How do all the fish out there calculate how many calories they burn swimming?
Are myfitnesspal’s numbers even close to accurate? Any general rules for a MOPer?
I found MFP over-estimates swimming calories.
I use 150 calories for every 1000 yards I swim
I’m guessing YMMV. 1000 meters is like an hour for some of us!
That’s a good point.
I’m an ok swimmer but not great. For reference, a swim practice lasting an hour would be aprx 3000 to 3500 yards
I think it underestimate or at least undercalls a swim.
I hate that it refers to my 10x100m sets at 1:20-1:25 “easy swimming” in the description. Yes, I’m not that fast, but I wouldn’t call it easy swimming.
I actually use 100 calories for every 500 meters (not yards). Not that you asked, but for cycling I use 100 calories per 9 minutes, and running (jogging) I use 100 calories per 8 minutes.
I assume swimming burns no calories, since I am:
a). Slower than a sedated adult-onset otter.
b). Consuming GU gels and hydration drinks faster than I can burn calories.
c). Starving after swim, so I assume the worst-case scenario to prevent over-grubbing after workout.
Search Eload and nutrition for racing. They have a good calorie calculator for, racing nutrition and for swimming. Probably the most logical I’ve seen.
Guesstimate (one informed by relatively extensive reading) - I figure that for a 1hr masters workout of 2200 yards I’m burning maybe 350 kcal (female, slow!), 1.5hr workout of 3200 or so maybe more like up to 500. Very easy to overestimate swim calories - err on side of caution.
How do all the fish out there calculate how many calories they burn swimming?
Are myfitnesspal’s numbers even close to accurate? Any general rules for a MOPer?
Here you go: http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5404691;search_string=ironman%20calories%20burned;#5404691
By how many slices of pizza I eat after practice.
The article posted in the thread you linked to give a formula of body weight in KG X Distance swam in Kilometres X 4 to get calories. My last swim work out (rest week) was 2.4km. By the articles math, that would be 2.4 X 4 X 84 (the reason I’m counting calories) = 806
That seems pretty high. My Fenix 2 says 565, which still seems a touch high to me.
I should be able to eat a lot more pizza if those are correct 
The article posted in the thread you linked to give a formula of body weight in KG X Distance swam in Kilometres X 4 to get calories. My last swim work out (rest week) was 2.4km. By the articles math, that would be 2.4 X 4 X 84 (the reason I’m counting calories) = 806
That seems pretty high. My Fenix 2 says 565, which still seems a touch high to me.
I should be able to eat a lot more pizza if those are correct
Think that formula is a bit generous. Swam 3.5 km today, 62 mins, i doubt it was more than 650 calories! No pizza lunch for me
I’ve used my garmin 910 in the pool alot, I avg 22-24 sec per 25meters, it shows me 5cal per lap when i donw load my data to the Garmin portal.
I guesstimate 200 calories per thousand freestyle. Breaststroke will burn more (fly too I think)
I’ve always been interested in caloric differences for swim vs kick vs pull
The article posted in the thread you linked to give a formula of body weight in KG X Distance swum in Kilometres X 4 to get calories. My last swim workout (rest week) was 2.4km. By the articles math, that would be 2.4 X 4 X 84 (the reason I’m counting calories) = 806
That seems pretty high. My Fenix 2 says 565, which still seems a touch high to me.
I should be able to eat a lot more pizza if those are correct
Well, i am just giving out a published reference on the subject of this thread. To some extent, the formula of km x 4 may be a little high but i don’t think it is that high. I’ve been using 275 cal/1000 yd for many years, which for me (6’1.5", 176 lb (80 kg), w/ long arms and long legs, about 10.5% fat) would imply about 3.82 x 80 = 306 cal/1000 m or about 275/1000 yd. I use 140 cal/mi for running, i.e. 1000 yd sw = about 2 mi run, or 500 yd sw = 1 mi run. For walking 100 cal/ mi, for cycling 50 cal/mi. As for baseline caloric needs w/ no exercise at all, i use 2500 cal/day. In combo, these numbers work for me:)
We’re the same height, I could probably use the same numbers you do (although you must be more muscular than me, because I was well above 10% body fat when I was at 178 lbs).
This article has an interesting spreadsheet based on published research relating energy expenditure to stroke and speed:
For example, freestyle at 1.5 m/s (1:07 min/100m or 1:01 min/100yd) takes 309 kcal per 1000m, but only 160 kcal per 1000m at 1 m/s (1:40min/100m or 1:31min/100yd), according to this work.
We’re the same height, I could probably use the same numbers you do (although you must be more muscular than me, because I was well above 10% body fat when I was at 178 lbs).
Maybe but also the long arm/leg thing makes big diff; i have a good friend who is about 6’ even but with long torso and shorter legs. In theory, we should look roughly same in terms of “skinniness” at a weight of about 5 lbs apart but in reality it is more like 15-20, e.g. when he gets over up to 170, he starts to verge on looking a dab chunky, whereas i think i’d have to go to about 188 before this would happen. I’ve never been over 184 so not sure, but, when we both weigh say 170, i look quite skinny whereas he is a dab chunky.
So many variables in losing weight, so really just weighing every day and being certain you are eating consid less than you think you’re burning is only way to do it. I will go down to 170, or even 160 when really training a lot, e.g. 20-25 hr/wk, but all my friends think i “look” a lot better at 175-180, e.g. more muscular. Acc to my % fat measurements, i seem to lose about half fat and half muscle when losing weight, so my upper body starts to look pretty small at 160-ish. I’ve gotten to where i just don’t like looking anorexic anymore:)
This article has an interesting spreadsheet based on published research relating energy expenditure to stroke and speed:
For example, freestyle at 1.5 m/s (1:07 min/100 m or 1:01 min/100 yd) takes 309 kcal per 1000 m, but only 160 kcal per 1000 m at 1 m/s (1:40/100 m or 1:31/100 yd), according to this work.
This is an interesting article but i wonder if something is a bit off; i say this b/c in measurements of energy used for diff running paces from 5:00/mi up to 12:00/mi, research using same methodology, i.e. metabolic cart measuring amount of O2 burned, has been done many times and has repeatedly shown that the energy cost per mile is the same regardless of speed. Obv, you burn cal/hr at a much higher rate if you’re going 6:00 miles vs 12:00 miles, double actually per hour of running, but the rate per unit distance is same. I can’t see why it would be diff for swimming, or for cycling either for that matter. Also, the article i linked to up in post 10 has a diff viewpoint, citing a 4 cal/kg body weight/km swum figure, regardless of speed.
Based solely on my personal experience, i think the real truth is somewhere in between, i.e. there is *some impact *of speed in any endeavor, be it S, B, or R, but it might be more in the “after-burn” effect, i.e. your body is more revved up, i.e. your HR is still elevated, after a hard effort than after an easy effort of same distance, so you burn more calories over the next 10-15 hrs than you would normally. So many variables…