swimming? Bad for weight loss??

Ok, so I've started swimming every morning to add exercise to my diet to lose some weight.  But I read some stuff on the internet and in the NYTimes that talked about swimming not being a good exercise for weight loss.  What do you all think about it?

i swam on and off most of my life and i have to admit as boring as swimming in circles got, i noticed i had more defined back and abs when i did stick with it.... as far as the arms... i think i have the fat arm genes... anyway try alternating swimming and other exercises like running or elliptical, or what i used to do (and should do again!) is sweat my butt off on whatever equipment and then jump in the water for half an hour. keifer sells this belt pouch for like 50 bucks that comes with water headphones so you can stick your music player and swim laps for hours...

Thanks to everyone for their tips.  I've been swimming for three mos and I'm up to 25 laps per day 5 days per week.  My weight loss has been minimal and it's because of my diet.  I will try drinking tea and water after swimming to see if this helps.  Thanks again everybody.

i did water polo for a while and i didnt change my diet at all. i ate even more! it was horrible. i gained almost 20 pounds and went up a size in shirts and pants. now i wish i hadnt eaten all that crap. i have to work extra hard now to get back to how i was before (and even then i wasnt happy)

so yeah, EAT GOOD! i see girls on the water polo team who are skinny winny and muscular. swimmin seems to get everything but your butt, though...

Thanks Z0mgkatie.  I just joined this site and did the calorie count thingamajig.  No wonder I'm fat!  I ate almost 5000 calories today alone!  And I didn't eat a lot, I just ate fattening stuff.  What a eye opener!

They say swimming is one of the best exercises a person can do.  I have a pool and I am gonna start swimming every week for more exercise.

I'm a swimmer, I've swam my whole life and am captain of my D1 college team. Swimming will 100% tone your whole body, however I have never lost weight during swim season. I usually gain so much muscle that it counteracts the fat you're losing. While the number on the scale may not be any different, visibly you will see results. If you aren't training as hard as a competitive swimmer, you probably won't gain as much muscle and will lose weight (muscle weighs more than fat). And for the record, after a practice (and drinking water/ gatorade the whole time) the whole team is always starving and we head right to dinner. It is true that we eat more during swim season, however the majority of you will not be training the way we do, so you most likely won't be that hungry. Overall, go swimming. It won't do any harm, you'll burn calories and tone your whole body.  

Yeah, I was a swimmer for ages...it's an awesome workout.  I was never in better shape than when we were in season and I ate like a horse.  I'm 4'10" and at the time weighed like 90-95 lbs solid muscle. I'd eat one or two bowls worth of cereal for breakfast (we just grabbed handfuls while stretching before am practice and more after), for lunch I'd have a Big Mike's (now Melio's) sub sandwich, followed by a giant slice of pizza, whatever I brought from home which was usually a sandwich, apple, some carrots, chips and I'd top it all off with one of these giant cookies they used to make at the cafeteria. When I got home from afternoon practice I'd eat a ton of whatever my family had had for dinner then go do homework and go directly to bed...

The way I figure it is swimming has to be one hell of a workout to make that possible without me being huge.  But I do think everyone else is right, the number on the scale may not move all that much depending on how much you have to lose since you will definitely gain muscle and muscle weighs more than fat.

Hmm, after looking at all of that I'm thinking I should try swimming again. :)

edunph said:

Quote: "   As for the hunger, that's actually dehydration. Contrary to what some people think you DO sweat while swimming. But because you're wet, your body doesn't realize it's thirst but rather thinks you're hungry. Try having a water bottle on the side of the pool and drinking between sets and when you're finished. That will help with that starved feeling at the end of the swim."

This is absolutely false info.

1. Hunger does not take over or get confused with thirst. If a person is thirsty, then the over riding impulse is to drink, not eat.

2. A person does not sweat while swimming in cool/cold water (temperatures of most lap pools). The only reason the body would sweat is to cool down and most swimmers need to fight to warm up in most swimming pools.

This is quite obvious if you compare swimming to most land sports. You can swim for quite a while at a hard pace without developing a thirst whereas the same level of activity on land would require frequent hydration.

I live in a tropical climate (Thailand) where the air temperature is almost always (all year) above 30 C in the daytime with relative humidity over 80%. Despite this I can swim hard for many kilometers in the hot midday sun and still feel quite cool. I can get away with drinking a few hundred mls of water in 90 minutes and feel great. If I spend that amount of time in the weight room I would need drink between 1 to 2 litres.

