I have some injuries to my lower back and left knee, which I am seeing a medical specialist for.
While I try to do as much land-based exercise as possible (lots of very fast, long walks + some mild jogging), most of my exercising is swimming combined with specialised aquarobics. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t do enough of either. It’s not lack of motivation, rather my time management skills are appalling!
I’m trying to find out whether or not swimming is at all effective for losing weight. In very broad, general terms, most swimmers are not nearly as lean as most land-based athletes.
From my own experiences, there are two things I am already well aware of:

• My heart rate in the pool doesn’t get up anywhere near my heart rate for land-based exercises. (I happen to be a very good swimmer)
• After swimming, I tend to have a voracious appetite. Much more so in cold weather, but much less so in hot weather. (Which is bad news if you’re trying to lose weight)

While most dedicated swimmers, cyclists and runners are all very fit, is swimming still a worthwhile exercise in terms of losing weight?

[*]My heart rate in the pool doesn’t get up anywhere near my heart rate for land-based exercises. (I happen to be a very good swimmer)

You need to add some interval swimming/ sprints/ efforts/ paddles to get your heart rate up, just like interval running. You can also try water running, again. using intervals, if you put the effort in it is extremely hard.

[*]After swimming, I tend to have a voracious appetite. Much more so in cold weather, but much less so in hot weather. (Which is bad news if you’re trying to lose weight)
[/list]
Make sure you have a good dose of protein rich food and then wait for a while. A good yoghurt will usually dampen it down, well works for me!

While most dedicated swimmers, cyclists and runners are all very fit, is swimming still a worthwhile exercise in terms of losing weight?
So if you put the effort in YES!

The other problem is duration of the swim. For me to lose weight I need to have a regular long ride and/or long run. The run might be 2 hours and the ride might be up to 4 hrs. For me, a really long swim is 1 hour. Even if I swam most days, I would be still better off with a couple of short rides (1hr) and a long ride. Given you've got injuries you don't have that much choice but it is going to take a lot of swimming.

Cycling for an hour at 28/29 km/hr will burn 940ish calories
Running for and hour at about 5 min pace will burn 900ish calories
Swimming for 1 hour at a reasonable clip freestyle will burn about 780 calories an hour

Based on an 87kg male.

i put on ten kilos of fat/muscle when i quit running and became a swimmer,i've always known that running burns a lot of fat and i think it also burns muscle too,my quads were skinny when i bumped up the run mileage even tho i kept up the bike miles and intensity.i now swim only and have been on a strict diet since the new year and lost five kilos,swimming does nothing to help

Training doesn't make you skinny
Diet make you skinny.

Irrespective of what physical activity you do if you eat more than you need to will gain weight if you eat only what you need you will remain at the same weight and if you eat less than you need you will lose weight.

Train safe

few issues here:

HR is always higher when teh body is vertical and is always lowest when horizontal.
There is extra work load for heart to pump the blood against the gravity so standing HR is higher when You measure Your resting HR You should be horizontal - to get lowest reading.

So this automaticaly determines that Hr is highest when running (standing vertical), lower in Cycling - sitting, and lowest in swimming - horizontal. Nothng to do with fitness or exercise effort or training efficiency etc.

Additional factor is that body in teh water - the water pressure from outside is helping teh blood flow so agauin additional decrease in HR.

The problem possibly is that swimming is upper body sport so naturaly not as much energy is burned as the biggest muscle group - in legs are not that active.

Swimming does support the running muscles as such You would be better of with deep water running and with kick drills - using only lower body but getting the muscle workout in kick on tummy (free) kicks on back (backstroke kicj\ks and breastroke kicks.

While it is true that it is about calories in and calories out (to a degree), so You should be able swimm Yourself thin if realy strict with nutrition, this has nearly impossible hurdless to overcome :

Lots of energy is used for body heating in water, so colder the water, more energy You burn - this strategy was succesfully tested long ago as crosscountry skiing in winter naked (swimsuit only for morality reason) and it showed such activity burned teh most calories and was fsatest way to slimming down.


However in cold water You wil not last long to do long exercises.

And the body has natural system build in to selfprotection which will easily override Your strong will etc. So as You start slimming down by swimming in coldish water or any water, the body will kick in this protection mechanism (agains freezing) and will make You soooo hungry (as You already real;ized), that You will eat easily 3x the calories You burned while swimming.


I woukld suggest look at the issues completely independently - what and why You wanna do to get fitt to keep crosstraining while injured etc and do teh type and intensity and volume of these activities to get best result regarding the fitness and injury preventuion and recovery etc and forget the weight loss completely.

Than as a separate issue, look at the weight loss completely independently of exercise, simple as a function of nutrition only and get the nutrition act together.

You will achieve both goals along side each otrher without mixing the issues.

I had weight loss when I started swimming with a squad (I didn't push myself hard enough or long enough by myself). My shape also changed a little bit as well (in a good way). But I still lost more weight running...

I thought muscle was heavier than fat. When I started swimming every week day last year, I found I was getting heavier due to the upper body mass but my belt size was reducing heaps, so my body shape was changed but body weight is still the same as before.

So for me swimming hasn't reduced my weight but it has improved my body shape. As others have said above, running is best training for running, swimmimg does develop upper body which isn't necessarily what runners really want unless you do triathelete. (most runners are poor swimmers as per other threads here).

Also I "think" that the body develops a layer of fat over the body due to being in "colder" water.

I used to not eat before I swam (early morning) but found I was falling over at work so I now eat something before the pool, but I find I do need to eat a lot after swimming and cannot back off the food without suffering for it.

For me I would like to lose a bit more weight from around my belt but I am happy enough overall with my weight and not that worried to give up my food..

Muscle is denser than fat. A kg still equals a kg no matter what it consists of

The trouble I find with swimming (and so do many people), is that compared to running or cycling I am so dang HUNGRY afterwards!!! I would burn way more calories for an hour spent running or cycling than swimming but find it much easier to overeat after a swim. After the other two I've not usually got much of an appetite for a while...

Dave

Thanks heaps for replying to my post. Bigtime.
Although I am not a good runner (anymore), I actually find running the most mentally enjoyable and stimulating. I dunno.....must be the scenery, fine weather, or whatever. Having said that, you coined the phrase perfectly:

It's not that I don't like running, or that I don't actually throw a bit in here and there......but rather if I push myself too much, I spend several days limping about, looking like a fool. When it comes to exercise, I don't lack motivation in the least.....rather my time management is horrendous. Mentioned that before.
One thing I would like to make loud and clear - from past experience, it has been looooooooooong duration training that has helped me lose the most weight, as opposed interval-type training. It might be different for other people, but for me, mileage is the key to weight loss.
While swimming doesn't seem to burn fat anywhere near land-based training, is it still worthwhile for injured people, provided you can push the mileage and manage your diet? This is the bottom line.
I still do include land-based training too.

If your back and knee can take it, for weight loss getting on a bike is far and away the best way to shift fat.

Hey GasBag,

Swimming is a fantastic way to keep up fitness while allowing muscle recovery. My heart rate doesn't get as high, either, but it's not necessarily a bad thing to train at a different heart rate intensity. Swimming also improves lung capacity and teaches your body to become more oxygen efficient. Mixing up your exercise forms and intensities will help keep your body from plateauing. As with any exercise, the harder the exercise, the more calories burnt. Of course doing heart rate sets with swimming is going to burn many more calories than splashing haphazardly up and down the pool. My mum has slowly gotten more and more into swimming over the past 10-15 years, has increased her fitness and weight loss to no end and looks absolutely bloody fantastic. She has really bad knees and can't run and finds biking difficult if for long periods. So swimming has been fantastic. She meets up regularly with a swimming coach and some other masters swimmers. She looks just as lean as if she'd done running, has fantastically toned arms and legs (whole body in fact) and certainly doesn't look like the triangle elite swimmers.

Me? I swim on rest days--still get a great workout but feel really rested the next day. And I far prefer having plenty of fresh air at call when breathing heavily, instead of having to wait until my head is out of water!

By the way, the first 400m or so of swimming you will probably feel awful due to your heart getting used to pumping horizontally during hard exercise. Try to warm up slowly and don't start pushing yourself until after you've done at least that kind of distance.

Good luck!
Rachel

Swimming is a great exercise, however, it cannot compete on a calories for hour basis with running. Running uses the largest muscles in your body, to throw your entire body mass around against gravity, especially on inclines. Swimming utilises smaller muscles, and I'm yet to find an uphill pool. Another significant factor as previously mentioned is that spending significant time in a pool is quite hard, but you can run pretty much whenever you want. 10 hours runing per week is far easier to achieve than 10 hours of constant swimming - and note 'constant' swimming here - most people swim a couple of hundred meters and stop for a breather, versus most people run constantly. This is another significant difference in energy burnt for a given time.

I always knew I wasn't "most people" I'd be stoked if I could swim for a couple of hundred metres continuously.
My heart rate gets up plenty when I'm swimming, but I've just started out.