Swimming not good for weightloss? (Part 2)

How about taking up synchronized swimming? It's a total body workout.

A_M said:

Then I moved on to read the archived messages on the
rec.sport.swimming. Luckily I found something which might tell us why
swimming might not be as good as other forms of exercises in causing
weightloss. If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to lose
bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it, swimming is
not as effective as exercises that use the lower body more intensively
like running and cycling. The argument is that the lower body muscles
being more prominantly "aerobic/red", with the upper body muscles being
more prominently "anaerobic/white." White muscle can burn only sugar;
red muscle can burn fat, lactate, and sugar. (excerpted from
http://tinyurl.com/cm93z) Since the arms provide most of the propulsion
when one swims, swimmers tend to use their upper body muscles more
intensively than cyclists / runners. Therefore swimmers don't do v well
on low carb or low carbing swimmers run out of gas pretty fast.

-----
Bev

Interesting....

A_M said:

So what to do if one wants to low carb and swim to lose weight? The
conclusion is to do more kicking drills. For detailed explanations by
Larry Weisenthal please read this:

http://tinyurl.com/cslob

FYI: The post mentioned Total Immersion drills, if you haven't heard of
them you can find out more on their websites. Mainly they're drills
where you learn to balance yourself better on water. You'll try to use
your lungs as your buoy, hide most of your head in the water (thus total
immersion) and keep your legs as close to the water surface as
possible. You'd do the most basic drill facing upwards and doing very
small kicks with your legs.

I hope this post may prove useful for my fellow low carbers.

Have a nice weekend!

Cheers,
Ada

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

Quoted message said:

weightloss. If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to lose
bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it, swimming is
not as effective as exercises that use the lower body more intensively
like running and cycling. The argument is that the lower body muscles
being more prominantly "aerobic/red", with the upper body muscles being
more prominently "anaerobic/white." White muscle can burn only sugar;
red muscle can burn fat, lactate, and sugar. (excerpted from
http://tinyurl.com/cm93z) Since the arms provide most of the propulsion
when one swims, swimmers tend to use their upper body muscles more
intensively than cyclists / runners. Therefore swimmers don't do v well
on low carb or low carbing swimmers run out of gas pretty fast.

So what to do if one wants to low carb and swim to lose weight? The
conclusion is to do more kicking drills. For detailed explanations by
Larry Weisenthal please read this:

Think water aerobics, the water increases the resistance for the leg
muscles.

--
No Husband Has Ever Been Shot While Doing The Dishes

A_M wrote:
If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
|| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
|| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower body
|| more intensively like running and cycling. T

Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of the body is
burning them IMHO.
--
Peter
Website: http://users.thelink.net/marengo

Marengo said:

A_M wrote:
If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
|| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
|| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower body
|| more intensively like running and cycling. T

Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of the
body is burning them IMHO.

Try wiggling your pinkies....

Roger Zoul said:

Try wiggling your pinkies....

Amusingly enough, my PT started me on thumb strength training the
other day. I use rubber bands, but all the same principles apply -
progressive overload, sets and reps, etc. I wonder how many calories
*that* burns ;-)

DJ Delorie said:

Roger Zoul said:

Try wiggling your pinkies....

Amusingly enough, my PT started me on thumb strength training the
other day.

And this from a guy who just bought a power cage? 🙂

Roger Zoul wrote:
|| Marengo <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| A_M wrote:
||| If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
||||| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
||||| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower body
||||| more intensively like running and cycling. T
|||
||| Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of the
||| body is burning them IMHO.
||
|| Try wiggling your pinkies....

Been there, done that. ;-)

After my major brain stem stroke in 1998 left my right hand, arm, leg and
foot paralyzed I had to "learn" how to use everything again. Three times a
week for several months one of the PT seesions I endured was called
"occupational therapy/recreational therapy," which is re-learning fine motor
skills. It started by wiggling fingers (or trying to); touching the thumb
in sequence to the tip of each finger on the hand and trying to increase the
speed of doing that. The finger wiggling and moving led to grasping
objects, which led to writing which led to typing ... you get the idea.
Seven years ago I never would have believed I'd be sitting here typing on a
keyboard using both hands!

