Swimming calories burned

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Tamara6984
Tamara6984 Posts: 30
in Fitness and Exercise
I did 50 minutes of swimming breast stroke last night and MFP says I burned 680 cals....this seems a lot, but please can I have some opinions on your experiences with the MFP exercise database and if you think it's about right? Thank you :)

Replies

  • fullofquirks
    fullofquirks Posts: 182 Member
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    I've started swimming everyday and yes I've seen plenty of users on here talk about how generous MFP is w/ their calorie counting so I don't log my whole swim time in an effort to combat the possible overestimation on here.

    So if I swim for 60 min I will only log 40/45min. I dunno if it's the best way but it's the way I'm doing it.

    Swim on!
  • carole456
    carole456 Posts: 121 Member
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    I also log in a reduced time when swimming, underestimating calories burned is better than over estimating!!
  • Tamara6984
    Tamara6984 Posts: 30
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    Thank you, it's good to know as I did think it was a bit high!!

    I'll do as you've said. Good luck with healthy living and well done on your loss so far!
  • charissh
    charissh Posts: 91 Member
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    Yeah I swim a lot and it does seem generous, I log the time but would never eat more than half the calories back.
  • Sjenny5891
    Sjenny5891 Posts: 717 Member
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    I log the whole time, but i go with whichever swimming gives the least ammount of calories unless I'm doing laps the entire time. .....

    This is another reason I want a HRM.
  • Tamara6984
    Tamara6984 Posts: 30
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    Good advice from you all....thanks so much! :flowerforyou:
  • ECTexan
    ECTexan Posts: 195 Member
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    I swim at least 3x a week so that was a question I had early on as well. MFP was saying I burned 1,100! I checked a couple of other site calculators who all said around 700 so I reduced it to around 650. I'd rather underestimate.
  • laserturkey
    laserturkey Posts: 1,680 Member
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    I don't swim much, but I know MFP overestimates calories for taekwondo, so I record 50-60% of the burn they give me. Wouldn't surprise me if they were estimating high for other things. I think they use a calories-per-minute based on the full activity, but most people who do something for an hour aren't really actively engaged in the activity for the full hour. In my TKD class there are plenty of pauses to change activity, stretching times, etc., so those wouldn't be burning the same amount as sparring an opponent. That's my guess as to where the overestimates come from.
  • StaticEntropy
    StaticEntropy Posts: 224 Member
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    You could just rework your calorie counting method with TDEE instead of the MFP method of eating back calories. Less stressing, I think.
  • FrostyBev
    FrostyBev Posts: 119 Member
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    If concerned about if the calories are correct you can use an alternate source to verfy. Another alternative is to wear a Heart rate monitor which will give you a closer number. I swim a ton and use a HRM and it's usually pretty close to MFP on the swimming. Or, only eat back half your swim calories if you are afraid of eating to many exercise calories.

    For me, tracking an accurate time spent exercising is more important then exactly how many calories I burned.
  • Tamara6984
    Tamara6984 Posts: 30
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    Thanks again guys. I won't eat all my cals burned back and I might adjust my allowance with TDEE as suggested by Static...

    I do swim for the whole time without a break usually, but some laps are significantly slower than others! lol

    Cheers everyone!

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