After every lawn mowing session, I always thought to myself, how many calories do you burn mowing the lawn. The question seems so simple, yet until recent years, there was no way of measuring that type of calorie burn.
Luckily, now we have Apple Watches, and other sorts of heart rating monitoring watches that can accurately calculate how many calories we burned. This works great for just about anything. Getting in steps, working out at the gym, high intensity interval training, etc…
I wrote this article and created the video to show just how intense mowing the lawn can be, especially in Florida, where I live. I will admit, the weather itself played a major role in how many calories I burned.
The humidity and heat during Florida summers is borderline unbearable. But nonetheless, the lawn still needs to be mowed.
A quick aside, if you are interested in burning a ton of calories or putting on muscle, download our app All Workouts: Personal Trainer (iOS | Google Play). We have many built in workout plans and high intensity interval training workouts.
Back to the burning those lawn mower calories
Video: How many calories do you burn mowing the lawn?
You can either watch this video or continue reading. Either way, you are going to find what you are looking for. I showed my wife the video before it went live and she said that it didn’t look like I was doing much work.
I told her that next time, she can mow the lawn! She doesn’t realize how many calories can actually be burned mowing the lawn.
It’s not just mowing your lawn that is burning the calories
Mowing your lawn isn’t just mowing your lawn. It is the whole process that counts. You have to edge, weed eat (string trimmer), rake, mow, and blow.
These are all valuable parts of the whole lawn maintenance process, which is why I included them in my assessment.
Your lawn maintenance equipment matters
For this lawn mowing calorie burning experiment, I used my electric push mower. Obviously, if you mow your lawn on a ride-on mower, you are not going to have the same results.
Based on my experience, I would say that the bulk of my calorie burning came from the actual mowing portion. This is what takes the most energy to perform. The push mower is bulky and not easy to maneuver.
Not all push mowers are created equally! Most push mowers these days have an automatic spinning wheel that does most of the pushing part for you. All you have to do is guide it. How many calories you burn mowing your lawn is going to really depend on what you are using to mow it.
Another thing to note is that gas powered equipment is usually a little more powerful than the electric ones that I use.
The size of your lawn matters
My lawn is only about 4,000 square feet total, so it’s actually not that big. Depending on your lawn size, it may vary how many calories mowing burns.
Size determines time, and depending on your local weather, you could be out there for hours burning a TON of calories. To be fair though, if my lawn was any bigger, I would consider getting either an auto-wheel push mower, or a ride-on mower.
Main Point: How many calories do you burn mowing the lawn?
If you haven’t watched the video yet, and have come this far, congrats. This is where I reveal how many calories I burned.
Total Calories – 775
Active Calories – 660
If you are not familiar with calorie burning, let me tell you, this is an insane amount of calories to burn in essentially an hour.
What did we learn? It’s not just the mowing portion that burns the calories. It is also everything you do leading up to and following mowing your lawn.
Lawn equipment plays a huge role in how many calories you burn mowing. The specific push mower that I use does not have an auto-wheel. This means that I am using my strength to push along the mower. That is where a lot of the calorie burn comes from.
Results may vary depending on lawn size, weather, etc… In Florida, the weather in the summer is so humid and hot, just walking outside burns calories. I might try this experiment again in the winter to see the difference in calorie burn.
Equipment that I used to burn calories mowing my lawn
Apple Watch – Amazon link
Weed Eater – Amazon link
Mower – Amazon link
Edger – Amazon link
Blower – Amazon link
As you can see, mowing the lawn burns a TON of calories! Test it yourself and see how many calories that you can burn. Comment below and tell us how many calories you burned mowing your lawn.
Since you can’t mow your lawn everyday, I recommend checking out our list of best exercise equipment on Amazon.
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