Calories Burned Shoveling Dirt Calculator

When you stand up in the morning, you’re burning calories because everything that you do that involves the transference of energy into your musculoskeletal system requires fuel. Calories are a part of that fuel and shoveling dirt, whether you’re in the garden or digging with a metal detector, you’re burning calories. 

On average, you will burn between 400 and 600 calories per hour shoveling dirt. Of course, a lot depends on your weight, gender, digging time, and the type of dirt shoveling that you’re participating in, which we will cover shortly.

The MET formula is a calculation of the energy required for a particular activity and that energy translates into a far more precise calculation of the number of calories burned than just going by the average. 

The MET number is a given number for a particular activity and you can calculate the calories you burn by taking the MET number for shoveling dirt, multiplying it by your body weight in kilograms, and the number 3.5, and dividing the result by 200. 

Precise Calories Burned Shoveling Dirt

There are multiple numbers that apply to shoveling dirt, especially since there are more ways than one to shovel dirt out of a hole, whether you are ditch-digging, mining, shoveling in your garden, or digging dirt (mud) that is saturated in rainwater. 

It all makes a difference and it’s worth mentioning because the numbers vary enough to make it relevant informatics in terms of how many calories you burn shoveling dirt. 

Gardening/digging/spading/composting	MET 3.5
Shoveling sand/Digging in a sandbox	MET 5.0
Shoveling less than 10lbs per minute	MET 5.0
Shoveling heavy dirt or mud	MET 5.5
Shoveling 10 – 15lbs per minute	MET 6.5
Shoveling/Digging ditches	MET 7.8
Shoveling more than 16lbs per minute	MET 8.8

As you can see, the type of digging that you’re engaged in has a pretty drastic effect on the MET number, which changes the overall calorie burn by a significant amount.

The formula for determining calories burned is (MET x Body Weight in kg x 3.5) ÷ 200. So let’s do a formula that includes the body weights of 150lbs and 200lbs, remembering to convert to kgs before we plug in the numbers. 

• Gardening/digging/spading/composting: 4.3 | 5.5 calories per minute
• Shoveling sand/Digging in a sandbox and Shoveling less than 10lbs per minute: 5.95 | 7.93 calories per minute
• Shoveling heavy dirt or mud: 6.55 | 8.73 calories per minute
• Shoveling 10 – 15lbs per minute: 7.74 | 10.32 calories per minute
• Shoveling/Digging ditches: 9.30 | 12.38 calories per minute
• Shoveling more than 16lbs per minute: 10.48 | 13.97 calories per minute

The first number in each category is a MET result for calories burned from a person that weighs 150lbs, while the second number represents someone who weighs 200lbs.

The heavier person always burns more calories, not because they do more, but because there is more muscle, tendon, fat, and bone to lift, so they are essentially doing more work as they move around in a body that is 50lbs heavier than the smaller person.

Shoveling more than 16lbs per minute is a far cry over slinging a spade around in the garden and it gets a MET number of 8.8 versus 3.5, which represents the intensity of the work involved and is the reason that far more calories are burned per minute with the last number over the very first.

To turn the calories per minute number into hours, simply multiply the final number by 60, for 60 minutes in a single hour. As a result, a 200lb person who is intensely shoveling dirt at more than 16lbs per minute is going to burn a total of 838 calories in a single hour.

A 150lb person, working right next to the 200lb person, shoveling at the same rate, is going to burn 629lbs in an hour. 

All Things Considered

As it turns out, digging and shoveling dirt burns a lot of calories. Of course, as you lose weight, that number will drop. If you’re looking to lose weight, however, always remember that diet is 95%. 

Vigorous exercise burns calories and boosts your cardiovascular system, but doesn’t shed pounds all on its own. A combination of excellent eating habits and vigorous, aerobic exercise will both help you lose weight and strengthen your heart, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal system.