golfing calories

September 11, 2009 1:26 AM

How many calories will I burn playing a round of golf? Brief details are: I'm a 43 year old proportionately built man walking round a hilly Scottish golf course that measures 6500 yards. I carry my bag the whole way and it weighs 20lbs.

I don't generally get out of breath and I usually shoot around 85.

posted by cameronfromedinburgh to health & fitness (7 comments total)

500 during, but due to the higher metabolism in your body after exercise, a total caloric consumption of 888.
posted by peter_meta_kbd at 1:55 AM on September 11

Probably much less than you think...

This website gives an estimate of how much you burn when walking a casual walking pace on the flat -- for a 200lb person (14 1/4 stones), its a mere 106Kcal/mile.

Another gives values for various types of walking, but it ends up about 4-500Kcal/hr (and assuming 4mph, which is a reasonably fast pace, and gives about the same figure as above).

So 6500yds ~ 6.3 miles =~ 650Kcals which is just over 2 Mars bars... or the 2-3 pints when you make it back to the clubhouse :)
posted by nielm at 2:02 AM on September 11

Try this calculator. Enter your weight, then scroll down to find "golf" (several levels of effort) and enter the amount of time played.
posted by nax at 6:17 AM on September 11

There's really no way to accurately answer this question. Metabolism varies widely among individuals, so while websites and calculators can give you estimates or averages, you'd need medical testing in order to determine your personal calorie burn rate.
posted by decathecting at 8:33 AM on September 11

I looked this up last week sometime, basically if you walk 18 holes you can count it as about a 45 minute cardio session - so thats going to vary a bit, but 500-800 calories is the right neighbourhood.

It does feel like more...
posted by Deep Dish at 8:49 AM on September 11

Assuming some averages for a calculator on www.thedailyplate.com:
Age: 43
Weight: 200
Height: 5' 10"
Gender: Male

In fact, there's a dailyplate account for that info now (me-mail me if you want to take it over).

With those stats, thedailyplate says:

"This activity burns approximately
408 calories per hour."

Golfing for 3 hours (an estimate for your round) = 1224 calories

Here's the link to "Golf - Carrying clubs":
http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/fitness/exercise/golf-carrying-clubs/

It adjusts based on your stats.
posted by unclezeb at 1:30 PM on September 11

Should mention, that my last post does not include the calories you burn independent of this additional physical activity, though that is also calculated by thedailyplate (they have options based on you stats and your activity level, i.e., sedentary, active, etc).

Based on the above assumptions, you would be burning just over 2300 calories daily regardless of additional activity, thus, 9 hours of golf would mean one pound lost, or just over 3500 calories.
posted by unclezeb at 1:37 PM on September 11