Car Driving Calories

I did a couple of searches and couldn't find any exercises related to driving a car, but I would have to assume that unless you power your car like Fred Flintstone your calorie burn when driving is pretty similar to your average burn while just being awake.

But I suppose you could attach resistance bands to your shift knob, disable power steering, and constantly roll the windows up and down... I think I just invented a new fad exercise program!

Who logs "driving" as an exercise? Why not "sitting" or "sleeping"? Some people will do anything to rationalize eating junk.

I've seen it logged by friends. Personally I wouldn't log it. I've gone on some very long car trips, ate my normal calorie allowance, and I did not lose any more weight than usual. To me that means that it didn't burn any more calories than my normal routine would have done.

LOL - surely this is a joke! Aaah I miss the Flintstones. And "shift knob"? That sounds dirty ha ha

If I can't find "trampolining" then there's no way you should be able to find "driving a car".

I've not seen this but unless they're racing drivers which does use a lot of mental energy then it seems rather negligible.

However, it may be fitbit users to give NEGATIVE calorie burns for time spent in the car - fitbit can pick up the movement of transport, particularly if a bumpy ride and will assign steps and therefore calories to the user accordingly. These extra calories can be removed by logging a car journey, overriding that time period and deleting any extra calories that may have been assigned.

Interesting . . . so you mean like Jedi mind trick type stuff??

I'm very interested in how many calories that would burn as well.

Hi there

I don't have an answer for you but just wanted to say keep up the good work. As we all know driving can be quite a work out and it's good to see people on here taking it seriously.

I personally use the gas and break pedal constantly this way I not only get a work out but the people in my car (and the people behind me) get one as well.

You rock!

:flowerforyou:

Wow, this is a great idea. I never thought of forcibly improving the health and fitness of drivers around me, but you are taking it up a notch, sir.

OP, I usually log driving if I go further than, say, five miles. Under five miles you don't create much of a deficit and I mean, you are probably driving to get fast food at that kind of a distance anyway, right?

So why are all lorry drivers fat?

That's an unfair generalisation, I know several lorry driver who are not fat, they're just big boned..............

I would never log driving as an 'activity'. However.... I do use a HRM and have experimented with it while driving. Heart rate is higher than sitting doing nothing - especially in busy/city traffic.

Is it significant enough to log as exercise. No. My resting heart rate is around 50bpm, during sedate movement around the house around 55-60. Driving in busy traffic it went up to 65-70. Sure, that will very depending how stressed people get while driving, but an exercise worthy of logging. Nope.

If you want to log your daily calorific burn, the FitBit is the way to go.

I'm sure it burns something as I often wish I'd bought a car with an automatic box when I'm coming back from the gym and stuck in traffic. :sad:

One of my old cars had a triple plate clutch which was like doing weighted lunges with the left foot. It was so stiff to push in, my sister had a go and couldn't push it down far enough to engage a gear. :bigsmile:

And my old TVR which didn't have PAS was like an obliques machine when I had to park it. :laugh:

I've not seen this but unless they're racing drivers which does use a lot of mental energy then it seems rather negligible.

However, it may be fitbit users to give NEGATIVE calorie burns for time spent in the car - fitbit can pick up the movement of transport, particularly if a bumpy ride and will assign steps and therefore calories to the user accordingly. These extra calories can be removed by logging a car journey, overriding that time period and deleting any extra calories that may have been assigned.

Interesting . . . so you mean like Jedi mind trick type stuff??

I'm very interested in how many calories that would burn as well.

Too late to edit but should have said physical and mental energy (due to the intense concentration etc - apparently an F1 driver burns around 1500 cals per race).

But anyway, I am intrigued by Jedi mind trick calorie burns. I image that would be pretty high. I'll have to practice my mind control skills while wearing my HRM and see what happens :happy: