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Estimates of Swimming Energy Expenditure from World Wide Web Sites There are many web sites that allow an individual to estimate the number of calories burned in a swim training session. The majority of these sites provide estimates that do not consider the age and sex of the participant. Age does not appear to be a factor when determining swimming energy expenditure. However, the sex of the participant may play a role in the caloric expenditure. Several studies have demonstrated that women expend less energy for a given velocity and distance when compared to men. Unfortunately, this factor is not considered in most on-line estimates of calories expended while swimming. Some web sites provide an estimate of calories burned per hour with no mention of the velocity or intensity of the swim. At velocities below 1 m/sec, energy expenditure is linearly related to velocity. Therefore, a person swimming at .6 m/sec for 1 hour will burn less than an individual swimming at .8 m/sec. Most web sites do not provide a reference describing how they derived the caloric expenditures. This is partially due to the lack of research in this area. It is difficult to estimate swimming energy expenditure as the equipment required is expensive, it requires close proximity to a laboratory and skilled technicians. In addition, a few equations have been developed to predict energy expenditure at a given velocity; however, these equations were developed in a population of college aged, competitive swimmers, and therefore are not applicable to the general population. Swimming Calories Estimated Via World Wide Web Below is a list of web pages that provide estimates of swimming energy expenditure. A search was conducted on Google and the first 50 web sites were analyzed. The seven listed provide the most in depth descriptions of calories expended while swimming.
Values listed for swimming energy expenditure are for the front crawl or freestyle stroke. Swimming energy expenditure will vary depending on stroke type and the contribution of the arms and legs (e.g. pull or kick sets). The majority of the web sites did provide estimates for other strokes.
To determine how long you have to swim to burn off calories from specific foods: www.annecollins.com/exercise-calories/burgers.htm Coolnurse, Nutristrategy, and Fitsource provide estimates of calories expended while swimming based on an individuals weight. However, since the weight of the subject is supported in water, this factor is not relevant to the estimation of calories expended while swimming. In addition, their estimates appear to be multiples of an original value (e.g. a 150 pound person expends 1/6 more calories that a 125 pound person). Swimfit web site describes the Nutristrategy web site and indicates that the caloric expenditures presented were derived from research data from Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. However, no specific reference is provided. www.swimfit.com/article.asp?ArticleID=50. What to look for in a web site to estimate Calories burned while swimming:
Ainsworth BE, Haskell WL, Whitt MC, Irwin ML, Swartz AM, Strath SJ, O’Brien WL, Bassett DR Jr, Schmitz KH, Emplaincourt PO, Jacobs DR Jr, Leon AS. Compendium of Physical Activities: An update of activity codes and MET intensities. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2000;32 (Suppl):S498-S516. |
The Human Performance Labs are part of the Kinesiology Department in the School of HPER. Comments: kines@indiana.edu Copyright 2006, The Trustees of Indiana University Last updated: 28 February 2006 |