calories burned walking 18 holes

[TD22057]

Fairly scientific write up here:

http://onpar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/...-hole-debates/

They measured ~1400 calories / 18 holes walking.

[double_j]

Because relatively few golfers walk for most of their rounds, and american diets are still atrocious. But during golf season, i'll lose 15-20 pds easy, and then ill ballon back up over the winter.

Not only that, but once per week exercise doesn't really help you burn a ton of weight. It's better to do 200 calories per day every day of the week than it is to burn 1400 extra calories in one day. Constant exercise changes the way your body uses/stores energy and makes it more efficient at processing food, etc. That's what usually leads to the greatest weight loss.

[ThereIsNoBall]

Fairly scientific write up here:

That syncs with my heart rate monitor measured range of 1300-1400 for walking a reasonable length course carrying clubs. Details posted a couple pages back.

-TiNB

[sacm3bill]

Fairly scientific write up here...

Yeah - that's actually the article I linked to (that was originally referred to in the "Hittin' The Links" article currently on this site's main page) that resurrected this thread.

[Tomboys]

Oversimplified, weight gain, loss or stability are dependent on the calories in relative to the calories out. Generally, 1lb = 3,500 calories. So, if you consume 3,500 calories less in a week than you burn, you'll lose a pound and so on.

IME, the problem isn't so much with the calculation of how many calories we burn--there's plenty of resources that can give us a fairly accurate figure, rather, it's determining how many calories we consume. Product packaging (those nutritional guides) can be misleading if not read correctly. For instance, I recently purchased a package of 4 hot dogs. According to the package, it listed the calories as 130 for a serving. So, it would be very easy to assume each dog had 130 calories. However, when I read further, the package listed the serving for the entire package as 8. This is an example of how easy it is for people to underestimate how many calories we consume in a given day. How many people would cook only half a hot dog? As it turns out, a single dog has 260 calories.

Taken further, multiply the above "mistake"--the over-consumption of @ 100 calories per day, and multiply it by 365 days in a year. You get 36,500 more calories than you anticipated in a year. Divide that by 3,500 = 10.4. So, all things being equal, you've just gained 10.4 lbs without realizing it.

[Chris223]

I'd like to walk more, but my body just can't handle it for some reason, lol. I'm only 24 but my body just falls apart if I try and walk a golf course to often. Knee starts to hurt, ankle starts to hurt, I've already hurt my shoulder at work once and just constantly swinging a golf club makes it sore let alone carrying my bag. It sucks. I'm not even THAT out of shape. I could stand to lose a few pounds but I'm not really what I would consider really fat. Also sucks sometimes in upstate NY it can get so hot and sticky the humidity can make it hard to breath standing still, like you need to cut through the air, lol.

[mtsalmela80]

the 1000-1500 cal range for walking sounds a bit much to me too. I have a moderately heatlhy diet, dont drink beer very often, and I carry my clubs every time i play. If those numbers were true id look like iggy pop... I am slighty underweight for my height (5'11 175 or so) but i cant imagine the calorie burn as that much.

175 at 5'11' is not underweight by any means.

[MSU Fishing]

For 18 holes, I'd say 500 calories, max, walking. 250 tops. with a cart, probably less.

Heck, the average person would burn around 300 calories sitting in the clubhouse for the amount of time to play a round.

[Shanks A Million]

Oversimplified, weight gain, loss or stability are dependent on the calories in relative to the calories out. Generally, 1lb = 3,500 calories. So, if you consume 3,500 calories less in a week than you burn, you'll lose a pound and so on.

My mother banged this into my head from a very early age. Always read the labels, closely. I get into the habit of figuring out how many calories are in the whole package of something like chips or ice cream, and then figure what part of it I ate. So, I know the ice cream in my fridge right now has 1,600 calories in the package, so if I take 8 servings to eat it, that's 200 per serving. Companies love to mess with the serving sizes. I've even seen TV dinners with supposedly 200 calories, but on the back it says, "servings per package, 3." So, basically, the dinner has 600 calories, but they call it 200 because they believe you should eat just 1/3 of their single serve portion... yeah, that makes sense.

