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?
Puff and I aren't talking about scientific percentages of fat, Hulk. And, Mary, just for the record, we are not remotely fat and aren't saying swimming makes you a huge blob. We're just saying we're bigger and weigh more as swimmers than as runners.
That is because swimming reduces levels of VISCERAL fat (the fat that surrounds your organs) as opposed to sub-cutaneous fat (the fat that rides just below your skin). And because swimming operates at a much better aerobic/anaerobic balance than running, swimming does not canabalize nearly as much muscle mass as running does.
Puff and I aren't talking about scientific percentages of fat, Hulk. And, Mary, just for the record, we are not remotely fat and aren't saying swimming makes you a huge blob. We're just saying we're bigger and weigh more as swimmers than as runners.
That is because swimming reduces levels of VISCERAL fat (the fat that surrounds your organs) as opposed to sub-cutaneous fat (the fat that rides just below your skin). And because swimming operates at a much better aerobic/anaerobic balance than running, swimming does not canabalize nearly as much muscle mass as running does.
