The golf driving range allows you to practice your technique or relax while hitting a few golf balls. Additionally, this activity burns a few extra calories.
Hitting golf balls at the driving range is generally considered a fun way to get in some extra movement. On top of the other golf health benefits, you also burn some extra calories.
The average person can expect to burn around 89 – 152+ calories per 30 minutes of hitting golf balls on the driving range. This number will vary from individual to individual due to a variety of factors.
For example, a 125-pound (56 kg) individual will burn around 89 calories during 30 minutes spent at the driving range.
On the other hand, a 215-pound (97 kg) individual will burn around 152 calories during the same golf driving range session at the same intensity.
This article will also show you a more detailed chart that takes multiple factors into account, the calories burned per number of golf balls hit, how different aspects of golf compare, and more.
Biggest influences on calories burned
A fact that many people find annoying is that the number of calories you burn while doing something like a golf driving range visit is hard to predict and measure correctly.
This fact can make things like weight loss feel like a guessing game when you are trying to balance these numbers with the calories in food.
Even so, good estimations for the number of calories burned while hitting golf balls can be a helpful starting point. By taking a few important factors into account you can make your estimations more accurate.
Some of the biggest factors that influence how many calories you burn while hitting golfs ball on the driving range include:
- Weight: To move around your body needs energy, measured in calories. The more you weigh, the more energy your body needs to fuel its movements.
- Body composition: Body composition is how much of your body weight is made up of different tissue. Two people can weigh the same but for one individual most of the weight can come from fat while the second individual has a lot of muscle. The reason that is important is that the same weight of muscle requires more energy than that weight in fat.
- Intensity: If you’re looking at calories burned per minute of time spent at the driving range this can vary a lot by many balls you hit. The difference between slowly focusing on improving your technique vs zoning out as relexation can be big.
Hidden calorie burning from the golf driving range
There are many other aspects that make it even harder to put how many calories you burn while visiting the golf driving range into an exact number. This includes the fact that the calorie-burning effects of hitting golf balls are not limited to during the workout.
As mentioned, how much you weigh plays a relatively big role in how many calories you burn. This doesn’t just apply to your workout, this is also the case during everyday activities.
Some people also build or preserve some muscle mass by hitting golf balls at the driving range. This amount of muscle mass will definitely not be as much as something like weight lifting but it does help you burn more calories day in, day out.
It is however extremely hard to put this amount into a number since this muscle mass will be so different from person to person. Individuals more experienced with resistance training will likely not build any muscle by hitting golf balls.
Next, by moving your body more you influence the levels of certain hormones that in turn can benefit your metabolism.
Estimations for calories burned while hitting golf balls at the driving range usually don’t take these effects into account.
Estimations calories burned golf driving range
The centers for disease control and prevention simplifies the number of calories burned with golf into between 3.5-7 calories per minute (1).
In reality, there are tools to make more precise estimations. To calculate calories burned during certain activities more specifically you can use a formula with MET values.
A MET value is an exercise-specific value to indicate how intense a specific type of workout is. This number represents how many times more intense the exercise is compared to sitting still.
You can use this in the following formula: METs x 3.5 x (your body weight in kilograms) / 200 = calories burned per minute
An estimation for the MET while hitting golf balls at the driving range is 3 (2). The first table below will show estimations for the calories burned at the golf driving range for different body weights and time intervals.
After that, you can find charts with the number of calories burned per number of golf balls you hit and a comparison between the number of calories burned with different aspects of golf.
To put these estimations into perspective, 100 grams of boiled potatoes contains about 87 calories (3).
Calories burned at the golf driving range
One of the most convenient ways to see how many calories you burned at the golf driving range is by looking at how much time you spent there.
| Time Weight Person | 1 Minute | 15 Minutes | 30 Minutes | 45 Minutes | 60 Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 3 calories | 44 calories | 89 calories | 133 calories | 177 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 4 calories | 55 calories | 110 calories | 165 calories | 220 calories |
| 185 Pounds (83 kg) | 4 calories | 66 calories | 131 calories | 197 calories | 262 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 5 calories | 76 calories | 152 calories | 229 calories | 305 calories |
Calories burned per number of golf balls hit
With the estimations above you can then get a better idea of how many calories you burn for certain amounts of golf ball hits. The chart below assumes you hit about 100 golf balls per hour.
