Swimming is a great exercise for weight loss. As the water helps support your body weight, it’s easier on the joints that walking or running.
On average swimming burns between 300 to 600 calories per hour. The amount of calories burned depends on your weight, stroke, speed and duration.
Use the calories burned swimming calculator below to see how many calories you burn.
Calories burned swimming calculator
The calories burned swimming calculator will give you a personal estimate of how many calories you burned swimming based on average metabolic rates.
The calorie counter for swimming uses your weight, minutes spent swimming, swimming stroke, and speed which we calculate from the distance.
Calories burned swimming laps for 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour
How many calories do you burn swimming laps for 30 minutes, what about 45 minutes or an hour?
Front crawl, back stroke and breast stroke at a glance:
Enter your weight in the box below to see the table update to show how many calories you’ll burn swimming laps of each stroke at a comfortable pace. If you’d like to know if you’re swimming fast enough, use this swim pace calculator.
| Stroke | Calories in 30 Minutes | Calories in 45 Minutes | Calories in 60 Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Crawl | 207 | 311 | 414 |
| Back Stroke | 171 | 257 | 343 |
| Breast Stroke | 189 | 284 | 379 |
Which stroke burns the most calories?
Butterfly (quite obviously) burns the most amount of calories, but it’s not something most mortals can do.
Here’s the ranking of the major swimming strokes in order of least calorie burn to most:
- Back stroke
- Breast stroke
- Front crawl
Calories burned swimming front crawl vs breast stroke vs back stroke
Here’s an example for a 200 lb person.
They burn 457 calories for an hour of slow back stroke.
Back stroke burns the least amount of calories.
That same person would burn 505 calories swimming for an hour of slow breast stroke.
Breast stroke burns 10% more calories than back stroke.
If they were to swim front crawl slowly for an hour they’d burn 552 calories.
Front crawl burns 10% more calories than breast stroke and 20% more calories than back stroke.
That’s 100 calories more an hour, by swimming front crawl rather than back stroke. Which is equivalent to an extra 18 minute walk.
What burns the most calories running or swimming and which is better?
Minute for minute running burns around 70% more calories than swimming. However running is very high impact and may not be practical if you are overweight.
1 hour running followed by 4 weeks not running due to injury, burns far less calories than a steady hours swim 3 times a week for 4 weeks.
Swimming is an ideal starter exercise if you’re overweight. It is easy on your joints and won’t cause you the injuries frequently experienced by new runners.
A good progression path is to start your exercise routine with swimming. When you start to lose some weight and increase fitness, include walking. Then as that get’s easier change the walking to running.
See these plans for more help:
How much swimming is equivalent to running a mile?
A 40-minute front crawl swim, at an average swimming speed, is equivalent to running 1 mile.
Swimming Workouts
Swimming can provide a great exercise workout. Swimming is a particularly great workout if you suffering from impact related joint pain or are looking to add some cross training into your workout routine, as you can continue with swimming, burning calories with reduced stress and impact on your body.
During your swimming exercise routine aim to swim laps at a fast pace, but ensure this is a pace you can maintain for the duration. Use a swim pace chart to help you work out the ideal pace for longer distances. You can also compare your swim time to average swim times by age. The time you spend swimming will affect your calorie burn far more than your speed. You will burn more calories if you spend twice as much time in your swimming workout than if you perform it at twice the speed.
Benefits of Swimming
Swimming can provide you an excellent all round workout:
- Front & Back Crawl workout your arms & shoulders
- Breast stroke works your chest and thighs
- Butterfly (if you can manage it) focuses on your chest and abs
Whichever stroke you use, the benefits of swimming are:
- Low impact exercise
- increased fitness
- increased lung capacity
- extra calorie burn
This is the calories burned swimming front crawl for 60 minutes at a steady pace:
| Weight (lbs) | Calories |
| 130 | 359 |
| 150 | 414 |
| 170 | 470 |
| 190 | 525 |
| 210 | 580 |
| 230 | 635 |
