Typical Calories Burned During a Singles Match?

S&V-not_dead_yet · Jan 12, 2021

I've been doing HIIT workouts and one of the guys in the video said he burned 600 cals during the 30 minute workout. So I figured my tennis matches would be somewhat comparable. I was wrong.

I played a 2 set match that I barely won 7-5 7-6 [5] that took 3 hours and, according to my friend's monitor, burned 1800 cals! I was floored. [Remember that Gigi Fernandez timed a bunch of matches and found that only 17% was actual playing time vs picking up balls, changing sides, etc. 17% of 180 minutes is just about 30 minutes so the time was the same as the HIIT routine but the intensity of the sprints must have made the tennis that much more intense.

He said he normally burns around 12-1300 but our match was brutal with a lot of sprinting sprinkled throughout.

What do y'all typically see?

Nostradamus · Jan 13, 2021

6000 calories or so. if you have diego kind of game then triple taht easy

TagUrIt · Jan 13, 2021

I typically burn 1500-2200 calories when I play.

Harry_Wild · Jan 13, 2021

It burns a lot calories but very little fat in your body, however. It like running on a treadmill type of calories.

J011yroger · Jan 13, 2021

Harry_Wild said:
It like running on a treadmill type of calories.

As opposed to?

J

esgee48 · Jan 13, 2021

Max I think I burned was about 1000 calories. On average, MAYBE 400-600 calories. You do not burn fat when playing. Your body will convert stored fat back into calories as sugar to be stored in muscle. But this occurs after you finished playing.

Dartagnan64 · Jan 13, 2021

I think I burn enough to equal out the beer after a match.

Slowtwitcher · Jan 13, 2021

Tennis is not a big calorie burner. And like someone pointed out, you don't burn fat doing it.

Also worth mentioning that even the best GPS+accelerometer watches are not very accurate at measuring calories burned.

Harry_Wild · Jan 13, 2021

J011yroger said:
As opposed to?

J

Walking, slow jogging, weight lifting...anything with mild exertion that you can do for a hour.

gvsbdisco · Jan 13, 2021

I wore an HRM a couple times last year. Match play. ~4.0 level. Playing guy who gets everything back. Long rallies. Pretty hot outside. Avg heart rate over 90 minutes was ~140. This was using Polar wrist based HRM. Thats alot of calories. Way more than 5-600.

J011yroger · Jan 13, 2021

Harry_Wild said:
Walking, slow jogging, weight lifting...anything with mild exertion that you can do for a hour.

OIC.

J

SystemicAnomaly · Jan 13, 2021

Slowtwitcher said:
Tennis is not a big calorie burner. And like someone pointed out, you don't burn fat doing it.

esgee48 said:
Max I think I burned was about 1000 calories. On average, MAYBE 400-600 calories. You do not burn fat when playing. Your body will convert stored fat back into calories as sugar to be stored in muscle. But this occurs after you finished playing.

Not sure why several of you guys get the impression that we do not burn fat while playing tennis. At lower intensities, much of the caloric expenditure is the burning of fat. We burn fat even when we’re in couch-potato mode. At lower intensity levels, we will typically burn far fewer calories but a high % of those calories are the burning of fat.

"The body relies on both fat and carbs for energy all the time, albeit in different ratios. In fact, as you sit here reading, you may be burning about 50-60 percent fat and 50-40 percent carbohydrates."

Busting the Great Myths of Fat Burning - dummies

Your body burns either fat or carbs depending on the intensity of your activity. But when it comes to losing weight, calories are calories. You burn fat even when you’re in couch-potato mode. Yet, a lot of misunderstanding prevails. Get ready to break down some of the myths people have about...

www.dummies.com

srimes · Jan 13, 2021

Back when I played a lot I struggled to maintain weight over 150-155. Partly from direct calorie burn, and also because it's hard to eat a lot when exhausted.
1800 is hard to believe for me (I'm 175lb now), but the bigger you are the more you'll burn, and intensity of play definitely matters too.

Slowtwitcher · Jan 13, 2021

SystemicAnomaly said:
Not sure why several of you guys get the impression that we do not burn fat while playing tennis. At lower intensities, much of the caloric expenditure is the burning of fat. We burn fat even when we’re in couch-potato mode. At lower intensity levels, we will typically burn far fewer calories but a high % of those calories are the burning of fat.

"The body relies on both fat and carbs for energy all the time, albeit in different ratios. In fact, as you sit here reading, you may be burning about 50-60 percent fat and 50-40 percent carbohydrates."

Busting the Great Myths of Fat Burning - dummies

Your body burns either fat or carbs depending on the intensity of your activity. But when it comes to losing weight, calories are calories. You burn fat even when you’re in couch-potato mode. Yet, a lot of misunderstanding prevails. Get ready to break down some of the myths people have about...

www.dummies.com

Only one of us needs to read more about this and trust me... it ain't me

SystemicAnomaly · Jan 13, 2021

Slowtwitcher said:
Only one of us needs to read more about this and trust me... it ain't me

Not the first I've read of this. Recall first learning this 25+ yrs ago. How about explaining your position instead of deflecting & asking me to read more? Have read plenty already at this point.

megamind · Jan 13, 2021

Typically average 850 calories an hour (with good intensity)

Typical Calories Burned During a Singles Match?

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