member
    Thanks again all!!
  • brznhabits
    brznhabits Posts: 126 Member
    You can do this another way too. Log what you eat "without" change for a week or two, that will give you a baseline. From there, reduce your intake. You can also partner this info with the estimates that MFP to find your sweet spot.
  • cji_isa
    cji_isa Posts: 2 Member
    These comments are good but is there a place on this app where you can actually log in an activity and it bring up a “guesstimate” on calories burned? I’m volunteering and washing dishes standing for three hours
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    edited August 2023
    cji_isa wrote: »
    These comments are good but is there a place on this app where you can actually log in an activity and it bring up a “guesstimate” on calories burned? I’m volunteering and washing dishes standing for three hours

    Yes. The MFP cardiovascular exercise database, accessed through the manual exercise logging functions. There's not a "washing dishes" exercise, but there are some housework ones.

    This is a thread from 2017. Most of the participants are gone from MFP. Your question is also somewhat of a tangent from the OP's question.

    In a case like this, you'll get better answers if you post your own thread in a relevant section of the Community, with a clear title about what you're asking.

    Personally, I'd hesitate to log 3 hours of washing dishes. It's not going to be a lot of calories. If doing it regularly (like daily every weekday), it might be something that could bump you from sedentary/not very active to lightly active in base calories. If a one-time thing . . . well, yeah, logging it wouldn't hurt anything much, in the big picture.

    Wishing you success, and thank you for volunteerism!
  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 652 Member
    I will say that my apple watch has been pretty darn accurate in calculating my calorie burn for the day (double checked through a spreadsheet of calculations). It's wild how I can burn so differently on days based on my activity outside of "exercise". I would recommend you get one if you want to be able to really see a close calculation of your burn on work days.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,812 Member
    Just record what you eat for a few weeks then average it out, otherwise it's just a guess. Might as well start out knowing actual facts, facts are good. Cheers