However, I gained all my weight (nearly 100 pounds) during that year-long
period of relative immobility and inactivity after my stroke. Apparently
pinky wiggling isn't very aerobic afger all! <g>

--
Peter
Website: http://users.thelink.net/marengo

Roger Zoul said:

Quoted message said:

Amusingly enough, my PT started me on thumb strength training the
other day.

And this from a guy who just bought a power cage? 🙂

Yes, but I don't think I need the cage for the thumb workouts ;-)

Seriously, I'm recovering from DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis, and the
therapist wants to make sure the little thumb abductor doesn't atrophy
due to the tendon inflammation, so I'm to use a rubber band for
resistance training for it. Otherwise, as long as my thumb isn't
supporting the weight of the bar, I'm cleared for regular workouts.

The cage is nice, too. See my review in MFW.

Marengo said:

Roger Zoul wrote:
|| Marengo <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| A_M wrote:
||| If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
||||| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
||||| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower body
||||| more intensively like running and cycling. T
|||
||| Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of the
||| body is burning them IMHO.
||
|| Try wiggling your pinkies....

Been there, done that. ;-)

After my major brain stem stroke in 1998 left my right hand, arm, leg
and foot paralyzed I had to "learn" how to use everything again.
Three times a week for several months one of the PT seesions I
endured was called "occupational therapy/recreational therapy," which
is re-learning fine motor skills. It started by wiggling fingers (or
trying to); touching the thumb in sequence to the tip of each finger
on the hand and trying to increase the speed of doing that. The
finger wiggling and moving led to grasping objects, which led to
writing which led to typing ... you get the idea. Seven years ago I
never would have believed I'd be sitting here typing on a keyboard
using both hands!

However, I gained all my weight (nearly 100 pounds) during that
year-long period of relative immobility and inactivity after my
stroke. Apparently pinky wiggling isn't very aerobic afger all! <g>

🙂

I'm happy for your recovery, Peter!

DJ Delorie said:

Roger Zoul said:

Quoted message said:

Amusingly enough, my PT started me on thumb strength training the
other day.

And this from a guy who just bought a power cage? 🙂

Yes, but I don't think I need the cage for the thumb workouts ;-)

Seriously, I'm recovering from DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis, and the
therapist wants to make sure the little thumb abductor doesn't atrophy
due to the tendon inflammation, so I'm to use a rubber band for
resistance training for it. Otherwise, as long as my thumb isn't
supporting the weight of the bar, I'm cleared for regular workouts.

The cage is nice, too. See my review in MFW.

I wish I had room in my house for a cage....at least my gym has two that are
rarely used! In fact, one I can get to just about anytime I want.

I am a type 2 diabetic, low carb swimmer.

I usually swim 3 times a week. Other days, I walk, or do some floor
exercises.

For me, swimming is a constant, must have workout. When I want to drop some
pounds, I increase my walking to supplement.

Here are my thoughts about swimming....

1. Swimming can be a pretty thorough work out, but tends to change body
composition more than just losing weight. i.e. you will build up some muscle
which will mask the changes if you are only looking at weight.

2. Swimming takes different forms. Are you doing one stroke continuously for
endurance, or are you doing different drills. In that regard it is no
different from working with a weight machine - there are different ways to
use the equipment and you will get different results. Sprints are more
anaerobic, etc.

As a diabetic, I have not had the luxury of playing with the carb counts,
but the reality is that once you've burned through the sugar stores in the
first part of the workout, you are burning fat anyway. I would not worry too
much about what you ate last night. When you start swimming, just start off
slow and see what your body is willing to do when you push, and decide from
there.

As somebody else already mentioned in this thread, it really is all about
calories. If you burn more than you eat, you lose weight, or at least reduce
the % of body fat you are carrying around. As far as I am concerned, those
are both good things.

Details:
My swim workout is mostly freestyle, and is 2,000 yards which takes me about
45-50 minutes.
Daily carb intake < 100 gm
I do not follow any particular LC flavor. (Atkins, South Beach, PP, etc).

ws
Diag T2 10/98
195/160/155
Diet & Exercise - no meds
Last A1c 5.5

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

Quoted message said:

Hi folks,

A little while ago, BlueSun has posted this question, wondering whether
swimming doesn't do much good for weightloss. The original thread can
be viewed here:

http://tinyurl.com/cr9jt

or

http://tinyurl.com/82f43

While the OP hasn't posted on ASDLC ever since, today I found myself
obsessing about the effects of eating low carb on swimming. I find that
swim much better after a moderately carby meal or if I'd been eating
extremely carby stuff the night before. So I try to read up on the
posts about cycling on ASDLC because it's a very popular cardio amongst
ASDLCers and I also looked up on swimming on ASDLC. But I couldn't find
v much about low carbing AND swimming on ASDLC.

