Does Gardening Count as Exercise?

I looked up what counts as "sedentary" versus "lightly active" and gardening was on the list of daily activities that counted as sedentary (found here: http://antranik.org/proper-activity-level-for-calorie-intake/). But, MFP has gardening listed under cardio when adding exercise. So, is gardening actually considered exercise or just an activity of daily living? Am I double dipping if I add it as exercise? I've been skipping formal workouts the last week or so as I try to get my garden in. I've been spending about 1 - 2 hours a day in the garden before I have to leave for work. Thoughts?

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So today I got a little paranoid about this whole debate and decided to weigh myself to make sure I hadn't gained weight since not having any "real" exercise. My weigh-in day isn't until Wednesday, but I was scared and couldn't wait...

I've lost 3 pounds!!

I guess gardening is exercise, after all, at least for me. Whoo-Hoo!

pearso21123 wrote: »

So today I got a little paranoid about this whole debate and decided to weigh myself to make sure I hadn't gained weight since not having any "real" exercise. My weigh-in day isn't until Wednesday, but I was scared and couldn't wait...

I've lost 3 pounds!!

I guess gardening is exercise, after all, at least for me. Whoo-Hoo!

You got it!

I do not count gardening. I gardened as I gained and maintained 205lbs...regardless of how much I was sweating.

I have a fairly large garden, tonnes of flower beds etc.

It takes hours and hours to get them ready in the spring...heavy lifting, raking, tilling, planting, lugging mulch, composted soil etc.

I gardened when I was fat and it didn't help me lose weight.

And calories I count as exercise calories are there because I purposefully set out to burn calories.

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

arditarose wrote: »

That is so beautiful, OP! Man. I'm such a city girl. I would love to grow my own food though.

My backyard literally consists of concrete and gravel. No soil. Last year I grew melons, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, and corn, all in pots. You don't need a yard to grow food.

TimothyFish wrote: »

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

Yes it burns calories but so does laying in bed.

If you gardened while gaining weight and kept the weight on how can you count it now?

@pearso21123 in terms of MFP, you can set it as follows:

sedentary then it counts as exercise and you can log it
lightly active, it would be included in your activity

This assumes that the mfp calculation is right for you. In reality do which one you prefer. Track and adjust after a few weeks. You might find that "sedentary" is to low. Or that you can't include these burns...

evileen99 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

That is so beautiful, OP! Man. I'm such a city girl. I would love to grow my own food though.

My backyard literally consists of concrete and gravel. No soil. Last year I grew melons, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, and corn, all in pots. You don't need a yard to grow food.

In most of NYC it's pretty impossible. I don't even have a balcony anymore, just a fire escape that I share with a neighbor.

evileen99 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

That is so beautiful, OP! Man. I'm such a city girl. I would love to grow my own food though.

My backyard literally consists of concrete and gravel. No soil. Last year I grew melons, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, and corn, all in pots. You don't need a yard to grow food.

Nice. I've never been good at container gardening. I think I just don't water often enough. But my mom only grows in containers now that she's gotten older. She says having a real garden is just too hard now. She has a bad back and couldn't take all of the bending to weed, anymore.

SezxyStef wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

Yes it burns calories but so does laying in bed.

If you gardened while gaining weight and kept the weight on how can you count it now?

Well, I gained weight while walking 8000-10000 steps per day. That would make me "active" by MFP settings. Or, I can put myself as sedentary or lightly active and when I walk those steps have calories added. Some rare days I may be lazy and only get 6000 steps, so I figure it's better to put my daily activity as lower than it actually is and have the extra added back. Since gardening is not a daily thing done year round for most people, they would be safe to count the activity as exercise or log it to get the extra calories because it is not part of their TDEE. Now, if they said they were "active", then they would probably not count gardening as exercise. If a person gains weight while training for a marathon then decides to start counting calories, would you tell them to not log their 10 mile run because they did it while gaining? Just because you did something while gaining weight doesn't mean it doesn't burn calories above and beyond what is expected while you are losing.

SezxyStef wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

Yes it burns calories but so does laying in bed.

If you gardened while gaining weight and kept the weight on how can you count it now?

I walked several miles while gaining weight. The reason i gained weight was because I ate more then I burnt. Just because someone is gaining does not mean they are not exercising.

I count my gardening and yard work, including the deck I'm doing as normal daily activity. To me exercise is exercise and if I want a cookie, I'm going to earn it.

runmama411 wrote: »

Count gardening/yard work as exercise? Heck yes! It's hard work! I think you just need to decide what is right for you. Use your progress as your guide.

+1

I don't log it anymore, but you know how much you're moving around out there. Whatever you did, your body is logging, and MFP's gardening burn seems pretty high if you're just out there raking or weeding. If you have a big yard project, yes, you've earned your cerveza.

