Swimming and Weight Loss

SammyPacks

Is swimming a good exercise to use for weight loss? I've been keeping up with my diet... and I just mainly swam all 4 days and ran 1 day this past week... Tomorrow is my next weigh-in...and I'm kind of nervous that maybe I didn't improve weight loss wise (I know I've been improving on my pace and muscles...)

Thanks... just a little worried that the scale will disappoint me tomorrow morning...

Lleldiranne

Swimming is an awesome exercise! You're adding water resistance to boost the effects of the cardio and add toning. Assuming you mean really swimming, as in laps, and not just playing around in the pool

Just make sure you work in some weight bearing exercises regularly. Weight bearing/moderate impact exercises have been shown to reduce risks of osteoporosis (when all else is equal). Walking, running, weights, or even jumping of a step repeatedly (... okay, that last one isn't an exercise, but that was one of the activities in a study about 10 years ago) help maintain bone density.

SammyPacks

Yeah, I have weight training every morning 5 times a week. Daily we are doing something that tests our body in anyway. Jumping as you said... we do dot drills which is a lot of jumping and cardio haha...

Thanks for the advice! And yes I do laps haha... I mix it up to confuse the muscles (as some guy said I should do at the pool). Is that true?

bbbbb33333

I am somewhat new to swimming (working to my first small triathlon). I don't have that much swimming endurance and am somewhat disapointed about how many calories of exercise I get from it. Admitedly, I run much longer, but I can burn 600 or more calories running easily, but only a couple hundred swimming. I can only lap swim about 16 minuts... not counting all the rest breaks.

Biking is a good burn also and not that hard (to me)

SoCalSwimmerDude

Sorry, I'm a little late to the party... I'm a former competitive distance swimmer. Swimming will add lean muscle while burning calories and fat. Its an excellent exercise. Also, yes, if you switch up strokes, it will get more muscles, but just doing freestyle is already going to use almost all of your muscles. Because swimming can effectively burn fat/calories WHILE adding muscle, you may not see the results as much on the scale... but you'll notice much quicker when looking in the mirror. Another reason why its so great is because you're forced to use your 'core' more which is good in any exercise you do. Hope that helps and add me if you want swimming tips! Its just about the only thing I can say that I'm truly knowledgeable about.