Does this sound right to you?

[mrs.jacinthe]

I'm finishing up my training plan for my 8k swim in Oct.  I want to do well at the event, so its a pretty intense plan, which got me thinking about increased nutritional needs.  I looked up a chart that said regardless of speed, you will burn about 2.93 kcal for every mile swum -per pound of body weight.  

So I calculated that out for every thousand yards and got 166 kcal per thousand yards per pound.  Which, for me, (at about 170 right now) means that a 3000 yd workout burns almost 850 calories.  That seems ... well, like a lot.  Is that right?  And if so, should I be eating back ALL of those calories?

I feel like when I get to my peak weeks of training, all I'll be doing is eating, sleeping, and swimming.

[emilyj]

That seems high. I wear my HRM during masters practices. I'm close to your weight, and the most I've ever burned is 650 calories for a 4,000m workout. Time wise, that was about an hour and a half.

Do you have a HRM you could wear? I'd suggest that to see exactly what you're burning.