Then I moved on to read the archived messages on the
rec.sport.swimming. Luckily I found something which might tell us why
swimming might not be as good as other forms of exercises in causing
weightloss. If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to lose
bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it, swimming is
not as effective as exercises that use the lower body more intensively
like running and cycling. The argument is that the lower body muscles
being more prominantly "aerobic/red", with the upper body muscles being
more prominently "anaerobic/white." White muscle can burn only sugar;
red muscle can burn fat, lactate, and sugar. (excerpted from
http://tinyurl.com/cm93z) Since the arms provide most of the propulsion
when one swims, swimmers tend to use their upper body muscles more
intensively than cyclists / runners. Therefore swimmers don't do v well
on low carb or low carbing swimmers run out of gas pretty fast.

So what to do if one wants to low carb and swim to lose weight? The
conclusion is to do more kicking drills. For detailed explanations by
Larry Weisenthal please read this:

http://tinyurl.com/cslob

FYI: The post mentioned Total Immersion drills, if you haven't heard of
them you can find out more on their websites. Mainly they're drills
where you learn to balance yourself better on water. You'll try to use
your lungs as your buoy, hide most of your head in the water (thus total
immersion) and keep your legs as close to the water surface as
possible. You'd do the most basic drill facing upwards and doing very
small kicks with your legs.

I hope this post may prove useful for my fellow low carbers.

Have a nice weekend!

Cheers,
Ada

Marengo said:

Roger Zoul wrote:
|| Marengo <[email hidden]> wrote:
||| A_M wrote:
||| If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
||||| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
||||| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower body
||||| more intensively like running and cycling. T
|||
||| Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of the
||| body is burning them IMHO.
||
|| Try wiggling your pinkies....

Been there, done that. ;-)

After my major brain stem stroke in 1998 left my right hand, arm, leg and
foot paralyzed I had to "learn" how to use everything again. Three times a
week for several months one of the PT seesions I endured was called
"occupational therapy/recreational therapy," which is re-learning fine motor
skills. It started by wiggling fingers (or trying to); touching the thumb
in sequence to the tip of each finger on the hand and trying to increase the
speed of doing that. The finger wiggling and moving led to grasping
objects, which led to writing which led to typing ... you get the idea.
Seven years ago I never would have believed I'd be sitting here typing on a
keyboard using both hands!

However, I gained all my weight (nearly 100 pounds) during that year-long
period of relative immobility and inactivity after my stroke. Apparently
pinky wiggling isn't very aerobic afger all! <g>

but how come most concert pianists are rather slim? <G>

A_M wrote:
|| Marengo wrote:
|||
||| Roger Zoul wrote:
||||| Marengo <[email hidden]> wrote:
|||||| A_M wrote:
|||||| If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
|||||||| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
|||||||| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower
|||||||| body more intensively like running and cycling. T
||||||
|||||| Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of
|||||| the body is burning them IMHO.
|||||
||||| Try wiggling your pinkies....
|||
||| Been there, done that. ;-)
|||
||| After my major brain stem stroke in 1998 left my right hand, arm,
||| leg and foot paralyzed I had to "learn" how to use everything
||| again. Three times a week for several months one of the PT
||| seesions I endured was called "occupational therapy/recreational
||| therapy," which is re-learning fine motor skills. It started by
||| wiggling fingers (or trying to); touching the thumb in sequence to
||| the tip of each finger on the hand and trying to increase the speed
||| of doing that. The finger wiggling and moving led to grasping
||| objects, which led to writing which led to typing ... you get the
||| idea. Seven years ago I never would have believed I'd be sitting
||| here typing on a keyboard using both hands!
|||
||| However, I gained all my weight (nearly 100 pounds) during that
||| year-long period of relative immobility and inactivity after my
||| stroke. Apparently pinky wiggling isn't very aerobic afger all!
||| <g>
|||
||
|| but how come most concert pianists are rather slim? <G>

Hmmmmmm ... I was a piano bar entertainer as well as a church organist (go
figure) pre-stroke. I was slim as a reed!
--
Peter
Website: http://users.thelink.net/marengo

Roger Zoul said:

I wish I had room in my house for a cage....at least my gym has two that are
rarely used! In fact, one I can get to just about anytime I want.

