Stomach fat

With all the flip turns we do when swimming, simulating crunches, there is no reason any of us should have poochy stomachs. When you throw in "swimming with the core" that gives us even more stomach muscle stimulation. I guess it all boils down to weight and where our bodies choose to store it! About drinking water when swimming. I have tried this and found that it tastes bad. Unless it is significantly colder than the pool it seems that I'm just drinking pool water. I'd rather put up with confused hunger signals!

Thirst signal misinterpreted as hunger? The thirst signal is pretty strong. I wonder if some people might choose to ignore the thirst signal, and choose to eat, since it is more interesting. Sometimes hydrating seems a chore, and we get easily distracted from it. I doubt very many people seriously have difficulty interpreting the thirst signal, though. Anyway, it would be nice to see fitness as the focus, rather than fat issues. Swimmers have so many strengths and qualities, and bouancy and insulation number among them.

I'm quite proud of myself! After all the years of having a membership to the sportsplex I swim at, I never stepped foot into the fitness center/weight room until today. Btw, I'm not a competition swimmer. Told the trainer I was interested in abdominal exercises and ended up getting fully orientated on all of the machines. Worked up a huge sweat and surprisingly really liked lifting weights. Think I'll mix things up a bit, every other day lift weights for a 1/2 hour before swimming. Phil, this has to be less expensive than liposuction!

Current research shows that swimming can burn off more calories than running (at the same intensity levels), but that swimmers tend to eat more later. So you just need to be conscious of why that happens: 1) Running is more stressful on the inner organs (bouncing around), so you will have less of an appetite than if you went swimming. 2) Since you are burning more calories at the same intensity levels, your hunger will kick in. 3) Water will cool your body down more. The body will try to build more insulation, by trying to get more food. 4) The body's signals for thirst and hunger can be confused. Since the exercise is in the water, not all people remember to hydrate during the workout.

Much cheaper since the health club membership is already a sunk cost. Good luck to you.

Note to Phil: I understand the logic to your statement, but follow this....... On Sept. 1st, I began the long grind into the end of the age-group; you know, getting in the best shape you can for the Jan. 1st age-up. What I have been doing is a daily series of minor calisthenics, starting easy and adding 3 reps each week I do crunches, sitting cycles, twists, bends and use my Ab-Slide machine. I have made no change whatsoever to my diet, in fact I may be eating more because I was afraid of losing muscle along with fat. Honest to Ted Williams, my mid-section is noticeably smaller, even to be noticed by team-mates ! What's the deal ? Am I just tightening up those muscles? It surely seems more than that. What would be your explanation ? Bert Petersen ~~~^o^~~~

There are several factors that can get involved, especially something as emotionally sensitive as stomach fat. Anyway, I think I am correct that the body does not remove fat from a particular area because of exercise of that area. Fat can be removed, as we all know, and excercise will increase the demand by the body's muscles for the body's resources, when compared to fat. Thus, Bert, you lost fat and converted it to muscle (or just lost the fat.) The confusing thing is that fat is not lost equally from all parts of the body; some parts of the body tend to keep fat no matter what you do, other parts lose it at the first sight of diet or activity. For example, I have a nice little place of fat storage on the sides/back of my waist (you know, the love handles). I had it when I was 21 and swimming 10,000 yards a day, and doing several hundred situps a day, and I have it now. On the other hand, the fat on the front of my stomach went away pretty quickly when I started swimming again. But swimming, situps, running, or cycling, I would have lost the same fat from the same areas. But abdominal exercises help in other ways. As mentioned, they tend to improve posture and the ability to hold the stomach in - that improves appearance and has the appearance of removing stomach fat, and may even reduce waist size. Also, the muscles may become more prominant - that six pack may overwhelm the remnants of the six packs you drank during the off season! But I hope this is my last comment in a diet thread.

Phil, you're not fat at all. As for where fat is stored and which fat stores get used first, I think that it is different for each individual.

I didn't say I was fat; I'm not. when I started swimming I had more fat tissue than I wanted, though I did not and do not consider myself fat at the time. And I agree completely that fat loss isindividual, both in where it is lost and how easily it is lost.

Visceral fat, which collects around the internal organs and underneathe the muscles, is arguably A) easier to lose--it's sometimes called labile fat, B) less healthy for your heart and longevity (apple vs. pear considerations--probably has to do with the fact that because it is easier to mobilize, it can get into the blood stream and from there into artery walls, and C) more likely to be a problem in men vs. women (think of all those rail-thin guys you've seen who would have great bodies were it not for the enormous beer guts they sprout). Subcutaneous fat, which classically collects around the hips and thighs and is a prime target for liposuctionists everywhere, is arguably A) harder to lose--it's sometimes called stabile fat--possibly because its blood supply and overall temperature tends to be lower than that seen in visceral fat, which (see above) resides closer to ones core, B) less of a health threat (again, pears don't seem to have the same heart attack risks as apples) and C) is more likely to be a probem in women vs. men (think of those women who diet to the point of becoming skeletons above the waist but still have robustly sturdy earth mother nether regions). The sad gender fact about fat is that men do tend to have an easier time losing it through exercise than women, possibly because men's "labile" fat is designed as an easily portable food source, and women's "stabile" fat is designed as a last-gap anti-starvation device for developing embryos. Fat men, however, are much more likely to suffer premature cardiovascular demise than fat women. So in the final analysis the question becomes this, in my mind: look better or live longer? Pick one.