Does gardening really burn so many calories?

micaelabreanne
micaelabreanne Posts: 3
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
I was outside gardeining/doing yard work for about two hours and I decided to add it to my log just for the heck of it. I didn't think it would really make much of a difference, but it says I burned almost 700 calories! Does anyone know if this is accurate? It seems like way too many.

Replies

  • dawnrenee567
    dawnrenee567 Posts: 292 Member
    I doubt it.. I would suggest a good HRM for next time. I've found MFP way overestimates on calories burned.
  • gamehen2
    gamehen2 Posts: 45 Member
    I wouldn't rely too heavily on the pre-set number in MFP. After all, it doesn't know if you're hoeing a rock-laden flower bed by hand for 2 hours or sitting on a lawn-mowing tractor.

    I wear my heart rate monitor while I'm doing yardwork (I'm such a geek!) and it does show a pretty high number...but consider that you're doing it over a long period of time and even if you were sitting, you'd still be burning calories. Personally, I just log about 2/3rds of the calories from my HRM.
  • micaelabreanne
    micaelabreanne Posts: 3
    Alright maybe I will try a HRM next time to get a better idea. Thanks guys!
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,247 Member
    I was outside gardeining/doing yard work for about two hours and I decided to add it to my log just for the heck of it. I didn't think it would really make much of a difference, but it says I burned almost 700 calories! Does anyone know if this is accurate? It seems like way too many.

    I have seen people log gardening as exercise and for two hours worth, get something like 900 calories. Now 900 calories is not much less than I would get for running those two hours - therefore the gardening exercise burns seems daft to me to be honest.

    Besides which, as somebody else pointed out above, it does not take into account whether somebody is digging or just sitting on a ride-along mower thingy.
  • micaelabreanne
    micaelabreanne Posts: 3
    I was outside gardeining/doing yard work for about two hours and I decided to add it to my log just for the heck of it. I didn't think it would really make much of a difference, but it says I burned almost 700 calories! Does anyone know if this is accurate? It seems like way too many.

    I have seen people log gardening as exercise and for two hours worth, get something like 900 calories. Now 900 calories is not much less than I would get for running those two hours - therefore the gardening exercise burns seems daft to me to be honest.

    Besides which, as somebody else pointed out above, it does not take into account whether somebody is digging or just sitting on a ride-along mower thingy.

    I did do things like shoveling, weeding, etc., so I've decided to just delete from my log for today and keep in mind that I can eat back maybe 200-300 calories if I'm hungry.
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