calories burned walking 18 holes

[HazardMagnet]

From the last page of my TPC River Highlands, Cromwell Ct. 2010 spectator handout booklet:

"If a spectator were to follow player's along 18 holes of the Travelers championship, they would walk approximatly 4.5 miles
(9000 steps) and burn approx. 485 calories".

Now since most of us do not hit; Driver, Chip, one putt. and I don't recall the course being all par 3's, I would suggest we multiply that by 2, and we'd be close. And these #'s are for on the cart path, for the spectator.

This would also take into consideration variables like "standing around the tee box" and I would think that dodging other spectators would more than cover the energy used swinging clubs, and of course caring for our own equiptment... which on that day we carried folding chairs, which needed to be manuvered among the masses.

Now, I'm no "Gulf coast Oil Rig leak Engineer" But this is close enought for me.

Hence: less than 1000 calories.

[Rouleur]

So I searched and saw this thread a while ago, and sorry for the thread dredge, but I thought I would put in some results.

I'm early 30's, at my BMI (an unscientific indicator I know, but obviously not excessively overweight), cycle about 5 hours a week. I'm slower than most in terms of fitness, so I would say I'm about average. I have a recorded slow heart rate, so they are provided for indication only.

I carried for 18 holes yesterday. 18 balls, 1.5L fluid (1.5kg), 10 steel shafted clubs, putter, graphite 3w and driver, towel and carry bag itself. Will post back with weight.

3 and half hours on undulating course, 1:43 for the back (played first), 1:54 for the front. 108avg HR, 154 max (had a bit of a run to get a ball). Total Kcal 1478kcal. That equates to 408kcal per hour.

I put the watch on in the office today. 2 hours, 58avg, 123max (going upstairs with load), 188kcal. 94kcal per hour.

I will post back sometime if I ever drive, but I think I will continue to carry until I am unable due to age, so that would have to be a special occassion. Too cheap for that.

As many have said, your fitness and weight will determine your results, but I'm burning 4 times what I do when sedentary in an office chair.

It is also a reasonable indicator about why people feel tired after 9 holes, and burned out at 18. I took proper electolyte/carbo replacement, and felt good coming up the last, compared to feeling burned out by 12 the last time I carried.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by Rouleur

So I searched and saw this thread a while ago, and sorry for the thread dredge, but I thought I would put in some results.

I'm early 30's, at my BMI (an unscientific indicator I know, but obviously not excessively overweight), cycle about 5 hours a week. I'm slower than most in terms of fitness, so I would say I'm about average. I have a recorded slow heart rate, so they are provided for indication only.

I carried for 18 holes yesterday. 18 balls, 1.5L fluid (1.5kg), 10 steel shafted clubs, putter, graphite 3w and driver, towel and carry bag itself. Will post back with weight.

3 and half hours on undulating course, 1:43 for the back (played first), 1:54 for the front. 108avg HR, 154 max (had a bit of a run to get a ball). Total Kcal 1478kcal. That equates to 408kcal per hour.

I put the watch on in the office today. 2 hours, 58avg, 123max (going upstairs with load), 188kcal. 94kcal per hour.

I will post back sometime if I ever drive, but I think I will continue to carry until I am unable due to age, so that would have to be a special occassion. Too cheap for that.

As many have said, your fitness and weight will determine your results, but I'm burning 4 times what I do when sedentary in an office chair.

It is also a reasonable indicator about why people feel tired after 9 holes, and burned out at 18. I took proper electolyte/carbo replacement, and felt good coming up the last, compared to feeling burned out by 12 the last time I carried.

This is good info... Thanks for sharing.

[sacm3bill]

Originally Posted by Rouleur

So I searched and saw this thread a while ago, and sorry for the thread dredge, but I thought I would put in some results.

I'm early 30's, at my BMI (an unscientific indicator I know, but obviously not excessively overweight), cycle about 5 hours a week. I'm slower than most in terms of fitness, so I would say I'm about average. I have a recorded slow heart rate, so they are provided for indication only.

I carried for 18 holes yesterday. 18 balls, 1.5L fluid (1.5kg), 10 steel shafted clubs, putter, graphite 3w and driver, towel and carry bag itself. Will post back with weight.

3 and half hours on undulating course, 1:43 for the back (played first), 1:54 for the front. 108avg HR, 154 max (had a bit of a run to get a ball). Total Kcal 1478kcal. That equates to 408kcal per hour.

I put the watch on in the office today. 2 hours, 58avg, 123max (going upstairs with load), 188kcal. 94kcal per hour.

I will post back sometime if I ever drive, but I think I will continue to carry until I am unable due to age, so that would have to be a special occassion. Too cheap for that.

As many have said, your fitness and weight will determine your results, but I'm burning 4 times what I do when sedentary in an office chair.

