How to lose weight by swimming

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Swimming is not only great for your health, but also helps you lose those extra pounds. Especially if you train properly.

Is swimming effective for weight loss?

At the end of the 20th century, scientists generally did not recognize that swimming somehow helped in the fight against excess weight.

In a 1987 study, participants' weight did not change after six months of swimming. In 1997, subjects who swam for 45 minutes three times a week for 2.5 months also failed to lose weight.

The results of modern research are more optimistic. In 2006, scientists proved that swimming in combination with a diet still helps to lose weight: after 13 weeks of exercise, the subjects lost an average of 5, 9 kg and reduced the percentage of fat by 3%.

A 2015 study also confirms that swimming can help you lose fat and build endurance. Its participants were engaged in swimming for one hour three times a week. After 12 weeks, the women had lost 4.3% body fat and had increased muscle strength, flexibility and endurance.

Yes, swimming is not the most effective exercise for weight loss compared to running, interval training or strength sports, but it has a big plus: no stress on the joints and spine.

This makes a huge difference for overweight people who put their knees at great risk when going for a run. Swimming provides a gentle exercise while helping to burn calories, develop strength, endurance and flexibility.

And if you also love swimming, you should definitely choose this sport for losing weight, because the ideal workout is regular training.

How many calories can you burn while swimming

According to Harvard Medical School, 30 minutes of swimming burns different calories based on weight:

	56 kg	70 Kg	84 kg
Any swimming	180	223	266
Backstroke	240	298	355
Breaststroke	300	372	444
Butterfly	330	409	488
Crawl	330	409	488

As you can see, the most energy-intensive, and therefore useful for weight loss, styles are breaststroke, crawl and butterfly. It turns out that it is not enough just to splash in the pool. You need to learn to swim and do active training.

How to swim to lose weight

These tips will help you burn more calories in your swimming workout.

Buy your gear

A swimsuit that is not intended for sports will always untie and interfere with training, and water will flow under the poorly fitting elastic bands of poor-quality glasses.

All these little things terribly enrage and spoil the impression of the class. Therefore, if you are heading to the pool, buy a sports swimsuit, a matching cap, perfect glasses and fins. All this will help you forget about equipment and give all your best.

Learn to swim in different styles

Once you learn to crawl, you will want to use only this style: familiar movements, high speed and lots of fun swimming. However, it's best not to dwell on one style and try breaststroke, backstroke, or even a difficult butterfly stroke.

• How to learn to swim breaststroke →
• How to learn to crawl swimming →
• How to learn to swim on your back →
• How to learn to swim butterfly →

Different styles help to harmoniously develop all the muscles in the body. For example, backstroke will help you strengthen your back and shoulder muscles, which will have a positive effect on posture, and breaststroke will put stress on your inner thighs.

Work out with a coach

If you can only swim like a dog, take a few lessons with a trainer. He will show the basics, teach you how to breathe into the water, point out mistakes.

You can learn to crawl in 3-4 sessions, and then hone your skills on your own by finding programs on the Internet and periodically consulting with a trainer.

How to design a workout

As with a regular workout in the gym, a workout in the pool should consist of several parts:

1. Warm up … In this part, you tune in to the lesson, the body remembers how to behave in the water, the muscles are warmed up for further efforts. As a rule, it is 200-400 meters in a calm crawl.
2. Working out movements … In this part, you can do some exercises to strengthen the muscles and practice the technique. For example, it can be leg-only swimming using a floating board, swimming with a buckle between the legs, swimming on one side, swimming with a minimum number of strokes, and so on.
3. Interval training. This is the hardest part where you will build your stamina and burn the most calories. You can sprint 50 meters and then rest for 30 seconds, or swim at a maximum speed of 100 meters and then rest for a minute. The number and length of sprints in a workout depends on your fitness level.
4. Hitch … 200 meters of quiet crawl swimming.

Here's an example of a workout plan like this:

1. 200 meters of quiet crawl swimming. Rest every 50 meters if necessary.
2. 4 × 50 meters crawl with stroke count. Try to make fewer strokes in each next segment than in the previous one.
3. 100 meters of strokes only with hands with a buckle sandwiched between the legs.
4. 100 meters with a board in hand: only legs move.
5. 4 sprints of 50 meters each, rest between sprints - 30 seconds.
6. 200 meters of quiet crawl swimming.

Exercise at least 3-4 times a week for 45-60 minutes, do not rest too long between periods and combine exercise with diet - and you will be able to get rid of excess fat. Let not be as fast as in the case of running or cycling, but without any risk to joints and spine.