Swimming--how effective is it?

barrelracerkmae

Btw, thanks everyone for the insight! I'll definitely be watching even closer on my calories now!

Cortelli

I really enjoy the water and swim when I can -- but really only for fun and exploration, not just doing laps in a pool for exercise. Playing in the ocean or rivers / lakes etc. And I love snorkeling and scuba diving. So, big swim fan generally. Which made this recent snippet in the NYT pretty interesting to me:

Recent blog item in the NYT: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/ask-well-benefits-of-swimming/?_r=0

Text:

In some ways, the health effects of swimming are similar to those of land-based aerobic activities, such as jogging, walking or bicycling, said Hirofumi Tanaka, the director of the Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin. Like them, swimming is a “rhythmical aerobic exercise that you can maintain continuously” to improve cardiovascular and muscular health, he said. Experiments by Dr. Tanaka and others have found that swimming “is very effective at reducing blood pressure and improving vascular function,” just as walking and other land-based endurance exercises are.

The unique advantage of swimming is that it is done in water, which provides buoyancy and cooling, Dr. Tanaka said. “So the incidence of orthopedic injury as well as the rate of heat-related illnesses are both low,” he said.

But swimming has a notable drawback. “It seems to stimulate appetite,” Dr. Tanaka said, more so than do vigorous land-based exercises like running. As a result, swimming is not particularly effective at promoting weight loss or maintenance. In a 2005 study of exercise habits and body weight involving more than 15,000 adults ages 53 to 57, those who briskly walked, jogged or cycled gained little weight over the course of a decade. Those who swam tended to pack on pounds.

Still, “there is no doubt that swimming is a beneficial activity for other factors,” particularly cardiovascular health, Dr. Tanaka said. Just skip the celebratory cupcakes after your laps.

Curious if other swimmers have noticed this effect themselves?

MizMimi111

I've been swimming on avarage 3 times a week since mid - December. I love it. I've set small personal goals for myself like improving my breathing technique, improving my stroke, distance etc. I feel great after, it's helping to reduce my stress and along with my calorie deficit I'm losing weight.

Btw, I entered my average workout in the calculator below and it was comparative to MFP, within 20.

It's truly excellent cardio, and builds muscle, too; but MFP definitely overestimates calories for most people. If you're not swimming constantly, lap after lap without stopping, you won't burn the number of calories it states. And it's tough to guess what they mean by "leisurely" or "moderate".

Use this site to calculate your calories instead: http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php. Enter the number of lengths, the amount of time you swam, and it will calculate your calorie burn based on your weight. It won't be as accurate as using a heart rate monitor, of course, but it's far better than MFP. Then you can just pick the closest MFP exercise, enter the length of your workout, and manually adjust the calories.

Have fun!

Hadabetter

Swimming laps, like slow jogging or ellipticals, can burn a lot of calories if you do it long enough, but it would be good to mix it up with a day of flat out, one lap sprint intervals every now and then.

I read somewhere that of all the elite athletes, swimmers have the highest body fat %, but I don't know if that is because swimming doesn't burn fat as well as other cardio, or if it is that people with naturally higher body fat are more buoyant and have an advantage in the pool. It's very easy to read a stat like that and jump to the wrong conclusion.

melissamarah

I have DEFINITELY felt ravenous after a swim session. But then that would be after 2-3 hours of teaching, with nothing but a bottle of water near me.

If you're in the LA area, I could give you a lesson! :flowerforyou: :drinker: