Swimming calories!!

imabeevampire
imabeevampire Posts: 166 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Swimming tomorrow, not willing to risk my fitbit in the water, so what's the best way to calculate calories burnt?

Replies

  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    I have noticed that my swim workouts are not huge calorie expenditures according to my Garmin device, even though I'm usually fairly fatigued when I'm done.

    For kicks, I compared my Garmin data from 3 recent swims to an online estimator calculator and found the results very similar. (swimmingcalculator.com) Just enter the time, your swim pace, the stroke, and your weight, and hit enter. The tool will give you an estimate.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Swimming is in the database. I usually pick the moderate vs vigorous.
  • lisaepell
    lisaepell Posts: 103 Member
    There's a calculator - http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited January 2020
    imabeevampire wrote: »
    Swimming tomorrow, not willing to risk my fitbit in the water, so what's the best way to calculate calories burnt?

    I took the average of several calculators. I found that if I used the MFP entry for Swimming/Leisurely/General I would get a similar calorie count to the average.

    FYI, in my experience, my tracker did not record much for the swimming and about 75% of the steps I took in a water aerobics class.
  • imabeevampire
    imabeevampire Posts: 166 Member
    Thanks guys! Will use the calculator, and compare to MFP
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    earlnabby wrote: »
    imabeevampire wrote: »
    Swimming tomorrow, not willing to risk my fitbit in the water, so what's the best way to calculate calories burnt?

    I took the average of several calculators. I found that if I used the MFP entry for Swimming/Leisurely/General I would get a similar calorie count to the average.

    FYI, in my experience, my tracker did not record much for the swimming and about 75% of the steps I took in a water aerobics class.

    I've noticed that my Garmin doesn't always pick up yardage from swim drills when I'm using a kickboard. Im guessing the reason is that the watch is not seeing any arm movement when I hold the board, as opposed to when I swim freestyle and my arms are moving. Result is that I don't always see the 100-200 yards of kickboard drills in my overall swim yardage.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    Djproulx wrote: »
    earlnabby wrote: »
    imabeevampire wrote: »
    Swimming tomorrow, not willing to risk my fitbit in the water, so what's the best way to calculate calories burnt?

    I took the average of several calculators. I found that if I used the MFP entry for Swimming/Leisurely/General I would get a similar calorie count to the average.

    FYI, in my experience, my tracker did not record much for the swimming and about 75% of the steps I took in a water aerobics class.

    I've noticed that my Garmin doesn't always pick up yardage from swim drills when I'm using a kickboard. Im guessing the reason is that the watch is not seeing any arm movement when I hold the board, as opposed to when I swim freestyle and my arms are moving. Result is that I don't always see the 100-200 yards of kickboard drills in my overall swim yardage.

    It also may be a matter of pushing off the wall harder. My Garmin will miss turns occasionally if I don't push off hard enough giving me weird distances ending in 25.
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    Djproulx wrote: »
    earlnabby wrote: »
    imabeevampire wrote: »
    Swimming tomorrow, not willing to risk my fitbit in the water, so what's the best way to calculate calories burnt?

    I took the average of several calculators. I found that if I used the MFP entry for Swimming/Leisurely/General I would get a similar calorie count to the average.

    FYI, in my experience, my tracker did not record much for the swimming and about 75% of the steps I took in a water aerobics class.

    I've noticed that my Garmin doesn't always pick up yardage from swim drills when I'm using a kickboard. Im guessing the reason is that the watch is not seeing any arm movement when I hold the board, as opposed to when I swim freestyle and my arms are moving. Result is that I don't always see the 100-200 yards of kickboard drills in my overall swim yardage.

    It also may be a matter of pushing off the wall harder. My Garmin will miss turns occasionally if I don't push off hard enough giving me weird distances ending in 25.

    Good point. I get it occasionally too, but never really understood why.
  • tracybear86
    tracybear86 Posts: 163 Member
    lisaepell wrote: »
    There's a calculator - http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php.

    I use this one also and find it to be pretty accurate for myself. I like that it takes pace into account as I think things like "leisurely" vs "vigorous" are very subjective. What is vigorous for me is probably leisurely for Michael Phelps! ;)
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,522 Member
    I used to use MFP's "swimming-vigorous" entry with the total swimming time (including short rests). Now I use the Garmin watch swimming app. Garmin gives fewer significantly calories for the same workout and it subtracts the rests from the total workout time. I hate that. :(

    In fact, the "endless pools" estimator gave a number closer to MFP, so I sometimes mentally add a few more for swim days.

    Plus, this:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10779038/inconsistent-calorie-adjustments-from-garmin#latest

Categories