Anyone else swimming for weight loss??

1) if you wear a cap, does it keep your hair dry so that chlorine (to avoid dryness)?

2) if you wear goggles, does it keep water out of your contacts (to avoid infection)?

1) The caps are usually just to keep your hair wrangled, reduce tangling and drag. A cap tight enough to keep water out when you're submerged would get pretty uncomfortable, fast.

2) A decent pair of goggles that fits you well will keep the water out. But then again, if you bump them hard, or if they start not fitting as well over time (rubber eventually wears out), water could get in. They're expensive, but you can get prescription goggles!

*edit: apparently, I need to type faster next time. Two people beat me to it.

I'll explain when I have more time this eve. but swimming causes your body temp. to drop and other cardio based exercises cause your body temp. to rise. When your body temp. drops (especially when your already eating at a calorie deficit) it causes your body want to eat alot more food because your body thinks your freezing to death and starving.

Most public pools are kept around 78-84 degrees in my experience. If you're actually swimming laps, not just playing around in the water, your skin temperature might drop, but your core temperature rises a hair, just as it does with any other vigorous exercise.

If you're swimming in cold water, that's a different story though. Side note: Pools that focus on competitive swimming are usually colder, 77 or less, even down to 68 in some places. Blah.

I swim ALL the time! I love it, and am on a swim team (even though I am to old :P ) . I swim four times a week, and the work outs range from one hour to three. Love to add you as a friend if you like!

I have always loved the water and that now shows in my son. I started swimming laps two weeks ago. I swim anywhere from 20-45 minutes. But I have not lost a pound since I started swimming for my exercise...WHAT gives??

I'll explain when I have more time this eve. but swimming causes your body temp. to drop and other cardio based exercises cause your body temp. to rise. When your body temp. drops (especially when your already eating at a calorie deficit) it causes your body want to eat alot more food because your body thinks your freezing to death and starving.

ok just saw this one! I swim in a heated pool

Doesnt matter, please see my post above this one.

I swim because I love the feeling I get from it. I don't know yet if it is going to help me tone up or lose weight, but I figure anything will be better than nothing! I am always SO HUNGRY afterwards though, and now I guess I know why! I have always wondered that! I will be sure to keep a healthy snack in my back to have afterwards. I am a freak, though, and have a serious phobia of my face in the water, so all I do is a back stroke. I can definately feel it in my oblique muscles though. And, fyi, one of the pool lifeguards told me if I got one of those kids noodle things and put it under my knees while I back stroke, using just my abs and arms, it gives an excellent ab workout......something I am going to be trying very soon. As long as I don't splash the ladies that just got their hair done....I'm all good! :happy:

Misty same here!! During the summers months I spend 7/10 days a month at my house in SW. FL.
Because of the summer temps I decided to switch my exercise from running on the beach to swimming. So I did and it was a great workout, but each and every day it was alot harder to stick to my diet (even though I did) then when I jogged on the beach or at home in PA. lifting and doing Insanity. I assumed it was because swimming caused me to burn alot more calories than my normal exercise program. So my next trip to FL. I did the same thing , swam everyday but bumped up my calorie intake. (was still hungry though) When I got home I was shocked to see that I gained weight. So did some research and found that the amount of swimming I was doing was actually burning less calories than my normal exercise program back home. But why then was I so hungry from swimming? I did some research and found out that is common knowledge that doing swimming (even in a heated pool) as your main source of excerise, especially while eating at a deficit will cause you to want to eat more food than if you burned the same amount of calories doing an exercise that caused your body temp to rise. Swimming ( even in a heated pool) will cause your body temp. to drop, and that slight drop along with eating at a deficit will cause your body to want to eat because it is tricked into thinking your freezing or starving. I'm not saying it will cause you fail at losing weight, it just makes it alot tougher to stick to your diet.

