How many calories does a round of golf burn?

MadAdey

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The calorie counters say that it is around the 600 mark for the distance walked. But then you have to take into account that is walking on the flat. If you go up and down a lot of hills then that will increase calories burned. Also add in the swinging of the golf clubs. An average golfer goes round in roughly 85, if he has 36 putts then that leaves 49 swings of the club, add in a couple of practice swings every time and know you have had 147 swings.

So take the 600 calories burned for the walk, add in the for going up and down hills, add in swinging the clubs. I can see how these studies soon get up over the 100 mark.
 

shortstuff

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As someone said earlier it's around 1500 calories according to a study carried out by reebok.

That is also baloney. More than half of your daily calorie limit in one round of golf?? 1500 cals is equivalent to running a half marathon!
 

AmandaJR

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Myfitness pal is pretty accurate for other activities so why doubt it?

My fitness pal must us some sort of formula that includes time exercising to work out the calories but is miles out, 600 is closer to the mark.

I use a Polar FT4 heart rate monitor and it has a "rough" calculator based upon gender, weight, age, time exercising and heart rate - MFP without fail always gives 50%+ more calories per exercise.

I've also used a Sensewear Armband and the same applies.
 

Sweep

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The average person burns 100 calories for every 1 mile run. So a round of golf should burn around 500 calories.
 

6inchcup

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not enough to counteract the big breakfast in club house,the mars bars and drinks while playing,the few pints and lunch in the club after playing and the special coffee and mint slims,o how i love company expence accounts ( playing partners )
 

shortstuff

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What are u basing the figure 500/600 cals on?
If it is walking 5 miles then u need to factor in every swing, carrying 12-15kg bag and the time involved, also as was said u have to account for the terrain.

http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist.htm

Shows cals burned per sport per hour

These figures suggest that a 200lb bloke like me would burn something like 1600 calories over a 4-hour round. It just isn't true. A 5 mile walk (ok with a bag and over terrain) and about 100 swings (including practice swings) does not add up to this amount of calories. It's not continuous walking/swinging - there's a lot of standing around waiting to play etc in those 4 hours. I still think 500-600 is about the right figure.
 

JT77

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Based on what?
Bear in mind you burn calories just doing nothing.
These figures are scientific not just 'I think it's...'
For the record I agree that it seems a lot
But take that as a man you need say 2000 calories a day just to be. That means over a 4.5 hour round you will burn 375 calories without doing anything.
Now add that to your excercise and maybe that's where the higher figures come from.
I'm no expert like :)
 

chillicon

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These figures suggest that a 200lb bloke like me would burn something like 1600 calories over a 4-hour round. It just isn't true. A 5 mile walk (ok with a bag and over terrain) and about 100 swings (including practice swings) does not add up to this amount of calories. It's not continuous walking/swinging - there's a lot of standing around waiting to play etc in those 4 hours. I still think 500-600 is about the right figure.

You will burn the best part of 500 calories sat watching golf on TV in 4 hours.
 

Ethan

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You will burn the best part of 500 calories sat watching golf on TV in 4 hours.

Indeed. The question is how many extra colours do you burn playing golf. It really can't be 1500. I have just been to the gym and rowed for 14k on a Concept 2 and burned an estimated 750 calories, based on average body weight, presumably. No way is a game of golf twice as collier burning.
 

chillicon

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Indeed. The question is how many extra colours do you burn playing golf. It really can't be 1500. I have just been to the gym and rowed for 14k on a Concept 2 and burned an estimated 750 calories, based on average body weight, presumably. No way is a game of golf twice as collier burning.

Were you rowing for 4 hours? I find it strange that you would trust implicitly the concept2 calorie burning output, but not the scientific results showing calories burned playing golf.
Calorieburn_golf.jpg
 
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Fish

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Were you rowing for 4 hours? I find it strange that you would trust implicitly the concept2 calorie burning output, but not the scientific results showing calories burned playing golf.

I agree, I was wearing a watch showing calories burned and filled in my daily intake of food and declared the exercise I was doing whether it was playing golf, walking the dog and even some gardening, all of it being matched to the profile and target I chose to lose a certain amount of weight, which I comfortably did. If playing golf was only around 500-600 calories I'd have put weight weight on and not have lost over the 1 stone I did in a very short period., an 11 stone person will burn 95 calories per hour when sleeping so why would it only be the same when playing golf!!
 

shortstuff

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You will burn the best part of 500 calories sat watching golf on TV in 4 hours.

Ok here's where the confusion may be. My daily TDEE is 2400 calories, so 100 per hour. This is calculated from a number of standard formulas you can look up on the web, which take into account your weight and typical daily activity (say day at the office).

Watching TV I will burn calories at the same rate, so there is no extra calories burned here. At the end of the day it's another 2400 calories. So watching tv for 4 hours does burn 400 calories.

Playing golf for 4 hours, you have the 400 calories (as above). Then there's the calorie burn from playing which I estimate at 500 - 600. I'm not sure if that means you can add the two figures and say that 900-1000 calories were burned in that 4 hour period or if there's some double accounting here.

It's confusing but I'm still sure it doesn't add up to 1500. Most of us would be a lot slimmer if it did.
 
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