Golf- calories ?

Vikings4

When putting golf using a power cart on myfitnesspal, it says i burn a ton of calories when i really don't feel it. However, i keep it listed and i find it hard to eat all of my calories when I have golfed that day. I was thinking of not putting golf (power cart) in as my cardio activity because of this.....is this a good idea?

Thanks!!

ashley0616

Golfing burns a lot of calories and it is a good strength exercise too. Do you do 9 or 18 holes? Could you walk it instead of using a cart? Or even walk every other hole? That will certainly raise your calories burned. I don't see any reason not to put it in as a cardio exercise. If you are having trouble eating all of your exercise calories, shoot for just 1/2-3/4, or try some higher calorie snacks like cheese, protein shake/bar, etc.

Vikings4

Right now I'm usually doing 9 holes because of the weather. I walk sometimes and use a power cart as well on other days. Even when I use a power cart- myfitnesspal still says I burn a lot of calories.
I'm pretty sure myfitnesspal states that I burn more calories playing 9 holes ( 1.5 or 2 hours--taking my time, practicing) with a power cart than I do on the elliptical for 30 minutes....I just don't feel like that makes sense.

erickirb

golf takes hours to play, you must remeber that you burn calories sitting down and if you do it long enough it will look like a lot. 4 hours of sitting will burn like 480 calories, but what this fails to calculate would be how many extra calories you burned most likely the sitting burned 0.25 cals/min more than sleeping so 4 hours of sitting would look like 480 but only 60 extra calories from sitting.

MFP calculated total caloric burn not extra burned from exercise see the example below.

Back out the calories you would have burned at rest if you didn't play golf. which would be about 1.5 cals/minute. So if you played golf for 3 hours and says you burned 700 calories you would only enter 430 (800-(1.5*180min)), as the 270 (1.5*180) is already accounted for in your maintenance calories included in your daily allowance.

CarterGrt

I would buy/borrow a heart rate monitor (with chest strap) to see what kind of calories you are actually burning. This is really the only way to know. You might be surprised. 3-4 hours of light exercize could be more calorie burning than 30 minutes of intense exercize.

--Carter

erickirb

I would buy/borrow a heart rate monitor (with chest strap) to see what kind of calories you are actually burning. This is really the only way to know. You might be surprised. 3-4 hours of light exercize could be more calorie burning than 30 minutes of intense exercize.

--Carter

You have to be careful with HRM's for long duration exercises that don't elevate your heart rate they are rather off on their calculation. Even HRM's calculate total caloric burn not extra burned from exercise see the example below.

Back out the calories you would have burned at rest if you didn't play golf. which would be about 1.5 cals/minute. So if you played golf for 3 hours and says you burned 700 calories you would only enter 430 (800-(1.5*180min)), as the 270 (1.5*180) is already accounted for in your maintenance calories included in your daily allowance. And this is assuming your HRM is correct in caloric burn.

Azdak

I would buy/borrow a heart rate monitor (with chest strap) to see what kind of calories you are actually burning. This is really the only way to know. You might be surprised. 3-4 hours of light exercize could be more calorie burning than 30 minutes of intense exercize.

--Carter

You have to be careful with HRM's for long duration exercises that don't elevate your heart rate they are rather off on their calculation. Even HRM's calculate total caloric burn not extra burned from exercise see the example below.

Back out the calories you would have burned at rest if you didn't play golf. which would be about 1.5 cals/minute. So if you played golf for 3 hours and says you burned 700 calories you would only enter 430 (800-(1.5*180min)), as the 270 (1.5*180) is already accounted for in your maintenance calories included in your daily allowance. And this is assuming your HRM is correct in caloric burn.

You are correct about the HRM--it would not be useful for golf. You also do a good job in pointing how much of the "calories earned" from golf is the same energy you would expend sitting in a chair watching golf on TV. When you subtract resting calories, plus the daily allowance that you already build in for normal daily activity, there's not much left.

Everyone has a different "accounting" system, so I am reluctant to comment negatively on someone else's "system". However the OP indicated they were trying to eat back all of the "golf" calories listed by MFP. IMO, that would be a big mistake. It's one thing to log casual activities like housework, golf, etc. for motivational purposes, but I wouldn't figure those calories into an eating plan.

CarterGrt

Thanks for the heads up. As a new purchaser of a HRM, it seems like the perfect answer to every question. Good to know where the limitations are.

I have wondered about the calculations between resting calorie burn and that by exercize. Your calculations in this area make a lot of sense.

--Carter

mbrose

I have the same issue - MFP shows I burned 510 calories for 9 holes of cart golf (120 minutes, or 2 hours). Since I ride in the cart between holes and wait for my turn there is a lot of down time. So, I decided to just tell MFP that I played for 60 minutes (half the actual time) so I wasn't given too many extra calories to eat. The game is just not that strenuous! I'm having the same issue with my Fitbit step count. Walked 9200 steps so far today and MFP adds so many extra calories!! If I eat all those calories I'll never lose weight! My regular daily calorie target is 1200. Is MFP setting it low so that just walking around the house accumulating steps "earns" me extra calories?? I might just disconnect my Fitbit from MFP since the calorie counting algorithm seems messed up.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

@mbrose This thread is a decade old, so it's a "zombie thread." Having said that, the advice to use a fitness tracker with HRM is still relevant today. In fact, I know Garmin has some trackers that are made specifically for golfers. Either way, if you are trying to lose weight, be cautious about eating all of the exercise calories MFP gives you when you manually log activity.

pondee629

I've had the same reservations regarding golf calorie burn as the O.P. I walk the course and just count the exercise as "steps". Seemed to work for me. My extra steps count as calories burned and I don't feel guilty eating those back. The data base does seem to award alot of calories when using a power cart.

Theoldguy1

Unless you are walking the course, I'd suggest not adding any calories for golf. If you're lucky you might burn off 1 of the 3 or 4 light beers consumed during the round.