This isn’t exactly breaking news, this story came out last year. I was watching a gig earlier on this week and the drummer was really going for it and working up a right sweat! That reminded me of a study done by the university I did my undergrad degree with about the amount of calories burned off by drummers. Wait for it…. In an energetic 60 minute drumming session, you could burn off between 400-600 calories!

Drummers can burn off an extraordinary amount of calories in one gig

I did music at school up to AS Level (year 12). I played in a steel band, I could play piano, guitar, trombone and I could get a tune out of most instruments I picked up. You could say I was a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’! The one thing I could not do for the life of me was play drums. I could do a ‘boom boom CHHH!’ very slowly and with little consistency. Would I like to play the drums now? Of course I would! It was never practical as we didn’t have enough room at home for a set of drums and my parents were already shelling out for piano lessons. I taught myself to play guitar and the steel drums and trombone lessons were thanks to the school.

According to this study, drummers are top athletes. When football (soccer) players are tired for days after a 90 minute match, drummers are expected to perform every night for weeks on end. Twice if they are putting on a matinee performance. Their heart rates can reach a peak of 190 beats per minute and the average is about 140-150 beats per minute. This is really impressive!

So why are some drummers really fat? When you are on tour, it is hard to eat properly, there is a big drinking culture too. So when you’re drinking say, ten pints of beer at 200 calories each most nights… you can see how the weight can pile on.

If you are looking to lose weight, consider learning to drum, it’s a bit slow to begin with but once you get going you can not only lose weight but you could join a band and start performing. The confidence boost of performing on stage is amazing, take it from a seasoned teenage performer!