It is also a reasonable indicator about why people feel tired after 9 holes, and burned out at 18. I took proper electolyte/carbo replacement, and felt good coming up the last, compared to feeling burned out by 12 the last time I carried.

Great info, thanks for doing this experiment.

In addition to posting results when using a power cart someday, I'd be real curious to see what the numbers are when walking with a push cart.

[Rouleur]

Yep, I will. For the sake of hack science, I will try to play the same course with a pull cart. Your request pushed me over the edge of going back to it, just for the sake of stats.

But, it can take me a long time to get a round in, so it could take up to a year to get to this course again. No joke. Most of my golf is at an out of town 9 holer. Be patient and hopefully I'll get there.

[clubchamp]

It obviously depends on the person but I've used a bodymedia to show me how many calories I've burned while training for a marathon. I used it several times while golfing and I don't think it is 100% accurate but it is very close. When I was a little heavier playing on warmer days it was standard to burn around 1,300 calories and after I got into shape it was right around 1,000 calories. The shocker was there was less than a 100 calorie difference when I used my push cart or carried my bag.

[MacDutch]

Originally Posted by sacm3bill

An interesting article about this topic was linked in the latest "Hitting the Links": Calories burned playing golf

I think the calories burned in this study might be a little inflated due to the six extra pounds of gear the subjects were wearing, but the numbers are in line with the higher values that I and others have been citing.

[dpgator33]

~500 calories?!?!?!?!?!?!  Eat 500 calories worth of food after walking 18 and tell me you're not still hungry.  That's just a joke.

I

[Dave2512]

I've been using a pedometer and tracking calories and exercise for several years now. You'd be surprised how much you walk when you ride in a cart. The duplication of steps riding vs. walking is significant when you factor in being able to set the bag next to the greens and boxes compared to walking to and from the path. Walking is more of a straight line through the course. It's not 1:1 and a lot of it depends on how you hit the ball but most days I ride I average about 3000-3500 steps per 9 holes. About a 1000 more than that if I walk.

[Rouleur]

That is really interesting Dave! Assuming the pedometer doesn't count extra when the cart is bumping around. Get a heart rate monitor that counts calories and tell us the difference there too. It sounds like you have the ability to play the same course and get comparable results for walking (whether with push cart or not) and riding. Good stuff.

[tuffluck]

i just think about the average size of the greens i play on (which is always a baffling number to me), something like 7,000 square feet.  hell if i had a 7,000 square foot home i would complain every time i had to walk from one end to the other, but in golf the distance does not seem realistic when you are doing it.  and even if i don't walk around every green, by the time i walk from the cart to my ball, to the pin, back to the ball, behind the ball to check for the line, in front of the ball to check the line, back to the pin, then back to the cart...i've got to assume that i easily walked 100y or more per green.  18 x 100 = 1,800y which is about a mile.  if all you did was walk to the greens when you play golf i think you'd easily walk that, but couple that with walking on fairways and tee boxes, you've got to be putting in at least 2 miles on days that you ride a cart while playing.

and i don't know about you guys but when i go out and run 1 mile in 10 minutes, immediately following that run i feel far more exhausted than i do after i walk/carry 18 holes over 4 hours.  getting out of breath and increasing your heart rate while running makes you perceive more calories are being burned than really are.  so i'm pretty confident walking/carrying sheds a good 1,500 calories or more since it is pretty much 3-4 hours straight of exercise, and riding probably about half that or possibly a little less.

[Dave2512]

I have a HRM but I haven't worn it on the course. I'll check it out when the weather gets better. My guess is not much difference between walking and riding. The only thing that gets my heart rate up is mishit shots. Golf as exercise is better than riding the couch but not an effective way to burn significant calories. In fact for me it's a leisure activity.

[dsc123]

Its funny how much estimates about this sort of thing vary.  It looks like we have 400-2000 being thrown around.  Weren't they counting this during the Humana?  I think they had pedometers on all the guys and the numbers were in the 1800 range, I think.

And the numbers we're all throwing around don't count hills and swings, right?

[Dave2512]

I'm going to guess the golf swings don't amount to much being it's just a few seconds of swinging per hole, even with the practice swings. All of it combined is just a few minutes of moving around. I have serious doubts about burning 2000 calories on the golf course just walking and golfing. I workout 6 days a week for roughly 2.5 hrs per day. A typical day would be something like 45 min spin bike, 30 minutes heavy lifts, 15 minutes calisthenics, 60-70 minutes of fast walking. Don't run much these days out fear for knee issues later. When the snow stops flying I'll start riding my bike to and from work, 7 miles round trip and I smoke there and back, less than 30 minutes on the bike total. All that combined is usually a 1200-1300 total calorie expenditure. For example I've already walked more than 2 miles today and it's just a burn of 230 cal for me. Drink one beer later and that's pretty much negated.

[dsc123]

Originally Posted by Dave2512

I'm going to guess the golf swings don't amount to much being it's just a few seconds of swinging per hole, even with the practice swings. All of it combined is just a few minutes of moving around. I have serious doubts about burning 2000 calories on the golf course just walking and golfing.

On the average, people playing golf at the driving range for one hour burn 259 calories if they weigh 190 lbs., 211 calories if they weigh 155 lbs. and 177 calories if they weigh 130 lbs., according to a study by the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services.

The average 190-lb. person will burn 474 calories per hour playing golf while carrying clubs, 431 calories per hour playing golf while pulling clubs, and 302 calories per hour playing golf while traveling from shot to shot via a power cart, according to the Wisconsin study. Miniature golf burns the same amount of calories, 259 calories per hour, as golfing from a driving range.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/438133-how-many-calories-do-you-burn-going-to-the-driving-range-for-an-hour/#ixzz2M2Zwj3gT

[saevel25]

Honestly you can throw out a number, its probably going to vary something like 15% depending on the person. Even carrying golf clubs, you can say, well i golfed for 5 hours. Well, how much was walking, how much was standing, how much was sitting, how heavy is the bag, did you track your movements, because most people walk more than the yardage on the score card. Some courses you can take 6000 yards, and your walking 7000 when your done.

Walking, your probably looking at 0.04 Calories per minute per lb

your weight would be your body weight + bag weight

Standing around your looking at 0.009 calories per minute per lb

You can say, what about swinging the golf club, well your only swinging for maybe just over a second, probably swinging twice the number of strokes you take minus putts. So, your probably looking at 1.5-2 minutes of actually swinging a golf club. That's probably 5-10 calories :p

So if you had to put this in equation form

Calories = 0.04*weight*minutes(walking) + 0.009*weight*Minutes(standing+Sitting) + 10

I lump standing and sitting because there calories burned are not that far apart to care

Lets say you walk normal pace, 4.5 feet per second, that means 1.5 yards per second, 90 yards per minute, which means 6000 yards would be 65 minutes, 7000 yards would be 78 minutes, and 8000 yards (really bad day :p) would be 90 minutes. So your looking at 65-90 minutes, which is

Calories for walking will range from 2.6*weight to 3.6*weight

given, this doesn't take into consideration, temperature outside, elevation changes, ect...

Standing time = Round time - walking time - sitting time

So you see how this gets complicated fast, but if you weight 200 lbs, walk for 70 minutes, play a 240 minute round

Calories = 2.8*200 + 0.009*(240-70)*200 + 10 = 875 calories

[dsc123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25

You can say, what about swinging the golf club, well your only swinging for maybe just over a second, probably swinging twice the number of strokes you take minus putts. So, your probably looking at 1.5-2 minutes of actually swinging a golf club. That's probably 5-10 calories :p

Didn't you watch the Haney Project?  Michael Phelps got tired and even winded  hitting 400 balls.  By your calculation he only burned 80 calories.  Maybe you take a practice swing or two, maybe you throw you club afterwards, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25

Lets say you walk normal pace, 4.5 feet per second, that means 1.5 yards per second, 90 yards per minute, which means 6000 yards would be 65 minutes, 7000 yards would be 78 minutes, and 8000 yards (really bad day :p) would be 90 minutes. So your looking at 65-90 minutes, which is

I think this really underestimates the walking.  You're assuming 70 minutes, so about 6500 yards?  My course is 6400 yards.  But I don't walk straight down the fairway to the center of the green and teleport to the next tee box. And its not like you're either walking to your ball or standing still.  You're circling the hole to read your putt and helping your partner find his ball (or yours).  There are forced carries that you have to walk around.  Most estimates are that you walk 5+ miles, which is about 8800 yards.  Some say 6-7.

And just about every study I've seen, and the Humana Challenge or whatever they called it, put the number between 1400 and 2000.

[grubby98]

Here is another website with calories burned while golfing for 30 min at different rates, one walking carrying clubs and other riding in a cart.

http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/how-many-calories-do-i-burn-playing-golf-2/

If you don't want to click here is what it says, copy and pasted from site:

Golfing (using a golf cart)

• If you weigh 150 lbs, you can burn approximately 125 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 200 lbs, you can burn approximately 165 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 250 lbs, you can burn approximately 210 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 300 lbs, you can burn approximately 250 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 350 lbs, you can burn approximately 290 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 400 lbs, you can burn approximately 335 calories in 30 minutes.

Golfing (walking and carrying your clubs)

• If you weigh 150 lbs, you can burn approximately 160 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 200 lbs, you can burn approximately 215 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 250 lbs, you can burn approximately 270 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 300 lbs, you can burn approximately 320 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 350 lbs, you can burn approximately 375 calories in 30 minutes.
• If you weigh 400 lbs, you can burn approximately 430 calories in 30 minutes.