weight loss

Shaky, Thanks so much for that thorough answer. Finally I understand what's going on! When I was running--it was always long distance in training for full length marathons. That's why I could scarf down the pizza with no effect. Now I'm injured and not running or even walking, but finally went to a doc, and think I'm going to be ok in about 8 weeks. Since I understand what's going on now I'm going to add some eliptical machine to help burn fat. Lord knows my jeans could stand to be a little less suffocating! Thanks!! JoAnne ;)

The fundamental rule of weight loss is 3500 calorie deficit (surplus) = 1 pound weight loss (gain). This equation holds true whether your calorie expenditure is from swimming or running, and whether your calorie intake is in the form of pizza or alfalfa sprouts. The equation is also true whether your weight loss is from lean tissue or fat. If you want to lose weight from swimming, and don't mind doing a little arithmetic, (1) Figure out how many calories you need in a day (2) Keep a daily log of what you eat and how much you swim, (3) ensure that you maintain a (let's say) 500 calorie defict each day. That would put you on track to lose one pound a week. There are free websites for doing all of the calculations above. I lost 30 pounds myself using this approach. It's not that difficult, and there's a certain satisfaction.

Originally posted by eliana2003 Maybe it's that the muscle that you've been building is counter-acting the weight loss that would otherwise be noticeable on the scale... In high school, I could tell I was getting in shape because my weight would increase during the season (muscle mass from the weights and swim workouts). That has now changed to "getting in shape = weight loss" due to the spare tire around the waist. :(

I respectfully disagree with the statement that you can't lose weight swimming. Last year, I lost 70 lbs. in eight months. Swimming was, and still is, my only exercise activity. The first 50 came off quickly in 4 months, and the last 20 came off a little less quickly, in 4 months. I went from a size 42 waist to a 34, and after the first 50 lbs., when buying a dress shirt I learned my neck measurement was an inch smaller. In addition to losing the weight quickly and maintaining it successfully for the past year, I have had almost 40 lifetime best swims in pool competition during the last year. By the way, I am 37 years old, I only swim about 1600 meters per day (in a 25 meter pool), and all of my PRs in the last year were unshaved, unrested, and untapered. Perhaps the most dramatic time drop was in the 1500 meter freestyle (SCM), where I dropped from 19:53 to 18:34. The previous best time was from 1993. I also dropped from 19:34 to 18:36 in the 1650, and 20:49 to 19:40 in the 1500 long course, among the many other improvements. My result is strong testimony to the power of mindful, balanced nutrition combined with regular exercise. Bill

Originally posted by Bill Volckening My result is strong testimony to the power of mindful, balanced nutrition combined with regular exercise. Yeah, but JoAnne wants to be able to eat pizza! Come to think of it, so do I.:D

Jerrycat, Re: weight loss: Exrunner's advice plus Bill's advice = weight loss! Bottom line...Burn more calories than you eat and you will lose weight. Whether or not you lose muscle mass is more along the line of what Shaky is talking about... Are you willing to maintain your current weight if you lower your % body fat?

Admittedly, I'm not a sports expert, but I've heard that swimming will NOT take weight off... However, I do find (that at least with me) I tend to tone up rather well (as I'm rather stocky, I get muscular really easily), but my weight goes up, because muscle weighs more than fat... Have you toned up at all? Maybe it's that the muscle that you've been building is counter-acting the weight loss that would otherwise be noticeable on the scale... peace...

Weight loss should only be undertaken as a set of permanent lifestyle changes (incorporating exercise and sensible eating). Depriving yourself of pizza and other treats will only increase the odds of the plan failing. Therefore I recommend the calorie-count approach. You can eat any food item you wish, as long as you keep to your calorie limit (and meet basic nutritional requirements). A slice of commercially produced cheese pizza might be something like 400 calories. If you have 2000 calories in your daily budget, you can have a slice during lunch with plenty of caloric headroom to work with the rest of the day. Tomorrow, in fact, I plan to meet my Dad at the Chinese buffet.

