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?
Re: Blah blah blah swimming makes me fat
Stop eating so many refined carbs.
I'm not necessarily saying that swimming makes me fat, and none of the women here have a weight problem by any stetch. From my own experience, having competed in HS and college in both sports, no way does swimming result in lowering body fat the way running does.
I am simply wondering why my LDLs were much higher when I just swam. By the way, I thrived on refined carbs as a triathlete, and as a 36 year old female, had 14% body fat.
What I am wondering is if training at anaerobic levels raises the cortisol levels in the body which in turn results in higher LDLs. I know it is thought that stress raises LDL levels. Perhaps high intensity training (anaerobic) is a stress on the body that results in a higher cortisol level. Maybe high cortisol levels in women result in the storage of fat. Any medical folks out there have any thoughts on this theory?
Re: Blah blah blah swimming makes me fat
Stop eating so many refined carbs.
I'm not necessarily saying that swimming makes me fat, and none of the women here have a weight problem by any stetch. From my own experience, having competed in HS and college in both sports, no way does swimming result in lowering body fat the way running does.
I am simply wondering why my LDLs were much higher when I just swam. By the way, I thrived on refined carbs as a triathlete, and as a 36 year old female, had 14% body fat.
What I am wondering is if training at anaerobic levels raises the cortisol levels in the body which in turn results in higher LDLs. I know it is thought that stress raises LDL levels. Perhaps high intensity training (anaerobic) is a stress on the body that results in a higher cortisol level. Maybe high cortisol levels in women result in the storage of fat. Any medical folks out there have any thoughts on this theory?
