Does Driving Actually Burn Calories?

3foldchord

Well, yes, because you burn calories every minute of every day. EVERYTHING burns calories.

I suspect that driving doesn't burn many more calories than sitting down, however, especially if you drive an automatic, so I wouldn't be inclined to log it.

ditto

Blesmols

I'm a former professional truck driver. I lost fifty pounds of the 160 I lost during my trucking career. I can't swear it was the driving, though. I kept a stepper in front of my bunk and used it for an hour a day. LOL I will say that being in the air ride seat will jostle a body all over, and I think stress factors into the loss, too. It depends some on if you manage not to snack while driving. There was, however, a point where I was driving a flatbed and chaining that big boy up burnt TONS of calories. While I was doing that, I quit doing any outside exercise activity and could eat an entire yellow sheet cake over the weekend without gaining weight. I was hauling cable reels to and scrap from a dedicated account, so in fourteen hours I might chain/unchain the whole flatbed eight or so times a shift. Add to it much snow and very cold temperatures for part of the year, and it burned calories like a mad thing to do it!

TheBaileyHunter

I wonder about this sometimes as my heart rate goes up every time I'm trapped behind some asshat that is going less than the speed of traffic in the fast lane with their left blinker on (and no where to turn left to) while talking on their cell phone...so basically every weekday, twice a day, for an hour each way..

So I guess it's not driving I'm wondering about the calorie burn but the stress of it. :-)

Melissa11412

Lol'd @thread title, just had to come in and see what's going on. I would assume driving does burn calories, but I wouldn't depend on it or count it.

Pamela_in_Progress

Could it be driving, as in the driving range? Golf?

They have "Golf, using power cart" in the database. Maybe I don't understand golf, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of work involved in driving a cart.

This is to distinguish it from using a push-cart for your clubs or carrying your clubs (where you average 6-7 miles in 18 holes). Even if you use a golf cart, there's still swinging the club and a fair bit of walking.

Thanks for the explanation.

My pleasure! I log golf if I use a cart. I do NOT log the 30-min drive to the club! Ridiculous. The only reason to do this is if you are calculating every calorie you burn in a day rather than estimating it?

I really don't know, you mean like FitBit people do? I've only ever logged intentional exercise, but I drive a stick, maybe I should log driving! :bigsmile: I had no idea a golf course was that big. That explains why I felt like I was going to die, when I had to walk from one end to the other the day I volunteered at a tournament!

I was referring to driving the "golf ball" with a club at the driving range... no motorized vehicle involved. lol Which I still wouldn't think would burn a lot of calories unless were doing it for an extended period of time... but then again... I'm not a golfer.

favhrnstr

Could it be driving, as in the driving range? Golf?

They have "Golf, using power cart" in the database. Maybe I don't understand golf, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of work involved in driving a cart.

This is to distinguish it from using a push-cart for your clubs or carrying your clubs (where you average 6-7 miles in 18 holes). Even if you use a golf cart, there's still swinging the club and a fair bit of walking.

Thanks for the explanation.

My pleasure! I log golf if I use a cart. I do NOT log the 30-min drive to the club! Ridiculous. The only reason to do this is if you are calculating every calorie you burn in a day rather than estimating it?

I really don't know, you mean like FitBit people do? I've only ever logged intentional exercise, but I drive a stick, maybe I should log driving! :bigsmile: I had no idea a golf course was that big. That explains why I felt like I was going to die, when I had to walk from one end to the other the day I volunteered at a tournament!

I was referring to driving the "golf ball" with a club at the driving range... no motorized vehicle involved. lol Which I still wouldn't think would burn a lot of calories unless were doing it for an extended period of time... but then again... I'm not a golfer.

You'd be surprised. It's not like running, of course, but an hour on the driving range is like a low-impact anaerobic workout. You can definitely feel it the next day if you're not used to it. (And MFP has a separate "driving range" entry.)

maca416

If you didn't burn calories while driving you would have just crashed & died, if you burn cal's sleeping you burn them driving but exercise it's not

Melissa22G

:huh:

peeaanuut

Could it be driving, as in the driving range? Golf?

