Hi all - I have an odd post for you to ponder :)
Recently I've decided enough is enough and it's time to shift some unwanted poundage. Over the past few months through exercise and eating much better I've dropped about 15% of my original body weight, going from 207lbs to 175lbs. At the same time I've been swimming a bit and making an effort to keep on some muscle too.
I know it's a very very hard question to answer but am looking for people's estimates on what this sort of weight loss would do to your swimming time over longer distances if I was able to keep everything else static (stroke, flexibility, strengtht etc). The only difference if possible would be there would be less body weight, and hopefully a better shape for moving through the water.
I know that due to water being denser it's not as easy to say as it would be in relation to running etc, but say over a 5km open water swim, what would people guess the % improvement would be as a result of this?
Cheers
GC
For men, I've heard it to be generally 100 pounds and add 6.5 pounds for each inch over five feet.
wow! I've been 5'10" since I was 16/17. I haven't been under 165lbs since my junior yr in HS. was 179 when I stopped swimming and 184 now.
This is an interesting discussion that I have thought a lot about before. I can remember a exercise science teacher of mine proposing that having some extra fat would be beneficial in swimming, as it would make one more buoyant. This professor also liked to present most topics in exercise science on a continuum. On one side of the continuum would be being too skinny (loss of buoyancy would have to be countered by more work being done swimming) would be detrimental, and being overly fat would as well (less streamline body shape, too much weight to pull). He believed there was a happy medium. At some point, as one moves from the extreme of skinny to the extreme of obesity, there would be a weight (individual for each person) where the extra buoyancy that fat provided would be counteracted by a disadvantageous shape and/or extra weight to pull.
Also, think about training with added weight vs. training without the added weight. If you lose 10 lbs, you will train with 10 lbs less to pull. I personally believe that pulling that much weight is negligible, but for those of you who believe that it is a big deal, think about the loss in training stimulus. It may be similar to doing squats with 220 lbs and then deciding to train with 210 lbs in the hopes of getting stronger (I realize there are differences).
And as many have demonstrated here, it is nearly impossible to quantify how much help you would get from losing weight. There are so many factors aside from the ones presented above. Did you swim more to lose weight? Did the weight you lost change the shape of your body significantly (loss of a round belly to a flat belly), or did you just lose weight everywhere. Did your eating habits change for the better?
I personally feel that the emphasis on weight is a waste of time. The key is to swimming faster is to train as smart as possible. Ande does a great job of laying out what that looks like on these message boards, especially for the sprinter.
Once you put in the training, it is important to eat the correct feul at the correct times. For the most part, I have found that if I am forcing myself to eat the type of meals I need for before and after workouts, I don't have much of an appetite left for junk.
As far as anecdotal evidence goes:
Since I started swimming seriously in October, I have lost about 15lbs. I have gotten much faster, but I honestly don't equate any of that to weight reduction. It might have played a factor, but I honestly don't care if it did or not. The bottom line is, if I want to get faster, I have to train more. If I do, I will most likely lose weight. I think it would be a mistake to try and eat less while training hard as our body needs to correct type and amount of fuel to adapt to serious training. If fact, the problem for world class swimmers is not being able to eat enough food! (most likely the reason why there are not any serious scientific type studies on if weight reductions enhances swim performance)
Further anecdotal evidence to lead me to believe that weight loss really does not help is how my swim season went my junior year in high school. My junior year started out without my swimming at all. I didn’t join my team until about half way through the season. I had gained about 20 lbs, yet I still out swam my teammates. My times were not far off from the year before. My coach would sit in amassment how I could still swim so fast while looking like I did (much bigger belly). In my final meet of the year, a fellow swimmer next to me was flabbergasted that I could still out swim him looking the way I did.
I am doing a nutrition program that knocked off 15 pounds in about a month. But it is so perfectly balanced that there were no ill effects of losing so much weight so fast. (My mom, who does not work out at all, lost 10 pounds in 10 days.)
So my nutrition is there.
I'm wondering now if I am eating enough? Maybe my body is wondering, "Um, if you are working out 3 hours a day, how come you're not taking in more calories?"
