Swimming makes you fat?

[island_sands]

I got this from some place on the internet (I did not save the source (gulp!):

"Swimming improves heart and lung efficiency, enhances muscle strength and endurance, improves flexibility, and reduces stress. It's easy on the joints, and uses more muscles than most other forms of exercise. Although swimming burns a great deal of calories, recreational swimmers tend to lose less weight than would be expected from other types of aerobic activity. Scientists say that cold water removes heat from the body, stimulating appetite to keep the body warm. Exposure to cold water may encourage the body to maintain fat stores for insulation. To lose weight by swimming, it’s necessary to cut down on the calories you eat, and to swim fast enough and long enough.

Swimming can burn more than 660 calories an hour when performed correctly and causes fewer injuries to joints and muscles than aerobics or jogging. It takes only three hours a week of strenuous swimming to improve flexibility, increase strength and build cardiovascular endurance. Swimming provides a good aerobic workout if 25% of the total laps are performed at maximum intensity. However, only 5% of those who swim do so at an aerobic pace.

Gabriel

hi Gabriel

Swimming makes me very toned, tightens everything up but does tend to build my legs. one of those things... constant swimming training and also training with a monofin was really beneficial for me.

i tend to combine it with running for more fat burning...

not a scientific answer, just a personal experience.

i_s

 

[Jason Billows]

How does swimming affect our learned responses?

If we just train our freediving disciplines we will develop our mamalian diving reflexes and our bodies will know that when we enter the water our heart rate needs to fall, etc. I'm sure we've all experienced how these learned responses develop from the beginning of the season to the end of the season.

But, if we swim regularly for fitness will our bodies not learn that when we enter the water our heart rate is going to rise? If so, it seems that swimming could have both positive and negative affects on freediving.

On antoher note... for those who would like to run but can't handle the stress on your body, try water running. It provides a great workout without the stress.

 

[fcallagy]

great thread and heres my two cents
i,ve been swimming reasonably hard for the past 18 months 1.5k at a moderate pace 3 nights a week. I started training harder to get in shape for a freediving course and changed from long distance to a mixture of one night long distance and the others combination of sprints and drills including some hypoxic sets and pyramids. I, ve since gone from 17 1/2 stone to 14 1/2. losing 3 stone was either a combination of the new swimming regeime and starting apnea or the swimming on its own. I found the faster /smaller distance nights far more exhausting than the slower/ longer distance nights. My technique has also improved dramaticly via the harder training. The pool I train in is split with a small lane for continous swimming. The people in this lane myself now included certainly cover a lot more ground at a faster pace than anyone in the main pool where I started. I lost a lot of weight through swimming at any rate and have since that started adjusting to a healthier diet. Seems as the body improves it starts to crave more of the right things instead of the junk.

 

[island_sands]

I lost a lot of weight through swimming at any rate and have since that started adjusting to a healthier diet. Seems as the body improves it starts to crave more of the right things instead of the junk.

yeah i get really hungry after swimming but crave apples and juicy foods.. the crave for chocolate goes away and i feel like a healthy dinner

the only thing i find is that the pool water gives me an upset stomach (no, i don't swallow heaps of it!) rofl

 

[subaquaticus]

yeah i get really hungry after swimming but crave apples and juicy foods.. the crave for chocolate goes away and i feel like a healthy dinner

the only thing i find is that the pool water gives me an upset stomach (no, i don't swallow heaps of it!) rofl

I agree with you : doing apnea or generally sport orientates your body towards healthy food...

 

[Naim]

I agree with you : doing apnea or generally sport orientates your body towards healthy food...

Yeah right! A good ole pork pie does it for me every time, fresh out of the oven with some HP brown sauce! Now thats what I call healthy eating YUM!

 

[Oldsarge]

Perhaps a less obsessive attitude towards weight is in order, as well. I hate to point this out to the ladies but being really thin will only impress your girlfriends. Men (as opposed to boys!) prefer enough to hold onto, thank-you very much. I recommend to your reading a book The Obesity Myth by Paul Campos as well as this month's article on the same subject in Scientific American. Push come to shove, "overweight" people are generally healthier and live longer than "underweight" folks or even those whose BMI is with the US gov't's recommended guidelines. The studies porporting to show the opposite are seriously flawed, statistically, and since they are almost all funded by diet doctor groups or health-food manufacturers, questionable in motivation. To make things worse, most researchers seem to be upper-middle-class white women with eating disorders. So go ahead, swim, eat, make love, be merry. Since you only get one life on this plane, enjoy it and quit worrying about percentages of body fat.

And yes, since you've offered, I, too will take a pork pie! Nummmm.

 

[joanna]

I was a competitive swimmer for ten years and I can just say that it helped me a lot for freediving. I was never as good in dynamic as when I was training 6x2h a week. I think that it is the best sport to practice beside freediving. It brings you a good endurance and moreover a knowledge of your body in water, something that no other sport brings you (except synchronised swimming).
About the fat theory, I'm afraid it is right. There are very few "dry" swimmers, and these tend to freeze in water. Most of the swimmers, although thin, have a very thin layer of fat all over their body. It is also true, that when you stop swimming you tend to take weight. But it is the case if you still eat as much as when you were spending 20h a week in water. So if you stop progressively you should not become a whale.
Then the best time to eat after a swimming session is just after it (30-40min), this is when your body will use this food intake to rebuild its energy stores (glycogen). If you eat later, the regeneration won't be as efficient and you might store on the belly as well :hmm Many swimmers will just eat a banana right after the training. It contains a lot of carbohydrates but also important nutrients such as magnesium (lost with perspiration, yes, we perspire a lot while in water! don't forget to drink during training). This will calm down your hunger and is healthier than french fries
So my advice is first to learn swimming properly (technique!) and to enjoy the training sessions. Ask an experienced swimmer to write you some trainings (series, different styles), as there is nothing more boring than swimming 2km in a row.

