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.
Great article, but it doesn't answer the question of which exercise is healthier. 15% body fat for a woman is about the level for irregular periods. Compare swimmers and runners and see who looks healthier!
I know a guy whenhe was in his twenties, he appeared to be nothing but muscle. He went to get his body fat measured & it was over 17%. also, does anyone remember the aussie swimmer from the fifties who had a really high body fat count. I know I've seen pictures of him doing things like backbends and other yoga manuveures.
Originally posted by laineybug
You were lucky to have such a wise woman as your coach!
Agree completely! It sounds as if she respects who you are, not trying to remake you into some artificial ideal of an athlete.
Now me, I have a conflict: I run AND swim, and my body can't decide if it wants to be round or thin. (Well, to some degree it aims toward "round" when within viewing distance of beer, dark chocolate, etc.) ;)
My hometown is big on sports, but not so big on swimming. As a result, I was one of very few female high school swimmers in my area, and often felt insecure about myself because my running counterparts were always skinnier.
My high school coach told me something once, when I finally told her the reason I was killing myself trying to lose weight (and hurting my times because I wasn't eating right). She said, "All athletes adapt to their sport's requirements. Football players have to be heavy to block hits, basketball players must be tall to make baskets, runners must be thin to go fast, and swimmers must be more round, less angular, so they glide through the water without creating drag."
God bless my coach. I never forgot what she said.
Originally posted by ande
On the fat thing, I think cool pool water temps may cause the body to have subcutaneous fat. So some swimmers appear softer than other types of athletes.
It's amazing, I've swum with several if not many female swimmers who still had weight problems, despite training 10,000 or more a day, Some of it might be over eating, some of it might be genetics, some people have a tendancy toward carrying more weight than others.
Some big girls are fairly fast, but I believe they aren't as fast as they could be if they lost 10, 15, or 20 pounds.
The problems with our society are
1) bad-for-us foods are plentiful and advertised,
2) bad-for-us foods are easy to get,
3) some children grow up with terrible role models, which gives them terrible life habits. Like if a child grows up with obese parents and siblings.
4) people have terrible calorie ingesting habits, they eat too much, drink too much, just genrally take in too many calories,
like they don't think about how many calories are in a can of soda,
5) people sit around too much and don't move.
which could stem from sedentary jobs, watching too much TV, playing video, and computer games.
The truth is, humans have been around a couple million years and for most of it, our race has had to struggle to survive. There weren't stores, restaurants, or processed foods. People probably ate more plants and less meat. People lived off the land, they had to find, hunt, or grow their own food. They had to move to get it. Food was fresh, it wasn't processed. Machines are now doing work people used to do, we eat more and don't have to move as much.
Well said. I couldn't agree more. You wonder how fast they would be if they lost the extra weight. A "gut" on a 17 year old girl is not attractive...I think that it's difficult for the coaches to bring it up because they're afraid of "eating disorder" issues. If the girl's parents are not responsible enough to tell her to lose weight then the coach needs to. In the long run he/she is doing her a favor. Childhood obesity is a HUGE problem in this country for the reasons that Ande has listed...
The local elementary schools have been bringing groups to our pool over the lunch hour. I was shocked to see how many of the kids were not merely pudgy, but what the docs describe as morbidly obese. I seem to recall there being a few "fat kids" in my elementary classes in the 60's; I'd say at least 1/2 of today's kids were well over their ideal weight. And I live in a very sports-oriented small town; I can't imagine the scope of the problem in the Heartland from whence I came.
From my (admittedly limited) observation, the reports of rampant childhood obesity appear to be true.
Originally posted by thisgirl13
"All athletes adapt to their sport's requirements. Football players have to be heavy to block hits, basketball players must be tall to make baskets
So does that mean if I start playing basketball I'll grow taller? :D
