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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My experience is that you can lose weigh swimming. I have only made small changes in my eating habits - but have dropped from 213 to 180 in the past 10 months. And I think that I have added some muscle so my fat loss is more than the 33 pounds the scale shows.
Also, I had a streak of three weeks where I could only swim a couple of times (pool closed for annual maintenance, terrible head cold and out of town for a week on business). Over that time, I put about four pounds back on. Then, two weeks of swimming again dropped those four.
I do suspect that many of the subjects in the studies are swimming "liesurely". My work out is intervals with a mix of free/***/fly (have not yet tried back) and pulling/kicking/drills. I check my heart rate once or twice during each workout and it is always over 140 and as high as 160. I am getting about 2700 to 3000 yards in an hour.
As for the "heat sink" keeping you cool, I don't know about that either. When I am done, I feel warm for several hours afterwards. Even when I am resting during my intervals for 20 seconds or so I feel warm.
My experience is that you can lose weigh swimming. I have only made small changes in my eating habits - but have dropped from 213 to 180 in the past 10 months. And I think that I have added some muscle so my fat loss is more than the 33 pounds the scale shows.
Also, I had a streak of three weeks where I could only swim a couple of times (pool closed for annual maintenance, terrible head cold and out of town for a week on business). Over that time, I put about four pounds back on. Then, two weeks of swimming again dropped those four.
I do suspect that many of the subjects in the studies are swimming "liesurely". My work out is intervals with a mix of free/***/fly (have not yet tried back) and pulling/kicking/drills. I check my heart rate once or twice during each workout and it is always over 140 and as high as 160. I am getting about 2700 to 3000 yards in an hour.
As for the "heat sink" keeping you cool, I don't know about that either. When I am done, I feel warm for several hours afterwards. Even when I am resting during my intervals for 20 seconds or so I feel warm.
