Swimming

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leahdanbury
leahdanbury Posts: 132 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I've recently started adding swimming to my exercising regiment and when i plug it in it says that for 1 hour i'm burning around 500 calories. This is just leisurely swimming. That just seems like a high calorie burn to me....how accurate is it?

Replies

  • Tzavush
    Tzavush Posts: 389 Member
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    Its pretty accurate. Remember that swimming is working against resistance.
  • sharleengc
    sharleengc Posts: 792 Member
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    Pretty close! Swimming burns a ton of calories! That is my workout of choice - most bang for your buck I think..however the local places aren't open long enough for me to go with my hours.

    I haven't looked it up recently but last time I looked, different strokes had different numbers of calories but all of them are pretty high.
  • Seajolly
    Seajolly Posts: 1,435 Member
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    Good to know! I just started swimming for the summer. I love to swim but never really realized how much it burns until MFP! Treading water burns a ton of calories!
  • ajfranzen77
    ajfranzen77 Posts: 118
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    I was a swimmer in high school, and you burn a ton of calories. Let me put it to you this way; for dinner I was able to eat twice what my father ate and he was around 250lbs or more and I stayed right around 120lb. This is part of the reason I got so heavy. All those years of swimming and eating what I wanted and then the swimming stopped and I kept eating.
    Keep with it you'll love it!
  • Cartel
    Cartel Posts: 40
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    Its a great work out. I have been swimming more often then before lately. Wish I could do it daily!
  • delilah514
    delilah514 Posts: 126 Member
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    This is part of the reason I got so heavy. All those years of swimming and eating what I wanted and then the swimming stopped and I kept eating.

    LOL that is the reason why I gained so much weight as well. Ah to be a competitive swimmer once again....I would kill for my old 137 lb, 12 % body fat, ripped body! :)

    & to answer the original question. I agree with everyone else. Yes swimming burns tons of calories. You just have to be careful though cuz I find that I get REALLY hungry when I swim a lot so I end up eating more on days that I swim.
  • Swimgoddess
    Swimgoddess Posts: 711 Member
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    I think it honestly depends on how efficient a swimmer you are. If you are just getting started, yeah 500/hr seems pretty accurate. If you've done the highly competitive thing and one of your freestyle strokes cover the same distance of three of Joe Schmoe's in the lane next to you, you're probably not going to get that level of burn unless you are towing some serious drag (military issue camo pants are AWESOME for this!) or doing timed sprints.
  • ajfranzen77
    ajfranzen77 Posts: 118
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    I really hope to get back to a competitive swimmer lifestyle. I felt great when I was swimming. However at this moment I'm not comfortable putting on a swim suit, plus I tried a few years ago and it's a lot harder when you are swimming with enough weight to equal having another person on top of you. But I will get there.
  • BohemianDestiny
    BohemianDestiny Posts: 47 Member
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    I thought the same thing when I started logging my swimming activities. But my mom used to be a bodybuilder and she told me it was pretty accurate, so I went with it.

    However, could someone define "leisure" swimming for me? Does that mean you have to actually be swimming a specific stroke, or could paddling around, splashing friends and generally being pretty active in the five foot end of the pool count?

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