Calories Burned Swimming Calculator

On average, a person burns somewhere between 430 to 575 calories per hour of swimming. How many calories you can burn while swimming depends on many factors, such as your weight, your swimming stroke, the distance you swim, and how fast you swim.

For more information on how many calories you can burn swimming, continue reading.

How many calories do you burn swimming?

Swimming is an intensive exercise that can burn a significant number of calories in a short period of time. Along with a healthy diet, swimming can provide powerful health benefits and weight loss. That is why the sport is a favorite among many for getting and staying in shape, but the number of calories burned swimming will depend on several factors.

• Your weight: As a general rule of thumb, the more you weigh, the more calories you will burn performing any exercise, including swimming. If you are not a large person, this does not mean you are not getting a good workout. It simply means you have fewer calories to expend, but the number of calories you burn will be in proportion to your size.
• Your gender: Women tend to burn fewer calories than men when swimming the same exact distance and with the same exertion. This can be explained by women’s typical higher body fat percentage which helps women stay afloat naturally without having to exert as much energy to do so as men.
• The swimming stroke used: Different swimming strokes require different effort and muscle groups, thus will burn a different number of calories. The stroke that will have you burning the most amount of calories per hour is the butterfly, which can result in a 130-pound individual burning around 649 calories and a 205-pound individual burning over 1,000 calories. Alternating swimming strokes in the same workout will also result in burning more calories.
• The distance swam: For obvious reasons, swimming a longer distance at a moderate pace will burn more calories than swimming a shorter distance at the same pace. For example, swimming one mile will burn more calories than swimming half of a mile.
• How fast you swim: Swimming faster and more vigorously will expend more energy and burn more calories than swimming leisurely. Even better, alternating between fast laps and slow laps will keep your body guessing and result in burning more calories.

How many calories are burned swimming for 30 minutes?

How many calories burned swimming for 30 minutes varies on the factors mentioned above. However, a 155-pound person can burn approximately 223 calories per 30 minutes swimming laps freestyle, 298 calories per 30 minutes swimming backstroke, 409 calories per 30 minutes swimming the crawl, around 494 calories per 30 minutes swimming butterfly.

How many calories are burned swimming for 1 mile?

It takes approximately 32 laps in a long course pool (Olympic-sized) to swim 1 mile and 64 laps in a short course pool, and how many calories you can burn swimming the total 32 laps or 1 mile depends on how fast you are swimming and the type of stroke used. However, a 180- pound person would burn around 531 calories per mile swimming freestyle laps at a moderate pace.

Of course, if you weigh more, you will burn more and vice versa.

How many calories are burned swimming for 1,000 meters?

It takes approximately 20 laps in a long course pool (Olympic-sized) to swim 1,000 meters and 40 laps in a short course pool. If you swim approximately 1 mile per hour at a moderate pace doing breaststroke, the average person will burn 15.25 calories per every 50 meters. Doing the math, that rate means you will burn approximately 305 calories per every 1,000 meters you swim.

If you swim the same 1 mile per hour at a vigorous pace or perform a more vigorous stroke, such as the butterfly, you will burn more calories.

How many calories are burned swimming vs running?

Both swimming and running are great aerobic exercises and burn a similar number of calories. For example, at a moderate pace, running can burn anywhere from 649 to 1,024 calories per hour, which is right in line with the number of calories you can burn swimming butterfly for an hour.

Though swimming and running are in line with the number of calories burned per workout, swimming will burn more calories than walking alone or other lighter forms of aerobic exercise.

The main benefit to swimming versus running is the benefit to your joints. Running is hard on your joints, and can result in more injury than swimming. This makes swimming a safe exercise no matter your age. In addition, with swimming you can easily switch up your stroke, using different muscles each time, which can result in a better total-body workout than running, which typically uses the same muscles groups during each run.

Do you burn more calories swimming in open water vs. a pool?

Swimming in a pool is much different than swimming in open water, and the number of calories burned while swimming in either can be different too. The main reason for the difference is that the colder temperatures of open water cause your body to generate its own heat by shivering, which burns extra calories.

In fact, you can burn an additional 200 calories swimming in open water versus a pool when swimming at the same speed.

Depending on where you swim, whether it’s a lake or the ocean, you may also be swimming against rough water or tide, which will force you to exert more energy during your workout than you would while swimming the smooth waters of a pool.

Is swimming a good way to lose weight?

Swimming is an excellent way to lose weight. As with any exercise program, burning calories, losing fat, and building muscle is the goal, and swimming provides all three. In addition, since swimming is an endurance sport, meaning you have to sustain a level of activity for a prolonged period of time, you will mostly burn fat rather than carbs and turn that fat into muscle.

More than just a way to lose weight, swimming has also been proven to improve sleep, strengthen your heart and lungs, and help manage stress.  

If you are just getting into swimming, try beginning with a continuous swim for half an hour and then build up to an hour of swimming non-stop. While performing your continuous swim, keep in mind to switch up the strokes and incorporate the butterfly to burn more calories per session.

To optimize your weight loss chances, incorporate healthy food choices into your daily diet and exercise regularly, whether that be just swimming or various other forms of exercise as well. You might also try introducing interval training into your workout, as it has been proven to torch more calories per workout.

Swimming is an excellent workout, not only for cardiovascular health but for increasing stamina and losing weight. It is no wonder it is in the top two most popular forms of exercise in the United States. If you are looking for a workout that you can ease into with minimal investment and can do safely at any age, swimming is a great option!