I swam for years and always kept in great shape.
I quit for 2 years. After turning 41, which was 7 months ago, I started back up again. I swim 5 days a week for an hour, mostly freestyle. I'm in great shape again everywhere except for this stomach fat I can't seem to lose. Can anyone recommend any good workouts that can get rid of this?
Karen, you said you are not lifting weights. You have to lift weights, if for any reason so you can lift your body when you are 80! I am a different body type from you, short and muscular, but part of the reason I am muscular is because I have been lifting weights for 25 years. I don't have the tummy pooch, and I think weight training helps a lot. My Mom and my sisters have it....they never lifted, and we all look very much a like, except weight training gives me a stronger body composition.
So, resistance training is where it is at. Fit it in twice a week, somehow.
NYsurfer, in my Exercise physiology class I don't remember them saying muscle is burned before fat. That sounds incorrect. In fact, it was taught that at rest, we burn a mixture of fat and carbohydrates, and exercise uses up your carbs, in the blood and then stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen. I need to look up once that is used up which substrate was used next, but I did not think it was muscle. That can happen on very low fat diet, where the muscle starts getting robbed. Carbs are the most effecient source, and muscle is actually a lot of work to catabolize. Fat gives you the most energy bang for your buck.
Karen, you said you are not lifting weights. You have to lift weights, if for any reason so you can lift your body when you are 80! I am a different body type from you, short and muscular, but part of the reason I am muscular is because I have been lifting weights for 25 years. I don't have the tummy pooch, and I think weight training helps a lot. My Mom and my sisters have it....they never lifted, and we all look very much a like, except weight training gives me a stronger body composition.
So, resistance training is where it is at. Fit it in twice a week, somehow.
NYsurfer, in my Exercise physiology class I don't remember them saying muscle is burned before fat. That sounds incorrect. In fact, it was taught that at rest, we burn a mixture of fat and carbohydrates, and exercise uses up your carbs, in the blood and then stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen. I need to look up once that is used up which substrate was used next, but I did not think it was muscle. That can happen on very low fat diet, where the muscle starts getting robbed. Carbs are the most effecient source, and muscle is actually a lot of work to catabolize. Fat gives you the most energy bang for your buck.
