The Moving Exercise

I hope I never become one of those people who count calories in and calculate calories out (what you burn). I do however pay attention from time to time at the gym while on the machines but they are just rough estimates based on an average formula created by the manufacturer.

Yesterday I helped my mother move from a 3rd floor 2-bedroom apartment to another 3rd floor 2-bedroom apartment. If you’ve ever moved someone from the 3rd floor without the help of elevators you already know the fun I had. By the end of the day I was exhausted, covered in sweat and my muscles were sore.

This morning I thought to myself that this had to have been a great workout. The soreness I had this morning said so. But then I wondered how many calories I burned which was funny given how I began this post. I fired up my browser and a few clicks later I discovered the good folks at SparkPeople.com were on the job. They have a calculator to figure out roughly how much I burned.

The most work I had to do was figure out how many minutes the move took. With some simple math I estimated that it took me 360 minutes or 6 hours. After adding my weight into the mix, they told me that I burned a whopping 5,166 calories. I had to double-check my figures there again after seeing that number.

Granted it’s only an estimate, under normal circumstances I would think the number is lower but with the many trips up and down steps with heavy objects, sometimes twisting them to fit through doorways, I can see that as very accurate.

Before you start to wonder about my time or activity, the actual move took 8 hours including travel time. I took out 2 hours to account for travel (about 30 minutes each way with 2 trips) and rest time. I’m constantly in motion during a move and my rests usually consist of carrying a lighter object to get the move done but there are times when activity must fully stop so I can take a full break.