Also, I live in Florida and just got sweaty folding laundry. And what's the warning we keep seeing about HRMs? Pretty much only good for steady-state cardio? People who lift or do intervals are getting inaccurate burn numbers from them? I'm sure the first poster meant well, but I don't think there's a relationship.

Blowing your nose 1000 times a day could be an activity that should earn you extra calories under the right set of circumstances.

For the many MFP users whose activity level already tops out their chosen MFP setting, gardening SHOULD be counted as additional exercise.

For how many calories and with what eat-back % is a whole whack of another question.

A cursory look at what a gardening "burn" might entail says that it ranges from the equivalent to "standing" (at 1.5MET), to "light effort general yard work" (which meets the definition of moderate exercise at 3.0MET), to "yard work, general, vigorous effort", or "shoveling snow by hand" (which meet the definition of vigorous exercise at 6.0 to 7.5MET)

https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories/lawn-garden

Which of these precisely applies to your own efforts, and whether your logging is accurate enough and your other activities sufficient to log and eat back the calories in question... depends on you and your own circumstances!

I think that you ought to count physical activity that gets you up and moving that you otherwise wouldn't be doing. Maybe not for the purposes of "eating back" calories, but for the purposes of being more active/less sedentary, it certainly matters.

Normal gardening i dont count. This is what i do daily for over an hour. Some weeding watering plants etc etc

But like some weeks ago when i was digging and removing and hauling in rocks and stones...sure i did lol. Also lost 3.5 pound overnight and had a muscle aging for 3 days.

Exercise is when you get your heart rate up for a certain ( extended) amount of time by doing an activity....

weird_me2 wrote: »

SezxyStef wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

Yes it burns calories but so does laying in bed.

If you gardened while gaining weight and kept the weight on how can you count it now?

Well, I gained weight while walking 8000-10000 steps per day. That would make me "active" by MFP settings. Or, I can put myself as sedentary or lightly active and when I walk those steps have calories added. Some rare days I may be lazy and only get 6000 steps, so I figure it's better to put my daily activity as lower than it actually is and have the extra added back. Since gardening is not a daily thing done year round for most people, they would be safe to count the activity as exercise or log it to get the extra calories because it is not part of their TDEE. Now, if they said they were "active", then they would probably not count gardening as exercise. If a person gains weight while training for a marathon then decides to start counting calories, would you tell them to not log their 10 mile run because they did it while gaining? Just because you did something while gaining weight doesn't mean it doesn't burn calories above and beyond what is expected while you are losing.

actually 8-10k steps is lightly active...per MFP settings or any other. I average 9-10k steps a day and I have mine set at lightly active...my jawbone doesn't give me any adjustment until after 10k steps...

Gaining weight while training for a marathon...really? Let's go to the extreme here...

I am not saying it doesn't burn calories but I personally do not believe it should count as exercise mainly because if someone is actually exercising on a regular basis...gardening well...doesn't really do it...coming from someone who does garden a lot (I have a very large veggie garden and several very deep flower beds, raspberry plants and other things) and exercise 6/7 days..now that I have lost weight and do exercise for the sake of exercise...I don't break a sweat gardening...even hand tilling.

andympanda wrote: »

SezxyStef wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

Yes it burns calories but so does laying in bed.

If you gardened while gaining weight and kept the weight on how can you count it now?

I walked several miles while gaining weight. The reason i gained weight was because I ate more then I burnt. Just because someone is gaining does not mean they are not exercising.

I didn't say gardening doesn't burn calories...but my opinion is mine and won't be swayed...just like yours won't be.

cripes I don't even count throwing 6 cord of wood in the basement in the fall...nor do I count house cleaning or helping a friend move or snow removal by hand or walking around the mall but guess what they all burn calories...doesn't mean I see it as exercise...it's called life. That was my life before I came here it will be my life now...the only difference is my life now has actual exercise in it.

SezxyStef wrote: »

TimothyFish wrote: »

Gardening is most definitely exercise. How many calories it burns is a more difficult question to answer.

Yes it burns calories but so does laying in bed.

If you gardened while gaining weight and kept the weight on how can you count it now?

I get the point of not counting things you normally do as exercise because it should be part of your activity level then. I don't log doing laundry, mopping the floor or walking my dog. I didn't really garden while gaining weight though. I may have pulled a weed occasionally but I didn't dig new flowerbeds, haul buckets of water, move rocks, lift bags of stuff, cut up trees, mow the lawn, etc. That is a new level of activity and is definitely an effort for me like doing a workout video might be if I am doing it for 30 minutes or so.

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