In cycling, it is a widely held view that losing weight yields faster times (yes, I read the steroid thread). How about in swimming?
I could imagine a theory where carrying a few extra ice cream sundaes in swimming might make you faster due to the increase in bouyancy. In fact, I had this very theory after my freshman year in college. Hey! Who doesn't like ice cream.
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Former Member
By simple observation, we can see that, most of times, the fastest swimmers are not fat.
In the article you mentioned above. I think there is a flaw in the study. The swimmers are actually lean swimmer, fit with muscle density higher than a real fatter swimmer. They simulate fat swimmers by adding artificial fat ("Fatness was enhanced by fitting latex pads under a spandex triathlon suit in the swimmers' adominal, hip, thigh, chest, back, and buttock areas. Microscopic balloons were added to the latex so that the pads had the same density as actual body fat").
When these atheletes swam, they still could use all their muscles. On a real person, the real fat would probably leave less room for muscles and therefore would have less muscle power to do the swim. I don't know if that could be true, just an idea.
By simple observation, we can see that, most of times, the fastest swimmers are not fat.
In the article you mentioned above. I think there is a flaw in the study. The swimmers are actually lean swimmer, fit with muscle density higher than a real fatter swimmer. They simulate fat swimmers by adding artificial fat ("Fatness was enhanced by fitting latex pads under a spandex triathlon suit in the swimmers' adominal, hip, thigh, chest, back, and buttock areas. Microscopic balloons were added to the latex so that the pads had the same density as actual body fat").
When these atheletes swam, they still could use all their muscles. On a real person, the real fat would probably leave less room for muscles and therefore would have less muscle power to do the swim. I don't know if that could be true, just an idea.
