Can you gain muscles from swimming?

Hello,

   I'm doing swimming right now and this is the third month of the season (and the final month). I have gained weight like crazy due to binge eating and now I'm coming back on counting calories to lose the extra pounds I gained. (That's all I need to do - lose extra pounds I gained). However, I have been eating 1300-1600 calories throughout the week and my weight is not going anywhere. Even before this, I still never reach 2000 calories a day (I'm 5"1, 17 years old, doing swimming 14 hours swimming a week). But still.....at 120 lbs. 

So I was wondering...if it's possible that these are muscle weight. (around 5-ish lbs). And do I actually get muscles from swimming?

Since swimming is a sport that uses muscles, you can gain muscle mass from it although once you pass a certain point it's more aerobic than strength so you won't get large increases in muscle mass.   In your case, I suspect the swim team exercises are designed to build muscle and that it's a combination of normal teen development and water retention with a bit of muscle increase.

1300-1600 calories is insufficient for a 17 year old woman, especially one who is exercising the way that you do.

You need to start eating enough for a woman of your age with your exercise level.

When I start eating more, I gain so much weight! And they wouldn't go down! Should I add more calories? And by how much? Because in the burn meter calculation and all the online calculation for calories I should be eating, they suggest me 1300-1500 calories to lose.... 

*very confusing!*

but thank you for the first answer!

If you can, I'd recommend seeing a nutritionist.  Do you have a recovery team?

You're 17 years old, 5'1" and 120 lbs.  I don't know what calculator you've been using, but I would bet it's not one geared towards those under 21.  Try this one:

http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.h tml

I get 1640 calories for absolutely sedentary up to 2750 calories if you're very active.  As a teenage woman, 1500 calories is the minimum intake you need to lose weight while still maintaing the vital calories and hopefully getting a reasonable amount of nutrition.  Do not have a deficit of over 1,000 calories in any given day, and since you're in a healthy BMI I would recommend no more than 500.

You most definitely CAN gain muscle from swimming -- it's great!  And very likely the reason you are not losing weight (although you are already at a pretty healthy weight). Most of the muscle on my body was built during/through aerobic exercise, mostly swimming -- and I have a lot of muscle.

You are not eating enough.  No one ever wants to hear that -- but swimming burns an incredible number of calories when done as competitive training -- and eating 2500 cal per day during training season would serve you wrong.  2

I must caution you to eat a good balance of Fats - Carbs - Proteins (30-50-20%), because swimmers tend to gravitate towards a higher carb "diet" and it is not really necessary except for pre-performance.

I don't let any of my swimmers train when they are not eating enough -- and it is obvious through their performance in the pool and at meets when they are trying to restrict.

Good Luck and feel free to PM me with any specific questions, if you like.

Coach Kay

YOU CAN YOU CAN! I swam competitively for 14 years and was incredibly built (still am mainly due to genetics) but when I swam I didn't lift weights or anything and I looked like a bodybuilder. It builds muscle more than any other sport I know. So if you've gained it's almost guarenteed to be muscle. From the sound of your stats you seem very slim to me. Try no to focus so much on losing weight and being healthy. That's where I got hung up on my teens and actually have ended up weight obsessed since then and I firmly believe that had I not obsessed when I was your size (a perfect weight with room to grow and gain a little) I would not have the obsession with dieting I do now in my 20's. Hope I helped~

Thank you everyone so much! I didn't get a chance to do the afternoon practice today because I didn't get enough sleep for 2 nights. But I still eat normally, though.

For the calories, my nutritionist me to get my BMI back to 21 and that would be me at 110 lbs. But if that extra 10 lbs are muscles, I don't want to lose that. Still, over 2000 calories seems to be very a lot! I try to make myself eating in the normal portion or else when the swimming season is over, I will be doomed with the athlete's eating habits. But I'm definitely going to uptake my calories a bit and see if I will gain any weight or not! (I'm aiming at 1600-1800 calories on the practice day, I'll see how it goes!)

Thank you  

No, you won't be doomed with the athlete's eating habits.  Once the swimming season is over, taper off the extra calories a couple hundred at a time or pick up another sport.