Does farming count?

mothernicole
mothernicole Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My primary occupation is farming—I am not talking with a tractor—I do most things by hand, with a shovel a hoe or some sort of hand instrument. I work at it 8 hours a day minimally. It is very physical. My usual step count is 8-13000/ work day.
I do not do cardio or any other ‘exercise’ . At the end of the day I am physically spent—and sleep very well!
There is no way to check my calories burned—suggestions?

Replies

  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
    mothernicole wrote: »
    My primary occupation is farming—I am not talking with a tractor—I do most things by hand, with a shovel a hoe or some sort of hand instrument. I work at it 8 hours a day minimally. It is very physical. My usual step count is 8-13000/ work day.
    I do not do cardio or any other ‘exercise’ . At the end of the day I am physically spent—and sleep very well!
    There is no way to check my calories burned—suggestions?

    That should be included in your daily activity. Change your settings to active.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    mothernicole wrote: »
    My primary occupation is farming—I am not talking with a tractor—I do most things by hand, with a shovel a hoe or some sort of hand instrument. I work at it 8 hours a day minimally. It is very physical. My usual step count is 8-13000/ work day.
    I do not do cardio or any other ‘exercise’ . At the end of the day I am physically spent—and sleep very well!
    There is no way to check my calories burned—suggestions?

    You would set our activity level accordingly...that's how you would account for it.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    I don’t think there’s any need for you to do “exercise” with your lifestyle. My husband frames new homes for a living and he certainly doesn’t go work out, he works out for a living. Lol. If you wanted you could get a fitness tracker like a Fitbit to see how many calories you’re burning.
  • Diatonic12
    Diatonic12 Posts: 32,344 Member
    Absolutely, it counts. You're going to have to add your own exercise with calories burned, just like adding your own meals and foods.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    As others have said, set you activity level to very active and don't count it as exercise. I'm not sure a tracker would give you an accurate count as it's not really what they are designed for. And doing 10K steps while hoeing or whatnot is going to burn a lot more than 10K steps running.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    As others have said, set you activity level to very active and don't count it as exercise. I'm not sure a tracker would give you an accurate count as it's not really what they are designed for. And doing 10K steps while hoeing or whatnot is going to burn a lot more than 10K steps running.
    My Fitbit has a heart rate monitor so it does track calories burned through more vigorous activity.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    my garmin definitely shows i burn more calories on days i mow the lawn or do some heavy gardening. it doesn't always pick up the steps because my hands don't more when i use the push mower but i get a lot of calories burned on those days
  • JBApplebee
    JBApplebee Posts: 481 Member
    I ran a 5K obstacle run on Saturday & it took me just over an hour to finish (wait times at the obstacles), then I went to my mother in law's farm & worked in our huge garden & I was more tired & sore from that than my run. Like others have said, change your lifestyle settings to active AF.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    If you're trying to lose weight, start conservative. I'd set yourself to moderately active and adjust from there based on your weight trends. You may qualify for very active but it won't hurt you to be a little low on calories for a short-period of time.

    Oddly enough, I think that 13000 steps seems a little low for somebody who's on their feet for 8 hours a day. If much of your work involves relatively stationary activity, you might not actually be burning as much as we think.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    hesn92 wrote: »
    I don’t think there’s any need for you to do “exercise” with your lifestyle. My husband frames new homes for a living and he certainly doesn’t go work out, he works out for a living. Lol. If you wanted you could get a fitness tracker like a Fitbit to see how many calories you’re burning.

    I have a cousin who's a bicycle cop, he hasn't done a "workout" outside of his job is more than 10 years and is in incredible shape. Some jobs are more of a workout than the workouts many athletes do
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    You're active, perhaps very active. Set your MFP goals accordingly, eat that number of calories, and see whether your weight responds in the way you want it to. Give it a few weeks, and if you aren't seeing the expected results, you can change your activity and/or calorie settings up or down depending on what happens and what you want to achieve.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    it would be in your activity level. not counted as deliberate exercise.
  • AmandaDanceMore
    AmandaDanceMore Posts: 298 Member
    I work with farmers (I run the farm store, so other than lifting veggie crates and occasionally pitching in on the washing and packing, I don’t work nearly as hard as them). They are crazy buff, especially the ones that aren’t seasonal, but around year round. Definitely bump up to at least active.

    That being said, when I rode horses for a living, plus all the walking, mucking, bucket toting, etc, etc, etc I did, I was very fit, but still opted to try and add other things. This was partly because I felt like I plateaued, fitness wise, but also because I felt it was important for my horses for me to be very fit. I need to find that energy again.....
  • duskyjewel
    duskyjewel Posts: 286 Member
    edited June 2018
    The reason we moderns need to artificially add exercise to our lifestyles is because we don't live as farmers, working physically all the time, anymore. If you're literally using your body 8 hours a day as you say, I can't see a need for you to add more exercise.

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