Hey Everyone!
I've noticed that it was so much easier to loose weight with running, as opposed to swimming. It seems even though i'm swimming hard, the 13 or so pounds that I need to loose haven't budged. When I was running, my diet didn't have to be really clean...in fact I ate pizza at least once a week, and found that it helped me during high mileage. During running, my weight was very low despite the pizza habit. While swimming makes me hungrier, and I'm probably burning more calories per workout, the weight loss isn't there.
Why is this?
Thanks,
Jerrycat
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.
So, Shaky, does this mean that we might speed our weight loss in the pool if we added more kicking to our workouts?
I've been trying this week to really be good, food wise, and I might have gone overboard, because I've lost 5lbs in 4 days - I accidentally forgot half my lunch one day & ate only stuffed celery - but it kept me full!! And my appetite is just waning (fortunately). I saw on Dr.Oz yesterday that a good idea for a carb restriction diet is 80gm daily - not complete elimination. But this makes it difficult to workout - you might be fine doing normal things at work & around the house, but a quality workout requires carbohydrates (at least for me). However, I believe you can become accustomed to carb restriction & begin to have quality workouts anyway -- but does anyone have an idea of how long does it take before you "convert" to a more efficient glycogen conversion? I want to ride this train as long as it will let me, but I was trash in the water this morning!!
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.
So, Shaky, does this mean that we might speed our weight loss in the pool if we added more kicking to our workouts?
I've been trying this week to really be good, food wise, and I might have gone overboard, because I've lost 5lbs in 4 days - I accidentally forgot half my lunch one day & ate only stuffed celery - but it kept me full!! And my appetite is just waning (fortunately). I saw on Dr.Oz yesterday that a good idea for a carb restriction diet is 80gm daily - not complete elimination. But this makes it difficult to workout - you might be fine doing normal things at work & around the house, but a quality workout requires carbohydrates (at least for me). However, I believe you can become accustomed to carb restriction & begin to have quality workouts anyway -- but does anyone have an idea of how long does it take before you "convert" to a more efficient glycogen conversion? I want to ride this train as long as it will let me, but I was trash in the water this morning!!
