Tips for losing weight swimming.

[Colmadero]

Ok. So I have no idea what kind of routines I can do to lose weight just doing swimming. I can swim about 3-4 times a week for about 30-40 mins due to pool scheduling.

Thoughts? tips?

[Flame6]

I hope someone can give you more detailed advice, but I vaguely recall something like doing 30 minutes of any exercise that raises your heart rate above resting level is pretty damn good exercise.

This is just my vague memory of something and could be totally off.

[TJ]

That's fine, do that and sort your diet and the weight will drop off you.

[Spectral]

Here's a chart that ballparks how many calories/hour you'll burn with different strokes at different weights. Realistically, you'll probably burn something in the ballpark of ~1000-1500 calories per week on the schedule you mention above, depending how big you are and what sort of work you're doing. This might be enough to tilt your total energy balance into the red and cause weight loss if you don't eat anything extra to compensate. If it is, you'd expect to lose something like ~1-2 pounds per month at that rate, which will be hard to notice in the short term, but health in the long run as long as you don't have much to take off.

Ultimately, if weight loss is a significant goal, a couple hours of exercise per week is a good thing to do, but the real change will have to come from diet.

[Colmadero]

I do some dieting. So I shouldn't do any kind of different routines as far as swimming goes? Just go in there and swim for my life? lol

[Sanz]

Drink 3 liters of mineral water per day, no sugar, eat right, exercise (cardio and lift weights, more muscle = more basal metabolic rate), and get enough protein & sleep to recover.

[larrakeyah]

Forget about swimming, start lifting.

[Deleted]

The chart is pretty inaccurate or assume that during 1 hour of "swimming" you rest at least 20 minutes, which isn't swimming as far as Im concerned.

I am doing it right now, have been doing it for quite some time.

First, you have to find a swimming pool, and that is very hard, because swimming is by far the best cardio for men, since it builds muscle and loose weight while giving great endurance.
So, either a lot of people swim, and it is overcrowded, or your town mayor just doesn't want people to look good, and he doesn't build swimming pools (it is the case almost everywhere).
Which is why you usually have to find a private swimming pool with leisure stuff for it to be opened when you can go swim.
Beware, for even these swimming pool usually sell their line to schools or clubs, making it difficult for non teenagers to go there.
(I have lived in quite a corrupt country where the municipal swimming pool was run almost only by family members and almost always closed to non-teenagers).

Swimming is wonderful, because you burn at least twice as many calories compared to running, but you do not hurt your body (knees and back), if you are dedicated engouh it can even heal some back injuries (as in my case).

Once you have found the pool, if you can't swim for at least an hour, you have to get the most from the short time you spend there, and practice crawl as fast as you can with no breaks.

In the pool, since everybody somehow realize without understanding consciously that there is not enough pools, it is usually a war, and if you get to find a public pool opened for non schooled people, beware the group that think he owns the pool, and be prepared to be hit in the pool.
Swimming is wonderful for burning calories because it use almost every muscle intensively : when you start swimming, your body is weak, and very small contact when it is hot (10 minutes of swim) can be painful.

Protect yourself, and don't give up.

Rich people build swimming pools, because of this it is a sport reserved for the rich or the clubs, but still it is worth to fight your way to a swimming mastery.

Swimming felt like a fight in the beginning, do not hurt other people, and beware because it is also very tiring so you might react unusually.

Good luck, and perhaps you have a better town mayor than the one I endured, so perhaps you will be free to exercise in correct condition.
(1 hour non stop breaststroke, not too fast but not slow neither, is about 800 calories, it is something i have tested if you consider human fat to be around 750 kcal for 100g)

[Archangel Tyrael]

You don't need exercise to lose weight.
There's no ''routine'' that'll make you lose weight.
That's not to say it can't help though.

What makes you lose weight is a caloric deficit.
It's very simple and yet many people manage to fuck it up, precisely because they put more emphasis on fad diets and on exercise than doing things properly.

Calculate your recommended caloric intake

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Buy a digital scale.
Track your caloric intake.
Don't stop eating things you like, it makes it harder to lose weight, just eat them in moderation.

You should keep your protein high, protein is filling, try to consume a decent amount of fiber too.

