Burning Calories by Swimming

Quoted message said:

Need to lose some "belly fat". Don't ask me how I got it since I'm very
tall and thin, but seem to be putting on some weight around the midriff.
So since I only cycle and swim is this going to be enough. From what I
read on the web I need to burn more calories than I eat to lose the
pounds I've put on. Is it possible to lose body fat swimming? Because
I've also read elsewhere that it's not the best way; running is
apparently. Advice?

No, swimming is not so good for losing fat. Besides, you can't lose fat in
certain spots just because you want to. It'd be better for you to lay off
the beer for awhile.

Hi Pat,

Quoted message said:

No, swimming is not so good for losing fat.

Why not? It needs energy to swim as every other sportive action. If you
swim in colder water you even need energy for keeping up your body
temperature.

It's all a question of intenisity and time. While high intense sports a
called best for for loosing fat, with a moderate aim every sport which
is consuming calories will do.

My rule of thumb is: 10 minutes of sport for a beer ;-)

Ralf

On Jul 12, 10:50 am, Ralf Mueller <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Hi Pat,

Quoted message said:

No, swimming is not so good for losing fat.

Why not? It needs energy to swim as every other sportive action. If you
swim in colder water you even need energy for keeping up your body
temperature.

For some reason we have been unable to nail down, swimming makes you a
lot more hungry than, say, running. You can certainly burn off the
calories, but your temptation to eat them back on will be greater,
unless you are one of the few (apparently) who don't get fiendishly
hungry after a swimming workout.

"Meqwe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Need to lose some "belly fat". Don't ask me how I got it since I'm
very
tall and thin, but seem to be putting on some weight around the
midriff.
So since I only cycle and swim is this going to be enough. From what I
read on the web I need to burn more calories than I eat to lose the
pounds I've put on. Is it possible to lose body fat swimming? Because
I've also read elsewhere that it's not the best way; running is
apparently. Advice?

The older you get, the more you need resistance training - that has been
my experience. I used to run, swim, and bike pretty regularly, the pool
portion was a mile or more 3x/week. As I reached my early 40's, I found
myself losing muscle and gaining belly fat.

The solution was pretty simple - lift weights. Right now, at age 52, I
lift weights almost exclusively and use strength/endurance training with
weights for my "cardio." My resting pulse is around 40, lower than when
I did primarily aerobic activity for my exercise.

I don't know how old you are, but I can tell you that there is a huge
variety of training methods with weights, and while I train specifically
_not_ to get bigger and I get on the scale every morning, I've managed
to keep my overall bodyweight the same _and_ drop several percentage
points of bodyfat over the last few years, which means I've added a few
pounds of muscle to my frame, all for the better, IMHO.

Running works better than swimming for fat burning, I will with that as
far as it goes, but neither did the trick for me. You might also
consider the nature of your swim workout - I think most people will find
a pile of intervals will work better than steady-state slow swimming for
fat burning - add at least some speed work to your program in the pool
if you don't have any now.

Just my opinion, YMMV.

-S-

Meqwe said:

Need to lose some "belly fat". Don't ask me how I got it since I'm very
tall and thin, but seem to be putting on some weight around the midriff.
So since I only cycle and swim is this going to be enough. From what I
read on the web I need to burn more calories than I eat to lose the
pounds I've put on. Is it possible to lose body fat swimming? Because
I've also read elsewhere that it's not the best way; running is
apparently. Advice?

Swimming or any steady-state activity is a poor way to burn fat.
Swimming is, in particular, not very good at weight control according
to studies. (Look for posts by Weisenthal, aka runnswim on this)

Alwyn Cosgrove is one of the countries authorities on losing fat. I
suggeest you read his stuff.

good luck,
Eric

ee said:

Meqwe said:

Need to lose some "belly fat". Don't ask me how I got it since I'm very
tall and thin, but seem to be putting on some weight around the midriff.
So since I only cycle and swim is this going to be enough. From what I
read on the web I need to burn more calories than I eat to lose the
pounds I've put on. Is it possible to lose body fat swimming? Because
I've also read elsewhere that it's not the best way; running is
apparently. Advice?

Swimming or any steady-state activity is a poor way to burn fat.
Swimming is, in particular, not very good at weight control according
to studies. (Look for posts by Weisenthal, aka runnswim on this)

Alwyn Cosgrove is one of the countries authorities on losing fat. I
suggeest you read his stuff.

good luck,
Eric

I'm double-posting ... but:

The first rule of losing weight is diet. For the second rule, see the
first rule.

