TL;DR: Disc Golf is a fun way to lose weight and burn calories. Disc Golf also has mental health benefits as well!
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Can Disc Golf Help You Lose Weight?
Burning calories playing sports is the easiest and most fun way to stay healthy and lose weight. Playing disc golf is no exception and offers a healthy option to those who love nature and walking outdoors. A round of disc golf often involves miles of walking, full body movement on throws and mental stimulation. It’s a great way to lose weight outdoors.
For this article, we’ll focus on some of the great ways you can lose weight playing disc golf on any course. We’ll go over some of our favorite reasons why disc golf makes it so easy to burn calories and stay in shape for everyone.
Burning Calories Playing Disc Golf
Like we said before, playing disc golf is a great way to burn calories outdoors. From personal experience, there’s something nice knowing that the 2 to 4 miles you’ll be walking will seem like a breeze because you’ll be too focused on playing disc golf to notice. In fact, even when the walk back up the hill after a long, hot round may seem arduous, the afterglow of playing the round shines through.
In fact, through analysis of our own workouts while playing disc golf, we found that playing a short round taking just over an hour to complete, burned about 505 total calories. Some of the more difficult courses, with rocky terrain, high elevation and longer holes, put us upwards of 950+ calories. In particular, our lengthiest disc golf workout was 4 miles with a moving time of almost two hours and an elevation of 331 feet that burned 968 calories total.
Losing Weight Playing Disc Golf is Fun
Most people who try disc golf once are hooked for life. The sport is low impact and provides an excellent setting to be around friends in a beautiful, natural setting. In fact, burning calories playing sports is the easiest way to lose weight because it takes your mind off the activity of exercise.
Where disc golf involves challenges needing your full mental focus and scoring to add a competitive aspect, going to the gym for many can be an arduous task. The idea of hopping on the elliptical or treadmill for hours before going to machines for strength building is a dull task with little reward. Many who start at the gym with the idea of losing weight find themselves on the edge of failure, ready to quit.
So when we’re asked “Can disc golf help me lose weight?” our answer is yes and get off the treadmill and grab a disc and start throwing.
Ways to Lose Weight Playing Disc Golf
Casual Rounds: Like we described above, the easiest and most relaxing way to lose weight playing disc golf is to play a casual round. Reach out to friends, meet at hole one and start playing. For casual disc golf rounds there is no emphasis on competition or pace of play. Simply play the course and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to burn calories while having fun.
Competitive Rounds: Playing competitive rounds amps up the intensity of any disc golf round and thusly can add onto the calories burned during a round but improves your mental health. Playing a competitive round of disc golf can involve playing two rounds of disc golf (during tournaments) and demands extra steps as you’ll be taking extra time usually to warm up.
Speed Rounds: Speed rounds of disc golf is the hardest but best way to lose weight playing disc golf. It burns the most calories and gets your heart rate the highest out of any disc golf round. A speed round involves playing by yourself in most cases and is played just like any other round except instead of walking to your shot, you’ll instead run and throw without stopping. The added benefit of the speed disc golf round is that you’ve now added running and thusly have the potential to lose more weight.
Other Health Benefits of Disc Golf
Stress and Anxiety: No matter how difficult the round gets or how poorly you’re shooting, disc golf is a great way to deal with stress and anxiety. In fact, getting out into nature is a perfect way to effectively put away your worries and disc golf adds a level of focus that helps you relieve your stress and anxiety.
Mood: If disc golf lowers stress and anxiety then it also improves your mood. Even simply watching a disc fly out of your hands can bring you joy, thus brightening your day.
Better Sleep: Becoming fitter and happier is part of the puzzle to sleeping better. While disc golf is a great way to lose weight, it also can help your sleep. Burning through calories and increasing your daily step count, while improving mood and relieving stress add up to a great night’s sleep.
Better Social Life: Playing disc golf is a great way to meet new people and make life long friends. Whether you’re playing casually or joining leagues and tournaments, disc golf is filled with kind, thoughtful people all playing for the same reasons you are.
Disc Golf Makes You Healthier
There’s nothing more important than your health. It is the one thing with you every day and you should enjoy taking care of your health instead of worrying about it. Disc golf is the best way to burn calories and lose weight, while also boosting your mental health as well. Go out and play today!
F.A.Q.
Disc golf is a full body exercise that not only benefits your heart and body but stimulates your mind too!
Disc golf is a cardiovascular exercise with full body movement as well.
Playing a round of disc golf with workout your legs, arms, shoulders and core.