I have determined that when I swim, based on my heart rate, I am burning an enormous amount of calories. The other day, I wore my HR monitor and based on my average HR, time spent swimming, and my weight, I burned 1053 calories. Now, the next day, I ran for 40 minutes and burned 453 calories.
I have noticed that when I just swim over a number of weeks, my LDL cholesterol readings go up and my body fat goes up as well. When I just run and don't burn as many calories (according to my HR monitor) my LDL drops, my HDLs go up, and my body fat decreases. I've noticed this now over the course of 13 years.
Anybody know of any studies out there that might explain this? Why would an activity such as swimming that obviously burns a bunch of calories cause an increase in body fat?
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Former Member
I have to agree with the original post and a number of the other posts here. All throughout my swimming career, if I needed to lose some pounds, I found I needed to either run or ramp up the weight lifting.
I have a hypothesis that is based on complete conjecture and absolute no reading of scientific articles: Running and lifting weights are HARD whereas swimming is easy. Granted, fast swimming is not easy, but I feel far more fatigued after trying to run a mile than after trying to swim a mile ... even if I ramp the intensity to high on both. My belief is that, since I'm a pretty efficient swimmer, switching to a different activity like running engages very different muscle systems that are inefficient and burn more fat.
I've recently knocked off about 10 pounds (low 200s to low 190s) by mainly adding running back into my training routine ... of course, this week, my knees hurt so much that I couldn't kick breaststroke, so I guess I'll just gain the weight back again:sad:
Hmm...well, if you are adding extra activity..that increases your caloric burn--therefore: more weight loss. Are you subtracting the equivalent amount of swimming activity or just adding in the running/weight lifting? So of course any additional activity is going to increase your caloric burn.
It is true that your body rapidly adjusts to exercise and becomes more efficient. When you keep your body guessing it burns more calories and therefore more weight loss.
This whole discussion is interesting to me because I am overweight and I am losing weight (slowly but surely) since I started swimming regularly back in late August. I exercise most days at lunch (elliptical, weight training..that kind of thing) but the scale never budged. Now it's moving down. I think it's just the additional swimming burning more calories. I didn't start up swimming again to lose weight. I needed to lose, but I started back up because I missed it and I love it and I enjoy exercise.
I mean, one's definition of fat and skinny is very subjective. Personally, I just don't think you can tell someone swimming will MAKE you fat.
I have to agree with the original post and a number of the other posts here. All throughout my swimming career, if I needed to lose some pounds, I found I needed to either run or ramp up the weight lifting.
I have a hypothesis that is based on complete conjecture and absolute no reading of scientific articles: Running and lifting weights are HARD whereas swimming is easy. Granted, fast swimming is not easy, but I feel far more fatigued after trying to run a mile than after trying to swim a mile ... even if I ramp the intensity to high on both. My belief is that, since I'm a pretty efficient swimmer, switching to a different activity like running engages very different muscle systems that are inefficient and burn more fat.
I've recently knocked off about 10 pounds (low 200s to low 190s) by mainly adding running back into my training routine ... of course, this week, my knees hurt so much that I couldn't kick breaststroke, so I guess I'll just gain the weight back again:sad:
Hmm...well, if you are adding extra activity..that increases your caloric burn--therefore: more weight loss. Are you subtracting the equivalent amount of swimming activity or just adding in the running/weight lifting? So of course any additional activity is going to increase your caloric burn.
It is true that your body rapidly adjusts to exercise and becomes more efficient. When you keep your body guessing it burns more calories and therefore more weight loss.
This whole discussion is interesting to me because I am overweight and I am losing weight (slowly but surely) since I started swimming regularly back in late August. I exercise most days at lunch (elliptical, weight training..that kind of thing) but the scale never budged. Now it's moving down. I think it's just the additional swimming burning more calories. I didn't start up swimming again to lose weight. I needed to lose, but I started back up because I missed it and I love it and I enjoy exercise.
I mean, one's definition of fat and skinny is very subjective. Personally, I just don't think you can tell someone swimming will MAKE you fat.
