Hi,
I'm new to the forum and this is my first posting.
I swim, both for the love of it, but principally as an aid for weight loss. I'm a 53-year-old male, 5' 11" tall, otherwise in good health but rather heavy. At present I'm 246lb. I never swam competitively in the past. I've been losing weight at around 2lb-per-week for the last 17 weeks, with the odd blip, using the 5:2 diet. I swim in a 25 metre public pool three-times-a-week, for a minimum of 2 hours each session. I've lost 21lb in those 17 weeks and reckon I'll be able to continue at the same rate for at least another 36lb. After that I suspect the low-hanging fruit will have gone and it will be a fight to get the remaining pounds off. The target weight is 189lb, and I aim to hit that by Q3 2017.
At present I'm 'clinically obese' having been 'morbidly obese' in the past, although as 'morbidly obese' I could a run 've switched to that stroke only in the last three years. Before I only swam breaststroke and two lengths of front-crawl would have left me with tunnel vision (so I didn't do it!) Swimming initially with my son I made an effort to switch to the front-crawl and after six months I could finally swim a mile (64 lengths) with no difficulty, though not necessarily all-that-fast. Since then the speed has improved, but only recently have I seen a step-change, coinciding with a relatively small weight loss.
I don't dive-in and don't do any flip turns (my substantial buoyancy tends to make these difficult!) I use a Swimovate Pool Mate Live Swim Watch and I have a Finis TT Pro. I'm not a club member and generally swim alone. My swimming technique follows TI, but I've not received any formal coaching.
As my weight has reduced recently, my PB's have improved, some markedly in just the last month-and-a-half.
50m 0.43 (this hasn't improved for a while)
100m 1:27 (previously 1:34)
200m 3.20 (previously 3.25)
400m 6.58 (previously 7.18)
800m 14:43 (previously 15:05)
1500m 28:49 (previously 30:01)
As the weight drops-off I'm finding that my general speed is improving. For instance a month-and-half-ago most of my 200m swims were 3:40-3:45, even though my PB was 3:25 (set in June 2015). Now all my 200 metres are sub-3:30's and the Xmas target is 3:15. I rarely swam a sub-7:40 400m but in the last fortnight every single one has been sub-7:15 and many 7:01-7:02. So things have improved and improved consistently.
You might note that I swim the 1500m quicker than the 800m, but that's likely to be addressed in the next few weeks!
With all of the above, I have some queries.
* For the specific purpose of losing weight, what swimming regime should I follow? Sprints (50m-100m) or longer-distances? I swim 'sets' but I will reach a physical limit at my current weight a little quicker than I would if I was lighter. At present 4 x 200m all @'t think I'm going to be able to perform a reliable turn until I get down to at least 224lb. I've read various estimates; such as that losing 14lb will contribute 5 secs off every 100m, but I suspect that say between say 224lb and 210lb the difference will be marginal. Someone who has lost a substantial amount of weight might be able to answer this.
Any advice will be gratefully received!
My 2 cents ...
* For the specific purpose of losing weight ... Any program where ( calories out > calories in ) will lose weight. Any program where ( calories out
Congratulations on your weight loss and time drops, Avalon222; and, welcome to the forums! :welcome: I agree with Swimosaur and really don't have anything to add to the discussion other than my support of your efforts. Keep up the great work!! :cheerleader:
Congratulations for choosing a path to great health Avalon222!
It sounds like you're doing many things right and having lots of success. The only thing I'd add is that interval based workouts opposed to lap swimming workouts tend to give you a smaller waist line and a better calorie burn. Based on your success I'd guess you are already doing this and I'd encourage you to continue. If you are not on a master's swim team I would encourage you to join one. It's much easier to swim with intensity when you're with a group than as a solo.
Have fun, enter a meet, make swimming an important part of your lifestyle and your weight loss will be attainable and long lasting.
Hi!
Sorry for the delay in replying. Keep getting 'Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.
'.
Thanks for the kind words. On Saturday I managed to knock 4 seconds off my 400m PB.
What I'm finding, for all but the 50m, is that my fastest speed during a length isn't necessarily improving, but as the weight drops I'm getting to that 'terminal' speed a lot earlier during the length than previously. So basically I'm able to accelerate to that speed a lot quicker and it's that acceleration which is contributing the faster times.
I have to work on my overall speed though. The fastest I can swim 25m is 17.2 secs, but I've never been able to string two-or-more such lengths together. For the longer distances I'm trying to discipline myself to swim regular-paced lengths; for Saturday I set the Finis to its stopwatch function at 26 secs and swam 16 x 26 secs with an all-out last length to gain the extra second (so 415 seconds). This week it will be set to 25 secs, which if I can keep-up will return a 400 secs 400m. I don't think I'll be achieve that quite yet. As I swam 400m at 26 secs/length though, I should be able to certainly swim 200m at 24 secs/length (3:12). One more second and that cracks 3 minutes, but to go any quicker my overall speed, notably in the 50m/100m has to improve.
Like lots of us, I'm off for the Xmas/New Year period, and aiming to hit the pool every day its open!
Swimosaur wrote,
* Can I expect performance to continue improving as I continue to lose more weight? ... Yes, for the simple reason that you're lugging less inert mass through the water.
avalon222 wrote,
... my fastest speed during a length isn't necessarily improving, but as the weight drops I'm getting to that 'terminal' speed a lot earlier during the length than previously ...
Newton's Second Law: F = m*a; Force = mass times acceleration.
You're exerting constant force. As mass goes down, acceleration goes up. :)
To improve terminal velocity, work primarily to improve efficiency = avoid water resistance. "Strokes per length" is an easy, readily accessible efficiency metric. Count your strokes!
Thanks Bobinator and Swimosaur.
My work hours don't accommodate for Masters club session attendance, so although I get to swim regularly I'm invariably swimming in early morning sessions or dinnertimes.
I'm going to follow that advice and concentrate just on swimming sets. Even if I manage to just crack the 3:00 barrier for my 200, unless I improve my basic speed, that'll be it; I'll not go any quicker unless I can improve my 50m and 100m times and have that reflected in the longer distances.
All great fun though; as I didn't swim freestyle until after I turned 50, I'm always hitting a new PB.
Thanks Bobinator and Swimosaur.
My work hours don't accommodate for Masters club session attendance, so although I get to swim regularly I'm invariably swimming in early morning sessions or dinnertimes.
I'm going to follow that advice and concentrate just on swimming sets. Even if I manage to just crack the 3:00 barrier for my 200, unless I improve my basic speed, that'll be it; I'll not go any quicker unless I can improve my 50m and 100m times and have that reflected in the longer distances.
All great fun though; as I didn't swim freestyle until after I turned 50, I'm always hitting a new PB.The
Good point, 3:00 is possible. I swam a masters 200 meter freestyle at 3:15 at age 46 which is probably in the 2:50's yards similar to a 200 yard I did at 13 years old. I was never much of a freestyler
Avalon - good for you in getting more healthy. As I am a big guy also - yes less body to push/pull thru the water , you will get faster to a point.
Keep going with what seems to work for . Let us know how you are doing.
I swim, both for the love of it, but principally as an aid for weight loss.
Since you are primarily interested in weight loss, I would recommend trying to spend most of your workouts at an aerobic pace. Lots of aerobic swimming will increase the pace you can hold on long sets, but isn't really going to increase your top-end speed. For this, you're going to need to swim all out efforts with lots of rest. So you really need to strike some kind of balance between these two based on your priorities. Good luck!
It sounds like you are making great progress! I am a distance freestyler at heart, even though I swim other events. I find I don't have a lot of variance in my 50/ 100 times- what happens for me to get faster is that I can hold these 50/ 100 times longer. In order for me to improve my sprint times I have to focus on technique. For distancing my strength can pull me through, but there is no wiggle room in a sprint. I know you said you work out alone, but perhaps it would benefit you to get a couple private lessons to focus on sharpening your technique.
Also, if you are focusing on sprint times, I find I need A LOT of rest built into my sets. That way I can try to hold a sprint pace and nto fall apart.
Good luck to you!
