Swimmers: How do you figure calorie burn?

pucenavel
pucenavel Posts: 972 Member
edited October 6 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm an pretty good swimmer (I was modestly competitive in HS - as in, I could hold my own, but wasn't any sort of medal winner).

I can swim 1000 yards in under 20 minutes - 15 if I push it. I've been logging my interval/set workouts as moderate effort for about 75% of the time I spend in the pool. For distance swims, I log them as the actual time, but at moderate effort (swimming E3 pace) to account for the fact that the calorie burn rate calculated by MFP is for an 'average' swimmer.

I'm curious to know what other proficient, or above average, swimmers are doing?

What about open water - do you make any adjustments?

Replies

  • pucenavel
    pucenavel Posts: 972 Member
    anyone?
  • LeanMeanFitnessMachine
    LeanMeanFitnessMachine Posts: 659
    I usually go by what MFP says. If its open water, I usually add 200-300 calories or so more just because swimming against current is alot harder (I do triathlons, so swimming in the ocean def tires me out more than pool swimming).

    I'm totally estimating though, so someone please correct me if I'm off so that I can make my diary more accurate!
  • rsalleyne
    rsalleyne Posts: 5
    Hi, I'm not a terribly fast swimmer but I enjoy it, been working at it since I got into triathlons a few years back. I have a polar heart rate monitor that can be worn when swimming, I use that to calculate calories. Open water is really variable, if there's a strong current or the surf's choppy (I live in California) I burn much more than I do in the pool especially if I am without a wetsuit.
  • adjones_21
    adjones_21 Posts: 234 Member
    wear a heart rate monitor and it will estimate how much you burned during your swim.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Hi, I'm not a terribly fast swimmer but I enjoy it, been working at it since I got into triathlons a few years back. I have a polar heart rate monitor that can be worn when swimming, I use that to calculate calories. Open water is really variable, if there's a strong current or the surf's choppy (I live in California) I burn much more than I do in the pool especially if I am without a wetsuit.

    What model Polar is that?

    I've seen plenty of HRM's mention water proof, or resistant, but somewhere will be a footnote that the wireless data can't be sent, or it will be so inaccurate as to be useless, if actually used while swimming.
    I confirmed that when I got to edge of pool and stuck arm out of water (chest strap still in water), signal was read.
    But if both were in the water, forget it.
    Never tried testing the watch in the water, and strap out. But unlikely to happen anyway.

    For your swims, how does the avg and max HR compare to the biking, jogging, or other activities you do?
    And how does the level of effort compare? Like you seem really worn out on the swim, but HR was 60% of a run that leaves you worn out.

    Thanks, good insight.
  • kt2007
    kt2007 Posts: 302 Member
    I use runkeeper.com or the app and also HRM.
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