Expert: Ken Alan - 1/10/2007

Question
I googled 'calories burned in deep water running' and came up with 11.5 per minute- 690 for 60 minutes- fantastic because I love this exercise (you run in deep water with a flotation belt- not touching the pool floor). Thing is it doesn't feel that difficult (certainly not like running a 9 minute mile which is the equivalent) and I don't want to kid myself. Are there any exercise experts out there who can give me feedback?-- I work hard- 6 right/left strokes per 5 seconds and manage 20 lengths of a 50m pool in an hour-- would appreciate any advice you can give--thanks Kath  

Answer
Kath,

The amount of calories burned per minute doing an activity will fluctuate widely dependent upon a number of factors:
- your age
- weight
- fitness level
- water temperature
- range of motion used
- intensity
- time of day
- technique

While 690 cpm is the number you found, that could be plus or minus 150-200 cpm.  It's very hard to know exactly how many calories you use when you exercise unless you yourself are hooked up and monitored to determine the amount of oxygen you use per minute as you're exercising.

As long as you like that kind of exercise, and are achieving results you are satisfied with, go for it.

Hope this helps.