Last Updated 3 years ago
If you’ve decided to focus on losing weight, and more specifically, fat; what activities should you choose?
Running might be the first option to cross your mind. Maybe you are also thinking of strength training.
These are great ways to lose weight.
But another great way to lose weight, whilst strengthening your body, softening your skin and having fun…is swimming.
Swimming can help you burn calories with fewer possibilities to strain your body during HIIT workouts.
Now, you must have heard, at least once in your lifetime the saying: “If swimming is such good exercise, why are whales so fat?”
Leaving whales aside, we’ll look to explain how swimming is not just good, but great for fat loss.
Swimming is an Aerobic Activity
Swimming workouts burn calories, simply because it is an aerobic activity.
Like all aerobic activities with cardiovascular exercises, you lose fat and have your body toned, but unlike other aerobic activities (such as jogging or running), in swimming you have extra resistance from the water, forcing your muscles to work hard all over.
In a nutshell, swimming makes your body slender and slimmer; toning your upper and lower body, while at the same time strengthening your core.
How many calories can you burn by swimming?
Let’s talk numbers:
- 30 minutes of swimming (butterfly or breaststroke style) can burn up to 370 calories.
- 60 minutes of freestyle swimming can burn from 650 to 800 calories (depending on the person’s weight and the pace).
In fact, a normal 2-hour practice of relatively fast pace can burn up to 1600 calories! Impressed? Just wait to see the other perks of swimming!
Lose Weight Fast
Changing your routine and incorporate a tough exercise schedule is definitely not an easy task.
According to recent research women who had a swimming routine of one hour, 3 times a week, saw obvious results in just 3 months.
At the same time, they saw their endurance and flexibility skyrocket and their cholesterol levels to drop significantly low.
On average, a 30-minute of moderate-paced swim for 3 – 4 times a week can help you lose more than a pound per month.
Swimming and weight loss compared with other activities
A recent study, focusing on a healthy group of elderly women with a sedentary lifestyle, testing the effects of swimming versus walking on their waistline, revealed that within a year, the swimmers had lost more weight than the walkers.
And more specifically, they lost 1.1 kg more and 2 cm more off their waistline.
Both groups exercised with the same intensity (recorded by their heart rate) and frequency (three times per week).
And while the difference in the results wasn’t vast, the finding remains significant because it proves that, as Professor Cox stated “swimming is good for anyone who wants to lose weight”.
Why then running and strength training are usually preferred over swimming by the majority in terms of losing weight?
Water, appetite and decisions
Swimming differs from the others in the effect it has on your body temperature; while other aerobic activities, like running and jogging, heat your body up, swimming retains your body temperature in relatively low levels.
At the end of your swimming exercise, your body wants to restore its normal temperature, while in running or jogging, your body needs to cool down (thus, you seek for water).
How, then, will this increase in body temperature be accomplished after a swimming session? With two ways:
- By using stored energy (fat, hence the increased amount of calorie burning)
- By consuming large portions of food (increased appetite)
Cool water’s role in your goal of losing weight is a typical example of the expression “There is always the other side of the coin”.
Depending on your decision, either remaining firm to your diet or let yourself carried away and consume extra calories after a workout, cool water might prove to be a friend or a foe.
But, if you are determined to stay on track, there are a few extra tips to make swimming workouts even more effective.
Top Swimming Tips for Weight Loss
Pay attention to improving your technique, since it has a key role in keeping you trying for better results day by day.
If, on the other hand, can’t swim well enough, you will get tired from the very beginning and it is more likely to give up.
If you are interested in improving your technique and don’t know how to do it, you can simply enrol in stroke improving lessons of a swim centre or hire a coach to supervise you for the first month or two, till you feel confident to make your sessions alone.
Here are some tips that might prove useful, and are easy to remember for a complete swimming work-out with a goal of losing weight:
Don’t forget your warm-up!
Warming up your body is essential for every type of exercise, and swimming is no exception.
At the swimming pool, you have some different options of warming up, like 5 or 10 minutes marching in place outside of the water and making some dynamic stretching, or you can do the warm-up inside the pool, walking back and forth inside the water or swimming for 5 or 10 minutes at a slow pace.
Pick your stroke and focus on improving your pace
The main swim strokes are four, namely: Breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle and backstroke.
All of them are good for burning a large number of calories, yet, if you are a beginner it is safer to avoid the butterfly stroke which is an intense workout for more experienced swimmers.
To spice up your workout, you can use the other strokes interchangeably between laps, while you can alternate fast laps with lower-paced laps to catch your breath.
As for the pace, it is important to start where you are comfortable with, and slowly increase the pace, week after week. It is important to set small goals to keep you going, such as increasing the number of laps per set or decreasing the time you want to complete them.
Remember that frequency is more important than long hours in the pool.
If time is a luxury you cannot afford due to a busy schedule, don’t despair!
You can still burn fat efficiently with high-intensity swimming training (HIIT) of mere 20 – 30 minutes. The best part? Your body continues to burn calories after the training is done.
Add something extra
If you feel you can take your workout to the next level, you can turbo-charge your swimming sessions by adding weights, such as aqua dumbbells or other hand-held weights.
Another great idea is Power Paddles, an excellent tool to increase the resistance you get while swimming.
And, of course, you can always track and compare all of your hard work with a waterproof heart monitor and plan your weight loss meticulously.
A fine goal is to exercise between 60 – 70% of your age-predicted max heart rate. To calculate this, you simply subtract your age from number 220.
Let your body find its balance with a cool-down at the end!
Cooling down your body, and returning to a normal heart rate is an essential step which must never ever be forgotten or pass as insignificant.
Just take three to five minutes of a slow-paced swim to relax your muscles and get ready to step to the land.
Stick to a healthy diet
Now that you are done with your swimming session, resist the temptation to cheat on your diet, and stick to a healthy meal to help your body continue burning calories.
As we already saw in this article, your appetite will likely increase and ask for more, but you must stay firm if you want to see results soon!
To recap, swimming might not be the first to cross our minds when we think of weight loss, yet it can be extremely effective, with the right technique, frequency and a healthy and moderate diet.
It might not be for everyone, but it’s a great start especially for overweight people because it is softer with the joints and it is less probable to get hurt.
Whatever exercise you choose, be determined and consistent. Stick to a healthy diet. Then you will make it to the end and say: “Good riddance, fat, and never come back!”