Calories Burned Raking leaves at 85 kg — 366 kcal per Hour

calories burned raking leaves 85kg — the short answer is 366 kcal per hour. That figure is for a 85 kg (187 lb) person raking leaves at the intensity the 2011 Compendium of Physical Activities assigns to it, and this page works the number out in full so you can check it, scale it to any session length, and see how it compares with other activities at the same body weight.

The headline number is an estimate, not a measurement of your body. Two people of the same weight doing the same activity for the same hour will burn different amounts, because fitness, technique, temperature, and how hard they actually push all move the real figure. What the formula gives you is a fair, standardised comparison — the same method researchers use when they rank activities by energy cost — and that is exactly what it is useful for: comparing options, planning a week, and setting a realistic expectation before you start.

Raking is steady, rhythmic, whole-body work. Your arms and shoulders drive the rake, your core keeps you balanced as you reach and twist, and your legs carry you across the lawn. It is the kind of activity that feels easy for the first ten minutes and starts to count as real exercise once you are half an hour in — especially when the leaves are damp and heavy, or when you are bagging them up as well as raking.

Pace is what moves the number most. A brisk, continuous raking rhythm with a wide rake burns noticeably more than a slow wander with frequent stops to chat or to admire the garden. Wet leaves cling together and weigh far more than dry ones, so the same hour of raking can feel very different in November than it does on a dry October afternoon.

Work out your own number

Use the calorie calculator to get your own daily figure: it combines your basal metabolic rate with your activity level and your goal, so a single activity session slots into a full-day picture instead of floating on its own. If you want the activity alone at your exact weight rather than the 85 kg worked example on this page, the running calorie calculator takes any weight and duration and applies the same MET method. Both tools show their working, and both label their results as estimates.

The formula, shown and cited

The calculation comes from the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2011; 43(8):1575–1581), which assigns every activity a MET value — a multiple of your resting metabolic rate. One MET is the energy you use sitting quietly. The formula is:

Calories per hour = MET × body weight (kg)

For this page the MET value for raking leaves is 4.3, which makes it a moderate-intensity activity by the usual classification (under 3 METs is light, 3 to 6 is moderate, above 6 is vigorous). The worked example uses the midpoint of the 80-90 kg band, 85 kg:

4.3 MET × 85 kg = 366 kcal per hour

For any other duration, multiply by the hours: calories = MET × weight (kg) × hours. A 30-minute session is half the hourly figure, a 90-minute session is one and a half times it, and the table below does that arithmetic for the common session lengths so you do not have to.

Your numbers at 85 kg

Session length Calculation Calories burned
15 minutes 4.3 × 85 × 0.25 91 kcal
30 minutes 4.3 × 85 × 0.50 183 kcal
45 minutes 4.3 × 85 × 0.75 274 kcal
60 minutes 4.3 × 85 × 1.00 366 kcal
90 minutes 4.3 × 85 × 1.50 548 kcal
120 minutes 4.3 × 85 × 2.00 731 kcal

A useful way to read the table is backwards: to burn roughly 500 kcal from raking leaves alone at 85 kg you would need about 82 minutes. Three one-hour sessions a week come to about 1,098 kcal a week from this activity, and five 45-minute sessions come to about 1,370 kcal a week. Those weekly totals are the numbers that matter for weight management, because a single session is a small fraction of a week's energy balance — consistency across weeks is what moves body weight, not one heroic session.

Note also that the table scales linearly with weight. A heavier person burns more doing the same activity for the same time, because there is more body to move; a lighter person burns less. That is not a judgement about fitness — it is physics, and it is why every calories-burned figure on this site states the weight it was calculated at. If you weigh 10 kg more than the 85 kg example, add roughly 43 kcal per hour; 10 kg less, subtract the same.

How the number changes with body weight

Weight band Midpoint kcal per hour kcal per 30 minutes
50-60 kg 55 kg (121 lb) 236 118
60-70 kg 65 kg (143 lb) 280 140
70-80 kg 75 kg (165 lb) 322 161
80-90 kg 85 kg (187 lb) 366 183

The band table is the quickest way to find your own figure without doing the multiplication. Find the band your weight falls in, take its midpoint, and read across: that is the hourly burn the Compendium method gives for raking leaves at your weight. If you sit on a boundary — exactly 60, 70 or 80 kg — either neighbouring band is a fair estimate, and the difference between them is small: at 4.3 METs, each 10 kg of body weight is worth about 43 kcal an hour, so a few kilograms either way changes the result by only a handful of calories.

How raking leaves compares at 85 kg

Activity MET kcal per hour kcal per 30 minutes
Raking leaves 4.3 366 183
Gardening 3.8 323 162
Mopping 3.5 298 149
Walking briskly (4 mph) 5.0 425 212
Shoveling snow 6.0 510 255

The comparison is the honest way to choose between activities. A higher MET is not automatically better: an activity you enjoy and repeat three times a week beats a harder one you quit after a fortnight, and joint-friendly options matter more than raw burn for anyone with knees or a back that complain. Use the table to see the trade-offs — for example, swapping a lower-MET activity for a higher one for the same 30 minutes — and then choose on enjoyment and sustainability, not on the biggest number.

