Swimming is considered a healthy form of exercise, and a lot of people like to burn swimming calories in order to lose weight.
Here you will find good estimates of how many calories burned swimming, that you can use in order to accelerate your weight loss efforts.
Swimming is something we learn when we are kids, not because of the swimming calories burned or for the health benefits, but in order to save our lives if we sometime fall into the ocean or a lake.
During these circumstances, knowing how to swim can save our lives.
There are six different swim strokes: freestyle, butterfly stroke, breast stroke, backstroke, sidestroke and dog paddle.
The amount of calories will be slightly different depending on which one you do, since calorie expenditure differs in part by the amount of turbulence created.
The calories burned depend on a few things like most other activities.
They depend on fitness level, body weight, skill level, speed, intensity, duration and mileage.
Swimming to the point of your muscles going in to anaerobic mode, where they start producing lactate, will keep the metabolism elevated for a long time after the workout, up to an entire day.
When you swim, you engage pretty much your entire body. The arms and legs are obviously used a lot, but the muscles in your core and back are also engaged.
When the muscles in your body are all working at the same time, you burn a lot of calories.
How many calories burned swimming?
How many calories burned swimming?
It is possible to get a good estimate of how many swimming calories you actually burn, the only way to know for sure would be to do your swimming in a heat controlled environment.
The estimates can be pretty accurate though, just remember that the number is not exact.
An average male, weighing about 190 pounds, will burn about 350 calories in 30 minutes while swimming at a normal intensity.
The average female, who weighs about a 160 pounds, would burn about 290 calories in the same time period.
A heavy person that swims vigorously could burn up to about a 1000 calories in an hour.
One good way to estimate the amount of swimming calories burned in an hour is to use this formula, depending on your body weight (in pounds) and activity level:
- Light swim: 1.5 x body weight
- Moderate swim: 3 x body weight
- Vigorous swim: 5 x body weight
A person weighing 150 pounds, swimming vigorously, would therefore burn 5*150 = 750 calories in an hour.
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Here is another calorie calculator for reference, and here is a chart comparing calories burned for many different activities, including swimming.
Conclusion
Swimming is a very healthy form of exercise, and the swimming calories burned are extensive as you can see. Therefore it is a very effective workout for weight loss.
Please keep in mind though that exercise by itself is pretty much useless without following a healthy diet, since a slightly increased appetite from exercise can very quickly negate any calorie deficit made during a workout.
It is very important to do your swimming in a safe setting, preferably where there are lifeguards around. This is especially important for beginners since there is a danger of becoming fatigued or cramping up.
P.S. While exercise is a good way to burn calories, it is only one part of the picture because how much you eat matters too. Check out this article on how many calories should I eat a day for more information on that.
Related Posts:
– Walking Calories, how many calories burned walking
– Running Calories, how many calories burned running
