Gardening Versus Walking With An Aside About Dog Walking

Monet's home in Giverny France.


Journal Entry, May 18, 2010: Weight = 173.6 lbs; Coinage = $1.71, 66 pennies (one wheat), 3 nickels, 4 dimes, 2 quarters; Best coinage find = two quarters in a pay phone, a “super find” (.50 or more in one side, does not include car wash finds).

Journal Entry, May 19, 2010: Weight = 171.2 lbs; Coinage = $6.93, 133 pennies, 10 nickels, 26 dimes, 10 quarters (big day at two car washes).

Journal Entry, May 21, 2010: Weight = 172.6 lbs; Coinage = $.80, 55 pennies, 3 nickels, 2 dimes ( what happens when the car wash canisters have been “visited” by the competition).

Journal Entry, May 22, 2010: Weight 173.2 lbs; Coinage = $4.91, 96 pennies, 16 nickels, 24 dimes, 3 quarters (an asphalt nickel, my first).

Feature Entry: Gardening Versus Walking With An Aside About Dog Walking

May 20th (note the gap from journal entries) was gardening day, but not any gardening day, it was outdoor prep day for the huge weekend party for the MoneyWalker’s Bible study groups. We are the hosts. Ms MoneyWalker is agonizingly thorough counterbalanced by the MoneyWalker who is a worriless procrastinator. But two twisted ears notwithstanding, four hours of work later, the yard was stunning.

We attacked the task together and early. Upon entering the front yard, we encountered a dog walker. Her dog had just finished his business on our curb grass garden. Unobserved and without cue from us, the walker reached into her bag and fetched a rubber glove and a plastic bag. In it went. She looked up, we smiled, she smiled, “good mornings” all around, and away she went on a 3 mph pace. Using the caloric expenditure table and estimating her weight at 130 lbs and 40 minute walk duration , she would have burned about 150 calories.

Meanwhile the MoneyWalkers went to work—mowing (no self-propelled mower), edging, hand trimming, weeding, thinning, transplanting, sweeping, pruning, hand watering—and four hours later we called it a day. The only stoppage was two brief G2 Gatorade breaks (G2 is diet). Again using the caloric expenditure table: .032 x 40 minutes x 173 = 225 calories burned. Using the dog walker’s weight of 130, she would have burned 165 calories for forty minutes of gardening. Incidentally, the Consumer’s Report Health Newsletter reported that dog walking is ranked as the number one source of motivation for taking the daily walk.

Measuring caloric expenditure using the table developed by nutrition and exercise physiology scientists is relatively simple. The table lists most daily household tasks in one section and most recreational/sport/fitness exercises in a second. The first factor (see .032 above) is a measure of caloric effort per one minute of exercise. The weighting is based on METS or “metabolic equivalent of tasks.” See Bill Yates, M.D. in his blog, “Brain Posts, Commentary on Research in Clinical Neuroscience” for a good discussion of METs and Wii computer game technology. The formula for measuring caloric expenditure is as follows:

Cal/min/lbs

To calculate caloric expenditure, use the table to locate the physical activity and gain the caloric expenditure per minute of exercise for the specific activity. Multiply the caloric number by the number of minutes of the workout. Then multiply the previous product by your weight in pounds. Using the MoneyWalker’s pace of 4 mph and his weight of 173 and a walk of 90 minutes, calculate as follows:

.042 x 90 = 3.78
3.78 x 173 = 653.94 calories burned

Using the table to calculate the MoneyWalker’s caloric expenditure for their gardening labor, Ms. MoneyWalker first: .032 x 200 minutes x 118, Ms MoneyWalker burned 755 calories (note two 20 minute breaks were deducted from the 4 hours workout calculation.) The MoneyWalker ‘s calculation is .032 x 200 x 173 = 1107.2. It is obvious that the more one weights the more calories are burned.

Now the real challenge begins for the MoneyWalker. In seven hours, the party begins. How will the MoneyWalker deal with the temptations of all that wonderful food that will be served? Will he negate all of the effort and benefits of the gardening expenditure? Stay tuned for the answer.

MoneyWalker