Swimming & Weight Loss

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!

I did Atkins, 50 lbs in 5 months. swimming 4 times a week, from 3k to 6k yards a workout. it was very hard to swim on 20 to 30g of carbs a day for the first month, but eventually it worked out well.

Kari, I think you are my long lost twin! Your comment about the personal wine and cheese parties made me laugh. Sometimes I think that wine bottle has a leak in it! :D I have noticed that I really don't want a glass of wine on the evenings I swim right after work. Uh....do you think there might be a connection here between wine and attempts at relieving stress? ;) Thank you for your advice. I love to hear about success stories from real people.

Susan - yes, you're my long lost twin! LOL. I don't like to have wine either after I swim at night; in fact, I don't to drink at all for at least 4-5 hours after I work out. Yes - there is definitely a link between the "wine and cheese" parties and stress relief..... ;)

I find that I achieve a given level of weight when I do a given regimen of workout. If I increase my distance and intensity a given amount, I quickly drop some amount of weight, and then stay there as long as I keep that workout schedule. If I drop back to my old level, I put back on the weight I had before the increase in workout, and stay there. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to my caloric intake. I know it is high. Way high. I do not shy away from the potlucks at work. Never turned down an invitation to a picnic. Back in 1993 I participated in a study at the Olympic Training Center, and one of the elements of the study was a diet analysis. I averaged over 4000 calories per day. They also did a body fat analysis. At the time I had 11% body fat and weighed 219. Since then I have been as high as 249 (beginning of 2005), but was averaging in the lower 240s. In March of 2005 I decided I wanted to swim in a 2.4 mile open water swim. I upped my workouts from 2500 yards, 6 days per week, to 4200-4500 yards, 6 days per week. By August I had dropped to a range of 226-233. I'm still there today. I'm curious to have a body fat analysis done again, because I believe I have added muscle mass, and not just fat, since my 219 days.

