Just wondering if anyone had experienced this:
Started 2nd swimming life in fall 2007 and have been hard at it since. For the first 9 or 10 months, I was just swimming long and slow until I could go no more. I began throwing in some sprint sets after a good 1600 or so for the next few months. During this period, say a year or so, I dropped 40 lbs, from 235 to 195 (I'm 6'3"). Breaking 190 was my goal, though 190 is probably where I should be.
Throughout 2009, I could no longer stand the long swims and did more and more sets, 400's, 200's, 100s & 50's between a warm-up 500 and a warm down 500. My goal is 3000 - 3200/day and try to get as close to 16k per week as I can by doing some variation of the sets above.
Over the last year of doing this, I've noticed more muscle I think, and my clothes all still fit right, but the scale is alarming me. I'm hovering around - and some weeks over - 200 again.
I think I've slipped in my eating habits (definitely did over the holidays), but I was wondering if anyone has seen this before? Are these sprints where I'm constantly trying to improve my times putting muscle on me that are causing me to fret over the weight gain? Or do I just need to stay away from the fridge? Or what?
Blue
PS> I know all the sites regarding weight loss & swimming, I just want the answers from the horses' mouths. Thanks!
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Former Member
Swimming gets a bad rap on weight for a variety of reasons, but I don't think many of them are quite valid. When I did the hour swim, trying to get in as much distance in an hour, I wasn't nearly as hungry after as usual. It felt more like an hour run, when I could go 7 miles and burn around 900 calories. It is rare for me to do swims like that though, most of my swimming is interval-based, say 10 x 200 @ 3:00, where my running and cycling is mostly nonstop, with some patterns thrown in.
If you lift weights, you may notice the same cravings after as from swimming. And one of these days, I'm going to try a running track workout, and I'd expect that would be the same.
This is very interesting Tim. I have the same hunger issue with lifting as I do with swimming but never put the interval aspect of the two together. I am tempted to do a continuous swim tomorrow and see if I experience the same level of hunger.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Swimming gets a bad rap on weight for a variety of reasons, but I don't think many of them are quite valid. When I did the hour swim, trying to get in as much distance in an hour, I wasn't nearly as hungry after as usual. It felt more like an hour run, when I could go 7 miles and burn around 900 calories. It is rare for me to do swims like that though, most of my swimming is interval-based, say 10 x 200 @ 3:00, where my running and cycling is mostly nonstop, with some patterns thrown in.
If you lift weights, you may notice the same cravings after as from swimming. And one of these days, I'm going to try a running track workout, and I'd expect that would be the same.
This is very interesting Tim. I have the same hunger issue with lifting as I do with swimming but never put the interval aspect of the two together. I am tempted to do a continuous swim tomorrow and see if I experience the same level of hunger.
Thanks for pointing this out.
