It seems that there are completely different opinions among the so-called experts when it comes to swimming for weight loss.
Does anyone know of someone who swims regularly and has not lost weight? I don't mean a leisurely couple of laps, but a regular workout.
Are there any obese swimmers who work out regularly and are competitive?
I'm thinking that the fitness experts don't like swimming because they are either:
a. Not good swimmers
b. Can't swim enough distance to get a good work out in; or
c. Had a bad experience with swimming.
Any input on this topic is appreciated (beyond the diet and exercise speech).
Susan - I wasn't on a particular diet; I just cut down on the amount of food I was eating.
I LOVE cheese - any kind of cheese and I would eat it for snacks while cooking dinner; I would sprinkle it on almost anything that I ate, etc. I was in a kind of cheese-denial that I had to force myself out of - because when I finally braced up and looked at the calorie and fat grams of cheese, I HAD to stop eating it all together for a while. I was also drinking a lot of wine, pretty much every night - sometimes a bottle just on my own! Hence, the little personal wine and cheese parties were keeping the weight on, no matter how much I swam. When I cut that out, it made a huge difference.
Another thing that really helped was learning to listen to my body and STOP eating when I was full. That took practice because I was in the habit of overeating and stuffing myself and not listening to my body. Once I started doing that, I was amazed at how little I actually ate. I would give myself permission to not eat everything on my plate and if I couldn't bring myself to throw the food away, I just covered my plate and ate it later, when I was hungry again. So - no starving myself, but I only ate when I was truly hungry.
Drinking a lot of water helped too, because I noticed that I would think I was hungry when I was actually thirsty or dehydrated.
Now - I still have potato chips - but instead of taking the whole bag with me in front of the TV, I put a small amount in a bowl, and when I am done with the bowl, I'm done with the chips!
Basically, I still eat and drink whatever I want - I just don't eat a lot of it or too much of it.
Hope this helps!
Susan - I wasn't on a particular diet; I just cut down on the amount of food I was eating.
I LOVE cheese - any kind of cheese and I would eat it for snacks while cooking dinner; I would sprinkle it on almost anything that I ate, etc. I was in a kind of cheese-denial that I had to force myself out of - because when I finally braced up and looked at the calorie and fat grams of cheese, I HAD to stop eating it all together for a while. I was also drinking a lot of wine, pretty much every night - sometimes a bottle just on my own! Hence, the little personal wine and cheese parties were keeping the weight on, no matter how much I swam. When I cut that out, it made a huge difference.
Another thing that really helped was learning to listen to my body and STOP eating when I was full. That took practice because I was in the habit of overeating and stuffing myself and not listening to my body. Once I started doing that, I was amazed at how little I actually ate. I would give myself permission to not eat everything on my plate and if I couldn't bring myself to throw the food away, I just covered my plate and ate it later, when I was hungry again. So - no starving myself, but I only ate when I was truly hungry.
Drinking a lot of water helped too, because I noticed that I would think I was hungry when I was actually thirsty or dehydrated.
Now - I still have potato chips - but instead of taking the whole bag with me in front of the TV, I put a small amount in a bowl, and when I am done with the bowl, I'm done with the chips!
Basically, I still eat and drink whatever I want - I just don't eat a lot of it or too much of it.
Hope this helps!
