Swimming

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kristina6888
kristina6888 Posts: 18
in Fitness and Exercise
Thoughts on swimming? Is it effective in weight loss?

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  • mostaverage
    mostaverage Posts: 202 Member
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    Swimming is an excellent low impact, total body exercise. Like any exercise though, you can overdo it and hurt yourself, so take it easy to start with :-) - I'm just back from the local pool where I swam for 45minutes which equates to roughly 450 calories burned, which in turn allowed me to have a bowl of porridge for supper :-D
  • Jeremy151
    Jeremy151 Posts: 2
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    Greetings!!! I love swimming and am so glad I found this blog. I have had tremendous success in losing weight swimming. I am currently doing it now and have lost around 15 lbs. in 2 months. I was on a diet and swimming routine years ago and I lost 35 lbs. during that time. So yes, to answer your question, swimming is excellent exercise to choose to lose weight. Some people will say you can’t, but I have to disagree because I have lost weight time and time again doing so. Just make sure whichever stroke you choose you can do it long enough to endure a decent amount of time as swimming tires you out. I mix mine up personally to work different muscle groups. It also tones you up all over your body as swimming is a full body workout. Have fun!
  • stingrayinfl
    stingrayinfl Posts: 284 Member
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    I work out 6 to 7 days a week. I run and lift and do the ellip and bike and stairmaster. I only swim one day a week but I really look forward to it.
  • holly1283
    holly1283 Posts: 741 Member
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    I was soooo glad to see someone else swims. I am a 60 year old woman and it has definitely helped me lose weight. Because of my weight my knees are not good so many machine workouts are not for me. I am up to 1300M in 50 minutes. I only do this 3 days a week because I have to travel 20 miles to get to an indoor pool. I am trying to increase my distance in the same amount of time. I am also trying to walk short distances .
  • tammyclair
    tammyclair Posts: 38
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    I swim 5 days a week / 5 hours. I just love it. I have tried many different things over the last year - but swimming just feels so good. This was my workout this morning / 60 min total. : Warm-up 10x25 freestyle. Main Set / Drill - 2x as 25 right arm, 2 x 25 left arm 4x25 kick / 4 x 25 arms freestyle. Ladder Balls out freestyle: 25, 50, 100, 150, 100, 50, 25. Backstroke: 4x 25 kick / 4 x 25 arms / 12 x 25 paced. 12 x 25 freestyle cool down paced. whoo hooo. feels great. I am struggling with a plateau. Because I just want to swim my body has adapted. I trying to make the work outs different. so if anyone has some good swimming workouts please pass them on. good luck to you. I am encouraged to see a post on swimming as I don't see very many of them. thank you for posting.
  • geezer99
    geezer99 Posts: 92
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    The great thing about swimming is that it gives you both cardio and resistance training. There is also minimal risk of impact injury. In terms of resistance, doing some laps using a kick board so you are getting all your push from your legs is generally a good idea because most swimmers don't kick hard enough.

    About the only down-side is that, as you get to be a better swimmer, you become more efficient and thus burn fewer calories per minute.
  • tammyclair
    tammyclair Posts: 38
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    How do you calculate the fewer calories because your body is more efficient? the mfp doesn't take that into account.
  • acasper3
    acasper3 Posts: 27 Member
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    Anyone do intensive swimming and have any pointers on the best routine? I need to keep it within an hour but want o be able to lose weight with it and get better. I'll probably do it 3 times a week besides circuit training
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    The great thing about swimming is that it gives you both cardio and resistance training. There is also minimal risk of impact injury. In terms of resistance, doing some laps using a kick board so you are getting all your push from your legs is generally a good idea because most swimmers don't kick hard enough.

    About the only down-side is that, as you get to be a better swimmer, you become more efficient and thus burn fewer calories per minute.

    As you become more efficient you can also swim faster. Problem solved.

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