Calories Burned While Mowing
Mowing the lawn is an important chore, but it can also be part of a calorie-burning workout. While pushing a mower won't itself pave your way to fitness, it does burn calories, and burning calories is an important part of losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight.
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Power Mowing
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Most walk-behind mowers are powered, meaning your body has to work less to make it move. According to caloriesperhour.com, an online calorie-burning calculator, a 150-pound person who uses a power mower will burn 374 calories in an hour.
Internetfitness.com places the number at 324 calories, the same amount the person would burn by walking.
Hand Mowing
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Before powered mowers, people had to push a little harder to cut the grass. And while non-powered mowers seem a thing of the past, mower companies continue to produce modern models for people with smaller lawns or who lead eco- and energy-friendly lives. According to caloriesperhour.com, a 150-pound person who pushes a hand mower will burn 408 calories in an hour. Internetfitness.com says the number is 396, the same a person would burn while performing low-intensity aerobics.
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Riding Mowers
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Believe it or not, you do burn calories driving a riding mower. According to caloriesperhour.com, a 150-pound person driving a riding mower for an hour will burn 170 calories--more than twice the amount of calories the same person would consume while sleeping.
Why You Burn Calories
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Your body burns calories at every moment of the day, no matter whether you're sitting, standing, sleeping or just breathing. Anything your body does requires energy, and the way it gets energy is by burning calories.
Mowing the lawn may not seem like much of a workout, but it involves movement--mainly walking, but even a little lateral-muscle action for pushing and turning the mower.
Variations
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The numbers provided by calorie-burning calculators are merely estimates. The amount of calories you will burn varies depending on your weight (the heavier you are, the more calories your body burns during activity) and your metabolism.
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