How Many Calories Do You Burn When You Play Football?

Whether you play competitive tackle football or just get together with a group of friends on the weekend for a relaxed game of touch football, this sport is an effective way to burn calories. Sure, you might not think about the health benefits you're receiving as you're charging up the field trying to evade defenders, but by the end of the season, you might notice you possess a slimmer, more athletic body.

  1. Recreational Football

    • Touch and flag football allow you to enjoy the competitive spirit of the game without contending with collisions. In touch and flag football, touching your opponent or grabbing the flag tied to another player's body is enough to stop the play. Each game provides a effective calorie burn. Harvard Medical School notes that a 155-pound person will burn 596 calories over the course of a 60-minute game, while a 185-pound person will burn 710 calories during the same period of time.

    Competitive Football

    • When you trade your flag football uniform for a set of pads and join a tackle football league, the intensity of the game quickly escalates. So too does the number of calories you'll burn during the game. A 155-pound person will burn 670 calories during an hour-long competitive football game, while someone who weighs 185 pounds will burn 800 calories.

    Time Considerations

    • When you're trying to estimate the calories you'll burn during a game of touch, flag or tackle football, consider the amount of time you're actually playing the game. If you play in a recreational touch or flag football league, you're more likely to play offense and defense, which means you'll be on the field for the entire game. In tackle football, many players play either offense or defense, which means they're only in action for roughly half the contest. As such, you'll burn more calories playing 60 minutes of touch football than 30 minutes of tackle football.

    Football and Calories

    • Burning calories is directly related to the burning of fat; when you burn 3,500 more calories than you consume, you'll lose 1 pound of fat. For recreational football players, losing fat through regular games can be an added perk on top of the fresh air and camaraderie you experience. For some tackle football players, however, losing fat isn't the priority. Competitive football players spend countless hours in off-field training to develop the body that suits their position. For example, an offensive lineman might weigh 300 pounds, but his weight is conducive to his position. When he plays, he isn't doing so with the goal of losing fat.

    Intensity

    • As with all sports, you'll burn more calories when you keep an up-tempo pace during the game. In recreational football, for example, someone who plays quarterback and mostly stands in the pocket and makes throws won't burn as many calories as a receiver who runs routes and tries to evade opponents. If you play the sport with the goal of burning calories to develop a healthier physique, keep as active as you can on the gridiron.