It's that important.

If you want to try and lose weight swimming then I suggest:
1. short, intense intervals (these will raise your metabolism for many
hours after the swim is over. Some consider that the key to using
exercise to lose weight)
2. wear fins to allow the big muscles of your legs, glutes, and back
to come more into play.

Regards,
Eric

Meqwe said:

Need to lose some "belly fat". Don't ask me how I got it since I'm very
tall and thin, but seem to be putting on some weight around the midriff.
So since I only cycle and swim is this going to be enough. From what I
read on the web I need to burn more calories than I eat to lose the
pounds I've put on. Is it possible to lose body fat swimming? Because
I've also read elsewhere that it's not the best way; running is
apparently. Advice?

let me tell you about my experince.
running was not my choice , I have a problem in one knee..so I went
swimming;

in less than 3 months I'm buckling 2 steps down in my belt, soon I
have to buy a new set of trousers , with smaller size!!

what I did was simply as follows :
A- the diet:
1-keep the same balance of food, still ok but:
2- no meals after 08:00 pm (if you feel hungry try carrots,
cucombers,as mush as you want, appels,banannaare ok but not too
much)
//this is how you will burn out more than you take in )
3- have what ever you like on breakfast but
4- stopp eating before you feel full..
5- loose the beer.

B- the exercise:
1- long sessions of moderate sport, my choice was swimming burns a lot
and don't feel exhausted ( get a couch )
2- keep it as much regular as you can ( 120 minutes twice a week in
my case )

C- the psycho effect
1- tell your self ( I feel thinner after that session ) each time!!
2- don't rush it, keep it steady.

hope you get fit

MW Smith said:

On Jul 12, 10:50 am, Ralf Mueller <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Hi Pat,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

No, swimming is not so good for losing fat.

Quoted message said:

Why not? It needs energy to swim as every other sportive action. If you
swim in colder water you even need energy for keeping up your body
temperature.

For some reason we have been unable to nail down, swimming makes you a
lot more hungry than, say, running. You can certainly burn off the
calories, but your temptation to eat them back on will be greater,
unless you are one of the few (apparently) who don't get fiendishly
hungry after a swimming workout.

The reason is that when you finish running or cycling you are usually
really hot. A high body temperature kills the appetite. After cycling
or running, it will take a while for the body to cool down. Once it
does, you get hungry.

With swimming, the body doesn't heat up as much. You feel hungry right
away. Still, any sport is a good way to loose fat, provided that you
expend more calories than you consume. So, if you swim hard for an
hour, you may burn 600 t0 1000 calories, depending on intensity.

The problem with swimming is that since you are laying down, and there
is no impact, it is harder to raise your heart rate, than, for
example, with running. So your perceived effort while swimming may be
intense, but your heart-rate may be lower than with the same perceived
effort while running. So, you may burn more calories running or
playing basketball or soccer for an hour than swimming.

Running is usually a good way to loose weight because the body weight
and the impact create enough resistance that causes your heart rate to
go up as soon as you start. Even while running very slow, your heart
rate will go up and you will burn a good amount of calories. Your
heart rate will remain high for a while even after you finish
running.

With swimming, you will have to focus on getting your heart rate up
and keeping it up.

In my case, it is hard to raise my heart rate swimming, cycling or
running. I am pretty used to these sports, so my heart rate stays
low.
with swimming, sometimes, my heart rate is about 60-70 while
swimming.

I get my heart up the most while cycling cause I usually cycle with
friends. When they go fast they force me to go fast and it brings up
my heart rate. My friends like to go fast and it does the trick.

Quoted message said:

MW Smith said:

On Jul 12, 10:50 am, Ralf Mueller <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Hi Pat,
> No, swimming is not so good for losing fat.
Why not? It needs energy to swim as every other sportive action. If you
swim in colder water you even need energy for keeping up your body
temperature.

For some reason we have been unable to nail down, swimming makes you a
lot more hungry than, say, running. You can certainly burn off the
calories, but your temptation to eat them back on will be greater,
unless you are one of the few (apparently) who don't get fiendishly
hungry after a swimming workout.

The reason is that when you finish running or cycling you are usually
really hot. A high body temperature kills the appetite. After cycling
or running, it will take a while for the body to cool down. Once it
does, you get hungry.