Well, I squeezed it into a part of the basement I wasn't using much.
We had been going to a gym, but it's a half hour drive and with the
kids getting out of school for the summer soon, we realized the
inconvenience outweighed any further benefits vs a home gym, so we
switched back.

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

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul said:

I wish I had room in my house for a cage....at least my gym has two that
are
rarely used! In fact, one I can get to just about anytime I want.

Well, I squeezed it into a part of the basement I wasn't using much.
We had been going to a gym, but it's a half hour drive and with the
kids getting out of school for the summer soon, we realized the
inconvenience outweighed any further benefits vs a home gym, so we
switched back.

Strange this comes up here. I just sold mine to my local gym because I'm
remodeling my basement and didn't have room for it any more. The nice thing
is that I got some perks at the gym and now remember how much more I like
working out at the gym than at home. It was a Parabody. Very nice.
Mark

Hi ws,

Thanks for replying. I love reading about other low carb swimmers'
experience. Back in late 2002 I started swimming as I started low carb
to lose weight and see if it does anything to my PCOS. I do both
intermittently. Recently I'd been swimming diligently but low carb wise
i don't do so well - sometimes i slip a day or two. Other than swimming
I do Tai Chi and go to belly dancing classes and walk to town and
supermarkets instead of taking bus when the weather allows.

Swimming for me is quite addictive. I swim 4 to 5 times a week for
about an hour each time. I don't know how much milege I'm doing, my
guess is it isn't much as I don't push myself very hard and spend most
of my pool time trying to improve my stroke as it keeps me mentally
engaged. I don't count the number of laps I do, but I count the number
of strokes I do in each lap. About a year ago I came to hear of TI on
the r.s.s board and started learning the drills from a TI book. Since
then my swimming has gone from more anaerobic to something else - I
don't know what. I'm just trying to get better balance and better feel
of the water and try to float better. My breathing is still far from
perfect - I tend to forget to breath when my head is under water - so I
do backstroke most of the time. When I don't do backstroke I do
freestyle. May be I would have burned more energy if I didn't discover
TI, but then I'd probably got bored and ceased going if I weren't trying
to learn the techniques. I guess having find out about TI is a mixed
blessing. <G>

Body shape wise my shoulders have grown broader and when I go swimming
on a frequent basis I can feel the bottom of my rib cage without
pressing, when I don't I can't and my waist sort of disappear...
Weightwise I lose very slowly. I should have got my bodyfat percentage
checked at the beginning but I didn't. I still haven't. I think I'm
possibly a bit afraid of finding out that my bodyfat is higher than I
expected, so I'm trying to get my weight lower before getting myself
measured.

Ada

ws said:

I am a type 2 diabetic, low carb swimmer.

I usually swim 3 times a week. Other days, I walk, or do some floor
exercises.

For me, swimming is a constant, must have workout. When I want to drop some
pounds, I increase my walking to supplement.

Here are my thoughts about swimming....

1. Swimming can be a pretty thorough work out, but tends to change body
composition more than just losing weight. i.e. you will build up some muscle
which will mask the changes if you are only looking at weight.

2. Swimming takes different forms. Are you doing one stroke continuously for
endurance, or are you doing different drills. In that regard it is no
different from working with a weight machine - there are different ways to
use the equipment and you will get different results. Sprints are more
anaerobic, etc.

As a diabetic, I have not had the luxury of playing with the carb counts,
but the reality is that once you've burned through the sugar stores in the
first part of the workout, you are burning fat anyway. I would not worry too
much about what you ate last night. When you start swimming, just start off
slow and see what your body is willing to do when you push, and decide from
there.

As somebody else already mentioned in this thread, it really is all about
calories. If you burn more than you eat, you lose weight, or at least reduce
the % of body fat you are carrying around. As far as I am concerned, those
are both good things.

Details:
My swim workout is mostly freestyle, and is 2,000 yards which takes me about
45-50 minutes.
Daily carb intake < 100 gm
I do not follow any particular LC flavor. (Atkins, South Beach, PP, etc).

ws
Diag T2 10/98
195/160/155
Diet & Exercise - no meds
Last A1c 5.5

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

Quoted message said:

Hi folks,

A little while ago, BlueSun has posted this question, wondering whether
swimming doesn't do much good for weightloss. The original thread can
be viewed here:

http://tinyurl.com/cr9jt

or

http://tinyurl.com/82f43

While the OP hasn't posted on ASDLC ever since, today I found myself
obsessing about the effects of eating low carb on swimming. I find that
swim much better after a moderately carby meal or if I'd been eating
extremely carby stuff the night before. So I try to read up on the
posts about cycling on ASDLC because it's a very popular cardio amongst
ASDLCers and I also looked up on swimming on ASDLC. But I couldn't find
v much about low carbing AND swimming on ASDLC.

Then I moved on to read the archived messages on the
rec.sport.swimming. Luckily I found something which might tell us why
swimming might not be as good as other forms of exercises in causing
weightloss. If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to lose
bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it, swimming is
not as effective as exercises that use the lower body more intensively
like running and cycling. The argument is that the lower body muscles
being more prominantly "aerobic/red", with the upper body muscles being
more prominently "anaerobic/white." White muscle can burn only sugar;
red muscle can burn fat, lactate, and sugar. (excerpted from
http://tinyurl.com/cm93z) Since the arms provide most of the propulsion
when one swims, swimmers tend to use their upper body muscles more
intensively than cyclists / runners. Therefore swimmers don't do v well
on low carb or low carbing swimmers run out of gas pretty fast.

So what to do if one wants to low carb and swim to lose weight? The
conclusion is to do more kicking drills. For detailed explanations by
Larry Weisenthal please read this:

http://tinyurl.com/cslob

FYI: The post mentioned Total Immersion drills, if you haven't heard of
them you can find out more on their websites. Mainly they're drills
where you learn to balance yourself better on water. You'll try to use
your lungs as your buoy, hide most of your head in the water (thus total
immersion) and keep your legs as close to the water surface as
possible. You'd do the most basic drill facing upwards and doing very
small kicks with your legs.

I hope this post may prove useful for my fellow low carbers.

Have a nice weekend!

Cheers,
Ada

Marengo said:

A_M wrote:
|| Marengo wrote:
|||
||| Roger Zoul wrote:
||||| Marengo <[email hidden]> wrote:
|||||| A_M wrote:
|||||| If the main focus of a low carb dieter is to
|||||||| lose bodyweight by losing body fat, depending on how you do it,
|||||||| swimming is not as effective as exercises that use the lower
|||||||| body more intensively like running and cycling. T
||||||
|||||| Calories burned are calories burned regarless of which part of
|||||| the body is burning them IMHO.
|||||
||||| Try wiggling your pinkies....
|||
||| Been there, done that. ;-)
|||
||| After my major brain stem stroke in 1998 left my right hand, arm,
||| leg and foot paralyzed I had to "learn" how to use everything
||| again. Three times a week for several months one of the PT
||| seesions I endured was called "occupational therapy/recreational
||| therapy," which is re-learning fine motor skills. It started by
||| wiggling fingers (or trying to); touching the thumb in sequence to
||| the tip of each finger on the hand and trying to increase the speed
||| of doing that. The finger wiggling and moving led to grasping
||| objects, which led to writing which led to typing ... you get the
||| idea. Seven years ago I never would have believed I'd be sitting
||| here typing on a keyboard using both hands!
|||
||| However, I gained all my weight (nearly 100 pounds) during that
||| year-long period of relative immobility and inactivity after my
||| stroke. Apparently pinky wiggling isn't very aerobic afger all!
||| <g>
|||
||
|| but how come most concert pianists are rather slim? <G>

Hmmmmmm ... I was a piano bar entertainer as well as a church organist (go
figure) pre-stroke. I was slim as a reed!
--
Peter
Website: http://users.thelink.net/marengo

May be it's all those tapping your feet on the peddles that does the
trick! Especially the church organ!