Calories Burned Driving

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MissesOfficer
MissesOfficer Posts: 368
in Fitness and Exercise
In the next few days I have to do a far amount of driving, should I enter this in the system? I googled it, and I would burn around 420 calories on my 2.5 hr drive (which I have to do both thursday and friday).
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Replies

  • mszSHOGAN
    mszSHOGAN Posts: 2,278 Member
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    How exactly does one burn calories while sitting down and slightly moving their arms? And I seriously mean that in a non-sarcastic way....
  • mrsyac2
    mrsyac2 Posts: 2,784 Member
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    in my opinion no because driving isn't exercise unless your fred flinstone and using your feet
  • weasleman42
    weasleman42 Posts: 90
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    I am skeptical about adding calories for driving. It seems as sedentary as an office job. What do others think?
  • artschoolgirl
    artschoolgirl Posts: 598 Member
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    I personally do not log things like driving or anything outside of gym/exercise time. Unless you are intentionally putting effort in to a workout and trying to burn calories, it shouldn't be logged. Once again, this is my opinion.
  • alapointe
    alapointe Posts: 369 Member
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    I agree I only log gym/excercise or if i am working in the yard and it is really hard work than i will count that. I don't count mowing the lawn (mine is not huge though) and i don't count the half mile walk to and from work either. I also down play my calories burned to the nearest hundred. If my HRM says 658 I only count 600.

    That is just my opinion though and so far it seems to be working.
  • MissesOfficer
    MissesOfficer Posts: 368
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    Yah I don't know how you burn that many either, but 3 sources all came up with approximately the same numbers...I usually don't count anything other than a workout, unless I do some hard-core cleaning or something like that... but those 2 days that I'm doing lots of driving I won't have much time to actually work out... so thats why I was pushing it...
  • rosabella
    rosabella Posts: 194 Member
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    Those calories are already factored into your daily calorie burning, your bmr, which is how many calories you burn each day sitting around doing nothing, which is about what driving is! :laugh:
  • stratdl
    stratdl Posts: 303 Member
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    Maybe those websites were wrong about the amount of calories burned. :ohwell: How often do you see long-haul truck drivers who look as fantastic as Tami or Banks? :bigsmile:
  • j_g4ever
    j_g4ever Posts: 1,925 Member
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    Maybe those websites were wrong about the amount of calories burned. :ohwell: How often do you see long-haul truck drivers who look as fantastic as Tami or Banks? :bigsmile:

    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
  • MissesOfficer
    MissesOfficer Posts: 368
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    Alrighty then...
  • Delphi
    Delphi Posts: 97 Member
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    Actually, you do burn calories while remaining idle, although it is not much. I wear a GoWearFit armband daily and I burn on average anywhere from one to 1.3 calories a minute while simply sitting or being inactive, same thing when sleeping. It's different for everyone, but if you want to know exactly how many calories a day you are burning then get yourself a calorie counter but I would recommend either the BodyBugg or the GoWearFIt! :)
  • nightangelstars
    nightangelstars Posts: 337 Member
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    Yeah I have days where I do lots of driving too (I drive back and forth between college and home, a two-hour drive, and then sometimes hike down to Muskegon and back which is an additional hour) but i wouldn't count that into my calories. I would assume that's just normal metabolism, not extraneous effort calorie burning like when you work out. Also, if you don't count it and it does burn cals, that certainly can't hurt you, right? Better to err on the side of caution! :drinker:
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
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    Maybe those websites were wrong about the amount of calories burned. :ohwell: How often do you see long-haul truck drivers who look as fantastic as Tami or Banks? :bigsmile:
    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

    Thanks for that!! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • TamTastic
    TamTastic Posts: 19,224 Member
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    I would say that driving is in with your lifestyle...so when you choose active, sedentary, etc...it's already a part of that. At least that is what I would think!!

    I've never counted driving personally! :smile:
  • lynniejones
    lynniejones Posts: 1,291 Member
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    My hubby drives truck and judging from the size of his and most trucker's bellies...trust me don't count it. :laugh:
  • jsbhatt
    jsbhatt Posts: 1
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    Has anyone considered that the size of truckers bellies could be due to the fact that they don't have much choice when it comes to eating healthy. I am a truck driver and I just recently started watching my calorie intake and I never realized how much crap there is at truck stops. Even the meals that you would think are healthy are still 700 to 1000 calories. Since I have started watching my calories I have lost almost 20 lbs since the beginning of the year (thanks largely to the fact that I have a fridge in my truck and can keep healthier food) and I do not excersise at all. Maybe my metabolism is high or maybe it's because I am DRIVING 11 hours a day.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Maybe those websites were wrong about the amount of calories burned. :ohwell: How often do you see long-haul truck drivers who look as fantastic as Tami or Banks? :bigsmile:

    Wow, that was an unexpected little shot in the arm today! :flowerforyou:

    Thanks!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Has anyone considered that the size of truckers bellies could be due to the fact that they don't have much choice when it comes to eating healthy. I am a truck driver and I just recently started watching my calorie intake and I never realized how much crap there is at truck stops. Even the meals that you would think are healthy are still 700 to 1000 calories. Since I have started watching my calories I have lost almost 20 lbs since the beginning of the year (thanks largely to the fact that I have a fridge in my truck and can keep healthier food) and I do not excersise at all. Maybe my metabolism is high or maybe it's because I am DRIVING 11 hours a day.

    Let's make sure we say this accurately, they have a choice, but if they choose to eat what a truckstop restaurant offers, then they don't have many options, but that doesn't mean they don't have much choice. I would ask how many times they drive by supermarkets during the day, if they factor in 20 minutes at a supermarket and remove that 20 minutes from their stay at a truck stop, voila, you have a day's worth (or more if you're like js and have a small fridge in the truck) of healthy snacks. Is it as convenient as walking into the truck stop? Nope, but then again, that's what made them overweight in the first place. Life isn't always convenient.
  • iplayoutside19
    iplayoutside19 Posts: 2,304 Member
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    What kind of driving are we talking about?

    If it's straight across the prairie driving, and you have time to play with your radio presets...no I wouldn't log that.

    However, if it's on a knarly road in the mountains, you have to be alert to everything around you, and you have to tighten up your core to stay in your seat, and hang onto the steering wheel for dear life.....I would consider it. Just one hour of that and you'd be pretty damn tired.

    I'm opening a can of worms here. But there's a reason Sprint Cup drivers have implemented proffessional athlete type work outs in the past 10 years.
  • Tacosmamma
    Tacosmamma Posts: 39 Member
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    I just drove 13 Hours j am counting that.. I did it when I should gave been sleeping

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