Controversy continues

Originally posted by ande 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 I've noticed the same thing and it seems much more common in female swimmers than males. It MAY just be a perception thing. Our mental picture of the ideal male physique may be closer to what a typical male swimmer looks like than what our idea of an ideal femal physique is to a typical female swimmer.

You don't loose weight, you lose it. If you lose weight you'll have less loose skin around your belly :)

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. This cries out for a study comparing swimmers who swim in cool pools versus those who swim in warmer pools. If temperature is the issue those pools we all complain are too hot for training in should produce slimmer swimmers...

I blame fast food restaurants, garage door openers, the fact that no one WALKS anywhere anymore, video games, etc. Kids sit around, eat bad food and don't exercise enough, etc. I blame parents also, though I don't think they should be telling their kids to loose weight either. They need to take responsibility and give their kids healthy foods and take away the video games and computers and tvs. Make them DO things...

Yeah, yeah ...

Originally posted by knelson So does that mean if I start playing basketball I'll grow taller? :D It worked for Tim Duncan. He grew a foot taller after he switched from swimming to basketball.

A couple of the age group teams in my area have some BIG girls who are really talented swimmers and who have college scholarships. I'm actually surprised with all of the training that they do that they still carry so much weight. I think that some of them must have body fat of at least 30%. Personally I know that I swim better when I am heavier but I like to run and lift weights and I prefer myself as "ripped and lean" as opposed to "soft around the edges"...

Don't think of it as "soft around the edges, think of it as "streamlined"

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.

Originally posted by knelson 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. They did mention it, towards the end: A final idea that needs to be explored is whether a selection process is at hand. Elite swimmers may be predisposed to have higher body fat levels because it is a help, or at least less of a disadvantage, to their swimming. ... Higher body fat levels are a greater disadvantage to weight-bearing sports like running. This study examined college athletes who were at equilibrium, energy intake matched energy expended. What might be of interest are athletes who are not at their "optimal" weight or body fat. Include people who are underweight and trying to put on some pounds (muscle), and those who are trying to loose fat. Or maybe take those athletes (after their sport season is over), and cross-train them. See if their bodies try to adapt to a new body fat level, or if it stays the same.