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Calories for swimming in MFP

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Janice6543
Janice6543 Posts: 92 Member
in Social Groups
Need some opinions! I swim in the medium lane of a decent masters club- I cover about 3.5 k in an 85 min workout. Today we swam a bunch of 100-300 m IM sets at a pace of 2 min per 100 including rest, some kicking and longer pull sets at the end. MFP gives me 700-1000 calories for this swim depending on if I classify it as easy/moderate or vigorous. Do you guys believe these calories? Am I swimming fast enough to call this workout vigorous? It seems like too many calories for my energy expended...

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  • ryenday
    ryenday Posts: 1,540 Member
    edited September 2017
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    I usually check online calorie burned swimming calculators like https://caloriesburnedhq.com/calories-burned-swimming/ for calorie purposes as I have NO clue what the difference between moderate and vigorous swimming is. It sure feels vigorous to me, but it is very slow compared to others.

    I have an Apple Watch, and it estimates my calories as well, and comes close to the online calculators. If I plan to eat my calories back, I never eat more than 2/3 of the calories these estimates give me just in case...
  • Janice6543
    Janice6543 Posts: 92 Member
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    Your online counter is close to MFP. I guess that explains why I'm only 15 lbs overweight despite lots of overeating!
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
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    I've done a comparison of the various calculators.
    My conclusion is that MFP us the most conservative, so I use it.
    I just enter 1 minute per lap in leisurely/ moderate.
    Better to underestimate.
    I use the Garmin Fenix 5X to Track swimming. It calculates higher calories burned than I enter in MFP.

    FYI, leisurely/ moderate assumes 50 yards per minute.
    The next level assumes 75 yards per minute.
    I figured this out from other sources that use the same algorithm.
    That is why I enter 1 minute per lap even if I swim 4 miles is less than 141 minutes.
  • ryenday
    ryenday Posts: 1,540 Member
    edited September 2017
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    As a short, older woman I am not swimming 50 yards a minute, not even my freestyle stroke only time! I guess that is why MFP wants to credit me with WAY more calories than Apple Watch or those calculators which look at my actual speed do.

    Thanks for that information! It is good to know!
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
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    ryenday wrote: »
    As a short, older woman I am not swimming 50 yards a minute, not even my freestyle stroke only time! I guess that is why MFP wants to credit me with WAY more calories than Apple Watch or those calculators which look at my actual speed do.

    Thanks for that information! It is good to know!

    My Garmin says I burn more than MFP says. So I use MFP.
    In another thread in the group i posted a table showing the numbers calculated by 3 different swim calculators.

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