You know that on my blog I promote weight loss through healthy living. This includes eating a healthy, natural diet and consistent exercise. But today I'm going to tell you about a type of exercise that I don't feel really helps you lose weight. The exercise I'm going to talk about may surprise you, but I have reasons to believe it's not really effective in encouraging weight loss.
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The exercise is swimming. I noticed this first with my friend in Colombia. She was always telling me about how many laps she swam and how much time she spent at the pool, but despite her efforts, she still wasn't losing weight. She always looked the same to me. I couldn't see any weight loss at all.
So I decided to a do a little research on this topic. What I found surprised me. I honestly thought that almost any type of active exercise would assist in weight loss to at least some extent. But in this case, that turned out not to always be true.
How is this possible? How can an activity that gets your heart pumping and your muscles moving not help you lose weight? The truth is, swimming burns far fewer calories than most people think. This is because it is not a weight bearing exercise. When you run, you're using all your energy to push your body forward. But with swimming, your body is supported by the water. You're pushing against the resistance of the water, but it's still not as effective as propelling your whole body weight forward.
But the biggest problem comes after your workout. Because people misjudge how many calories they've just burned, they think it's now all right to go pig out with a big lunch or dinner. "Hey, I just burned a ton of calories swimming so I can allow myself to splurge a little." You see how this quickly becomes a problem.
You didn't really burn that many calories, but yet you're going to splurge with your after workout snack. This unbalance is one of the major reasons that swimmers don't see the weight loss they want.
This doesn't mean you have to totally give up swimming, especially if you're one of those people who suffers from joint problems and need a low impact exercise. It does mean you need to be aware of the best swimming workouts. This is as simple as pushing yourself hard for an intense workout instead of taking it easy with a relaxed swim. A hard workout will boost your metabolism and burn around 700 calories. An easy workout will burn closer to 500.
Also, decide ahead of time what you're going to eat for your after swim pick me up. If you plan your post swim snack or meal then you won't be tempted to eat the first thing you can find. You will be hungry after your swim, so plan on it in advance and don't let yourself over compensate. It's best to incorporate swimming as part of your workout plan. Not the only component.
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