How to use the result

Break the job into blocks of 20 to 30 minutes rather than trying to clear the whole garden in one go. Alternate your leading hand and the side you rake from every few minutes — raking is a one-sided movement, and switching sides spreads the load across both shoulders and reduces the stiff neck that follows a long one-sided session. Wear gloves: blisters arrive quietly and end the session early.

Pair raking with a walk and it becomes a genuine workout. Rake for 30 minutes, then walk briskly for 20, and you have covered most of a day's moderate activity in a single outdoor session. If you are tracking weekly activity against the usual 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, count honest, continuous raking towards it — but only the minutes you are actually moving, not the time spent standing with the rake deciding where to start.

For weight loss, the activity calories sit on top of your daily food intake, and the safe frame is a deficit of roughly 300–500 kcal a day, aiming for 0.5–1% of body weight per week. Never let the activity numbers talk you into eating far less: the safety floors are 1,200 kcal a day for women and 1,500 kcal a day for men, and any intake below those needs medical supervision. A 366-kcal session does not "earn" an extra meal of the same size, either — the body compensates, appetite rises after hard sessions, and the deficit that matters is the weekly average, not a single day's maths.

What the number does NOT tell you

MET values are population averages, and the error on any single person is real. The Compendium value was measured on a sample of adults, not on you, and it assumes a standard intensity. If you push harder than the standard, you burn more; if you coast, you burn less. Heart-rate monitors and power meters estimate the same thing from different signals and disagree with each other by 10 to 20% on a good day, so treat every figure — including this page's — as accurate to roughly that band, not to the single calorie.

The figure also counts gross energy, which includes the calories you would have burned sitting still during that hour anyway. The extra burn above rest is the gross figure minus your resting rate for that hour (roughly 85 kcal for a 85 kg person at 1 MET), so the net cost of an hour of raking leaves is about 280 kcal, not 366. That distinction matters when you add activity calories to a daily total that already includes your resting metabolism — counting gross calories on top of a full BMR double-counts the resting hour.

The MET value assumes continuous raking at a steady pace. Real garden work is stop-start: you pause to empty the bag, move the wheelbarrow, or pick up a branch, and every pause pulls the average down. Conversely, wet leaves, a slope, or a large garden push the real figure above the table. The figure on this page is a fair standardised estimate, not a reading from your body — treat it as accurate to roughly 10 to 20% either way.

Finally, the formula knows nothing about your body composition, fitness, or health. Muscle burns more than fat at rest, trained people are more efficient at a familiar activity (and therefore burn slightly less for the same work), and illness, heat, altitude, and medication all shift the real number. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or take medication that affects heart rate or metabolism, treat this page as background information and talk to a clinician before building a training or weight-loss plan around it.

Frequently asked questions

How many calories do I burn raking leaves for 30 minutes at 85 kg?

About 183 kcal. The hourly figure is 366 kcal, so half an hour is half of that. A 90-minute session comes to 548 kcal. These are estimates from the Compendium MET value, so your real burn depends on how fast you rake and how heavy the leaves are.

Is raking leaves good exercise?

Yes, as moderate exercise. At 4.3 METs it sits comfortably in the moderate range, and an hour of continuous raking counts towards the 150 minutes of moderate activity a week that health guidelines recommend for adults. It builds endurance in the shoulders and core rather than strength, so pair it with some resistance work across the week rather than relying on it alone.

Do wet leaves burn more calories than dry leaves?

Yes. Wet leaves are heavier and cling together, so each stroke moves more weight and the work is harder. The 4.3 MET figure is an average across typical conditions, so a session with soaking wet leaves will run above it and a session with light, dry leaves will run below it. The difference is real but modest — perhaps 10 to 20% either way.

How does raking leaves compare with walking?

Raking burns more per hour than walking at a moderate pace (3.3 METs) and slightly less than walking briskly at 4 mph (5.0 METs). At 85 kg, an hour of raking is 366 kcal against 280 kcal for moderate walking. The practical difference is that raking also works the shoulders and core, while walking is easier on the upper body and easier to sustain for longer.

Can raking leaves help me lose weight?

It can contribute, as part of a calorie deficit. An hour of raking at 85 kg burns roughly 366 kcal, and three such sessions a week add up to about 1,098 kcal a week. That only moves body weight if food intake stays below expenditure, at a safe rate of 0.5–1% of body weight a week, and never below the safety floors of 1,200 kcal a day for women or 1,500 kcal a day for men without medical supervision.

Related pages

Estimates only, not medical advice. Minimum safe intakes: 1,200 kcal/day women, 1,500 kcal/day men — consult a healthcare professional before a very-low-calorie diet.