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?
Chris - I agree with you somewhat on the calories explaination. The only thing that perplexes me is that in college as an 18-20 year old, I probably trained in swimming 15-18 hours a week. Even with all those hours of training, I still had to be mindful of my diet. In my mid-thirties, I trained only 12-15 hours a week for triathlons and could barely eat enough to keep my weight and body fat appropriate for my height and frame. It was bad enough that I wake up in the middle of the night starving and have to eat something.
Yes, since I stopped doing the triathlons, family and friends have commented that I look much better than when I did the triathlons. I'm not really complaining about being fat but am just curious as to why the LDLs are so much higher.
At the level some masters swim, I think many burn as many calories in an intense hour of swimming as they would with a moderate run. I can buy that running or biking would burn a few more calories and is usually done continously whereas swimming is done with a stop and go thing. I still can't help but wonder though about the storage of fat thing and high levels of cortisol.
I read a study the other day about male swimmers and high levels of cortisol. I'll see if I can find it. I'm really cuious about a study done on female swimmers, level of cortisol, and changes in body fat levels.
Chris - I agree with you somewhat on the calories explaination. The only thing that perplexes me is that in college as an 18-20 year old, I probably trained in swimming 15-18 hours a week. Even with all those hours of training, I still had to be mindful of my diet. In my mid-thirties, I trained only 12-15 hours a week for triathlons and could barely eat enough to keep my weight and body fat appropriate for my height and frame. It was bad enough that I wake up in the middle of the night starving and have to eat something.
Yes, since I stopped doing the triathlons, family and friends have commented that I look much better than when I did the triathlons. I'm not really complaining about being fat but am just curious as to why the LDLs are so much higher.
At the level some masters swim, I think many burn as many calories in an intense hour of swimming as they would with a moderate run. I can buy that running or biking would burn a few more calories and is usually done continously whereas swimming is done with a stop and go thing. I still can't help but wonder though about the storage of fat thing and high levels of cortisol.
I read a study the other day about male swimmers and high levels of cortisol. I'll see if I can find it. I'm really cuious about a study done on female swimmers, level of cortisol, and changes in body fat levels.
