Swimming is a great way to keep fit and has been around for a long time. Swimming not only engages your arms and legs but also works your core.
You can use it to tone your muscles and as a cardio exercise. It pumps your heart and burns calories.
How to track calories burned
You must have a calorie deficit if you’re trying to lose weight by starting swimming. To lose weight, you must consume more calories than you burn.
This strategy can help you lose weight. You need to know how many calories you consume each day and how many calories are burned through exercise.
Is swimming more caloric than running?
Swimmers will be happy to know that swimming burns a lot more calories than other types of exercise like walking, power walking, and dancing.
Walking or running is easy as you don’t have to push through any air. Swimming requires you to go through the water with more weight and force.
This guide will cover the following:
This article will explore how many calories are burned by different swimming strokes. We then explain why an average is just that: an average value. Calculating how many calories you have burned by swimming is not easy.
We offer an easy way to track how many calories you have burned in each swimming session.
Scroll ahead to any section that interests you.
Swimming: Average calories consumed
The average calorie burned value can guide how many calories someone with an average build can burn in an hour.
The average number of calories burned during front crawl
Swimming front crawling can help you burn around 976 calories an hour.
Average calories burned during backstroke
Swimming backstroke can help you burn around 500 calories an hour.
Breaststroke: Average calories consumed
Swimming backstroke can help you burn around 400 calories an hour.
Average calories burnt in freestyle swimming
While choosing from various strokes, you can burn between 540 to 750 calories an hour.
Aqua aerobics: Average calories burned
Okay, aqua aerobics isn’t a swim stroke. But it is an excellent way of exercising in water. It was worth including in this article.
Aqua aerobics classes can help you burn between 400 and 500 calories an hour.
(Data obtained from multiple sources, including https://britishswimschool.com/ .)
Swimming can help you burn significant calories in an hour. Swimming for an hour could burn more calories than a small meal.
These averages are compared to other types of exercise.
If this is your first time looking at it in detail, you may be curious about how this compares with other forms of exercise. Let’s take a closer look.
Walking
For most people, walking for one hour at a leisurely pace can burn between 210 to 360 calories. Swimming for an hour can burn about twice as many calories as walking. You can even do a front crawl.
Cycling
A leisurely ride can burn 245 calories per hour, while a more vigorous cycle can burn over 100 calories. Cycling can be either lower or higher than cycling in terms of calories burned per hour.
Jogging
Jogging burns more calories than are walking or cycling. The average amount of calories burned for a one-hour jog is 398. This is a very high number. However, swimming burns a lot more calories than usual.
Dancing
But that’s not all. Swimming burns more calories than swimming, whereas dancing can burn between 200 and 400 calories an hour.
Swimming – relative calories burned
Swimming burns more calories than other sports, but that’s not true. For example, sprinting or running burns about the same calories as the front crawl, which consumes 488 calories an hour.
You can burn more calories by playing sports like football or cycling, depending on how vigorously you participate.
As you can see, swimming is a great way to burn calories than other leisure activities.
Factors that influence how many calories you consume when swimming
We mentioned in the introduction that the average calories burned are averages. Many factors will affect the number of calories you burn.
Each of these factors will be examined individually.
Distance and duration
This may seem obvious, but it is essential so that we will say it. You will burn more calories if you swim longer in the water. The same goes for distance swimming. You will burn more calories.
Your weight
It’s simple; think about it. Your body will require more effort to move through water if you are heavier than you are. Moving a heavier weight requires more effort and energy. The more you weigh, the more calories you will burn swimming.
Let’s take an example. Swimming 1500 meters will help a 150-pound person burn approximately 272 calories. A person who is 120 lbs will only burn 218 calories swimming the same distance.
This means you will lose more calories and weight if you swim to lose weight than you will as your weight loss goals get closer.
This can be a great start to your weight loss journey. However, it will also mean you need to move up a gear once you reach your goal weight.
Speed and Effort
Your swimming workout will burn more calories if you put in more effort. A person who swims only for fun may burn only 272 calories an hour. A full-time swimmer could consume 680 calories an hour. That’s quite a difference.
Swimming as fast and hard as possible is the best way to increase your efforts in the pool.
This will increase your heartbeat, which will result in more calories burned. Your fat-burning heart rate zone will be reached if your heart rate is raised enough. Your body will burn fat instead of glucose (read carbs) when you are in this zone.
Skill
Swimming is easier if you’re more skilled. This means that skilled swimmers will burn less calories than those who are less skilled.
They can use this skill to get through the water quicker, unless they do so. As we said earlier, speed equals more energy expended and more calories burned.
How do you know how many calories you actually burn swimming?
There are many gadgets available that can track your swimming sessions, such as dedicated waterproof fitness trackers or watches. Waterproof smartwatches are available that can track calories while swimming.
These gadgets give you a more targeted readout of calories burned because they are based on more information such as your fitness profile and speed. Your pulse is also used to measure your heart rate.
A swimming watch or fitness tracker is a great way to find out how many calories you are actually burning through swimming. You can find more information about this in our article “Best swimming watches”, which you can access at this link.
Take a bow
Swimming is an excellent way to lose weight and calories, especially when you compare it to other activities like walking or jogging. A fitness tracker is the best way to keep track of how many calories you have burned in each session.
It is important to remember that you might lose more weight in the first week of your weight loss journey than later on. This should not be a reason to discourage you.
