Calories burned swimming calculator
See what a swim burns for your body, by stroke and effort, counting only what it adds to your day.
Updated
Your result
For 30 minutes of swimming (lengths, slow front crawl) at 65 kg:
160extra kcal
On top of the 30 kcal you’d burn anyway in that time. In total it uses about 190 kcal.
In your TDEE it counts as about 120–160 kcal. The low end allows for the body offsetting about 28% of exercise calories, the average in a study of 1,754 adults.
Calories burned swimming: the key numbers
- 30 minutes of swimming adds about 130 to 310 extra kcal for a 65 kg person, depending on the stroke and how hard you swim.
- An hour of swimming (lengths, slow front crawl) adds about 320 extra kcal at 65 kg and 490 at 100 kg.
- The figures come from 7 rows of the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, from 4.8 to 10.3 METs: each from published studies.
- Done on purpose, it counts in your TDEE at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses (Careau, 2021).
Counting it in your TDEE
If you do this on purpose, add it as exercise on the TDEE calculator. It counts there at 72 to 100% of these extra calories, because the body offsets part of what exercise uses.
For your body and time
| Activity | Extra kcal | Compendium value |
|---|---|---|
| Leisurely, not lengths | 170 | 6 METs, Compendium code 18310 |
| Backstroke, recreational | 130 | 4.8 METs, Compendium code 18255 |
| Breaststroke, recreational | 140 | 5.3 METs, Compendium code 18265 |
| Lengths, slow front crawl | 160 | 5.8 METs, Compendium code 18240 |
| Lengths, fast front crawl | 290 | 9.8 METs, Compendium code 18230 |
| Backstroke, training | 280 | 9.5 METs, Compendium code 18250 |
| Breaststroke, training | 310 | 10.3 METs, Compendium code 18260 |
Each figure uses the activity’s cost from the 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities, which gives it in METs of oxygen use per kg of body weight, so the extra scales with your weight. Only the part above resting counts as extra. What you’d burn anyway comes from your own resting rate (Mifflin-St Jeor), not the standard 1 MET: in 769 adults, measured resting burn averaged 0.84 kcal per kg an hour against the standard 1 (Byrne, 2005).
Compare every activity on the calories burned calculator.
More activities: walking, running, lifting weights, cycling, elliptical, treadmill, hiking, sleeping, standing, yoga, Pilates, climbing stairs, dancing, rowing, gardening, golf, cleaning.
Short answers
How many calories does swimming burn?
It depends on the stroke and how hard you swim, and on your weight. For a 65 kg woman, 30 minutes adds about 130 kcal (backstroke, recreational) up to about 310 (breaststroke, training) on top of what she’d burn anyway. For a 100 kg man it’s about 190 to 480.
Does swimming burn more calories than running?
It depends on the pace. In 30 minutes, a 65 kg woman adds about 160 kcal swimming slow front crawl lengths and about 290 swimming them fast. Running at 10-minute miles adds about 280.
Should I eat back the calories from swimming?
Partly. In a study of 1,754 adults, the body offset about 28% of the calories burned through activity, on average (Careau, 2021). So when 30 minutes of swimming adds about 160 kcal for a 65 kg woman, count about 120–160 of it.
Sources
Checked against each source on 22 and 23 October 2026
- Herrmann SD, et al. (2024). 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities: a third update of the energy costs of human activities. J Sport Health Sci 13(1):6–12. PMID 38242596
- Byrne NM, et al. (2005). Metabolic equivalent: one size does not fit all. J Appl Physiol 99(3):1112–9. PMID 15831804
- Careau V, et al. (2021). Energy compensation and adiposity in humans. Curr Biol 31(20):4659–66. PMID 34453886
- Mifflin MD, St Jeor ST, et al. (1990). A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. Am J Clin Nutr 51(2):241–7. PMID 2305711