Does swimming help you loose weight and get in shape.

If you are consistant with your workouts and monitoring your diet you should be able to loose weight. I have been able to go from 220 lbs (3 years ago) to 177 now, I had been as low as 173 about 6 weeks ago but I lost it too fast so I needed to add a few pounds before Nationals to keep up my energy. I am still in the process of loosing additional weight. My goal for the end of the summer is between 165-168 and by 2008 short course nationals 150. Swimming is a great low impact aerobic activity, and for the first 2 years that is all I did. But to jump start my weight lose this year I had to add some weightlifting, jogging (I won't call what I do a run) and cycling to the mix as well as eating a minimum of 6 meals per day (not big ones). Shake up your metabolism. You can do it :cheerleader: Donna

From 184 to 164 in a year and a half. Now at college weight and fitness. Michael age 47 :banana:

I'm 43, started losing weight a year ago and swimming 9 months ago. Went from 195 to 165 thru nutritional monitoring and swimming. Lower blood pressure too. I'd like to end up around 145/150. Good resources: Dieting for Dummies (commonsense nutrition) and www.nutritiondata.com (great tool for monitoring nutritional intake - customizable for homemade recipes) Good luck and PM me if you want to talk more. I'm glad you've found swimming. I love it.

I was diagnoesd with thyroid issues in 1996. I went hypo soon after and gained a lot of weight. I was up to about 162 at my peak. I was lifting weights, doing cadrio (step, treadmill, etc) 3 times a week and ballet once a week. Nothing was working.I got back into swimming after a 10 year break and within 8 months had lost over 30 lbs. One thing that did help was my coach at the time telling me to eat only fruit for the first 4 hours I was a awake. I think that helped my weight loss. I have stince stopped that but have maintained my lower weight for over 9 years now. I believe that everyones bodies have exercise that they like. For me it's swimming, some bodies might like jogging, etc. Find what your body likes and that will be the key. Good luck and welcome to swimming! Alison

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.

Wow! I'm not alone! For some reason when I hit 35 I just started packing on the pounds--think it was work-stress related/poor nutrition/divorce. Anyway, have hit my heaviest now near 200lbs. Got back into swimming at the beginning of the year after trying a lot of other things including eating better, yoga, and a whole year of Poekoelan Tjimindi Tulen (a very physically active martial art) with no reduction of weight. Figure it will take some time and more effort. Still having an up and down battle with soda pop. Some times less than once a week. Other times 3-4 times a week. Have to say that I didn't realize how much I had missed swimming (22 year break). I get so excited about swimming the night before I can hardly sleep. Good to feel like a kid again. As swimshark said some bodies like swimming. I guess mine loves it!

Hi all I just recently discovered a love for swimming and would like to know if its a good way to get in shape. Oh and Im a newvy at this so if anyone has aim or yahoo messenger and would like to help me out let me know! It works for me...right up until I get home after swimming and eat 3 or 4 big cookies...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I realized that at some point, air had calories. It comes with the beautiful wonders of aging. Remember getting old isn't for wimps, but it beats the alternative.:joker: This is true. As you get older, your metabolism just slows down. I seem to recall Paul Smith telling me that if you overtrain to compensate, that can slow your metabolism further. I think the easy answer to this question is yes. Of course swimming helps you lose weight and get in shape. But it depends on many factors including the length and intensity of your swimming workouts, your age, how much weight you've got to lose. I've gained weight since becoming a masters swimmer two years ago. Not sure if it's due to age or the type of exercise. Once you get to a reasonable weight, though, I'm not sure swimming alone will help you lose that last 5 pounds. I've also had trainers tell me that swimming causes your body to retain some fat. For me, I like to mix in weights, drylands and running or some other equivalent weight bearing exercise. I know quite a few women who just swim and don't lift (because of time constraints). I think they would be more successful losing the extra weight if they did something besides swimming. But that's just MHO. Now, I have to stop snacking late at night. But my Dracullina ways make it difficult.

My metabolism doesn't slow down I don't get fatigued either... You shoulda used a winky thing. You're not even in your 40s yet. Just wait, Stud.

Oooh why are we going to Vegas to celebrate? :thhbbb: I don't ever turn 40. Sorry. I hate the very mention of the word Vegas. I can't imagine why anyone would want to vacation there. Just my view of course. Have fun being 39 forever. :thhbbb: