Is Swimming Good for Weight Loss? Some Tips And Tricks

One of the most common issues that chase people today is how to lose weight? Gaining weight is much easier than losing it. Around 80% of all the obese people out there are going to agree to this fact. People indulge in activities like running, walking, cycling, and swimming not only for recreation but also for losing weight.

Is Swimming Good for Weight Loss?

Some people would rather sweat it out in a gym. There are many beliefs when it comes to weight loss. Many people believe that either walking or running is the best exercise. Some people think that exercising in a gym is the only option on earth to lose weight. In contrast, some others hate swimming and do not even consider it for losing weight.

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Keeping aside all the opinions, let us look at swimming as a possible way to lose weight.

Swimming as a Sport

Swimming as a sport is very lively and popular. It is a great way to keep oneself fit as well as healthy and also make friends. Swimming is such an activity in which one can continue for a lifetime and still do not get bored with it. It is a low impact activity with much mental health as well as physical benefits. Most importantly, swimming is good for weight loss as it burns calories, helps to tone the muscles, and improve overall health and fitness.

One should keep in mind some things if he or she is going to use swimming as an exercise for weight loss.

For how much time should one swim to lose weight?

The time required for one to swim to lose weight depends on three factors –

• A person’s body weight
• Using the type of swimming stroke
• The speed of swimming

To lose weight, a person should swim as a workout for at least 2 hours and 30 minutes every week. It will help a person not only in losing weight but also in maintaining the weight once lost. Around 3500 calories make half a kilo of weight. Therefore, a person needs to burn 3500 calories to lose half a kilo of weight.

Best swimming stroke for weight loss

The Best swimming stroke for weight loss is – Breaststroke, Backstroke, and Butterfly stroke

• Breaststroke and Backstroke: Both the strokes are too good for burning calories. They can burn more calories in comparison to the calories burned by slow jogging or fast walking. The best way is to perform a single method every day to learn it better and burn more calories by perfectionating it. It burns around 200 calories in 30 minutes of swimming.
• Butterfly stroke: The Butterfly stroke is challenging to perform with its windmill arm motion and kicks resembling a Dolphin. This stroke burns a maximum of 150 calories in around 10 minutes of swimming. All three strokes are also an excellent cardiovascular workout. They strengthen the heart and lungs while toning chest muscles, lower legs, upper back, thighs, hamstrings, and triceps.

Swimming Interval training

Swimming Interval training means to swim as fast as possible for one lap and then swim in a relaxed way for another lap. This type of swimming helps in accelerating the process of burning fat, and this logic is used even by regular runners and cyclists for getting good results. Swimming interval training is the best way to maximize the burning of calories during swimming.

Considering swimming as a workout

Swimming as a workout is great for the overall fitness and toning of muscles. It also includes swimming cardio workout, which is the best for reducing the belly fat, thus depending on how intense the workout should be to achieve the goal of losing weight. For a beginner, one can start with swimming thrice a week for 30 minutes every per workout. Increasing the frequency of swimming four times and then five times a week.

Swimming cardio workout can be an excellent workout for engaging different muscle groups along with the cardiovascular system. It requires a swimmer to swim for around 15 to 20 minutes at a stretch while maintaining the heart rate level in a particular fat zone. Such water-based workouts are of a low impact, and so they are easier on the hips, knees, and feet.

Use of Swimming to lose weight

Just like any other cardiovascular exercise, swimming burn Calories helping a person to reduce weight. Water creates an extra resistance that forces a swimmer to use his or her muscles against walking or jogging. Swimming to lose weight an intense workout. Vigorous swimming for an hour can burn around 800 calories.

Swimming in this way four times a week can help a person lose three or four pounds in a month. But if a person wants a less vigorous workout, he or she can swim moderately for 30 minutes burning 250 calories. Swimming this way four times a week in a month will help her lose around a little more than a pound of weight.

Also, one must remember that every person has a different body, and research says that some people lose more weight compared to others even though they do the same exercise, so don’t lose heart and keep on swimming to lose weight.

Swimming food ideas

A swimmer who is swimming to lose weight needs to take utmost care about the workout appetite. While swimming, cold water combined with a significant amount of energy makes a swimmer very hungry after a vigorous swimming session. If the session’s target is towards weight loss, then it is particularly important to plan the diet properly during the training so that all the hard work and effort don’t go waste.

A swimmer needs to be alert about what food to eat before swimming, what food to eat after swimming, and eat appropriate food to increase stamina while swimming. One must take care of the body before, during, and after a hard swim.

Let us look at some of the healthy food options which can be helpful towards achieving the objective –

• Food to eat before swimming: Banana, whole wheat pasta, Bagels
• Food to eat after swimming: Eggs, Lean chicken, Protein Bars, Low-fat yogurt
• Food to eat when swimming : Fruit Juices with a pinch of salt, water, Sports drinks

Use swimming to lose belly fat

An obese person needs to remember that any physical activity that helps burn calories will shed fat from the whole body, including the middle portion, the belly. Swimming to lose belly fat is immensely helpful. Some slimming exercises like flutter kicks for lower abs and butterfly kicks for obliques, if done more than thrice a week during swimming, will shed more fat from around the waist and hips compared to walking or running thrice a week. As water exerts a force on the body while doing these exercises, there is more energy usage so that one can lose a lot of belly fat. Swimming cardio workout is also beneficial for burning fat, especially around the belly.

Benefits of Swimming

Swimming is an excellent exercise because one needs to move the whole body against the force or resistance of the water, which requires a lot of energy and burns many calories. Let’s have a look at some of the benefits of swimming in addition to the above-

• Keeps up the heart rate by lowering the stress from the body
• It helps build muscle strength endurance and cardiovascular fitness
• Extremely helpful in losing and maintaining weight keeping the heart and lungs healthy
• Helpful in toning muscles and building strength
• Especially useful in providing a full-body workout as almost all of your muscles are used during swimming.

Conclusion

Swimming can help maintain a healthy weight. It not only tones the upper body, middle section, and the lower body but also gives a full-body workout with overall muscle strengthening and toning. Making it a part of the routine can be extremely helpful for losing weight responsibly and healthily. So, wear your swimming gear and swim your way to a healthy, lean, and fit you.