They have "Golf, using power cart" in the database. Maybe I don't understand golf, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of work involved in driving a cart.

This is to distinguish it from using a push-cart for your clubs or carrying your clubs (where you average 6-7 miles in 18 holes). Even if you use a golf cart, there's still swinging the club and a fair bit of walking.

Thanks for the explanation.

My pleasure! I log golf if I use a cart. I do NOT log the 30-min drive to the club! Ridiculous. The only reason to do this is if you are calculating every calorie you burn in a day rather than estimating it?

I really don't know, you mean like FitBit people do? I've only ever logged intentional exercise, but I drive a stick, maybe I should log driving! :bigsmile: I had no idea a golf course was that big. That explains why I felt like I was going to die, when I had to walk from one end to the other the day I volunteered at a tournament!

on the fitbit, generally there are 3 ways to remove steps that were counted while driving. 1 is to have it charging while driving, 2 is to use the android app if you have an andorid and 3 is to log a driving time. What this does is shows the burn it calculates before exercise as your regular activity level you set. So if you set your fitbit ot sedentary and you would burn 10 calories for 10 minutes (obviously a made up number) but thats what it will log. It isnt taking or adding any calories towards the end result. The reason its logged is that during that time it will remove any stairs, distance and steps calculated.

For example. From 6-6:30 if I sat like a bump on a log with a sedentary setting, the fitbit would calculate X amount of calories burned as regular activity. now if I drove during that time and wore it, it would log steps, stairs, distance based on the steps and extra calories it calculates by doing those activities. So you log 6-630 as light driving and it removes everything but the basic X calories as if you were a bump on a log.

My solution, I just keep the dongle in the car. never have to charge it at home as long as I charge it while in the car. It doesnt do any logging when charging and the website assumes bump on a log calories and not added activity.

_Waffle_

I'm alive. How many calories does that burn?

peeaanuut

also, i do log driving as an additional activity when I am at the track on the weekends. 20 minute sessions, 40-50 gear changes on a 6 puck sprung clutch every lap in 100 degree weather is certainly a workout, especially without power steering. Of course I counter that workout with beer and nachos after each session. lol

belinus

It could be something coming in from a device like FitBit. That is one of the reasons I ended up returning the device because it was overly sensitive to such things.

Blesmols

Well, I do think stress contributes to weight loss. However, if it was an absolute contributor, after the hundreds of thousands of miles I drove in 5 years, I'd have been a toothpick. LOL

jdabyers

This makes sense, I have noticed a spike in my burned calories when I drive 70 -80 mph through traffic; safely of course. My body media registers it as moderate activity almost equivilent to walking up flights of stairs.

Francl27

This makes sense, I have noticed a spike in my burned calories when I drive 70 -80 mph through traffic; safely of course. My body media registers it as moderate activity almost equivilent to walking up flights of stairs.

Or maybe it's just from the movement of the car affecting your bodymedia.

I had a friend on MFP adding a 300 calorie burn for driving 90 minutes, and she swore she lost more weight on days she drove a lot, I about died laughing.

lauraashley09

Seriously....? How overboard do some people go with this?

janine2355

I've seen where people have added calories burned from driving and it is even in the Cardiovascular Exercise database. Do you really burn calories driving? I have a long day trip tomorrow (about 7 hours to destination) and wonder if I'll actually burn while driving. Opinions? Fact? Fiction?

Thanks!

That sounds like hogwash. If that were true, I shoud be 100lbs, with all the driving I do! lol!

Sreneesa

Wow, really?

I'm totally adding my calorie burn from breathing!

LMAO!!!

Okay. I'm going to add my calorie burn from typing this response on OP's post! :laugh:

heybales

That's not in the database - someone added it themselves because I'd suggest they don't understand the concept of how MFP works, and must think you have to add in all your daily life.

Check out their logs - do they have sleeping, watching TV, sitting at desk, ect also?

ittybittybadonkadonk

yesterday was a perfect example of this for me ....I have a fitbit ....I was on the road from 4:30am to about 3:00pm and my fitbit gave me exercise calories of 200 and something .....so I disconnected my fitbit from Mfp ...since I do tdee-20% method and exercise is included in this method