I love swimming, I find it meditative, relaxing, enjoyable, and challenging. I’ve been swimming for years and while it’s great for fitness, I’ve never noticed a lot of weight loss. Here’s why and how to make sure your efforts in the pool translate into inches regained from your waist!
The easiest way to lose weight is simple – just make sure your calorie intake is less than the calories you are burning. However, doing this is easier said than done, especially with swimming. Recent research has shown that while swimmers typically burn as many calories as runners or cyclists, it is what they do AFTER they swim that negates all the fat burning effects of their training.
It turns out that swimming in cold water, anything below 30 degrees Celsius, triggers a survival mechanism in your brain that basically tells you to “EAT, EAT, EAT,” to gain weight and counteract the difference in temperature your body has detected in the environment (and thus ensure its survival). Therefore, after a long swimming training session, you may feel very hungry.
So you swam a couple of k’s in cold water and came out feeling hungry and what do you do? You go and fill yourself with nonsense with a hearty meal to satisfy your appetite.
So what do you do with this problem?
Well, of course, you could just eat nothing and fight hunger. I personally take a stick of gum (low calorie of course!) To the pool. Chewing gum tricks my brain into thinking it has food and makes me not feel hungry pretty quickly. Then I can eat a delicate meal later and reap the rewards I deserve for all my hard work!
It’s amazing how obvious it is when you think about it. Since we mentioned it to people in our private swim lessons, they have seen a dramatic improvement in weight loss without any additional effort involved. Sparkly!