Am I too fat to go swimming?

No, swimming is awesome. If you're self conscious wear a t-shirt with your shorts.

I don't see how anyone could EVER think that a person could be "too fat to go swimming". I really don't think anyone would ever think that.

I have been fat for possibly the past third of my life from just overweight to pretty obese (300 lbs, healthy weight around 150 lbs) and I remember only too well during the thin period of my life wishing fat people kept themselves covered up, acres of bulging semi naked flesh wobbling about was not, in my view at that time, the most pleasant thing in the world. This has coloured my view. And I think you would probably be surprised to find out how many people find obesity, and public displays of it, disgusting. Yes, it shouldn't make any difference, and perhaps I should think, to hell with those who don't approve, but for well over ten years I have felt self conscious about my weight and have even avoided being naked or semi naked in front of family and friends. Go figure, we all have our hang ups. The positive thing is the more weight I lose, the less I feel like this and I see the day approaching when I will emerge from my mental chrysalis into the light!

Yeah, maybe if you had learned acceptance of others and compassion, you wouldn't be hating on yourself now.

You can train yourself not to judge others based in appearance. But if you don't fix it, you'll just become a horrible person who is fit. Aka an *kitten*.

I agree, but you're applying today's morality to yesterday. When I was young, before you were born, fat people were few and far between and looked at differently. The thing that worries me nowadays in these more enlightened times, is all the talk of an obesity epidemic, it is making obese people something to be despised again, people who have no self control, people who are so gross they can't stop eating garbage. (Fortunately not th people on MFP who are doing their best to do something about it). Rather as smoking has become reviled, so is obesity, to the extent where if you're thin and die of a heart attack, you've had a heart attack, if you're obese and have a heart attack, you've died of an 'obesity related disease'. There has even been talk of Doctors refusing to treat obese people until they lose weight, fortunately that hasn't happened yet. Tomorrow's morality may be very different to today's, there are no abolutes.

Nonetheless, the main reason I don't swim yet is I'm self conscious about my body which I don't like and can't imagine others will like. Maybe it takes more courage than I have to say to hell with the nay sayers, but that's just the way I am.

OK, so something I've not done since I was like 13 or something, is swimming. I used to love swimming as a kid, but as the years went by, and the weight piled on, it's something I never ever dreamt of doing, until now.

I signed up to a gym today, have the induction on Thursday evening, and the gym membership I paid for comes with unlimited access to the swimming baths, and it got me thinking - Am I too fat to go swimming?

I know I shouldn't care what other people think, and yes, other people probably don't care about me being there, they're too busy doing their thing to concern themselves over the "fat guy" but I can't help feeling self conscious about it.

Anybody else out there had/have the same problem? Anybody else face their fear of the going swimming?

please don't be the guy that swims with a t-shirt on. even if you get one of those aqua t-shirts. also, no water aerobics unless you are over the age of 65.

no comfortable wearing speedos? thats cool. neither am i. i prefer to wear jammers, which are tight swim wear that go down your thighs. still not comfortable? wear boardshorts over them.

swim. swim a lot. take a class, and get your form checked out and improved upon. unless of course you swam competitively once, and know what your swimming form should look and feel like. the problem with swimming is that often times people are out of breath, and they erroneously believe that their exertion is a result of the exercise, and not from oxygen deprivation. on top of that, they're moving inefficiently through the water and using up a lot of energy.

google some beginner swimming work outs. there is one called couch to 1650, which gets you to the point where you are swimming 1650 yards in a session. fyi, 25 yards is one length of a pool, 50 is one back and forth, or lap.

pro tip: print out your work out on regular paper. take it to the pool with you. place it, print side up, ever so gently in the water and lift it back up, careful that it doesn't fold over on itself. place it print side up on a kickboard. bam. now you have your work out at the end of the lane for a quick reference.

This is really timely - I JUST went for my first lap swim yesterday - I weigh 260 atm. I was incredibly anxious about it, to the point where I had to go to the pool sans suit first to see what kind of people were swimming and talk to the desk clerk about how busy it would be. I hit the medium speed lane because the slow speed lane is mostly walkers - it was wide, probably five or six of us (big enough for three abreast) and there was a diagram showing the flow of movement. I didn't WANT to do it because I was self conscious but I did it and did 750M. I recommend arm stretches before you go in (I ALWAYS learn the stretching lesson the hard way!) and after. There were bodies of all shapes and sizes there, all speeds of swimmers. In fact, the BEST SWIMMER IN THE WHOLE PLACE was a girl much larger than me. She was a beautiful swimmer, hardly put up a splash, just put he head down and went to work, cut through the water like a hot knife in butter. I was really impressed and inspired and I definitely aspire to be a calm, quiet swimmer like she is (I haven't swam much in a while so I felt like my movements were pretty frantic).

Go you!!:)

So proud of you!
Isn't it amazing how good it feels?

please don't be the guy that swims with a t-shirt on. even if you get one of those aqua t-shirts. also, no water aerobics unless you are over the age of 65.

I go to interval water aerobics & have seen younger ppl who come a time or two,then quit.They say it's too hard,makes them short of breath.....whatever.You might be surprised at some of the older ppl who spend 2 hrs in the pool,5 days a week. After 1 hr aerobics aerobics,they do water volley ball or laps.

Don't be so quick to put down older ppl.After all,you probably plan on being one of them,if you are lucky.

Someone mentioned using their HRM in the swimming baths, I have a Polar FT4 HRM, would that work in water? Don't think I have the user manual anymore!