Any form of exercise has benefits, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services recommends people get at least a half-hour of moderate exercise at least five times per week. Swimming is a good exercise for cardiovascular health and overall fitness, and lap swimming provides continuous and quantifiable exercise. Team or fitness swimmers learn how long it takes them to swim a specific distance, which makes figuring our how many calories are burned during the swim a matter of simple arithmetic.
Measurements
Swimming pools have definite boundaries and proportions. Typically, public pools are either 25 or 50 meters long, but some private pools have different measurements. A 25-foot pool is shorter than a 25-meter pool, since 1 meter equals approximately 3 feet.
Swimming a lap generally means swimming the length of a pool and returning to the starting point. For example, in a 25-foot pool, a swimmer completing one lap swims 50 feet.
Distance
A person who swims 60 laps completes 120 lengths in the pool. In a 25-foot pool, 120 lengths equal 25 X 120, or 3,000 feet. One mile is 5,280 feet, so a swimmer who completes 3,000 feet swims six-tenths of a mile (5,280 / 3,000).
Time Frame
A moderate pace for a fitness lap swimmer is about 2 minutes per 100 meters, which means it takes the swimmer 2 X 16 or 32 minutes to complete the 1,600 meters in a mile. Using that pace, a swimmer completes the 60 laps in a 25-foot pool or .6-mile swim in about 20 minutes.
A slower swimmer who averages 4 minutes per 100 meters takes 4 X 1,600 or 64 minutes to complete a 1-mile swim. Swimming .6 miles takes approximately 40 minutes at the slower pace.
Calories Burned
According to the Mayo Clinic, a 160-lb. person swimming at a moderate pace burns 511 calories per hour. A moderate pace differs according to fitness level, so less-accomplished swimmers might experience similar exertion levels to better swimmers, even though they swim slower. Swimming for 40 minutes at a moderate pace burns about 340 calories. Swimming for 20 minutes at a moderate pace burns about 170 calories.
Keeping Track
Calculating calories burned based on laps swum will burn mental energy as quickly as calories. Swim workouts based on time and effort levels better enable people to figure out benefits gained. On average, a one-hour swim burns about 511 calories. Heavier swimmers burn more calories than lighter swimmers, and swimmers doing sprints and interval training likely also burn more calories.
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