Swimming For Weight Loss Program

Swimming is an aerobic exercise, and aerobic exercise burns calories efficiently. You use all the major muscle groups in your body when swimming, whether you swim fast or slow. Swimming outdoors in warm winter climates is enjoyable, but indoor facilities allow for year-round swimming where winters get cold.

Beginning a Program

Starting a swimming program for weight loss involves a few basic steps. You need to check with your physician if you have any existing health conditions or if you are extremely overweight. Swimming is an intense form of exercise, so starting out slowly helps you avoid getting burnt out or exhausted. Set reasonable goals and make a schedule for your workouts. Getting in the pool when it is cold or dark out might be daunting at first, but gradually, swimming becomes part of your new routine and it can become something you look forward to at the beginning or end of your day.

Burning Calories

Swimming burns calories and the faster and longer you swim, the more calories you burn. Swimming fast, intense sprints helps improve your cardiovascular fitness but burns little fat. You need access to quick and instant energy for sprinting, and fat is an inefficient fuel source. Swim slowly and for long distances to burn the maximum percentage of fat versus carbohydrates. Fast, freestyle lap swimming for one hour burns 704 calories if you weigh 155 lbs. When you swim slow freestyle laps, you burn 493 calories.

Swimming and Weight Loss

Swimming has a bad reputation for weight loss. Swimming does burn calories, but it might also cause you to eat more. The fact that water keeps you from getting hot during exercise might account for swimmers' notoriously voracious appetite, post workouts, according to "Swimmer" magazine. Alicia Kendig, Masters swimmer and registered dietitian explains that raised body temperature acts as a natural appetite suppressant. Swimming prevents you from getting hot, though, so you might feel like eating the moment you get out of the pool. Eating a small, healthy snack after a workout helps replenish spent fuel stores in your body. Nuts or low-fat yogurt snacks mixed with fruit work well without piling on the calories.

Considerations

When you start on a swimming program, you will likely build muscle. Because muscle tissue is denser than fat tissue, you might not lose weight even though you lose inches. Mix in some weight-bearing exercise, such as lifting weights or jogging, to supplement the low-impact exercise and help build lean muscle mass and boost your metabolism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends getting at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise five times a week, and recommends supplementing that exercise with strength-building workouts at least two times per week.