{"id":68492,"date":"2017-03-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/uncategorized-en_us\/can-swimming-help-lose-weight\/"},"modified":"2019-09-24T09:52:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T07:52:13","slug":"can-swimming-help-lose-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.arenaswim.com\/us\/fitness-wellness-us\/can-swimming-help-lose-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Can swimming help you lose weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s find out if and how swimming can help you lose weight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we will be looking at a subject that lots of people are interested in. But take note, I am certainly not suggesting that my readers have weight problems! Quite simply a \u201cnon-competitive\u201d swimmer, who goes to the pool once\/twice\/three\u00a0 times-a-week probably does so for various different reasons and one of these is almost certainly to lose a couple of extra pounds or, in any case, to keep in shape.<\/p>\n

You will most certainly have heard it said that: \u201cIf you want to lose weight, then get running!\u201d. That is most definitely true! Running certainly does help keep you slim. Nevertheless, somebody overweight who starts running is likely to find themselves in trouble very quickly. The excess weight combined with the wrong running technique very quickly causes pains and injuries to joints and tendons.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is no danger of having these problems in the pool, due to the almost complete lack of gravity. Of course good swimming technique is also required; if you want to lose weight swimming you will have to make an effort, but swimming the wrong way is all wasted effort.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s take a step back and look at what losing weight really means.<\/strong> Imagine you have two different people in front of you, Mark and Luke. They are both 30 years old, 1.80 m tall and weigh 80 kg. But Mark has a muscular, athletic physique while Luke has an ordinary physique and a little bit of a belly. Which of the two is the thinner? Obviously the right answer is Mark! The reason why I asked you this simple question was to make you realise that it is not only your weight on the scales that counts, your body shape is also extremely important.\u00a0 We are made up of fat mass and lean mass (muscle). Muscle takes up less space than the same weight in fat, because it is denser. A muscular person who weighs 80 kg is less \u201cbulky\u201d then a person who weighs 80 kg but has more fat mass.<\/p>\n

So losing weight also and, above all, \u00a0means reducing your percentage of fat mass and increasing your lean mass.<\/strong> This principle applies to swimming in particular: it has a simultaneous double effect on your fat mass and lean mass. So you lose fat while putting on a bit of muscle.<\/p>\n

So can swimming help you lose weight?<\/strong> Yes, of course it can! You just need to go about it the right way. For example, if you think that swimming up and down the pool slowly for an hour will be beneficial, you are wrong.<\/p>\n

After warming up properly, here are two training sessions you can try:<\/strong><\/p>\n