Nutrition questions

Definitely diet is an easier way to lose weight than exercise (both together is ideal) but the studies on swimming and weightloss I suspect are flawed. There is no way some random out of shape person who is not a trained swimmer can do 30-45 minutes of swimming at even a remotely vigorous pace whereas almost anyone with no training can hop on a treadmill and push themselves... I would suspect the results of many of these studies ended up having the people running doing actual running whereas the swimmers, in order to be able to swim for 30-45 minutes straight were doing easy breaststroke and essentially just floating around in the pool. As for the comparisions in athletes body fat, body fat % has less of a detrimental impact on swimmers than athletes in many other sports which probably explains part of it ... there are many other obvious differences as well... The only thing that may make sense is if there is some propensity of the body to store a layer of fat for insulation for people who swim on a regular basis but that seems unlikely as well. I seem to recall some lengthy threads here regarding swimming and weight loss... if you can find them in the archives, that may help you more. As I recall there was no real consensus, but that maybe the result was swimming was not the most efficient means of weight loss. Based on my personal experience, I can say that swimming 6K+yds/wk, and eating a lean and simple diet, that is enough to slim down. It does not happen lightning fast, but I can do it. I think the biggest variable though is differences in metabolism. I'm getting older (53) and slower, but I can still burn up the calories fairly efficiently, so if I eat a lean diet, I do not have much trouble keeping my weight down. I do have a weakness for ice-cream and cookies however, so I am carrying a few extra pounds. :"> I believe most folks can loose weight simply by eating well and doing some exercise on a regular basis. What is eating well? I believe the most important part of that is to eat high quality foods, as close to their natural state as possible. If you do some study on the subject, you may be surprised to learn some thongs about your food sources. One documentary that I usually suggest first is: "King Corn" king corn documentary - Google Search . Be Well... Have Fun! :-)

Definitely diet is an easier way to lose weight than exercise (both together is ideal) but the studies on swimming and weightloss I suspect are flawed. There is no way some random out of shape person who is not a trained swimmer can do 30-45 minutes of swimming at even a remotely vigorous pace whereas almost anyone with no training can hop on a treadmill and push themselves... I would suspect the results of many of these studies ended up having the people running doing actual running whereas the swimmers, in order to be able to swim for 30-45 minutes straight were doing easy breaststroke and essentially just floating around in the pool. As for the comparisions in athletes body fat, body fat % has less of a detrimental impact on swimmers than athletes in many other sports which probably explains part of it ... there are many other obvious differences as well... The only thing that may make sense is if there is some propensity of the body to store a layer of fat for insulation for people who swim on a regular basis but that seems unlikely as well. I seem to recall some lengthy threads here regarding swimming and weight loss... if you can find them in the archives, that may help you more. As I recall there was no real consensus, but that maybe the result was swimming was not the most efficient means of weight loss. Based on my personal experience, I can say that swimming 6K+yds/wk, and eating a lean and simple diet, that is enough to slim down. It does not happen lightning fast, but I can do it. I think the biggest variable though is differences in metabolism. I'm getting older (53) and slower, but I can still burn up the calories fairly efficiently, so if I eat a lean diet, I do not have much trouble keeping my weight down. I do have a weakness for ice-cream and cookies however, so I am carrying a few extra pounds. :"> I believe most folks can loose weight simply by eating well and doing some exercise on a regular basis. What is eating well? I believe the most important part of that is to eat high quality foods, as close to their natural state as possible. If you do some study on the subject, you may be surprised to learn some thongs about your food sources. One documentary that I usually suggest first is: "King Corn" king corn documentary - Google Search . Be Well... Have Fun! :-)