 

[subaquaticus]

I was a competitive swimmer for ten years and I can just say that it helped me a lot for freediving. I was never as good in dynamic as when I was training 6x2h a week. I think that it is the best sport to practice beside freediving. It brings you a good endurance and moreover a knowledge of your body in water, something that no other sport brings you (except synchronised swimming).
About the fat theory, I'm afraid it is right. There are very few "dry" swimmers, and these tend to freeze in water. Most of the swimmers, although thin, have a very thin layer of fat all over their body. It is also true, that when you stop swimming you tend to take weight. But it is the case if you still eat as much as when you were spending 20h a week in water. So if you stop progressively you should not become a whale.
Then the best time to eat after a swimming session is just after it (30-40min), this is when your body will use this food intake to rebuild its energy stores (glycogen). If you eat later, the regeneration won't be as efficient and you might store on the belly as well :hmm Many swimmers will just eat a banana right after the training. It contains a lot of carbohydrates but also important nutrients such as magnesium (lost with perspiration, yes, we perspire a lot while in water! don't forget to drink during training). This will calm down your hunger and is healthier than french fries
So my advice is first to learn swimming properly (technique!) and to enjoy the training sessions. Ask an experienced swimmer to write you some trainings (series, different styles), as there is nothing more boring than swimming 2km in a row.

very interesting and informative post... one question : what do you drink during swimming sessions ?

plain mineral water ?

special sports drinks ?

 

[Donna]

I to used to be a competitive swimmer and, when in full training, used to swim 100,000m per week! Its a very scary thought these days!!! But that must be what's made me fatter than I'd like to be - yes I have had 2 kids now as well which hasn't helped, but even so, when I gave up swimming, I gained weight very quickly and never really lost it again. I'm now definately more on the cuddly side but it doesn't stop me freediving, I just need more weight.....

Subaquaticus - I used to drink diluted fresh fruit juice i.e one third fresh squeezed orange juice, two thirds water.....

Donna

 

[joanna]

Yes! I also wonder how I could swim so much! :duh Especially because I still suffer from it (pain in the back, shoulders,...) :waterwork

I would also recommend something sweetened, such as fruit juice mixed with water or simply water. There are also some isotonic powders available, but I would dilute them a lot, as not everyone digests them well. If you don't swim hours in a row, you don't need a continuous energetical uptake.

 

[subaquaticus]

Subaquaticus - I used to drink diluted fresh fruit juice i.e one third fresh squeezed orange juice, two thirds water.....

interesting... but isn't it too acid, if you drink much ?

 

[island_sands]

i have just joined a gym... unfortunately there is no pool so will have to brave the sea snakes and jellies to do training on weekends

nothing wrong in being on the cuddly side girl... Twiggy is way out of the fashion mags... voluptous and sensuality is in!! (at least.. thats my excuse)

I to used to be a competitive swimmer and, when in full training, used to swim 100,000m per week! Its a very scary thought these days!!! But that must be what's made me fatter than I'd like to be - yes I have had 2 kids now as well which hasn't helped, but even so, when I gave up swimming, I gained weight very quickly and never really lost it again. I'm now definately more on the cuddly side but it doesn't stop me freediving, I just need more weight.....

Subaquaticus - I used to drink diluted fresh fruit juice i.e one third fresh squeezed orange juice, two thirds water.....

Donna

 

[Donna]

I never found it too acid as it was very dilute and as you drink it slowly (little sips and often) rather than all at once, the juice isn't really in your tummy long enough for it to become acidic.

Donna

 

[subaquaticus]

I hate to point this out to the ladies but being really thin will only impress your girlfriends. Men (as opposed to boys!) prefer enough to hold onto, thank-you very much.

Funny and interesting remark, which makes me think of a French joke

Les hommes préfèrent "sortir" avec des minces
Et "rentrer" avec des grosses

in English :

Men prefer "going out" with slim women
And "go in" with fat ones...

French wordplay difficult to translate in English...

"sortir avec" literally means "go out with" but also in a figured sense having a "more intimate" relationship not necessarily implying accomplished sex ; phrase mainly used by teenagers phrase quite "fleur bleue"...

"rentrer avec" literally means "go in", but also has a more explicit sexual connotation...

this French proverb means that men like to be seen in the company of slim women because slimness symbolizes success, efficiency, high social status (nowadays and in Western countries)...

but it also says that it might be more fun in bed with fat ones...

Push come to shove, "overweight" people are generally healthier and live longer than "underweight" folks or even those whose BMI is with the US gov't's recommended guidelines.

very moving plaidoyer... which revals more on your own BMI than on US statistics...

it reminds me of a famous sketch by Coluche (a French comic) ; in his sketch he makes a very scientific demonstration that those having a little penis are in no way inferior to those having a bigger one...

and then he adds : "et d'abord, ça m'arrange !" (supposed to be very funny...)

and then he adds : "ce ne sont pas ceux qui ont les plus grandes oreilles qui entendent le mieux..." (those having the biggest ears do not necessarily hear best...) which is the climax of the sketch...