Calories burned golf calculator
Walking the course or riding in a cart, see what a round burns for your body.
Updated
Your result
For 4 hours of golf (walking, carrying clubs) at 65 kg:
880extra kcal
On top of the 220 kcal you’d burn anyway in that time. In total it uses about 1,100 kcal.
In your TDEE it counts as about 630–880 kcal. The low end allows for the body offsetting about 28% of exercise calories, the average in a study of 1,754 adults.
Calories burned golf: the key numbers
- 4 hours of golf adds about 670 to 930 extra kcal for a 65 kg person, depending on whether you walk.
- An hour of golf (walking, carrying clubs) adds about 220 extra kcal at 65 kg and 340 at 100 kg.
- The figures come from 3 rows of the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, from 3.5 to 4.5 METs: each from published studies.
- Done on purpose, it counts in your TDEE at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses (Careau, 2021).
Counting it in your TDEE
If you do this on purpose, add it as exercise on the TDEE calculator. It counts there at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses.
For your body and time
| Activity | Extra kcal | Compendium value |
|---|---|---|
| Riding in a cart | 670 | 3.5 METs, Compendium code 15290 |
| Walking, carrying clubs | 880 | 4.3 METs, Compendium code 15265 |
| Walking, pulling a trolley | 930 | 4.5 METs, Compendium code 15285 |
Each figure uses the activity’s cost from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, which gives it in METs of oxygen use per kg of body weight, so the extra scales with your weight. Only the part above resting counts as extra. What you’d burn anyway comes from your own resting rate (Mifflin-St Jeor), not the standard 1 MET: in 769 adults, measured resting burn averaged 0.84 kcal per kg an hour against the standard 1 (Byrne, 2005).
Compare every activity on the calories burned calculator.
More activities: walking, running, lifting weights, swimming, cycling, elliptical, treadmill, hiking, sleeping, standing, yoga, Pilates, climbing stairs, dancing, rowing, gardening, cleaning.
Short answers
How many calories does golf burn?
It depends on whether you walk, and on your weight. For a 65 kg woman, 4 hours adds about 670 kcal (riding in a cart) up to about 930 (walking, pulling a trolley) on top of what she’d burn anyway. For a 100 kg man it’s about 1,030 to 1,440.
How many calories does 18 holes of golf burn?
Taking about four hours for 18 holes, walking and carrying your clubs adds about 880 kcal for a 65 kg woman, about 1,100 in total. Riding in a cart, it adds about 670.
Should I eat back the calories from golf?
Partly. In a study of 1,754 adults, the body offset about 28% of the calories burned through activity, on average (Careau, 2021). So when 4 hours of golf adds about 880 kcal for a 65 kg woman, count about 630–880 of it.
Sources
Checked against each source on 22 and 23 October 2026
- Herrmann SD, et al. (2024). 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: a third update of the energy costs of human activities. J Sport Health Sci 13(1):6–12. PMID 38242596
- Byrne NM, et al. (2005). Metabolic equivalent: one size does not fit all. J Appl Physiol 99(3):1112–9. PMID 15831804
- Careau V, et al. (2021). Energy compensation and adiposity in humans. Curr Biol 31(20):4659–66. PMID 34453886
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr 51(2):241–7. PMID 2305711