How do you determine calories burned while swimming?

kcdrake

I'm just wondering, how do you determine the amount of calories you have burned while swimming?
I have a hard time trusting the listings on MFP because who determines what a "hard" or "moderate" effort is? There are some people that seem to have a really good idea of how much they burned, and I would like to know where you get your numbers. I think I am going to start swimming laps in a few weeks and would like to know the best way to record my numbers.

jetSpeed28

here goes some great answers --

http://www.blurtit.com/q604277.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100316124245AApBHT0

bstamps12

It's really difficult to gage the calories burned in swimming because each stroke burns a different amount of calories. I swam competitively for 14 years and never could pinpoint how many calories I burned because I was constantly switching strokes during practice and most estimates are based on freestlye swimming but my main stroke was butterfly.

Whatever calculator you use, just determine "hard" or "moderate" effort based on your HR. Add a few calories burned if you do a stroke other than freestyle, and as swimming gets easier, add a few more calories burned because your HR will not be as high, but your muscles are still doing all that work!

Tiddle

HRM

Kristenmickel

Swimming is an excellent form of physical activity to burn calories. It is depend on the velocity of movements, strokes used, duration and skill of the swimmer.