how do i caculate calories burned if my body has become more

Options
tammyclair
tammyclair Posts: 38
in Fitness and Exercise
How do I calculate the calories burned for my regular swim – if I have been doing it a long time and my body has become more efficient so is burning less calories than the myfitnesspal shows? I swim 5 days a week / an hour each day. Three of those days I swim a practice for beginner triathlon (swimming only). It is a tough program and so I know I am burning a lot of calories. Myfitnesspal says 700+ calories for the beginner triathlon workout. However on the other two days of the week my swim is less aggressive. I still swim an hour. I swim a steady pace of freestyle. About 77 lengths – well over a mile. The myfitnesspal exercise thingie says I am burning over 600 calories but I am sure since I have been doing this for 9 months now – my body has become more efficient and I don’t want to eat back all those calories. Does anyone know a ratio maybe of how many of the calories I would really be burning. Thank you in advance for your comments.

Replies

  • pitbullmama
    pitbullmama Posts: 454 Member
    Options
    Water resistant HRM?
  • yesthistime
    yesthistime Posts: 2,051 Member
    Options
    Water resistant HRM?

    This. Or just override the estimate and type in 50% of the calorie burn that MFP gives you. This site tends to overestimate cardio calories in a major way for me and many others.
  • tammyclair
    tammyclair Posts: 38
    Options
    The 50% thing I can do. thank you. where would I get a water resistant HRM?
  • sandy2006
    sandy2006 Posts: 483 Member
    Options
    I got mine at Target for less than 100.00 Polar ft4 I wear it in the water all the time. Works great!
  • tammyclair
    tammyclair Posts: 38
    Options
    very cool. thank you
  • Quasita
    Quasita Posts: 1,530 Member
    Options
    You could also take a day of your lighter swim and periodically check your heart rate manually. It won't be 100% accurate but it's a lot cheaper than getting a HRM for this. I would do that every few weeks and monitor your progress. The only thing about the HRM thing, that people often don't seem to consider, is that your resting heart rate drops as you routinely exercise so they have to be recalibrated. You have to do your heart rate in the morning before you get out of bed and compare it to the exercise rate to see what your true exertion is. I guess if you're going to swim that much getting a waterproof HRM might work out but the ones I've seen were over $100.

Categories