How Many Calories You Burn Bowling for 3 Hours

When you're standing at the approach point of a bowling lane, holding the ball and eyeing up the pins you hope to knock down, you're almost certainly not thinking of the calories you're burning. Bowling isn't an effective way to burn calories to lead to fat loss, but as with other low-intensity sports, it can still help you burn a few hundred calories during a three-hour game.

  1. Calories Burned

    • Bowling burns calories at a low rate because the sport isn't intense. Unlike sports such as basketball and hockey, you aren't moving quickly during a game of bowling. Harvard Medical School notes that a 155-pound person will burn 112 calories during a 30-minute bowling game, which equates to 672 calories burned after playing the sport for three hours.

    Other Weights

    • The rate at which you burn calories depends on your weight; people who are heavier burn more calories than those who are lighter. According to Harvard Medical School, a 125-pound person will burn 540 calories during a three-hour bowling game, while a 185-pound person will burn 798 calories during a game of the same length.

    Comparable Activities

    • The rate at which you burn calories while bowling is comparable to several other low-intensity activities. You'll burn the same number of calories while dancing slow dances such as the waltz, playing catch with a Frisbee and playing noncompetitive volleyball. General weightlifting also burns calories at the same rate as bowling.

    Calorie-Burning Considerations

    • If you're getting active with the goal of losing fat, bowling isn't the most effective activity to add to your routine. Vigorous exercises such as jogging, swimming and cycling burn calories at a far greater rate than bowling. A 155-pound person can burn 744 calories during a 60-minute jog at 6 mph, which is more than she would burn during a three-hour bowling session. If you want to burn more calories during your bowling game, practice weight training a few days per week. WeightLossResources.co.uk notes the more muscle you have, the faster you'll burn calories.