I think front crawl would burn more than breaststroke, but I'm not sure. I can only swim breaststroke; I haven't got my breathing coordinated for front crawl and then my legs go into cramp from kicks so all in all much safer and easier for me to stick to breaststroke.

I wish I could get a more accurate "burn" than MFP's values. I've looked online and there is so much discrepancy between various sites and forums and I'm hopeless at taking my own pulse.

As for shaping your body - I think it would take an AWFUL LOT of swimming to really do that. You really need to do some core strength training as well as swim to build definition. I'm such a lazy git when it comes to working out in the gym and will always default to the pool instead. But I'm more worried about keeping fit, burning a few calories and enjoying myself rather than getting the body of my dreams.

Maybe once I reach my ultimate goal, I might think things differently :happy:

Assuming that you're putting in the same amount of energy into both strokes, you're actually burning more calories doing breast stroke. The reason why is because it's less natural for your body to do those movements than it is to do freestyle. Though it may not feel like that because there is a more consistent and easier breathing pattern with breast stroke than there is with freestyle. Hope this helps!

Front crawl burns more but breaststroke works different muscles, therefore helps to increase your burn rate when many different muscle groups are being worked