I saw this article online and it really dampen my spirit since swimming is my favorite sport and I am trying to loose weight at the same time. Any comment??
SWIMMING IS NOT GOOD FOR WEIGHT LOSS
If you want to lose weight, lower cholesterol, or help to control diabetes, swimming is better than nothing, but not that much better (1).
A recent report from the University of Colorado shows that obese people who start a supervised swimming program do not lower their fasting blood sugar, insulin, total cholesterol, good HDL cholesterol and bad LDL cholesterol levels. They also did not lose weight or redistribute their body fat (2).
These results are different from people who start land-based sports such as running, aerobic dancing, racquetball and cycling. When you exercise on land, your body is surrounded by air which insulates you, causing your body to retain heat and your body temperature to rise for up to 18 hours after you finish exercising. Increased body temperature speeds up your metabolism and helps you to lose weight and lower cholesterol. On the other hand, when you swim, your body is surrounded by water which is an excellent conductor of heat away from your body, preventing your body temperature from rising. If you want to lose weight by swimming, the best way is to do it is by using a swimming machine on dry land.
I'm Dr. Gabe Mirkin on Fitness.
1) H Tanaka, DR Bassett, ET Howley. Effects of swim training on body weight, carbohydrate
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Originally posted by jane
The theory that swimming does not lead to weight loss is popular. However, many of the studies that claim to show this do not really use swim training but leisurely swimming. It would be interesting to review the study this article references and see what sort of swimming the participants did. I'm sure it was nothing close to any of the workouts posted on this site.
It would also be interesting to see a study that started with out of shape former swimmers and returned them to regular, high level training. The results would probably show changes as many of the posters in this thread have noted. The number of calories burned in a workout is much different for 3000 yards with intervals and a 500 swim in 30 minutes.
I'm in the former swimmer that gained weight category. When I got back in the water 5 years ago, I weighed just over 200 pounds. I pretty quickly got down to around 165 and I've managed to keep in the 165-175 pound range. I didn't conciously change my eating habits but I certainly changed my exercise habit. I don't run at all. I swim on average 4 times per week for a total of around 20,000 yards. People can lose weight swimming but just like anything else, it takes patience, time and effort.
Originally posted by jane
The theory that swimming does not lead to weight loss is popular. However, many of the studies that claim to show this do not really use swim training but leisurely swimming. It would be interesting to review the study this article references and see what sort of swimming the participants did. I'm sure it was nothing close to any of the workouts posted on this site.
It would also be interesting to see a study that started with out of shape former swimmers and returned them to regular, high level training. The results would probably show changes as many of the posters in this thread have noted. The number of calories burned in a workout is much different for 3000 yards with intervals and a 500 swim in 30 minutes.
I'm in the former swimmer that gained weight category. When I got back in the water 5 years ago, I weighed just over 200 pounds. I pretty quickly got down to around 165 and I've managed to keep in the 165-175 pound range. I didn't conciously change my eating habits but I certainly changed my exercise habit. I don't run at all. I swim on average 4 times per week for a total of around 20,000 yards. People can lose weight swimming but just like anything else, it takes patience, time and effort.
