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About this tool
Digging, weeding, mowing and watering calorie estimates by time, with weekly MET-minutes against the WHO activity target.
This calculator converts time spent on individual garden jobs into calories using the metabolic-equivalent formula kcal/min = MET x 3.5 x kg / 200, with the published lawn-and-garden MET values: 1.5 for watering, 3.5 for weeding, 4.0 for raking, 5.0 for digging and for power mowing, and 6.0 for a push hand mower. It then sorts those minutes into the WHO intensity bands — light below 3.0 METs, moderate 3.0 to 5.9, vigorous 6.0 and above — and shows how much of the 150-minute weekly moderate-activity target your gardening covers. Useful for gardeners who want their beds and borders counted properly as physical activity.
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Enter the values you already know.
Fine-tune the options to match your scenario.
Read the result and use it in your planning or reporting.
Watering, weeding, raking, planting, digging and both kinds of mowing are priced individually, not averaged.
Shows weekly moderate-equivalent minutes against the 150-minute target, with vigorous minutes counted double.
Gives weekly MET-minutes, the unit epidemiological studies use, so the result is comparable with published research.
Around 230 to 370 kcal an hour for a 70 kg adult, depending on the job. General gardening is 3.8 METs (about 279 kcal an hour at 70 kg), weeding is 3.5 METs, digging and spading are 5.0 METs (about 368 kcal an hour) and watering is only 1.5 METs.
Yes, for any task at 3.0 METs or above. Weeding, raking, planting, digging and mowing all clear that threshold and count as moderate activity, while watering at 1.5 METs and seated container gardening at 2.3 METs do not.
For aerobic volume it can be comparable — an hour of digging at 5.0 METs produces 300 MET-minutes, the same as an hour of moderate cycling. It does less for structured resistance training and flexibility, and the loading pattern is asymmetric, so it complements rather than replaces a gym programme.
Mowing with a push hand mower, at 6.0 METs, is the highest-intensity task in the standard compendium list, followed by digging, spading and composting and walk-behind power mowing at 5.0 METs. That makes hand mowing the only common garden job that qualifies as vigorous-intensity activity.
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