[DavidFehertysBike]

175 at 5'11' is not underweight by any means.

Thats what the chart says, anyway. I look pretty healthy. I think im supposed to be around 183 or something.

[Tomboys]

Heck, the average person would burn around 300 calories sitting in the clubhouse for the amount of time to play a round.

Very accurate statement.

According to my Bodybugg, I burn @ 1.8 calories per minute just sitting on the couch watching TV (1.4 calories per minute when I sleep). So, 1.8 x 60 = 108 calories burned per hour. 108 x 4 hours = 432 calories burned and I haven't even left the clubhouse.

[sean_miller]

Very accurate statement.

Now if we could just go 4 hours without drinking beer and eating nachos we might be onto something.

[Tomboys]

Now if we could just go 4 hours without drinking beer and eating nachos we might be onto something.

That's the killer. If you eat @ 15 nachos (with all the fixin's) and have a beer, then you've just consumed @ 900 calories =(.

[nevets88]

You can't say without seeing someone who is 5' 11' how much they should weigh. I'm 5' 11" and @ 155 lbs, still have a hint of a gut. Someone who is heavyset should weigh more.

So you consume 108 calories an hour. 24 hours in a day, about 2400 calories required a day, that's about right. The 500 calories for walking a course is in addition.

I think there are some contradictions in the numbers put out by different sources. Most places, I read 100 calories burned for a 1 mile run. I run 5 miles in about 40 minutes, I burn about 500 calories. So someone who walks 5 miles in 4 hours burns 1200 calories? There's a disconnect. Walking and carrying 18 holes feels less tiring than a 5 mile run, at least to me.

[Tomboys]

You can't say without seeing someone who is 5' 11' how much they should weigh. I'm 5' 11" and @ 155 lbs, still have a hint of a gut. Someone who is heavyset should weigh more.

What's "disconnecting" about the figures?

If you burn 500 calories running 5 miles in 40 minutes, then you're burning 12.5 calories per minute. If you burn 1200 calories in 4 hours playing a round of golf, then you're burning 5 calories per minute. So, yes, based on the calories per minute burned, running is more strenuous and burns more calories based on a per minute average. However, playing a round of golf equates a greater amount of calories burned only because the duration of the activity is longer.

[nevets88]

A rof golf is a 5 mile walk, running 5 miles burns 500 calories. Walking 5 miles over 4 hours burns 1200 calories?

[Tomboys]

A rof golf is a 5 mile walk, running 5 miles burns 500 calories. Walking 5 miles over 4 hours burns 1200 calories?

Yes.

What's making this confusing for you is that you're fixated on the 5 miles. The 5 miles is not the important key, rather, it's the duration (time) of the activity. The body burns calories every single minute that you're alive. It only stops when you die. As such, the rate at which you burn calories depends on the activity that you're doing at that particular time. So, as I stated above by using your example (40 mins to run 5 miles = 500 calories), you're burning 12.5 calories per minute. If you multiply 12.5 calories per minute for 4 hours--the length of time for a typical 18 hole round, the figures would be (12.5 x 240) = 3,000. Hence, if you ran for 4 hours instead of golfing, you would've burned 3,000 calories instead of 1,200. Does this make it clearer?

[nevets88]

Yes.

Yes, that makes sense.

Some caveats though. You're not continuously walking while playing golf. You stand at the tee box, on the green, between shots, stand while putting. Another thing is I'm thinking of is walking at a 1.25 mile an hour pace. That's just absolutely slow motion. I agree with your logic with respect to the rate and I'll agree that more calories are burned than I originally thought. I know that it's been measured scientifically. I'm saying this because as someone who's done alot of long distance running/cycling, instinctually 1200 still feels a tad high - not very scientific, I agree, but I'll also agree that my original 500 is too low.