This has been something I've wondered the last few years. I used to be a college swimmer, fit and trim, but the 10 years since then I've drank my fair share of beer and ate plenty of cheeseburgers. Just curious what peoples' take is on how much the extra baggage really effects swim races.
I don't really fit the swimmer mold anymore. I'm 31, 6'2", and 270lbs with a huge beer gut. I got some strange looks since the meet i was in recently was a USAS meet and I outweighed my competition by 100lbs in many cases. My first race in about 5 years i went 23.4 in the 50y free. I didn't expect to be that fast at this weight but at the same time I almost wonder if the added intertia is helping me more on the start and turns. Followed it up with a low 52 in the 100y free but I had a horrible reaction on the start and incorrect pacing. I think if i raced again today that'd be deep in the 51 range. For reference, typical non-taper times for me in college were in the low-mid 22 range at just a tick over 200lbs but I was obviously a lot stronger, younger, and doing a TON more yards at the time, that's why it makes me wonder just how much the weight is actually holding me back.
How much time do you think I stand to drop if i were 50lbs lighter? Could it be a measurable difference or something just slight? I guess I ask that to see if it'd be worth my while to drop that much weight quickly by dieting in addition to the swimming i'm doing. I don't really like dieting, and i generally eat what I want, when i want. Not gorging myself at every meal doesn't really seem to fit into my lifestyle :blush: Anyone have a similar story? "I dropped XX lbs and went XX seconds faster because of it."
Maybe it's an immeasurable, but I thought I'd ask for opinion anyway. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a "to diet or not to diet" discussion though.
There's certainly alot of good arguments here, and it is a good discussion. I don't know if we'll ever come up with anything concrete or a good way of measuring but it's a good discussion nonetheless.
I’m not sure that there’s any way to really measure how losing weight will or will not affect time.
In my case, I’ve dropped weight and time over the last year. I’m around 6’1”. I swam at the New England Yards championship in both 2009 and 2010, though in 2009 I was 25 or so pounds heavier (I’m around 200 now). I was about two and a half seconds faster in the 100 (this year 58 high) and about 15 seconds faster in the 500 (5:34) in 2010.
I think that the weight loss contributed to those declines, but I’m not sure how much. The swims were comparable—same meet, same pool, rested for both, wore a bodysuit at each (though a better one in 2010), etc.
However, I can think of at least two other reasons that would explain the time drops aside from weight loss. I worked a lot on technique in the intervening year. Also, I only started racing in the pool in 2008, and it seems to me that more racing experience has helped me mentally prepare better. There may also be other reasons--and those two alone could explain all of the time drops in themselves.
That said, this is an interesting topic. And as long as we are coming up with theories about how weight loss can or cannot affect speed, I think that drag is only part of the equation. I have two more thoughts, though those ideas may be more related to distance swimming as opposed to sprinting.
First, as others have said, I noticed with the weight loss that I have more energy. I’m able to train harder and more than I did before—and, intuitively at least, it seems like that should indirectly translate into faster times, though maybe more for a distance event than a sprint.
Second, there’s a lot of talk these days about intra-abdominal fat. I understand it to be fat on the inside of the abdominal muscles (as opposed to the beer belly fat on the outside). Others may have a better understanding of what it is and how it works, but I thought I'd throw out a possible theory about it. I wonder, but do not know, if that type of fat can intrude upon the space for expanding lungs, etc. and lead to performance declines. If it does (or if that fat has a different but equally detrimental type of metabolic cost), then losing that particular type of fat could lead to speed gains irrespective of the drag issues.
There's certainly alot of good arguments here, and it is a good discussion. I don't know if we'll ever come up with anything concrete or a good way of measuring but it's a good discussion nonetheless.
I’m not sure that there’s any way to really measure how losing weight will or will not affect time.
In my case, I’ve dropped weight and time over the last year. I’m around 6’1”. I swam at the New England Yards championship in both 2009 and 2010, though in 2009 I was 25 or so pounds heavier (I’m around 200 now). I was about two and a half seconds faster in the 100 (this year 58 high) and about 15 seconds faster in the 500 (5:34) in 2010.
I think that the weight loss contributed to those declines, but I’m not sure how much. The swims were comparable—same meet, same pool, rested for both, wore a bodysuit at each (though a better one in 2010), etc.
However, I can think of at least two other reasons that would explain the time drops aside from weight loss. I worked a lot on technique in the intervening year. Also, I only started racing in the pool in 2008, and it seems to me that more racing experience has helped me mentally prepare better. There may also be other reasons--and those two alone could explain all of the time drops in themselves.
That said, this is an interesting topic. And as long as we are coming up with theories about how weight loss can or cannot affect speed, I think that drag is only part of the equation. I have two more thoughts, though those ideas may be more related to distance swimming as opposed to sprinting.
First, as others have said, I noticed with the weight loss that I have more energy. I’m able to train harder and more than I did before—and, intuitively at least, it seems like that should indirectly translate into faster times, though maybe more for a distance event than a sprint.
Second, there’s a lot of talk these days about intra-abdominal fat. I understand it to be fat on the inside of the abdominal muscles (as opposed to the beer belly fat on the outside). Others may have a better understanding of what it is and how it works, but I thought I'd throw out a possible theory about it. I wonder, but do not know, if that type of fat can intrude upon the space for expanding lungs, etc. and lead to performance declines. If it does (or if that fat has a different but equally detrimental type of metabolic cost), then losing that particular type of fat could lead to speed gains irrespective of the drag issues.
