Body composition and swimming

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?
  • I don't eat many refined carbs. :mooning: In fact, I just made a nice spicy lentil chili. If so many athletes, especially so many women, experience this phenomenon, we aren't crazy. Here's a point of comparison. Go to a triathlon or a 10K road race and compare the women there to those at a masters swim meet ... I guarantee you that the former are leaner. Leaner,but not better looking.My observation is that,in general,USMS women are HOT.:banana:
  • If so many athletes, especially so many women, experience this phenomenon, we aren't crazy. Here's a point of comparison. Go to a triathlon or a 10K road race and compare the women there to those at a masters swim meet ... I guarantee you that the former are leaner. Correlation ... causation. Honestly, I find most compelling the theory that people predisposed to higher fat retention swim rather than that the sport changes your body type.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Re: Blah blah blah swimming makes me fat Stop eating so many refined carbs.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Jazz - Fort and Elise must eat too much of everything not just refined carbs.I agree with Elise. Running makes me skinny and swimming makes me fat. Don't think it can all be attributed to diet or age. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
  • You don't have to be old to have excess body fat. I lost quite a bit of weight this year by changing my diet. I had no excess fat when I started swimming or swam as an age grouper (contrary to some girl's theory, which may have some merit), at your age, or at any other time really until I started masters swimming. And I ate way worse as a kid. (Note: I trained vastly vastly more when young, which probably accounted for the lack of real body fat.)
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Fort do you really believe there are no Fat Tri Athletes images.google.com/imgres I don't eat many refined carbs. :mooning: In fact, I just made a nice spicy lentil chili. If so many athletes, especially so many women, experience this phenomenon, we aren't crazy. Here's a point of comparison. Go to a triathlon or a 10K road race and compare the women there to those at a masters swim meet ... I guarantee you that the former are leaner.
  • 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?
  • Here is something I found by Dr. George Best: The adrenal glands produce another hormone that can promote weight gain though. This hormone is called cortisol, and it tends to cause the storage of fat in the lower abdomen. Unlike adrenaline which is produced for only short periods of time, the adrenal glands can produce cortisol long-term. This means that any fat-burning effects from adrenaline will be overcome in the long-run by the fat-storing effects of cortisol. From a survival standpoint, cortisol serves the purpose of providing emergency storage of fat for energy when the body is under stress for a long period of time. For human cultures in which the primary source of stress is physical stress, this fat storage can help keep people alive during extended periods of living under harsh conditions. The problem is, mental/emotional stress will elevate cortisol levels too, and for individuals who lead particularly stressful lives, the continued high cortisol levels will likely stimulate lower belly fat deposition. So what does this have to do with exercise? Well, for someone who is under chronic emotional stress and whose adrenal glands are constantly overworked, their cortisol production is already high and their ability to produce adrenaline has been largely exhausted. If you add a lot of strenuous exercise into the mix, the result is more cortisol production. As the cortisol levels increase, there is a greater and greater tendency to store fat in the lower abdomen. Also interesting - a scientific study of high cortisol levels in women and the storage of fat: www.ohsu.edu/.../menopausal060605.cfm
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Re: Blah blah blah swimming makes me fat Stop eating so many refined carbs. LOL :rofl: Isn't this kid in his 20s?
  • hofffam How do we replace glycogen. We originally did glycogen replacement in the 50s by consuming Wheatgerm Oil then switched over to Vitamin E to replace Wheatgerm Oil. We were also told that there was no sense taking Wheat Germ Oil or vitamin E if you were not working out hard. We were also told that Iron depleted Glycogen. Are there any major changes in the advice we received. Eventually your body will replace glycogen from other energy stores in the body and from dietary carbs,however that is not good enough if you are going to train 2 days in a row.If you are, you need to start getting carbs within 30 min of finishing your workout,ideally in a 4:1 carb to protein ratio(you need the protein for muscle repair.)During this time your body will preferentially ship the glycogen to your muscles.Remember"you eat today for your workout tomorrow." Vit C and E and other anti-oxydents are important because the increased metabolism of exercise increases free radical formation.
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