Swimming is a form of aerobic cardiovascular exercise that can help you lose weight and enhance your physical fitness. Because swimming laps can help you to burn calories and build muscle, it can promote weight loss. Keep in mind, however, that losing weight from swimming also depends on your diet -- particularly your calorie intake.
Calories Burned
Depending on your body weight, you can burn about 511 or more calories per hour from swimming laps, according to the Mayo Clinic. For someone who is about 200 pounds, swimming laps can burn about 637 calories per hour -- and 763 calories or more if you're 240 pounds or heavier. Swimming uses more of your body's muscles than nearly any other type of exercise, making the activity a superior total-body workout, notes the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Also, physical activity in water actually provides about 14 percent more resistance than exercising on land, increasing the workload for your muscles.
Weight Loss
While following a healthy diet and watching your calorie intake, the calories you burn while swimming can help you to lose weight. You'll need to burn 500 more calories than you take in from your diet every day to lose 1 pound each week, according to MayoClinic.com. So if you weight 160 pounds and swim laps for 1 hour per day, you'll burn about 511 calories each day. If you maintain your normal diet and caloric intake, you could lose 1 pound or more per week by swimming for one hour each day. Swimming and other types of water exercises can help you to reduce or maintain your body weight and improve your body composition, meaning your body's ratio of fat to muscle, notes the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Other Benefits
In addition to burning calories and losing weight, swimming can also provide a variety of other health benefits. In fact, swimming is an ideal type of exercise for people who have injuries, joint problems and chronic pain, because exercising in water is the ultimate low-impact physical activity. Swimming also builds cardiovascular endurance, improves your strength and flexibility, and prevents muscle injuries while giving you a strenuous workout. Regular physical activity like swimming can reduce your risks of dying from heart disease, as well as developing hypertension, certain types of cancer and diabetes. . Swimming regularly can ease anxiety and depression, as well as improve the health of your joints, bones and muscles.
Considerations
Along with a healthy diet, you should aim to perform at least 2 ½ hours of moderate aerobic exercise like swimming every week to lose weight, the Mayo Clinic recommends. You should also incorporate stretching into each workout and strength training -- like lifting weights or using resistance bands -- at least twice each week. In addition to swimming laps, try other water exercises like water aerobics, water walking, deep water running and water yoga. Always consult your doctor before starting any weight-loss and exercise routine to ensure that you lose weight in a healthy, sustainable manner.
References
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center: Take the Plunge -- Try Swimming!
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center: Water Training -- More Than Swimming 'Upstream' for Fitness
- Mayo Clinic: Exercise for Weight Loss -- Calories Burned in 1 Hour
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Put the Power of Regular Physical Activity to Work for You
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