Swimming for weight loss

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Hi everyone! I just purchased an aquatics membership, so I can use my lunch breaks to go swimming. My goal is to swim for 30-40 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Does anyone else swim regularly? Have you had any weight loss? I'm a pretty decent swimmer. I swam in high school, but it's definitely not the same when you are not being yelled at to sprint!

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  • Madalynne
    Madalynne Posts: 14 Member
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    I've just started swimming again too! I've been at it for about 4 weeks, and I'm feeling great, and the scale is heading down. It's hard to notice at first, but I know I'm improving, and getting back to that girl that swam in high school.

    I would recommend heading into the pool with a plan. If you just swim laps beck and forth without the extra effort, it's no different then taking a leisurely stroll. Now you have to be the one yelling at yourself to sprint! swimplan.com is amazing, you input your level and how fast you swim each stroke, how long you have to work out and what equipment you have, and it gives you back a swim workout. You can adjust the level of the workouts as you go so that it grows with you.

    Also, be wary, even though swimming burns lots of calories, it can make you really hungry, especially if your pool is cooler, so track carefully afterwards, so you don't undo all your hard work!

    :flowerforyou:
  • drgndancer
    drgndancer Posts: 426 Member
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    It's considered one of the higher burn activities you can do. Along with that, it uses most of you major muscle groups and the water provides resistance, so it's one of the better strength and muscle builders among cardio activities. Also I need to get much better at it if I'm going to do this Olympic distance triathlon I'm looking at next summer...
  • ImmerSonnig
    ImmerSonnig Posts: 14 Member
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    I think it helps that I know what I'm doing. I usually do a 200 free warmup, 200 breast, then intervals of just pulls or just kicks and then the determiner of my fitness level is how much fly I can do. Yesterday, I probably made it 1.5 laps before I felt like I might drown. I will definitely check out swimplan.com. I always feel like I need a goal other then to get to the other side.

    I know it's a great workout. I really hope I can lose some fat. I've been doing the 30 day shred and just getting bigger and bigger. I want to be muscular, but I need this cardio to slim down. I can't zip my wedding dress at the moment, so I have real motivation to swim harder and faster!