Increasing my weekly yardage seems to have increased my hunger. How can I determine the calories really expended during swims of various lengths or intensities?
And when the office hits the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, how many laps equate to that second or third serving? (Not giving up the food can justify extra time in the pool!)
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Former Member
Freestlyers tend to store fat in their mid-section. The body is using the fat for buoyancy, so it's not going to be burned.
All swimmers inescapably use fat for bouyancy - it is there and it floats. If the above quote were true then we'd expect ALL swimmers to gather fat pretty much throughout the body - perhaps a bit more in the legs than anywhere else. And we might see all those elite distance swimmers that swim predominantly freestyle tending to be even fatter than the casual swimmers.
But, in fact, there is no metabolic mechanism that selects which fat will be burned or where fat will be stored based on balance in the water (bouyancy) or stroke being swum.
Perhaps a more realistic explanation is that people who tend to gather fat around the middle, from the beginning, self select freestyle over the other strokes - perhaps because such a body mass distribution makes those other strokes more cumbersome than freestyle.
All swimmers ALSO use AIR (in the lungs) for bouyancy. In fact, this is a much more effective bouy for most swimmers. Alas, MOST swimmers never learn HOW to use their natural air buoy to greatest advantage.
Freestlyers tend to store fat in their mid-section. The body is using the fat for buoyancy, so it's not going to be burned.
All swimmers inescapably use fat for bouyancy - it is there and it floats. If the above quote were true then we'd expect ALL swimmers to gather fat pretty much throughout the body - perhaps a bit more in the legs than anywhere else. And we might see all those elite distance swimmers that swim predominantly freestyle tending to be even fatter than the casual swimmers.
But, in fact, there is no metabolic mechanism that selects which fat will be burned or where fat will be stored based on balance in the water (bouyancy) or stroke being swum.
Perhaps a more realistic explanation is that people who tend to gather fat around the middle, from the beginning, self select freestyle over the other strokes - perhaps because such a body mass distribution makes those other strokes more cumbersome than freestyle.
All swimmers ALSO use AIR (in the lungs) for bouyancy. In fact, this is a much more effective bouy for most swimmers. Alas, MOST swimmers never learn HOW to use their natural air buoy to greatest advantage.