I swim because I love the feeling I get from it. I don't know yet if it is going to help me tone up or lose weight, but I figure anything will be better than nothing! I am always SO HUNGRY afterwards though, and now I guess I know why! I have always wondered that! I will be sure to keep a healthy snack in my back to have afterwards. I am a freak, though, and have a serious phobia of my face in the water, so all I do is a back stroke. I can definately feel it in my oblique muscles though. And, fyi, one of the pool lifeguards told me if I got one of those kids noodle things and put it under my knees while I back stroke, using just my abs and arms, it gives an excellent ab workout......something I am going to be trying very soon. As long as I don't splash the ladies that just got their hair done....I'm all good! :happy:

Misty same here!! During the summers months I spend 7/10 days a month at my house in SW. FL.
Because of the summer temps I decided to switch my exercise from running on the beach to swimming. So I did and it was a great workout, but each and every day it was alot harder to stick to my diet (even though I did) then when I jogged on the beach or at home in PA. lifting and doing Insanity. I assumed it was because swimming caused me to burn alot more calories than my normal exercise program. So my next trip to FL. I did the same thing , swam everyday but bumped up my calorie intake. (was still hungry though) When I got home I was shocked to see that I gained weight. So did some research and found that the amount of swimming I was doing was actually burning less calories than my normal exercise program back home. But why then was I so hungry from swimming? I did some research and found out that is common knowledge that doing swimming (even in a heated pool) as your main source of excerise, especially while eating at a deficit will cause you to want to eat more food than if you burned the same amount of calories doing an exercise that caused your body temp to rise. Swimming ( even in a heated pool) will cause your body temp. to drop, and that slight drop along with eating at a deficit will cause your body to want to eat because it is tricked into thinking your freezing or starving. I'm not saying it will cause you fail at losing weight, it just makes it alot tougher to stick to your diet.

This makes sense to me! I guess if I did a little research I would have found that out! Thanks for the info! I still love to swim though,,,,,,,even if I look like a drowning dog most of the time lol

I am swimming again because of knee problems after running competively for 25 years.

I really need some swimmer friends! Anyone feel free to add me!

I've added swimming and water exercise to my routine once a week to shake things up a bit. I used to be a great swimmer, but now I'm floundering a bit. I hope that before long I wont look so stupid, however I think (hope) it will help me achieve my goals.

Managed a 5K swim none stop a couple of weeks ago after only being able to swim about 100m none stop at the start of the year, (but you have just added me as a friend)

Fantastic! It's funny I can run 20km but struggle with swimming more than a few hundred metres - I better get my butt in gear, I have a triathlon coming up this summer.

I swim because I love the feeling I get from it. I don't know yet if it is going to help me tone up or lose weight, but I figure anything will be better than nothing! I am always SO HUNGRY afterwards though, and now I guess I know why! I have always wondered that! I will be sure to keep a healthy snack in my back to have afterwards. I am a freak, though, and have a serious phobia of my face in the water, so all I do is a back stroke. I can definately feel it in my oblique muscles though. And, fyi, one of the pool lifeguards told me if I got one of those kids noodle things and put it under my knees while I back stroke, using just my abs and arms, it gives an excellent ab workout......something I am going to be trying very soon. As long as I don't splash the ladies that just got their hair done....I'm all good! :happy:

Misty same here!! During the summers months I spend 7/10 days a month at my house in SW. FL.
Because of the summer temps I decided to switch my exercise from running on the beach to swimming. So I did and it was a great workout, but each and every day it was alot harder to stick to my diet (even though I did) then when I jogged on the beach or at home in PA. lifting and doing Insanity. I assumed it was because swimming caused me to burn alot more calories than my normal exercise program. So my next trip to FL. I did the same thing , swam everyday but bumped up my calorie intake. (was still hungry though) When I got home I was shocked to see that I gained weight. So did some research and found that the amount of swimming I was doing was actually burning less calories than my normal exercise program back home. But why then was I so hungry from swimming? I did some research and found out that is common knowledge that doing swimming (even in a heated pool) as your main source of excerise, especially while eating at a deficit will cause you to want to eat more food than if you burned the same amount of calories doing an exercise that caused your body temp to rise. Swimming ( even in a heated pool) will cause your body temp. to drop, and that slight drop along with eating at a deficit will cause your body to want to eat because it is tricked into thinking your freezing or starving. I'm not saying it will cause you fail at losing weight, it just makes it alot tougher to stick to your diet.