Maybe something should be said about the ability of swimmers to use aerobic/anaerobic workouts. Some strokes may use more anaerobic training and then there will be less weight loss even though there is major cardio going on. Here is what I got off googling anaerobic workouts: Anaerobic Training is 'Highly' Aerobic By Jack Blatherwick This is not a lesson in semantics; there is a very important concept here regarding the development of skills and athleticism among young hockey players. The phrase 'anaerobic training’ is often equated with 'anaerobic metabolism,' and the terms are not interchangeable. The other day, a fitness instructor on TV incorrectly explained that when a person is working anaerobically, he/she is no longer using oxygen. Let's hope the workout doesn't last long, or the athlete would obviously suffocate. The fact is, anaerobic workouts can be highly aerobic - - more aerobic than aerobic workouts, for that matter. To understand this we need to know the basic terms. First, metabolism (in this case) means the chemical conversion of dietary fuels to energy to be used for muscle contraction. Muscle cells 'burn' fuels like glucose (sugar), fat, protein, and even lactate (one of the products of anaerobic metabolism). The word aerobic literally means with oxygen. Aerobic metabolism occurs when energy is supplied by combining oxygen with dietary fuels. Typical aerobic training (long, slow distances like jogging) is done at a slow pace so that oxygen can be supplied to working muscles fast enough to match the need. Anaerobic metabolism is the chemical breakdown of fuels without oxygen, and this is required when the muscles are working so hard that oxygen cannot be supplied fast enough. Technically speaking, the only way exercise could be totally anaerobic is if the person were not allowed to breathe. In reality, during normal anaerobic workouts there is a huge aerobic component - - breathing is often much heavier than during aerobic workouts, the heart is pumping at (near)-maximum rates, and muscles are being supplied with a lot of oxygen. But the delivery of oxygen is inadequate to match the elevated workload, so anaerobic metabolism must also contribute to the energy production. How much it contributes depends on the intensity and length of the work intervals, the length of the rest, and the ratio of work to rest. Therefore, anaerobic training uses both the aerobic and anaerobic metabolic pathways. It also challenges - - and therefore trains - - the cardiovascular system. So, when fitness instructors refer to 'cardio' workouts, as if they must be aerobic, they are wrong. It is also incorrect to claim that aerobic workouts are the best way to increase aerobic capacity. For old duffers like this author, long, slow distance workouts are the safest way to increase cardiovascular fitness. But for young hockey players, much of the endurance training should be anaerobic intervals, which also elevate the comfort zone for competition and increase speed, power, skill, and explosiveness. By training aerobically (long, slow distances) there is no improvement in speed, explosiveness, or power. Furthermore, training at an aerobic pace on the ice would establish a slow comfort zone which is more than just a habit. There are definite physiological consequences when one tries to compete at a faster pace than practice. So, what's the point? Without skating speed, quickness, and agility, no one makes it to the highest levels of hockey, and this requires hours and hours of training - - on the ice and off - - using quality intervals. The good news is that you can also gain aerobic endurance and cardiovascular efficiency as a byproduct of this training. We tested a college men's hockey team before and after six weeks of dryland interval training designed to improve running speed and quickness, anaerobic power on hills, and explosive power using skating-specific squat jumps. The training included short sprint intervals (5-15 seconds work : 50-60 seconds rest) and longer intervals for anaerobic power and endurance (30:60 and 30:90). There was no aerobic distance training. Workouts lasted only 45 minutes in the first week and increased to 90 minutes by the sixth week. Post-tests showed significant improvements in skating quickness even though none of the training was on-ice. There were also improvements in power, measured during two anaerobic bicycle tests (12-second sprint test improved 6.8%; 40-second all-out Wingate test improved 8.0%). But the greatest percentage improvements were apparent during a graded exercise test to measure changes in cardio-respiratory parameters normally associated with aerobic training. Total work done during the graded exercise test increased by 29%. This, of course, measures a combination of aerobic and anaerobic work. Anaerobic threshold was elevated by 20%, and VO2 max increased 6.3%. In a separate 5km run, subjects improved their times by 5.5%, and no one ran distances during the training period. Cardiovascular parameters also improved. One indication of successful endurance training is that the heart rate is lower at any given workload, indicating the stroke volume has increased. In other words, after a six-week training program the heart pumps more blood per beat, so it doesn't have to beat as fast. For this team, the heart rates were lower at every workload after training six weeks (post-testing). This is shown on the graph. Furthermore, the elapsed time until the heart rate reached 85% of its maximum was extended by 5.5%. Similar results were reported by scientists in a separate study (Fox et.al. Med.Sci.Sports Exerc. pp.18-22. 1973). The message is clear. You do not have to train aerobically to gain cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, because anaerobic training can have a tremendously high component of aerobic metabolism along with the various anaerobic pathways supplying energy to the muscles. Hockey is an interval game, so the most important endurance training is interval workouts on-ice. During games, shifts on the ice are typically about 40 seconds long, and rest intervals on the bench are 2 to 3 times as long if there are no face-offs. Biomechanists analyzed high-speed film to determine that a typical 40-second shift will have a series of short (3-second) bursts of acceleration and deceleration. Furthermore, research has verified what hockey players feel each year at training camp: endurance training off-ice may not increase endurance on-ice (Daub et.al. Med.Sci.Sports Exerc. pp. 290-294. 1983). The Bottom Line At a young age when it is still possible to make significant improvements in skating skill, speed, quickness, and agility, it is important to spend most of your time training for these goals (along with other hockey skills). Whether skating, sprinting, jumping, or lifting weights, the anaerobic interval training needs to be very intense, much greater energy output than the pace of an aerobic workout. The good news is you can have your cake and eat it, too. If you plan the anaerobic workouts wisely there will be significant improvements in cardiovascular and respiratory fitness without the need to jog or bike distances. From: overspeed.info/.../index.php

Definitely alot of food for thought. :D Thanks everyone for your input/advice!

Ask me in February after I finish my first season on the varsity team here....then I can tell you if I've lost weight, lol.

Swimmign can possibnly help you lose weight. It is better to build muscle and heart strength. You won't lose weight if you don't push yourself & watch your intake.

also note, "weight" is not the "Be all end all". if you are exercising hard and doing strength training, you should gain muscle mass. if you lose 10 lbs of fat and gain 15 lbs of muscle, your weight will have gone up 5lbs. now that might be discouraging, but its actually a good thing, unless you are a horse jockey or some other individual where absolute weight is all that matters.