Swimming calories burned?

dawten

Holy cow, I did general swimming- pretty much a doggy paddle, breast stroke, and miscellaneous "keeping my head above water" moves for 2 hours. I purposely stayed in the deep end of the pool so I couldn't cheat and touch the bottom of the pool... but I didn't feel exhausted like I normally do when I exercise for 40 minutes on the treadmill, so my question is, how in the heck did I burn 900+ cals in two hours of general light swimming? I mean, I know it's good exercise to swim, but is this figure accurate? I'm 172 pounds and 5'7"...

smarty3

I think that means lap swimming, like I use the "light/moderate swimming" when I do laps freestyle, not trying to go too fast

CrystalDreams

mfp over calculates the calories burned, but yeah swimming is so good because its making your whole body work, not just your legs.

reneelee

Do you have an HRM? MFP is high for me on calories burned. The HRM i got for my birthday was a great gift to myself. I purchased a polar ft7 on line at biotronics.com for around 76 dollars the coupon code lasted for months you can give it a try POPO saves you 5%

dawten

I was doing laps, but in between them I did not rest, I stayed in the deep end and kept my head above water for maybe 20 seconds while doing the doggie paddle. after about 20 minutes of laps, I gave myself a little break by treading water for five minutes (or less) and I kept up that routine until I had been in the pool for 2 hours. The key was to keep moving and not stop to touch the ground.

dawten

Do you have an HRM? MFP is high for me on calories burned. The HRM i got for my birthday was a great gift to myself. I purchased a polar ft7 on line at biotronics.com for around 76 dollars the coupon code lasted for months you can give it a try POPO saves you 5%

No, I want one. Thanks for the advice... I want the Polar ft40.

sarah44254

My Polar FT7 is waterproof.

I plug in light swimming to MFP and cut the time spent in half. The resulting calorie burn is within 100 or what my Polar reads (which I trust).

Great job on your swim though, 2 hrs is a long time!

dawten

My Polar FT7 is waterproof.

I plug in light swimming to MFP and cut the time spent in half. The resulting calorie burn is within 100 or what my Polar reads (which I trust).

Great job on your swim though, 2 hrs is a long time!

Thank you, I had fun. My arms and shoulders were really feeling it. I'm sure I'll pay for it tomorrow. Right now I feel great.

Redskins76

Every bit counts. Just count half what it says to try and keep it honest and possible.

Cancuning

I think you are correct to give yourself a 900 calorie credit for swimming two hours. I agree with others when they say the calories MyFitnessPal says you burn from swimming it's wrong. It could actually be more. The problem I find with calorie calculators & watches is that it does not take into consideration your Vo2 max. It is Vo2 what makes swimming far better than most sports when it comes to burning calories. Using the data you posted (age, height, weight, etc) I ran some numbers for you. If you work out for 40min at a 169 heart beats per minute, you'll burn about 447 if your Vo2 is 31 mL kg-1 min-1 (average for a woman like you). However, swimming it's known for demanding high oxygen intake and with practice your Vo2 will increase much quicker than with most other activities. I ran the same scenario changing only the Vo2 to 62 mL kg-1 min-1 and you would burn 560 calories. Other activities I consider great for increasing you Vo2 are bike riding, dancing, soccer, hockey, running. However, running it's known for being hard on joints. Lance Armstrong's Vo2 is around 90 mL kg-1 min-1. Imagine trying to do what he does on a bike. Well, as an amateur swimmer you can achieve the same results and in less time with a low impact sport. Tip: You should sweat in the pool while swimming and after but don't push your self too hard. No need for that, you'll burn plenty of calories, focus on technique, rest as much as you need to and start all over again. Have fun!