Hey! I don't have any time to work out this evening because it's my housemate's birthday and a load of us are going bowling for three games, is there much calorie burning in that?? Feeling majorly guilty!

Well, bowling is certainly being active. According to caloriesperhour.com an hour of bowling burns about 245 calories.
http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php
I would imagine whether or not it's exercise is determined by the effort one puts in. Focus on form and flexibility- just think of it as doing lunges over and over Have fun!

I agree that bowling is being active (relative to sitting on one's duff), but I'd be skeptical about 245 calories per hour. A calorie estimator I saw put snow-shoveling at 290 calories per hour, and there's no way that bowling burns nearly as many calories as snow-shoveling!

Of course, it could be that the shoveling estimate is too low, and I've seen higher estimates. This brings up another point, though, namely that the on-line caloric estimators of activity should be taken with a big old grain of salt. This makes sense: not many agencies or organizations are going to fund a systematic study of bowlers' caloric expenditure, given it has little bearing on either public health or corporate profits.

//b. strong
Kim

Or it may be that bowling would burn 245 calories if you bowled for an hour straight without sitting down...

It's activity and it's fun! That's all you need to worry about. Well, and don't over do it with beer and pizza.