Aim to eat around 250 less calories than your recommended daily caloric intake, see how your body reacts to that.
Do that for 2-3 weeks.
If you're losing weight at a decent pace, keep at it, if not, you can reduce another 250 calories for a total of 500 kcal less daily.

Don't reduce any more than that. The reason is this: your body (if you're natural and not using performance enhancing drugs) can only lose a certain amount of fat, after that you'll be losing muscle.

You'll notice that even at a caloric deficit you'll stop losing weight some times. That's completely normal, just keep doing your routine.

[tratra]

Hmm I used to kickbox proffesionally and we wer doing strict diets etc, also used to get advices from serious health freaks and bodybuilders.

Food = 70%

The rest falls under resting and excersise.

It doesn't matter how many laps you'll do if you are eating everything.

Cut off junk food etc to once a week, eat 6 healthy meals a day and excersise depending on your current situation around 45 mins in the pool would be nice, if you can handle.
Ah and don't overdo it, unless you are trained for it, or your diet is preset to give you the energy you need in order to do lets say 3 hours of swiming, don't try it. You'll get a exhuasted and it won't be nice.

But always remember food is 70% so start from that! Good luck.

[Endtime]

Tyrael said it almost perfectly. You can actually go up to 1,000 calorie deficit depending on if it does not bring you below your basic metabolic rate. Any exercise is good, but things that skip cardio training are best. Weight lifting is good or look into PACE. PACE is different than regular cardio training in that you train for shorter and more intense periods of time to train your body to not burn fat directly as in longer sessions(30 mins+ of cardio) and instead train it to burn carbs so that your body stops storing fat and builds lean muscles instead. The best part is that you have to do it for less than 20 minutes to keep from going into the fat burn phase.

[Chatere1976]

Swimming is a fantastic way to lose weight, because it's great cardio, but it's also low impact, so if you're not currently in very good shape, you don't stand a high risk of injuring yourself.

[Hawthorne Wipes]

Well, if you want to lose fat, you just have to swim xD No especial routines, or whatever. Just don't do it like the old people who fills the pool almost completely, and swim like super slow.
I've heard a lot of stuff about swimming not being good for burning calories, and building muscle, and blah, blah... Nonsense. Phelps eats more than 10.000 calories a day to maintain. Not easy to burn..
As an ex-swimmer (regional level, not so proffesional) I used to swim about 2 hours max a day, and even while eating a lot to keep my energies as high as I could, I lost fat and build a very strong back.
For my solo-training days, I did something like this:
- Warm up: 4 rows each style (crawl, back, arms, butterfly)
- Cardio: About 20 rows crawl style without stopping (if you feel tired, go arms for a few seconds to recover)
- Sprints: 1 row crawl style max speed, come back arms style. 10 times
- Leg: With a spoon table (if you have) 8 rows, alternating crawl and back kick.
- Butterfly: 4 rows max speed, come back arms style.
- End: Finish with 16 rows back style at slow speed.

Dunno how much time does it takes. Probably about 45-60 min. Depends on the pool, also.
I think it's a good training, try it if you want and tell me!

[annasteve]

The first easiest thing to do to lose weight is to drink plenty of water which will make you eat less leading to weight loss. You should also consider exercising, I know thats not what you wanted to do, but exercising helps a lot with weight loss and it makes you feel healthier.

Try making exercise fun by doing things you enjoy doing like swimming, sports, dancing, walking/running, etc. Also, make sure to get plenty of sleep because less sleep results in stress and stress can make you gain weight. Try to eat a bit healhtier if you already aren't. You should never miss breakfast because breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you may think that skipping breakfast will help you lose weight but it will not. If you try, you will be able to lose weight!

[Milchshake]

When swimming, I'd shoot for lap times of 50 sec for good level of exertion. Trying to maintain that for a mile is a good workout.

[Shadowferal]

I do some dieting. So I shouldn't do any kind of different routines as far as swimming goes? Just go in there and swim for my life? lol

Actually that's pretty much it.
Try to have fun doing it so you want to return to it. A lot of muscle work; Pectorals will get nicely toned,
Endurance will get awesome as lungs and muscles used for breathing will get a big workout, legs also...

Swimming is one of those activities that you can't go wrong with.

[Crissi]

dont need to rez a 6 year o9ld thread when we have plenty of similar threads already