I'm sure many of you are already aware of this article on about.com It reviews a couple of studies that try to explain why swimmers tend to have more body fat than other athletes.
Thought if you weren't aware of the article you might find it interesting.
swimming.about.com/.../offsite.htm
Lainey
It's kind of strange they don't mention that swimmers don't need to be thinner. It seems obvious to me that runners and cyclists want to be as light (and for cyclists, the bike too) as possible because they're fighting gravity, whereas this isn't true of swimmers. I have to think this is part of the explanation. There's also got to be something to the fact we swim in water colder than our body temperature. Water is, after all, much more efficient at carrying heat away from our bodies than air is.
Another strange thing in that article is they mention the female runners and swimmers had similar caloric intakes, yet it then says the swimmers averaged 2490 and the runners 2040. That means, on average, the swimmers consumed 22% more calories. They consider this to be similar? Hmmm.
It's kind of strange they don't mention that swimmers don't need to be thinner. It seems obvious to me that runners and cyclists want to be as light (and for cyclists, the bike too) as possible because they're fighting gravity, whereas this isn't true of swimmers. I have to think this is part of the explanation. There's also got to be something to the fact we swim in water colder than our body temperature. Water is, after all, much more efficient at carrying heat away from our bodies than air is.
Another strange thing in that article is they mention the female runners and swimmers had similar caloric intakes, yet it then says the swimmers averaged 2490 and the runners 2040. That means, on average, the swimmers consumed 22% more calories. They consider this to be similar? Hmmm.
