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Is Swimming Good for Weight Loss?

17 Nov 2025

1 min read

swimming for weight loss

Swimming is good for weight loss. It can be a fun, low-impact way to burn calories that improves strength and cardio while working out the whole body.  

Read on to learn more about the role swimming can play in your weight loss plan, including how many calories you’ll burn, the best strokes for weight loss, and how swimming stacks up against other types of exercise. 

Three key takeaways: 

• Swimming supports weight loss by adding whole-body, low-impact movements to your daily calorie burn. 

• More intense strokes, like freestyle and butterfly, burn more calories. People who weigh more or are older will burn more calories in half an hour than younger people who have a lower body weight. 

• As well as weight loss, swimming can help build muscle strength and flexibility, and improve your mental health. It can also help to reduce your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, as well as improve asthma and arthritis symptoms. 

Benefits of Swimming for Weight Loss

Swimming can play a major role in a weight loss plan that also includes an active lifestyle and a balanced diet. You’re exercising your whole body and burning calories without putting a lot of pressure on your joints.  

Here’s how swimming can make a splash in your workout schedule: 

Swimming combines strength and cardio 

Water is 800 times denser than air, so when you move your arms and legs in a swimming pool, they’re working much harder than usual.  

When you’re using your whole body to swim laps in the pool, your heart also beats harder and faster, making it great cardio.  

Getting around 150 minutes of exercise a week can help to keep your heart healthy and lower your risk of heart disease, and swimming can add to this.  

One study of more than 80,000 swimmers found that their risk of dying from heart disease or stroke was 41% lower than in people who didn’t swim. And people who swim may be eight times more likely to hit this 150-minute goal than others, whether you’re a pro or a part-time paddler. 

Swimming works out the whole body

When you swim, every muscle in your body is working harder than it does outside of the water. 

Some exercises, like running, focus more closely on the muscles in your lower body, while many weightlifting exercises only target the upper body muscles. 

It’s easy on your joints

Not only does swimming reduce the impact of exercise on your joints, but it can also help you improve how well your joints bend. 

Water supports 90% of your body weight. This means that you float and reduce impact on your joints while you move your arms and legs. Some people who find walking, running, or cycling challenging may still be able to swim. 

Swimming keeps you cool while you work out

Getting overheated and sweaty can be uncomfortable and put some people off exercising. But because they’re working out in water, swimmers stay much cooler than runners, cyclists, and people doing other types of exercise. 

This also means that you can swim if you’re pregnant or have an illness that means overheating is risky for you. 

How Many Calories Does Swimming Burn?

The number of calories you burn during a swim depends on your age, weight, and intensity of movement. 

For example, 30 minutes of medium-intensity swimming burns around 279 calories in a 40-year-old person weighing 11 stone. However, a 60-year-old weighing 14 stone who swims will burn roughly 406 calories in the same time. Plus, a more intense swim, like trying to swim faster or complete more laps than before within a certain time, will burn more calories. 

Different strokes will also have different calorie burns. For example, in 30 minutes of swimming, these strokes may burn roughly the following number of calories. 

Stroke Rough calories burned in 30 minutes
Butterfly 450
Freestyle 300
Backstroke 250
Breaststroke 200

Best Swim Stroke to Lose Weight

Any swim stroke benefits weight loss by helping you burn more calories than you consume. Likewise, if you’re not eating a healthy diet, the swim stroke you choose won’t make much of a difference to your body weight. 

As we’ve seen above, some swim strokes burn more calories than others. But getting to know them can help you keep swimming fun, mix it up, and work different sets of muscles. 

1. Butterfly, the best swim stroke for weight loss

Butterfly burns the most calories of any stroke. It’s also good for muscle growth, especially in the upper body, including the arms, chest, stomach, and back muscles. 

However, it is one of the most challenging strokes to learn, which means that if you’re starting out, you may get more from sticking to strokes you feel comfortable hammering out for a while. 

As a bonus, the butterfly stroke supports you in bending your joints and improves your posture by helping you stretch out. 