I will try adding some calories for a week and let you know if more weight (fat) comes off.
wow! I've been 5'10" since I was 16/17. I haven't been under 165lbs since my junior yr in HS. was 179 when I stopped swimming and 184 now.
As I mentioned, the formula is very general, and it is probably based on a medium build. It probably should only be used as a reference point.
I personally believe that each person has a unique ideal weight at which he/she best races at. What may be too light for one person, may be ideal for another. What may be too heavy for one person, may be ideal for another. For example, I knew a gal that was the same height and build as I and she performed best in swimming at a weight that is 10 to 15 pounds heavier than where I felt I raced the best. When she lost weight and weighed what I did, she lost all of her strength and her times suffered.
Crissy Ahmann-Leighton held the American record in 100 fly (SCY) at 5'8" and 115. Natalie Coughlin later broke the American record in 100 fly (SCY) at the same height and weighed 140.
In looking at weight and athletic performance what I think it boils down to is your power to weight ratio and the medium you are moving through. And of course, we can't forget that good technique can trump a superior power to weight ratio!
Simply cutting calories or starving yourself for weight loss is pretty much a losing proposition. Combining diet with exercise is really the only proven, tried and true method for long term weight loss. I think for this reason it is impossible to isolate speed improvements based on weight loss alone, as Fort said.
I'm with Mel - I think weight loss in fit people is overrated. While I might be tempted to weigh under 135 again (I'm between 5'9" and 5'10"), time and experience has shown I would pretty much have to stop exercising and starve. Losing muscle and starving is a horrible way to live. I'll stick with my 140 to 150 range, enjoy my Girl Scout cookies, lift strong, run terribly, and be content with being a size 6 or even an 8.
WOW! First off this was my first post on this board and I am amazed at the quantity and quality of responses. Thank you all so much for your feedback!
Just a few things of more info which people wanted and some responses to the comments:
1) Yeah I was quite overweight, but in the overweight and fit category which people mentioned. I've been doing long distance swims for the last few years, and swam the Channel in 2007. Doing the channel I was 205 lbs. Whilst this helped me with the cold and buoyancy etc, I probably could have got away with being quite a bit less. Really though, it didn't really bother me too much carrying the weight (was at about 33% body fat I think, standing @ 5'7). The reason I started loosing it was I was having some stomach pains and the doc reckoned it could have been a food intolerance. As part of isolating this (which I think I've managed to do), I had to try quite a few different diets without dairy, yeast, wheat, sugars etc. During this 4 month process I started to loose some weight and liked the feeling of being a bit lighter. So thats what triggered the weight loss.
2) I totally get what people are saying hard to maintain things constant as weight changes etc, and very hard to get a number on the increase in speed as a result of weighing less. Hard to see how it wouldn't help though, even allowing for a loss of buoyancy. Mind you I'm still probably 20-25% body fat so far from skinny :) so I should be ok.
3) The mental side of things - there is of course this too. Am a real believer in performing to how you believe you will. So is natural that if I think I'm going to be quicker, and if I "feel" better in the water then I probably will train harder and swim quicker! Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy I suppose whereby feeling better makes you swim harder, which makes you swim better, which makes you feel even better and so on.
On another note the 3rd point (the mental stuff) is sort of a hobby of mine - have done lots of research and reading up on it in the past and found it so helpful to get through some of the longer swims and also the boring winter training!!! I've compiled my notes into a document which summarises a lot of this side of things (goal setting, keeping motivated, dealing with set backs, dealing with injuries, visualisation, relaxion techniques, focusing etc) which if people are interested in I can post up on the net somewhere and point to it on a thread.
Again thanks for the comments are much appreciated!
Marilyn Monroe was a size 12.
Would she be a modern-day 12 or was she a 12 in the fifties? I've noticed that a size 6 sure is a lot bigger than it was 25 years ago. If she was a size 12 in the fifties/early sixties, I bet that today, she would be a size 8 or even a size 6.
My mom told me she was a size 12 in the fifties and her measurements were 36-24-36. Wonder what size this would be now.
there's many factors that contribute to time improvements
if a swimmer is over weight they'll greatly benefit from losing weight
but it's important to maintain strength and conditioning while losing weight
This is important. Maintaining strength and conditioning while losing weight can be hard, especially as body fat gets lower.
