Swimming to lose weight?

That's what I'm saying... not that you need to run and do other stuff, but more like don't over eat and stuff yourself, eat a normal amount of food and don't overeat to replace the engery you've burned off from swimming if you want to lose weight... I probably didn't write that the best way. :) Basically the study was saying that if you're a swimmer, you tend to eat more, so if you're doing it to lose weight and you're eating more.. then you're going to have to add in like running or something else... but if you are watching what you eat, and swimming, and not adding in food, you're going to lose weight...

I heard about the study that says that swimmers tend to eat more after a workout than other athletes, thus making up some of the calories burnt by the workout. Now, that doesn't mean that swimming won't cause you to lose weight, but it may mean that you're subconsciously eating more when you're swimming than when you're not swimming, thus preventing weight loss at a decent rate. I had started swimming after a long absence in order to lose weight and it wasn't happening much. Then, a friend convinced me to join weight watchers, and BOOM, the weight came off almost faster than anyone else in the group (and they were jealous because after swimming for an hour I could have a guilt-free scoop of ice cream). In other words - just swimming may not help lose weight (it'll still help with your cardiovascular system, though). You still have to watch what you eat. Personally, I swim so I can eat ice cream without it going directly to my hips. Kae

Basically the study was saying that if you're a swimmer, you tend to eat more I can definitely believe that. After swimming, I have a ravenous appetite. But I have actually lost some weight since I have started swimming regularly about 4 months ago. I think part of it is that I have not quite learned how to swim very efficiently, so I burn a lot of energy swimming. When I'm resting at the end of the lane, I can feel myself generating a lot of heat, and I have to keep myself submerged to cool off. I continue to feel hot for a couple hours after swimming, so I assume that my metabolism stays elevated.

OK, well I'm completely addicted to whitey's ice cream.... so I'll just have to double up the swimming effort so I can be guilt free for a double scoop? :) :D

As a female (and NOT an elite swimmer) I disagree with Bowman. I swim 1 to 1 1/2 hours, 4 to 6 days a week; once in a while I will throw in a 2 to 2 1/2 hour workout - certainly not at the elite level like I'm sure Bowman is used to seeing, and I weight train 2 to 3 hours per week. That's it. I was not losing weight with this routine because I was eating high fat foods and drinking too much wine and beer. When I changed my diet, which included cutting out my nightly wine habit, I lost 30 pounds - and I stuck to the same exercise routine. There have been weeks where I could not weight train and I just swam, and I kept losing weight and I've kept it off since. Is he talking about pre-teens or teens who's body fat % is going kind of crazy (norman for teen girls)?? - but then again he's pretty much in contact with elite female swimmers only, correct? I don't understand how he's arrived at this conclusion.

Well, ya know, we could all prove Bob wrong. :)

Kirk - I ended up reading the whole article after I posted and now I think I understand the point he was trying to make. Swimming - as a sport - is certainly peculiar that way. From what I understand about it, an elite athlete has to consume enough calories to train at such a high level. And as a young girl, you can go from something like 8% body fat to almost 17% body fat in a short period of time. Anyway - for what it's worth, I would be interested to read up further on the subject. For me, I know that I can't eat for at least an hour after I swim, and others feel like they're starving.

I also fidget an am very skinny. I read an article on weight loss recently. It was a study of over 200 peole. They only people who had kept the weight off were people who had had bariatric surgery. Every one lost weight but most had put it back on within two years. The basic conclusion was tha people who are over wieght aren't over weight because of what they eat or their life-style, they are over wieght becuase they are overwieght. This interested me because I see people who swim really hard but are still overweight. They exercise, eat right and don't lose weight. I know that until very recently, most people in the field said that swimming is not going to help a person lose wieght. I don't see how it possibly can. For three reasons either a swimmer is not increasing the heart rate enough, not working hard enough for a long enough period of time, or the water is helping decrease the amount of energy needed. Also, it takes so much energy & work to get to the stored fat the body has set aside.

A big thing with swimmers and the weight loss thing, is that it's mostly elite swimmers who don't lose weight. Any form of exercise promotes weight loss; however, elite swimmers aren't really looking for weight loss. Think of your body's stored fat/muscle as the base line. Now, anything you eat is "extra". For simplicity, let's say that foods sort themselves into three groups: carbohydrates, fat, and protein (I know there's a lot of other stuff, but bear with me, this is the simple version). Now, when you swim, your body prefers to use up the extra carbohydrates first. When it's used all those carbs up, it will start using the "extra" protein and fat next (still working on the food you ate recently). Now, only when it works off whatever's above the base line will your body start considering alternate sources of fuel: your muscle protein. What flummuxes most people is this: high-end training/swimming doesn't chew up the fat you already have. That's why swimmers also lift weights/have dryland, etc. Because muscle burns up stored fat. So, swimmers have to eat a lot, or their body starts burning into the muscle reserves they've built up. Did I say that right? Did y'all get it? I'm not saying you guys don't lose weight, nor am I saying that's exactly how it works. This was just the kindergarten version of medical school (covers the essentials without using big words), to help explain why elite swimmers don't lose weight.

Whitey's is definitly ice cream... TCBY was the yogurt stuff... I'm pretty sure Whitey's has some custard or yogurt stuff, but it's mainly real ice cream and malts. :) Old fashioned style... Stop.. stop... must get it out of my brain....