Swimming and Weight Loss

While some athletes view swimming as an intense competition, others view the sport as a safe and fun way to lose weight and pursue a healthy, active lifestyle. However, there are several things that both recreational and competitive swimmers need to know about swimming and weight loss that may come as a surprise.

The following thoughts are a combination of my own personal knowledge and experience with the sport, combined with some more academic insight from Ernest W. Maglischo, one of the top swimming minds of all time and author of the award-winning book “Swimming Fastest.”

1. “In order to lose weight, your energy expenditure must outweigh the input.” In simple English, if you are increasing your food intake to compensate (or more than compensate) for the additional energy, you use in the pool, you are not losing weight. If weight loss is your primary goal, energy expenditure must outweigh additional food intake. As a result, keeping a careful eye on your diet is crucial.

2. Recreational swimming doesn’t have a great reputation for weight-loss when compared to other forms of aerobic exercise such as walking, running or biking. In addition, recreational swimming is said to burn less fat than land-based workouts. However, it is important to define recreational swimming. Recreational swimming is really moving up and down the pool, often times with the assistance of a kick board or pull-buoy, with long periods of rest in between laps and limited physical exertion. Although not ideal for weight-loss, you can’t discount the other benefits of even recreational swimming: boosting strength and stamina as well as providing a great cardiovascular workout with much less risk of injury (“the natural buoyancy minimizes the damage to joints”).

3. One disadvantage of swimming when trying to lose weight is the fact that a good workout in the pool seems to dramatically increase the appetite. As a result, it is very important to regulate what you eat before and after a workout.

4. While recreational swimming burns fewer calories than land-based exercise, elite swimmers have been shown to burn off 25 percent more energy than elite runners at maximum intensity for the same period of time! Toning up from swimming will increase muscle bulk while replacing fat.

Where then does this leave the average athlete hoping to implement swimming into their weight reducing exercise program?

· A few lengths of the pool without significantly elevating the pulse isn’t going to burn off many calories although it will have some of the other benefits outlined above.

· Water exercise is ideal for people who are overweight or have orthopedic problems as the natural buoyancy makes the exercise easier with your body only weighing a tenth of your normal weight.

· To increase the number of calories you burn, it is important to swim at an intensity level high enough to elevate the pulse rate for a reasonable period of time. Ernest says a 30-60 minute workout 2-3 times per week will burn off around 2,000 calories.