| # Golf Balls Hit Weight Person | 1 Golf Balls | 10 Golf Balls | 50 Golf Balls | 100 Golf Balls | 300 Golf Balls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125 Pounds (56 kg) | 1.8 calories | 18 calories | 89 calories | 177 calories | 532 calories |
| 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 2.2 calories | 22 calories | 110 calories | 220 calories | 659 calories |
| 185 Pounds (83 kg) | 2.6 calories | 26 calories | 131 calories | 262 calories | 787 calories |
| 215 Pounds (97 kg) | 3 calories | 30 calories | 152 calories | 305 calories | 914 calories |
Calories burned different aspects of golf
Hitting balls on the driving range is not the only way to play golf. There are plenty of other activities involved in this sport and in turn, these burn different numbers of calories.
In the table below you can find estimations of calories burned with golf in general, carrying golf clubs, using a power cart, etc. when doing the activity for 30 minutes.
| Weight Person Golf Activity | 155 Pounds (70 kg) | 185 Pounds (83 kg) | 215 Pounds (97 kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miniature Golf | 110 calories | 131 calories | 152 calories |
| Driving Range | 110 calories | 131 calories | 152 calories |
| Using Power Cart | 128 calories | 153 calories | 178 calories |
| Carrying Golf Clubs | 157 calories | 188 calories | 218 calories |
| Golf (General) | 176 calories | 210 calories | 244 calories |
| Pulling Golf Clubs | 194 calories | 232 calories | 269 calories |
How to burn more calories at the driving range
The number of calories burned while hitting golf balls at the driving range is certainly not something set in stone. There are a few ways you can increase this amount per time interval.
The challenge for most people is fitting in activities in their busy schedules. They want to burn as many calories in the least amount of time, which means burning more calories per minute spent on the driving range.
If you do have more time, spending more time on the driving range will generally burn more calories although at some point overtraining may cause the reverse.
A more obvious way to burn more calories at the driving range is hitting more golf balls in a shorter amount of time.
The second way to burn more calories while hitting golf balls on the driving range is by making the weight you have to move around heavier.
In theory, you could do this by wearing wrist weights. A more realistic method for a sport like golf is building some extra muscle mass with other exercises.
Can you lose weight at the driving range?
The numbers of calories burned at the driving range are not the highest but it can help you lose a bit of weight.
One pound of body fat is about 3500 calories (one kg +-8000 calories). How long it takes to see weight loss results from hitting golf balls at the driving range will also depend on the number of calories in your diet.
One person might eat more than the other. This might make it so they need to exercise longer or more intensely to see the same weight loss results. You can even lose weight without exercising so there are many factors that influence it.
10 sessions of 30 minutes at the driving range could help you burn an extra 1100 calories which is about 0.31 pounds of body fat. 30 sessions 3300 calories (= +- 0.94 pounds of body fat) and so on…
Keep in mind that losing weight too fast can be suboptimal. In general, a 500 calorie deficit per day is considered to be a healthy weight loss rate.
Muscles worked at the driving range
Hitting golf balls at the driving range mainly works muscles like your trapezius, a variety of scapular muscles, shoulders, chest, biceps, forearms, glutes, hip adductors, hip abductors, quadriceps, abs, obliques, and lower back (4).
If you are relatively inexperienced when it comes to resistance training, hitting golf balls at the driving range could help you grow and strengthen some of these muscles a small amount.
For individuals more experienced with resistance training, hitting golf balls is likely not enough to build a lot of muscle mass.
Both groups of people generally benefit from giving their bodies enough nutrients, rest, and sleep to repair and grow their muscles after an intense session at the driving range.
Should you visit the driving range to burn calories?
As you can see, hitting golf balls at the driving range can be described as a decent workout that can burn a nice number of calories. That being said, there are plenty of other activities that can help you burn more calories in a shorter amount of time.
Whether you should choose visits to the driving range as your main form of workouts also depends on factors like personal preference.
If calorie burning is your main goal, implementing some exercises in your schedule specifically for building muscle can be helpful.
The extra muscle mass will help you burn more calories day in, day out, including during your driving range sessions.
Also keep in mind that the things you eat stay important no matter what movement routine you’re following. It’s hard to out-exercise a bad diet.