2. Freestyle, the fastest stroke

Freestyle is the quickest stroke and helps burn a significant amount of calories. It’s also great for toning your back muscles and building your stomach, glutes, and shoulders. 

However, repeating rapid arm movements might be uncomfortable if you’re building up after an injury or learning for the first time.  

Sticking to a slower or easier stroke that feels good is absolutely fine. Swimming at any level will benefit you. 

3. Backstroke, one of the best strokes for posture

While not the most useful for burning calories, backstroke may help you improve posture and how much you can bend your hips.  

When you backstroke, you work muscles in your stomach, legs, shoulders, bum, and arms. 

4. Breaststroke: better for cardio than calories

The lowest on the list for calorie burning is breaststroke.  

However, it’s a great cardio exercise, helping you improve heart and lung health and work the thighs, upper back, hamstrings, lower legs, and triceps (the muscles running down the back of your arm). 

Does Swimming Burn Belly Fat?

While many exercises target the tummy muscles, none of them explicitly burn belly fat. Getting rid of fat in a single body part isn’t possible. 

However, swimming increases the number of calories you burn overall, which helps you work toward your calorie deficit when you’re also managing what you eat. This can reduce overall body fat and belly fat. 

Swimming vs Other Forms of Exercise

Exercise Calorie burn Joint impact Main muscles worked
Running Burns a similar amount, depending on speed and intensity Running is far harder on your knees than swimming Muscles in the quads, hips, glutes, calves, and core
Gym workout Depends on the exercises and machines you choose, but strength training generally burns fewer calories than swimming. However, muscles burn more calories throughout the day, even when you’re not moving. Some exercises, like box jumps, burpees, or weighted lunges and squats can put pressure on your joints. Any muscle in the body, depending on the particular workout you choose.
Cycling Cycling generally uses fewer calories than swimming, as you’re using your whole body to swim, but mainly your legs to cycle. Cycling is another low-impact workout option for people with joint issues or pain. The hamstrings, quads, and glutes all help you cycle. Cycling also uses core strength.

You can try many different types of exercise depending on what feels fun and comfortable. Here’s how swimming compares to other exercises you might take part in. 

The calorie burn will depend on how hard you work, your age, and your body weight. However, running and cycling can also burn lots of calories, so if you can do all three, try switching between them for variety and combined health wins. 

Anyone can learn and enjoy swimming, but those with long-term health issues or joint problems may find it particularly beneficial for staying active and managing joint or mobility issues.  

If you’re healing from an injury or have other health issues, chat to a physiotherapist or your doctor before doing serious exercise. 

Tips to Maximise Weight Loss from Swimming 

The most important thing to remember is that swimming alone will not lead to weight loss. To help you lose weight, it needs to be part of an active lifestyle and supported by healthy diet changes. 

  1. Find a way to swim you really enjoy means you’re more likely to stick to it. Try mixing up strokes or attempting something like interval training, which means swimming as hard as you can for short bursts with timed breaks in between. Swim until you’re out of breath, rest, and then kick off again. 
  2. You should get about 150 minutes of cardio a week, and swimming can be a crucial part of that. You can start slow, two or three times weekly, before levelling up when you feel stronger or more able to do harder strokes. 
  3. Your brain makes you feel less hungry when you’re swimming, but you might feel snacky afterwards. Bring a healthy snack for after your swim, like a yoghurt, fruit, or a sandwich. 

Frequently asked questions 

Is swimming better than going to the gym for weight loss? 

The gym can mean many different exercises, from weight machines to kettlebell swings to spin cycling or running on a treadmill, which makes it hard to say whether swimming is better for weight loss.  

How long should I swim to lose weight? 

That depends on what you’re eating when you’re not in the pool and your overall weight, age, and the strokes you’re doing. Try to be active for at least 150 minutes a week. 

Can beginners use swimming for weight loss? 

Swimming is a helpful weight loss exercise for all ages and abilities. Strokes range in difficulty and intensity, so you may need to work up to a butterfly. 

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