Well, we know!
We all know that being outside is healthy. Exercise is also extremely healthy. But if you have to choose between standing sweaty in a room full of strangers amid the pumping music, or rooting around in your own backyard? Then we know what we choose! How long do you actually have to garden for to burn the same number of calories as an hour at the gym?
Burn calories in the backyard
How many calories you burn naturally depends on how intensively you exercise. After all, a little hoeing in the beds takes less energy than dragging new garden tiles or moving large terracotta pots. The same goes for the gym. When you stand comfortably on a treadmill for half an hour, you burn fewer calories than with half an hour of vigorous exercise on the cross trainer.
MET values
Approximately how much energy you burn on a task can be expressed in the so-called MET value, writes Libelle. MET stands for Metabolic Equivalent of Task. That means the number of calories you burn per kilo of body weight per hour. The Health Council has determined the MET value per hour for many activities. MET values below 3 are gentle activities, between 3 and 5.9 you are doing moderately intensive activities, and with values above 6 you are really working hard.
Gardening
For example, the MET value of an hour spent in the garden is around 3.8. As an example: an adult weighing 80 kilos burns 1 (hour) x 3.8 (MET value) x 80 (body weight) = 304 calories with one hour of gardening. For comparison: the MET value of an hour of fitness is 5.5. This means that you burn 1 (hour) x 5.5 (MET value) x 80 (body weight) = 440 calories. To burn as many calories gardening as exercising, you would have to spend about 1.44 times as long. And that means rooting in the garden for an hour and a half. In short: the next time you have to choose between an hour of exercise or an afternoon of decorating the garden, you now know what works better. Of course, there is only one option that ensures that you have something fun to look at in the garden this summer. So we have made our choice!
Source: Tips and Facts | Image: NL Image
