Increasing my weekly yardage seems to have increased my hunger. How can I determine the calories really expended during swims of various lengths or intensities?
And when the office hits the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, how many laps equate to that second or third serving? (Not giving up the food can justify extra time in the pool!)
Parents
Former Member
Nobody has yet devised an accurate way to easily estimate your caloric expenditure in the pool. One of the biggest factors is how efficient you are - which has two major components:
1) How well do you avoid swimming against unnecessary resistance and
2) How well do you avoid firing off unnecessary muscle cells/fibers as you swim - either because you
a) make unnecessary motions or because you
b) have not yet practiced a specific motion enough times for your neuromuscular system to have learned exactly which cells need to contract, and which do not, to make that motion happen at its lowest energy consumption rate or because you
c) are not as relaxed as you could be, thus large percentages of otherwise unnecessary muscles are continually working against each other throughout your body).
This is an EXTREMELY complex mix of variables. I've seen estimates indicating that some people may be using as much as 8 times as much energy as the most efficient swimmers do at any given speed.
Nobody has yet devised an accurate way to easily estimate your caloric expenditure in the pool. One of the biggest factors is how efficient you are - which has two major components:
1) How well do you avoid swimming against unnecessary resistance and
2) How well do you avoid firing off unnecessary muscle cells/fibers as you swim - either because you
a) make unnecessary motions or because you
b) have not yet practiced a specific motion enough times for your neuromuscular system to have learned exactly which cells need to contract, and which do not, to make that motion happen at its lowest energy consumption rate or because you
c) are not as relaxed as you could be, thus large percentages of otherwise unnecessary muscles are continually working against each other throughout your body).
This is an EXTREMELY complex mix of variables. I've seen estimates indicating that some people may be using as much as 8 times as much energy as the most efficient swimmers do at any given speed.
