Mixed advice on swimming- can anyone help?

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  • nel806
    nel806 Posts: 7
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    Wow! So many responses guys, thanks so much.

    You've all kind of confirmed what I was thinking/hoping. I guess I was confused because I was reading that swimming and cycling are way better burners, but when I enter 60minutes of swimming on here, the calorie burn is higher than running or swimming. For me at my weight, today it said I burnt 800 calories for 70 minutes, which seemed a lot. Hence the confusion.

    And to those saying I should diet for weight loss, I'm also doing that too. I assumed that was a given.

    Many thanks everyone!
  • davidcliff
    davidcliff Posts: 144 Member
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    You will burn more calories swimming 1 mile than you will running 1 mile, period.
    Former D1 College Swimmer(events 200 Fly & 1650) Active Swim Coach.
  • kamakazeekim
    kamakazeekim Posts: 1,183 Member
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    To lose weight you need to restrict your calories. Swimming is an excellent exercise though to improve fitness and cardiovascular health! You can make swimming as easy or difficult as you like. The breast stroke and side stroke are pretty easy strokes that are great for beginners. The front crawl is more taxing...especially when going for a long time. The butterfly even more so! Try to use a kick board to target specific muscle groups and add variety. I love swimming! I wish I lived near a facility with a pool but the closes place is over an hour away :(
  • glevinso
    glevinso Posts: 1,895 Member
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    davidcliff wrote: »
    You will burn more calories swimming 1 mile than you will running 1 mile, period.
    Former D1 College Swimmer(events 200 Fly & 1650) Active Swim Coach.

    That isn't quite a fair comparison, since these things take vastly different amounts of time. All-out, I can swim a "mile" in about 25 minutes (a shade under 1:30/100yd) but I can run a single mile all out in 5:35. What is the point of the "mile" then?

    Either way, you burn about the same amount of calories for time spent doing something of effort. Which works out to about 100 calories is about a mile worth of running, about 3 miles worth of biking, and about 500-700 yards (about 1/3rd of a mile) in the pool.
  • davidcliff
    davidcliff Posts: 144 Member
    edited March 2015
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    glevinso wrote: »
    davidcliff wrote: »
    You will burn more calories swimming 1 mile than you will running 1 mile, period.
    Former D1 College Swimmer(events 200 Fly & 1650) Active Swim Coach.

    That isn't quite a fair comparison, since these things take vastly different amounts of time. All-out, I can swim a "mile" in about 25 minutes (a shade under 1:30/100yd) but I can run a single mile all out in 5:35. What is the point of the "mile" then?

    Either way, you burn about the same amount of calories for time spent doing something of effort. Which works out to about 100 calories is about a mile worth of running, about 3 miles worth of biking, and about 500-700 yards (about 1/3rd of a mile) in the pool.

    A couple of people posted above stating you don't burn as many cals swimming as you do running, or cycling.

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