Any swimmers out there?

I am certainly not competitive nor am a great swimmer, however I have been doing the water aerobics and the lap swims that we have at our pool. I find I am starving when I am finished so I would love to hear what others do.

So far I eat an apple with sunflower butter afterwards. I also find if I eat before going, something that is a little heavy helps.

Beef jerky.Nuts,apples,chicken salad,half a sandwich....Swimming does that I do 15-20 min in cardio,20-25 in weights,and 10-20 in swimming laps and I feel like I'm starving after.Beef jerky rocks it's low fat high protien snack and ties you over til your next meal..the other foods listed are more ideas.

I'm not a very good swimmer, but I just ordered goggles and a nose clip so I can refresh my skills. Swimming used to make me hungry too, now that I think about it.

Now that the local pool is open for hte summer, I've started swimming again. I also find I'm really hungry after a swim. Swimming is great for burning calories. According to MFP, an hour of swimming is about 600 calories. So if you're eating an extra 400 calories, you're still 200 calories ahead.

I tend to do about a mile in an hour then eat a banana or some oatcakes, it burns so many calories (though I think MFP might overestimate slightly lol) that I think it's a well deserved snack x

Hope this helps,
when you swim in a heated pool (27 degrees normally) the heat dehydrates you and the chlorine washes off the salts on your body so your internals send out more salts to the skin causing even greater dehydration.

As a competitive older swimmer I need to drink at least 1 litre of water 2 hours before then 10ml of sports drink (salted squash) per minute so a 300ml bottle for half hour swim have it on pool side stop and take a gulp every 10 minutes or so.

Another good tip I was given when I went back to swimming but was overweight was;
Pull in your stomach muscles before you get in the water don't release them until you get out
It is a brilliant workout I can be on the brink of being sick after 1 hour swim because I've worked so hard.

Thanks for posting the question, I need to start swimming again.

Good luck

I try to swim when I can, and I get friggin starving when I'm done so I'll try to eat a banana or something before hopping in. I also bring a bottle of water with me because I know I get dehydrated from all of the chlorine.
I'm not as awesome with specific answers but maybe that'll help!

Sarah--you could be experiencing what absolutely kills me on weekends... if you're swimming 2 miles in the morning, is that ~90 minutes? For me (6'4" 218 lbs) mfp says 90 min would burn about 1,000 calories for light/moderate swimming.

Whatever you would burn in 90 minutes (1,000 calories? 800?) if you likely haven't eaten that much yet when getting in the pool in the morning, by the time you get out have you already burned more calories than you've eaten for the day?

Whenever I get into that state, my hunger skyrockets & my energy plummets until I've "caught up" and my Net Calories (counting as you go, not for the day) on mfp is positive. Could be what you've experiencing?

I drink water (24 oz ice water) in the hour before I swim. I swim, usually, first thing in the morning. I swim and then I have one of my homemade smoothies. I do 2.5 miles a day - one hour. I don't find myself hungry after my swim. I do drink more water before my smoothie.

The secret to fat metabolism lies in oxygenation and hydration. Without oxygen, fat is not liberated from fat cells. So your breathing is critical. If you're struggling for air, you're in the anaerobic state, not aerobic.

Water is required as well for fat burning. Be well hydrated and not just during the swim, but all day long. I drink about 9 twenty our oz cups of ice water through the day.

The same is true for building muscle. So, eat well, sleep well and don't forget to breathe and drink water.

Here's my smoothie recipe. Make it in a bullet type blender.

5 ice cubes
Water
Banana
2 tbsp pb2
2 tbsp Metamucil original course unflavored (don't be a pu$$y -it's not yucky!)
Top with water
Blend

Me too - absolutely starving after swimming. I think it's due partly to swimming being a full body workout. Also pro swimmers are notorious for their 10,000+ calorie diets while not having a problem with weight gain or fat. I read recently in Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Body that "Water is 24 times more thermally conductive than air." So it seems that in water our heat loss goes up significantly and our bodies have to expend a lot more calories trying to maintain our body temperature. Michael Phelps, according to the book, eats 12,0000 calories and spends 3 or 4 hours in the water. During that time he's expending about 9,000 calories, assuming his metabolic rate is around 3,000 calories per day.

To be honest,I swim because I love too. I never even knew the calorie burn was so high until a few weeks ago and will be looking into making it a regular routine.So I haven't really thought much about the calorie intake part of it.

I grew up on the beach and am in the water every moment I can be in the summer.

remember and drink while swimming too, some of the hunger may be thirst.

I also find that swimming makes me hungry even if i know there is no way i am (had meal not long before) i think it's due to swallowing some of the pool water and it's just my stomach reacting to that. So take that into account too.

try something like a banana after the swim, rather than an apple, i find apples make me hungrier if i eat one post swim, i'm assuming due to it's wateryness or acidity, while nana's and similar fill me up enough. if i'm still hungry 30 mins later i'll have another snack (or dinner depending on the time).

also, are you measuring yourself? weight is not the best gauge for fitness or fat loss.