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!
Parents
Former Member
The bf measurements on the Tanita scale are extremely inaccurate and should not be relied upon. I looked into this after my wife got me a Tanita for my birthday last year and the reading were ridiculously high. See here for example:
healthread.net/tanita.htm
or just Google "are Tanita scales accurate"
Bottom line: save your money.
Yes you are right they are inaccurate - if you don’t use them correctly. As I said above it is critical to weigh yourself at the same time of day and also this model has an "athlete" mode which makes it far more accurate than those without. In the end you need something you can compare day to day, week to week even if they tend to overestimate BF which they do for many - it is still a measure to track....
As it happens I do have a set of callipers and have calibrated the scales against skin fold measurement and they are very close. Bear in mind that even using callipers the results vary considerably particularly if you use different protocols.
I am actually going to have my VO2 max tested at the university of Bath soon and have asked that they also test BF so that I can compare their findings against the Tanita scales as well.
In the round I would prefer to have the scales and the measures they give me than not to have them!
Thanks Nick
The bf measurements on the Tanita scale are extremely inaccurate and should not be relied upon. I looked into this after my wife got me a Tanita for my birthday last year and the reading were ridiculously high. See here for example:
healthread.net/tanita.htm
or just Google "are Tanita scales accurate"
Bottom line: save your money.
Yes you are right they are inaccurate - if you don’t use them correctly. As I said above it is critical to weigh yourself at the same time of day and also this model has an "athlete" mode which makes it far more accurate than those without. In the end you need something you can compare day to day, week to week even if they tend to overestimate BF which they do for many - it is still a measure to track....
As it happens I do have a set of callipers and have calibrated the scales against skin fold measurement and they are very close. Bear in mind that even using callipers the results vary considerably particularly if you use different protocols.
I am actually going to have my VO2 max tested at the university of Bath soon and have asked that they also test BF so that I can compare their findings against the Tanita scales as well.
In the round I would prefer to have the scales and the measures they give me than not to have them!
Thanks Nick