I was a swimmer and water polo all through out highschool along with being a wrestler in between my "swimming" seasons. swimming is definitely awesome for cardio endurance and strength and just for the amazing feeling of speeding through the water, but I can attest to the fact that it's not the best cardio for weight loss.
in highschool, while doing these sports year round 2 hrs/day, 5-6 days/week, I went from 140-168, yo-yo-ing in between that all the time with my constant dieting. I understand now that my caloric deficit was too low for how much exercise i was doing, but i noticed that whenever i reduced or stopped my swimming and upped other cardio such as running and cycling I immediately lost weight that wasn't coming off with my intense swimming. also, i noticed that the best swimmers were often on the chubby side. One girl who completed a 500 yard swim in about 5-6 minutes (extremely fast!) looked to be pushing 200-250 pounds.
For now I've given up swimming in order to focus on dry land cardio for fat loss. I figure once I get to my goal weight (only 12 pounds away) I can start swimming again a couple days a week for triathlon training. but it def slows down weight loss for me.

For the girl who asked about the swimming cap for chlorine here is what my hair stylist said to do, wet my hair and then put on the cap when going swimming - she said that if your hair is already wet it helps the follicles in your hair to resist the chlorine because they are already full. I took it one step further when I know that I am going swimming I leave conditioner in my hair so that when I wash it after swimming it is softer and it does not appear to have too much damage.

As for the googles and contact lenses I have no idea - if you get the correct fitting ones then it should keep the water out of your eyes

I've always loved swimming and I live about 15 minutes walk from a nice wee pool so I'm definitely going to start going. Was there a few days ago just messing around with a friend, did some laps then realised this is exercise and I enjoy it! Win win

I'll explain when I have more time this eve. but swimming causes your body temp. to drop and other cardio based exercises cause your body temp. to rise. When your body temp. drops (especially when your already eating at a calorie deficit) it causes your body want to eat alot more food because your body thinks your freezing to death and starving.

Most public pools are kept around 78-84 degrees in my experience. If you're actually swimming laps, not just playing around in the water, your skin temperature might drop, but your core temperature rises a hair, just as it does with any other vigorous exercise.

If you're swimming in cold water, that's a different story though. Side note: Pools that focus on competitive swimming are usually colder, 77 or less, even down to 68 in some places. Blah.

Doesnt matter, below is a pic. of my swimming hole which is warmer than heated pools. Doesnt matter if I'm swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in SW. FL. during hurricane season or your swimming in a heated pool, Your body temp will drop and when it does (especially when your eating at a deficit) you will want to eat more food than if you burned the same amount of calories doing another type of cardio that caused your body temp to rise.

If this were true than can you explain to me how I lost 170 lbs. in 16 months exclusively in the pool doing nothing but walking laps with weight wrist and ankle weights and webbed gloves just 4 days a week for 90 minutes a session. I couldn't walk when I first started and had to use the water displacement to lessen my weight (started at 560 lbs.) so that I was able to walk. It was only after I drop 170 lbs. that I was fitted for DonJoy OA braces and began knee injections and pain pills that allowed me out of the water and on to dry land... I was never any hungrier than normal and just stuck to my dieticians meal plan that she put me on to lose 1 to 2 lbs. a week....

Never said that swimming isnt great exercise and that you couldnt lose weight by swimming. And Congrads on your hard work!! But what I am saying is that by choosing swimming as your main form exercise makes it harder for the average person (including myself) to stick to their diet compared to other forms of exercise that do not cause your body temp to drop. Google it and plenty of links will come up for you to research it. Over my 13 month journey to lose 83 lbs. ( I could have lost it alot faster but choose to drop the weight at 1-2lbs per week) the only time's I had to fight food cravings was when I was swimming.