Evolution. The muscles in the lower body, mostly "dark meat," have evolved in such a way that the body powers them by burning fat. Body fat provides an almost limitless source of energy, allowing the muscles to be used for long periods of time, while walking long distances. Lower body exercise like walking, running or biking taps into these muscles' ability to burn fat. The muscles in the upper body are mostly "white meat" and have evolved to be powered by burning glycogen stored in the muscles themselves. These muscles evolved for quick bursts of activity, such as throwing, grasping, tearing or lifting, instead of sustained activity. Since it takes more time to get energy out of stored fat, the glycogen serves as a quick start system. The white muscles will burn fat, but the body resists letting them do it until their glycogen reserves are depleted. Likewise, the dark muscles will burn glycogen for quick bursts of speed, but are optimized to burn fat. The two types of muscle correspond roughly to aerobic and anaerobic exercise, swimming having a large anaerobic component provided by the resistance of the water. Since more muscle mass can store more glycogen, working muscles anaerobically will cause the body to react by building muscle. Exercise that is more aerobic will build less muscle, since the the muscle mass isn't necessary to store glycogen to power the muscles that way. To put that all into the context of your question, when you run, you are not building very much muscle, but you are burning fat. You're losing fat weight without building muscle weight. When you swim, even though you lose fat, you will not lose it as efficiently as when running because the muscles in use don't draw on the fat reserves as readily. Meanwhile, you're also building muscle when you swim, which offsets the weight you lose from fat. You also mentioned the hunger that comes from swimming. That's a direct result of glycogen depletion. When you burn the glycogen out of your muscles, your body will want to replenish it as quickly as possible in order to be ready for the next burst of activity. When you burn fat through lower body exercise, the body tends to keep running on the fat reserves for a while once the process has gone into high gear, and it thinks that it doesn't need any additional fuel. Thus hunger is suppressed. For many swimmers trying to lose weight, the loss of glycogen causes a craving for carbohydrates. Carbs are the quickest way to replenish the glycogen in the muscles. The problem is that eating carbs without a balancing portion of protein causes them to hit the blood system as sugar more quickly than the muscles can absorb them, and the blood sugar level spikes. To counter that spike, the body releases insulin. Insulin triggers the formation of fat; it causes the sugar to be taken out of the bloodstream and stored for future use in the fat cells. Tell me if this sounds familiar: You get out of the pool starving. You eat something starchy to satisfy your hunger. But half an hour later you desperately want a nap, and if you don't get it your brain goes into a fog. That's caused by an insulin spike. Your body wants glycogen, so you give it carbs. Insulin is released to get rid of the excess. It works too well, so your blood sugar goes a little low. When your blood sugar goes low, your body responds by trying to shut down for a while to recover. You can avoid that by eating some protein with your carbs. The protein is more difficult to digest, and when it is mixed with the carbs in the digestive system it prevents them from being absorbed as rapidly. Thus, the body can keep up with the sugar entering the system without releasing an insulin spike, thus avoiding issuing a command to the body to store fat. Finally, that business about running keeping you from being hungry because it jostles your internal organs is a wives' tale. You can pound on someone's abdomen with a billy club, but if his muscles are depleted of glycogen he'll still be hungry.

This may be a tangent (sorry) -- but I never said you couldn't eat pizza! In fact, I make my own now, and it's every bit as good as the brick oven pizzas you can get at the fancy pizzarias. Here's how it's done... I make my own dough: (simple...mix together: 1 part warm water, 3 parts flour, 1 cake yeast), knead and let it rise for 45 min to an hour, divide it in three and use 1/3 rolled very thin (@ 1/8th inch). You can freeze the other two portions and use them later. I then place the rolled dough on a pizza paddle that is well-dusted with cornmeal, top it and bake in a pre-heated oven (hot - 475-500 degrees) for 8-10 minutes on a pizza stone. For toppings, I recommend using a lot less cheese than what you might be used to using. Use a flavorful cheese, and a smaller amount. If you use mozzarella, try a very light sprinkling just as the "glue" to hold the other toppings in place. Recently, I copied (and modified slightly) Wolfgang Puck's BBQ chicken pizza...I used some spicy BBQ sauce, thinly sliced tomatoes, sliced grilled marinated chicken, a very light sprinkling of coursely chopped red onion, a small amount of mozzarella to hold it together, and some crumbled Israeli sheep milk feta for some extra flavor. After it came out of the oven, I sprinkled some coursely chopped fresh cilantro leaves over the top. It was awesome! I ask, why would anyone eat Dominoes pizza when they could easily make their own. Back to the main point: diets are restrictive. I didn't go on a diet. Instead, I really got into food, and learned how to prepare food the way the top gourmet chefs prepare it -- with as many seasonal, fresh ingredients as possible. I spent a little time watching the cable television food network, where the whole world has access to some of the best teachers: Sara Moulton, Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, Kathleen Daelemans, Emeril Lagasse, Rocco DiSpirito, etc., etc. When you do it right, you can routinely prepare great meals that are less than 500 calories (watch those portion sizes, though), cost just a few bucks, and go together in 15 minutes or less (pizza dough takes longer, but with advance prep, it goes together quickly). People still ask me how I dropped the weight, and I have started to tell them it was eating gourmet food in the proper amounts and swimming every day. So, anyway, my apologies for turning the USMS Discussion Forum into the Cooking Thin Fan Forum from www.foodtv.com -- and for rambling on and on about food -- but I hope people know they can enjoy themselves and really enjoy food without feeling restricted when trying to lose weight. Exercise is the non-negotiable part of the formula -- and to go back to the original premise of this thread -- swimming is an excellent form of exercise and you can lose weight doing it. As you forum readers can probably tell, weight loss has become a very important issue for me during the last couple years. This year, I have been sharing parts of my story in SWIM Magazine, with the hope that I can help others. If I can do it, you can, too! Bill