Swimming is a fantastic sport for a tropical climate where most land sports induce profuse sweating after only a few minutes...like training in a sauna. In most other sporting activities I would be fighting the heat rather than the exercise intensity...and the heat can leave one as weak as a kitten in the gym. Swimming is the only sport where I can push to full intensity in this climate.

People always seem puzzled when comparing maximum heart rates for swimming with other sports. The 2 obvious reasons why the heart beats more slowly during swimming is 1. the horizontal swimming position requiring less effort for the heart to pump blood. 2. the natural cooling of the water eliminating the need to sweat.

It's great exercise BUT doing it exclusively when you're young can lead to lower bone density than regular exercise.

If you're overweight or obese, though, your bones are probably more than strong enough anyway (it's the tiny birdlike girls that need to worry).

well, i can tell you this from personal exp.

 i started "swimming" the middle of my sophomore year in high school and i got more serious into through my junior year, and now that it's my senior year I joined my local club team and I'm in the water anywhere from 2-4 hours a day, doing about 6-12k yards. when i started swimming i was about 5' 3" and 128 pounds. Now, i'm 5' 8-ish" and 135-140 pounds. +

 I'm in the best shape of my life, and I've got so little fat on my body now that it's ridiculous. The best part is, I don't have to worry at all about what I eat. Infact, I have to eat at every opportunity, because I'm trying to put on/maintain the same weight as opposed to losing it.

 Swimming is an amazing excercise if you can get motivated and get in the water for a serious workout.

Wow sounds like there are alot of swimmers on here. I live in the NW so almost all swimming pools are heated! We have a local swimming pool that offers water arobics which I think would be great for me because I have knee issues as well as fibromyalgia. My problem is I am so large I am embarassed to even put a swim suit on! how do you other gals deal with that issue?

I think too much is being made of a minor comment buried in a pretty decent NY times article on misconceptions about exercise and weight loss.  The author was comparing what he called "weight bearing" exercises like running and walking with "non weight-bearing" exercises like swimming and cycling.  You could look at a lot of other aspects such as the fact that your muscles are stressed in unique ways by swimming.  That doesn't make it better or worse than other exercises.  It is certainly a good exercise to have in your repertoire.  By the way how does a triathalon stack up as exercise?

Anyway, it seems to me that swimming has a lot going for it but it is only one alternative.  Okay for some people it is about the only alternative.  If it works for you, don't worry about what other people think.

I agree...and the problem is there is this study that showed that when comparing running, aerobics and swimming..the swimmers gained weight instead of losing. Well, it was ONE study. It's ridiculous. I was very thin and in the best shape of my life when I was a competitive swimmer. Give me a break. I am very skeptical of just one study. And when you google this online you find the same study information parroted back as if it were exercise gospel. Case closed. Hogwash.

I just started back in the pool again (gosh...it's been a long time) and you can't tell me that burning about 400 calories in the morning and combining that with my afternoon weight lifting session (150 cals) combined with a good diet isn't going to make the scale move.

I understand the anectodal evidence from the lifeguard. I know what he's talking about. But remember it's not hard to eat away any calories you burn in a workout, regardless of what you do. These ladies are doing their water aerobics, burning about 200 calories, and stopping at Starbucks on the way home for a frappucino or whatever and completely negating the calorie defict they are trying to create.

All I'm saying is that if it works for you, do it. Watch your diet as you would with any program. I mean, for years I have been lifting weights and doing cario machines and trying to mix it up but my diet gets me every time.  I am very hungry today (and I was when I worked out). But I got up at 5am swam and didn't get to eat until 8:30am..that might have had something to do with it. Anyway,  your diet will get you no matter what you do for exercise. Period.

Here is a link that dispels the myth that swimming will not help you lose weight.

http://runningdoctor.runnersworld.com/2008/07 /does-swimming-c.html

Original Post by trustwomen:

It's great exercise BUT doing it exclusively when you're young can lead to lower bone density than regular exercise.

If you're overweight or obese, though, your bones are probably more than strong enough anyway (it's the tiny birdlike girls that need to worry).

I'm glad to see someone mention bone  density. Young women need to do some weight bearing exercise, too. Walking, if you are overweight, is probably enough. But don't leave it out of your training routines!  Don't assume that just being heavy is enough; add some walking a couple times a week for good measure.