Does swimming help you loose weight and get in shape.

Sounds familiar...My racing weight was 165 in college ('78-'82.) I ballooned to 216 in September 2006 when I decided I needed to lose some serious weight -- plus my cholesterol was way out of whack.:doh: So I started to swim again mid September. I started with about 1K a day 4 days a week then got up to 4-5K 5 or 6 days a week in a couple of months. Counted calories and carbs too. My weight went down to 173...and well...I caught the swimming bug again and started swimming Masters in February. My weight mostly has been from 180 since. And my cholesterol was down 40 points -- and I'm getting retested next week.:party2: My motto...more calories out than in. No magic pills to help, either. Mark Racing weight was 177 in college in '84 Got up to 210 after 20 year layoff Started light weight training to get in general shape then slowly swimming - working up from 400 yards 1st day to 4000 at 9 months. In the first roughly 4 months I lost 25-29 lbs. Prior to this all I did was sit behind a desk with zero exercise. I was just trying to get into shape and not lose weight. I actually dramatically increased my food intake (especially after morning workout eating at least twice as much when I started doing "hard" workouts. I would say yes to your question "Does swimming help you loose weight and get in shape." BTW in HS I was eating an average of 7000 calories a day ( didn't include all the oreos and other great junk food) and could not gain weight.

Sounds familiar...My racing weight was 165 in college ('78-'82.) I ballooned to 216 in September 2006 when I decided I needed to lose some serious weight -- plus my cholesterol was way out of whack.:doh: So I started to swim again mid September. I started with about 1K a day 4 days a week then got up to 4-5K 5 or 6 days a week in a couple of months. Counted calories and carbs too. My weight went down to 173...and well...I caught the swimming bug again and started swimming Masters in February. My weight mostly has been from 180 since. And my cholesterol was down 40 points -- and I'm getting retested next week.:party2: My motto...more calories out than in. No magic pills to help, either. Mark Racing weight was 177 in college in '84 Got up to 210 after 20 year layoff Started light weight training to get in general shape then slowly swimming - working up from 400 yards 1st day to 4000 at 9 months. In the first roughly 4 months I lost 25-29 lbs. Prior to this all I did was sit behind a desk with zero exercise. I was just trying to get into shape and not lose weight. I actually dramatically increased my food intake (especially after morning workout eating at least twice as much when I started doing "hard" workouts. I would say yes to your question "Does swimming help you loose weight and get in shape." BTW in HS I was eating an average of 7000 calories a day ( didn't include all the oreos and other great junk food) and could not gain weight.