How Many Calories are Burned by Swimming?
For swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort, which is a typical intensity activity under the general description of swimming activities, the average calories burned by a person weighing 190 pounds (86 Kg) in 30 minutes is 250 Calories. In one hour swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort will burn 500 Calories.
Summary of Swimming Information and Charts
To help you find the information you need, we first focus on swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort which is the most common swimming activity. This is followed by the activities with the highest burn rate which is swimming, butterfly, general, and the lowest which is swimming, treading water, moderate effort, general, giving the average calories burned per minute and per hour, along with food calorie equivalents and our new proprietary calories burned score© and calories burned rank©The calorie score gives an indication of the relative burn rate of the swimming activities measured as a percentage score out of 100 for the different swimming activities, where 100% is the maximum calorie burn which we estimate from running at a pace of 4 minutes per mile which is a world class speed for running for 30 mins.
The calorie rank is the rank of the swimming activity compared with all other 800 activities in our database to give an indication of the percentage of activities which have a higher or lower calorie burn. A rank of 1 means it is the highest ranking activity in terms or calorie burn and a rank of 100 means it is the activity with the lowest carlorie burn compared with all other activities.
Effect of Intensity on the Calorie Calculator
Although the above is a typical example for swimming, the calculator we use to determine the calories burnt depends on the intensity, duration and your body weight. At the bottom of the article we have a variety of different intensities which can be personalized based on your weight and the duration of the activities, using our free calculator.
Calorie Score and Calorie Rank for Swimming
At dietandfitnesstoday we have a new proprietary concept of a Calories Burned Score© and Calories Burned Rank©.
Calories Burned in 30 Minutes for a Typical swimming Activity
As we have previously mentioned Swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort is a moderate and typical level of intensity for swimming and can be used as a general representative approximate measure for calories burnt by swimming. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) burns 250 Calories, while an average woman weighing 163 pounds (74 kg), in 30 minutes burns 214 Calories.
Calories Per Minute
The calories burned per minute for Swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort is 8 Calories per minute, for a typical man and for a typical female is 7 Calories per minute.
Calories Per Hour
The calories lost in one hour is 500 calories for a typical man, and 429 calories in one hour for a typical woman.
How to Burn 100 Calories
To burn 100 calories for a typical male would require 13 minutes of the activity swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort and to burn 100 calories with the same swimming activity for a typical female would take 14 minutes.
Score and Rank
Swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort has a Calorie Burned Score© of 22.80 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 22.80 % of the highest realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calorie Burned Rank© of 66.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 66.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 267.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort
Equivalent Activities
The following activities burn the same number of calories as Swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort -
- bicycling, leisure, 9.4 mph
- bicycling, on dirt or farm road, moderate pace
- canoeing, rowing, 4.0-5.9 mph, moderate effort
- children’s games, adults playing (e.g., hopscotch, 4-square, dodgeball, playground apparatus, t-ball, tetherball, marbles, arcade games), moderate effort
- gardening with heavy power tools, tilling a garden, chain saw
Comparison with Inactivity
30 mins of inactivity for example just sitting and watching television burns 43 calories for a typical man and 37 calories for a typical woman. Which means Swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort burns 6.3 times more calories than the equivalent time of inactivity for an average man and 5.8 times more calories for an average female.
Food Calorie Equivalents
This level of 250 calories burnt by an average man swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort is equivalent to 0.4 Big Macs, 0.9 snickers bar, 2.1 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 0.8 cheeseburgers, 0.9 slices of pizza or 0.6 large blueberry muffins.
For an average female burning 214 calories is equivalent to 0.4 Big Macs, 0.8 snickers bar, 1.8 Starbucks Grande Skinny Lattes, 0.7 cheeseburgers, 0.8 slices of pizza or 0.6 large blueberry muffins.
Weight Loss from Swimming
To answer the question how many pounds will I lose from the activity swimming? Taking this example of swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort in 30 minutes, the weight loss for a typical man is a minimum of 0.04 pounds, and a typical woman would lose 0.03 pounds.
Based on 4 sessions per week of swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort for a duration of 30 minutes per session, the approximate time taken to lose one pound is 6 weeks for a man and 8 weeks for a woman, assuming no other changes in lifestyle or eating habits.
The same 4 sessions per week of swimming laps, freestyle, front crawl, slow, light or moderate effort for a duration of 30 minutes per session, would lose 1kg in 3 weeks for a man and 4 weeks for a woman.
Swimming Activity with the Highest Calorie Burn
The highest number of calories burned for an average person is achieved by swimming, butterfly, general. For this activity in 30 minutes an average man burns 595 Calories, while an average woman in 30 minutes burns 510 Calories.
This activity of swimming, butterfly, general has a Calories Burned Score© of 58.70 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 58.70 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 17.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 17.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 17.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than swimming, butterfly, general
Swimming Activity with the Lowest Calorie Burn
The swimming activity with the lowest calories burnt is swimming, treading water, moderate effort, general, which for an average man in 30 minutes burns 151 Calories, and for an average woman burns 129 Calories.
This activity of swimming, treading water, moderate effort, general has a Calories Burned Score© of 12.40 out of 100 which means it gives a calorie burn of 12.40 % of the maximum realistic calorie burn possible. This activity has a Calories Burned Rank© of 80.00 out of 100 ie it is in the top 80.00 % of activities in terms of calorie burn. There are in fact 486.00 activities that have a higher calorie burn than swimming, treading water, moderate effort, general
Average Calories Burned by Swimming
Based on the the list of 16 swimming activities, shown below, the average calories burned for an average male, weighing 190 pounds (86 kg) is 328 Calories for 30 minutes of swimming. The average burnt for an average female, weighing 163 pounds (74 kg) is 282 Calories for 30 minutes of swimming.
You can browse other common activities from our database, from the links below or visit the compendium at https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/home.