Swimming question

Does swimming really burn a lot of calories? 

Is it comparable to jogging? 

Or would you say that any activity that raises your heart rate is the key?

~H~

 

Swimming is good exercise, but whether it is best for you depends on your goal.

For example, if you want to lose visceral fat (the stuff that collects around your organs) swimming is ineffective - only exercises that involve weight bearing contact with the ground like walking or jogging will do that.

Whether swimming burns a lot of calories depends on how intensely you swim. Go fast without stopping and you will burn plenty. Be leisurely and a break at the end of each lane and you won't burn quite as many in the same time.

Burning calories is the most important from the point of view of losing weight.  Raising your heart rate helps make your heart stronger.  (Some exercise facilities have a chart on the wall giving you a guideline - you will notice that the 'weight loss' range is lower than the 'cardio training' range.  If you want to work on both, try to keep your heart rate right between those two ranges.  If you're only trying to lose weight, you only need to get your heart rate to the lower range, which is usually pretty easy.)

Anyway, swimming is a very good exercise for burning calories and for raising your heart rate, depending on how hard you swim.  Also, if you are having any joint trouble, swimming is excellent because it is very low-impact; it hardly stresses your joints at all, while working your muscles and heart fairly well.

I haven't heard anything about needing to do weight-bearing work to burn visceral fat.  My impression has always been that there is no way to make your body pick one type or region of fat over another, but I haven't done any research on this so I really don't know one way or the other.

This website has some decent values for swimming as an exercise.  Search for them and you'll see what I mean.  You will still burn calories doing leisurely swims, but like any exercise the more vigorous it is the more you burn.

That depends on how you're swimming. There's a big difference between playing around in the pool with friends and swimming laps.  If you start timing yourself and occasionally try for a personal best time, then yeah--swimming burns a whole lot. I can tell you from experience that after an hour of doing laps with the summer swim team at the Y, my heart was almost always pounding. (And that's the important thing!)

I can't really speak definitively about the jogging thing because I'm not an expert, but I would like to point out that water provides more resistance than air does, and that logically it ought to require more effort.

-MJ

I burn more calories swimming than I do jogging -- but that is because I am able to swim longer and faster than I can jog.  In 75 mins I will burn between 780 -1200 calories (using my HRM) depending on what strokes I am using and my distance/speed intervals.

I cannot jog for 75 mins....but if I could -- swimming fast/vigorously (75 yd in 1:00) burns more calories than running 12 MPH.  Most people cannot swim (intensely) for 75 mins, therefore running @ 12mph may be a better exercise.

Swimming is non weight-bearing and therefore does not offer the bone-building benefits of jogging/running.  However, as you are passing through the water, you do get benefits of strength and resistance training.

I've lost 55+ pounds and swimming is pretty much the only exercise I do (trying to add biking), usually 2-4 days per week.

I agree with coach k it is all about what you can do.  I love to swim but I add an elliptic trainer for 30 minutes, too.  I have herniated discs in my back so that running, aerobics etc, are to jarring to my spine.  However, I burn between 300-800 depending how long I swim and how fast.  I think that the getting my heart rate up and the special breathing required for swimming help me a lot.  I have not been able to run at all.  I would never be able to put in an hour with running. 

ooh i was a competitive swimmer for 8 years! i can tell you swimming does burn calories but people usually don't swim right, and it makes them really ineffective and gets them frustrated. also they cant breath so they give up sooner. thats what i think happens sometimes anyway. when i was swimming every day my entire body was slim and i had muscles i didnt even know about showing up a little bit, esp on my back (from butterfly) i think more people run because its a bit more natural considering we dont live underwater, but i think swimming is so much better for you. running ruined my knees! if you want to swim put a little extra work into getting yourself to the point that you CAN do it long enough and heard enough that it will burn the calories

Like any exercise that you're unaccustomed to, build up to it.  If you've swam in the past, just start by doing 1-3 laps of each stroke you know.  If you haven't take a lesson because nearly drowning is not fun! 

best workout i used to do when i was in competitive swimming:

 

warm up: 200yrds [8 laps]

1st set: 3 100yrds[4 lasp] on the 2:30 interval just to get your heart rate moving a bit

2nd set 6 50 yrds [2 laps] on the 1:45  interval

 

middle set [harder one] 4 100yrds on the 150, 145, 140, 130 intervals

 

then good ol

300yrd [12 laps]

warm down, slowly get your heart rate down

 

this is for a "i can swim but im not very fast" person and should burn around 500-800 calories

that workout won't burn 500-800 calories, even for a "i can swim but im not very fast" swimmer -- I'm pretty sure. 

But it doesn't matter -- the point is, that swimming can be as, if not more, effective than jogging -- but they both have good and bad points, and not everyone will be able to do both (or either) as well.

Your original question -- is any activity that really raises your heart rate the key?  The answer is yes, if you are looking for a cardio, calorie burning activity

swimming is great because its muscle training and cardio all in one. You use every muscle in your body to pull yourself through the water, and you try to go as fast as you can which results in some intense cardio. It does, however, depend on how you swim. I am a competitive swimmer and I'm talking from that point of veiw.

I just get into the pool and swim as many laps as I can in a row... I started with 2 sets of 10, and last time I managed to do 40. (It's only a small pool so one lap takes me one minute.) I don't know any other exercise that would burn 500 calories in an hour without killing me! So for me swimming is great because it's non-weight-bearing and doesn't strain my knee and I don't overheat because the water keeps me cool.