Many calories can you burn swimming

Your total calorie burn will naturally increase the faster you run. If calorie burn is your main goal, swimming is a great option. Share your goals with with us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram! For more swimming tips, Workouts and resources, download the MySwimPro app! Very informative write up! I browse your blog fairly often and you always post great stuff. I shared this on Facebook and my followers really enjoyed it. Keep up the good work! How many calories you burn while swimming depends on your stroke, effort, speed, distance, duration, gender, weight and skill.

Because most people swim a mix of strokes at various intensities, computing your exact calorie count is difficult. For example, a pound athlete burns about calories by swimming yards in 30 minutes; swimming butterfly for 30 minutes burns 38 percent more calories, breaststroke burns 25 percent more and backstroke 12 percent less.

Compare that with a pound athlete who burns only calories swimming the same yard workout 60 lengths in a 25 yard pool. Generally, the faster an athlete swims, the more calories he burns in an hour. For example, if the pound swimmer above swims one more length per minute, he burns more calories in the same 30 minute period, but it works out to nearly half a calorie LESS per length.

When you're lazing around on the couch aka at rest , your body burns 1 MET, which is equivalent to 1 calorie per kilogram of bodyweight per hour. If you know how many METs an activity "costs," and you know how much you weigh, you can calculate the number of calories you've burned doing that activity. Good news: There's no math required. You can use an online calculator , which takes into account your weight and the duration of the exercise, to easily determine your calorie burn.

While swimming, your body burns anywhere from 3. These estimates are for a pound adult. For comparison's sake, jogging would compare at 7 METs calories per hour and bicycling at 7.

FYI, other watersports like kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding burn calories too! But don't get caught up in those numbers.

How many calories you burn swimming depends on many factors, says Bianca Beldini, D. Your body: "Someone who weighs more will expend more calories than someone who weighs less because it takes more energy to move a larger body than a smaller one," she says. Which, yes, is taken into account in the METs formula. More drag means it takes more energy to push through the resistance, therefore increasing the heart rate and resulting in higher caloric expenditure.

Your swim speed: How fast you can swim also affects your calorie burn. Hence, the faster you swim, the more energy you use.