With swimming, the body doesn't heat up as much. You feel hungry right
away. Still, any sport is a good way to loose fat, provided that you
expend more calories than you consume. So, if you swim hard for an
hour, you may burn 600 t0 1000 calories, depending on intensity.

The problem with swimming is that since you are laying down, and there
is no impact, it is harder to raise your heart rate, than, for
example, with running. So your perceived effort while swimming may be
intense, but your heart-rate may be lower than with the same perceived
effort while running. So, you may burn more calories running or
playing basketball or soccer for an hour than swimming.

I don't think it is like that for me. I don't run anymore due to knee
pain, but when I did, my heart rates for running and swimming were
comparable, and my heart rate dropped back to resting quickly after
ending either a run or a swim.

I have no idea if the calories burned in this table actually apply to
me, but the table does indicate that running and swimming would burn
about the same calories in my case.

http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist3.htm

At about 190 lbs, it shows that running 12 minute miles and swimming
laps with light/moderate effort both burn 690 calories per hour.

Quoted message said:

Running is usually a good way to loose weight because the body weight
and the impact create enough resistance that causes your heart rate to
go up as soon as you start. Even while running very slow, your heart
rate will go up and you will burn a good amount of calories. Your
heart rate will remain high for a while even after you finish
running.

As I said, my heart rate drops quickly back to the normal range with
either activity, but I am sure that my metabolism remains high for a
long time after any long period of intense exercise.

I think the difficulty of maintining a high pulse rate in swimming is
not due to being prone but due to not being in as high a state of
fitness for swimming as for running. But when I was at my highest
fitness level for swimming, I could swim high-intensity, two-hour
workouts everyday. And my pulse rate while swimming hard would easily
get as high as it would while running hard.

The way I have understood a lingering high heart rate after stopping is
that it indicates lack of fitness, but maybe I'm wrong there.

Quoted message said:

With swimming, you will have to focus on getting your heart rate up
and keeping it up.

In my case, it is hard to raise my heart rate swimming, cycling or
running. I am pretty used to these sports, so my heart rate stays
low. with swimming, sometimes, my heart rate is about 60-70 while
swimming.

I get my heart up the most while cycling cause I usually cycle with
friends. When they go fast they force me to go fast and it brings up
my heart rate. My friends like to go fast and it does the trick.

I agree that it is much easier to maintain a high pulse rate when there
is a competition to focus on.

mwsmith said:

Quoted message said:

MW Smith said:

On Jul 12, 10:50 am, Ralf Mueller <[email hidden]>
wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> Hi Pat,
>> No, swimming is not so good for losing fat.
> Why not? It needs energy to swim as every other sportive action. If you
> swim in colder water you even need energy for keeping up your body
> temperature.
For some reason we have been unable to nail down, swimming makes you a
lot more hungry than, say, running. You can certainly burn off the
calories, but your temptation to eat them back on will be greater,
unless you are one of the few (apparently) who don't get fiendishly
hungry after a swimming workout.

Quoted message said:

The reason is that when you finish running or cycling you are usually
really hot. A high body temperature kills the appetite. After cycling
or running, it will take a while for the body to cool down. Once it
does, you get hungry.

Quoted message said:

With swimming, the body doesn't heat up as much. You feel hungry right
away. Still, any sport is a good way to loose fat, provided that you
expend more calories than you consume. So, if you swim hard for an
hour, you may burn 600 t0 1000 calories, depending on intensity.

Quoted message said:

The problem with swimming is that since you are laying down, and there
is no impact, it is harder to raise your heart rate, than, for
example, with running. So your perceived effort while swimming may be
intense, but your heart-rate may be lower than with the same perceived
effort while running. So, you may burn more calories running or
playing basketball or soccer for an hour than swimming.

I don't think it is like that for me. I don't run anymore due to knee
pain, but when I did, my heart rates for running and swimming were
comparable, and my heart rate dropped back to resting quickly after
ending either a run or a swim.

I have no idea if the calories burned in this table actually apply to
me, but the table does indicate that running and swimming would burn
about the same calories in my case.

http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist3.htm

At about 190 lbs, it shows that running 12 minute miles and swimming
laps with light/moderate effort both burn 690 calories per hour.

Quoted message said:

Running is usually a good way to loose weight because the body weight
and the impact create enough resistance that causes your heart rate to
go up as soon as you start. Even while running very slow, your heart
rate will go up and you will burn a good amount of calories. Your
heart rate will remain high for a while even after you finish
running.

As I said, my heart rate drops quickly back to the normal range with
either activity, but I am sure that my metabolism remains high for a
long time after any long period of intense exercise.

I think the difficulty of maintining a high pulse rate in swimming is
not due to being prone but due to not being in as high a state of
fitness for swimming as for running. But when I was at my highest
fitness level for swimming, I could swim high-intensity, two-hour
workouts everyday. And my pulse rate while swimming hard would easily
get as high as it would while running hard.

The way I have understood a lingering high heart rate after stopping is
that it indicates lack of fitness, but maybe I'm wrong there.

Quoted message said:

With swimming, you will have to focus on getting your heart rate up
and keeping it up.

Quoted message said:

In my case, it is hard to raise my heart rate swimming, cycling or
running. I am pretty used to these sports, so my heart rate stays
low. with swimming, sometimes, my heart rate is about 60-70 while
swimming.

Quoted message said:

I get my heart up the most while cycling cause I usually cycle with
friends. When they go fast they force me to go fast and it brings up
my heart rate. My friends like to go fast and it does the trick.

I agree that it is much easier to maintain a high pulse rate when there
is a competition to focus on.

Martin:

I think that I've had similar experiences with Swimming to yours.
However, our experiences may have been unique to fit swimmers with
many hours in the water. For example, there was a time I used to do a
workout and in the middle of it I would do 10 100m sprints, or 10 200m
sprints with short recovery or something or other of this sort. This
is not an uncommon drill for people in swim teams. When I did this, it
would take me a couple of sprints to get my heart rate up and to keep
it there. However, this is not something that the regular pool dweller
does. This sort of workout takes focus, intent and maybe even a
coach.

On the other hand, when I go to the pool now, I swim easy and rarely
do this sort of workout unless I have a competitive objective in mind,
which I rarely do. Most adult swimmers in the pool never do this sort
of thing. Instead they swim easy across the pool with different rate
of speeds at what appears to be a relaxed pace.

I think that the way to get your heart rate up in swimming is by doing
intervals with short recovery the way you or I used to do it and most
swim teams do it. This is essentially by doing drills with 4 to 10
sets of something in a limited amount of time with short recovery in
between sets. However, as I said, it takes an experienced swimmer
with many hours in the pool to do this, or a coach to guide a
swimmer.

I have a couple of triathlete friends who became swimmers as adults.
They've done TI trainning and they currently have an online coach
through carmichael training systems. They usually swim 3000 yds three
times a week and they look moderately proficient but not too fast.
They asked me to help them improved their swimming because after a
couple of years of swimming they don't get any faster. They do the
same drills again and again.

I swam with them and gave them drills specifically to improve their
form and speed drills. When they finished they told me that they had
never been so tired and they realized that to swim faster they needed
to do some specific training that incorporated speed drills. They are
both excellent runners and ok cyclists. However, not having many years
in a pool doing specific workouts with a coach, they had no idea of
how to bring their heat rates up in the water. This surprised me cause
they can do some really tough run workouts. My point is that it is
hard to get your heart rate up in the water and to keep it up.
Experienced swimmers know how to do this, but, I rarely do it and
don't look forward to doing it much. I usually get in the water and
swim 3000 yds non stop at a pace that I can probably fall asleep in.
With running, I do the same, but the pounding and my own weight gets
my heart rate up a little higher. Cycling is different cause I like it
way too much and I do intervals and [censored].

Just my opinions from watching swimmers and having swam for many
years.

Andres

On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:17:20 +0200, mwsmith <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

At about 190 lbs, it shows that running 12 minute miles and swimming
laps with light/moderate effort both burn 690 calories per hour.

Seems to me you have to be in pretty decent shape (and have some
skills) to swim for an hour at any pace. On the other hand, I could
lace up my Asics tomorrow and do five miles in an hour although I had
to give up running years ago!!

--
Dave Clary/Corpus Christi, TX
http://davidclary.com

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:17:20 +0200, mwsmith <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

At about 190 lbs, it shows that running 12 minute miles and swimming
laps with light/moderate effort both burn 690 calories per hour.

Seems to me you have to be in pretty decent shape (and have some
skills) to swim for an hour at any pace. On the other hand, I could
lace up my Asics tomorrow and do five miles in an hour although I had
to give up running years ago!!

The same would be true for a swimmer who gave up swimming years ago.