Swimming, can it make me loose fat and gain muscle?

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I want to get into swimming. Any advice on starting this new sport? I can swim but I swim like a girl.

This should be in the Health, Fitness & Sports section.

Make sure you don't drown and I'd say you're doing pretty well.

Firstly: AHHHHHH!! ! lose LOSE LOSE

Sorry

Anyway, LOSING fat and gaining muscle at the same time does not achieve the best results. Bodybuilders go through "cutting" cycles, where the objective is to LOSE fat and preserve muscle. "Bulking" cycles are designed to gain muscle while minimizing fat gain.

I'm currently reducing my bodyfat drastically, which is relatively easy to do, the hard part will be gaining all the weight back while maintaining the same bodyfat percentage. I have offered my personal trainer a fat (pun intended) bonus if he figures out a way to get me there.

Swimming is a great way to keep in shape (cardio + muscle toning) but weight training (free weights, not machines) is the best way to gain muscle.

Good luck!

It's a great non impact excersise.

But in terms of weight loss, it's the same as other aerobic excersise.

make sure you don't get a boner at the pool

How? In my country we are only allowed to wear skin tight speedoos.

Swim like a girl, eh? That's not at all insulting...

O_o

please tell me you're kidding.

I've felt pretty awkward wearing my California-style boardshorts on European beaches, but then I feel awkward everywhere so it wasn't anything new...

I would never do this nor or recommend this, but it is interesting their theory on how Michael Phelps eats so much food yet has low body fat,

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhrtfDPkch0[/youtube]

in the army i alternated running 4 miles at a 7 minute-per-mile pace, with swimming a mile's worth of laps [33] at the base pool. it kept me hellafit and on my 6'3" frame i never exceeded 170. only when i got out of the military did the weight creep back on due to not continuing said regimen. so i'm living proof that swimming a mile's worth of laps [in 30 minutes or so, which is 2 miles per hour] will [with proper diet] shed the fat and keep it off, especially if you vary your swim strokes, like doing crawl for a while and then backstroke for a while like i did. swimming like that was the only time in my life that i could describe myself as having a sleek physique. anyways, the speed and duration are key to keeping your body in the aerobic fat-burning zone long enough to lose weight. up the odds of fat loss by biking back and forth from the pool. and avoid any food that is white [refined and starchy].
as far as swimming "like a girl," there were plenty of women at the pool who could swim laps around me with one hand and one leg restrained. i have never been better than a very graceless swimmer with an ugly movement in the water. but i kept at it and burned the calories anyway. chances are the OP can swim more attractively than i ever could. anyways, when too many pounds piled up on my buns and my pants wouldn't fit on 'em anymore, i went back to swimming and the weight dropped back down after 6 months of that. the advantages of swimming are-

*being in the water keeps one cool so there is no obviously unpleasant sweating
*the water supports one's weight, so the joints are protected from the burden of weight
*the water is relaxing and soothing as it flows past one's body
*if one's shoulders get sore or gets tired of swimming, one can just walk back and forth in the lanes, the water resisting the movement of the body through the lane is very good exercise as well.

i miss living near a pool.

moved from Adult Autism Discussion to Health, Fitness, and Sports

resistance exercise (or to a lesser degree weight-bearing exercise) will have the most benefit muscle-wise. swimming buoys the person up so there isn't the same benefit. also, the coldness of the water often leads to the body maintaining a thicker layer of fat, if i recall correctly.

fat-wise.... in general the more developed your muscles, the faster your metabolism becomes. if you build muscle and eat properly, the weight will drop off over time.

hyperlexian

That's not what the video I posted said. It was saying that water is more thermally conductive than air which sucks energy from your body which causes your body to use more energy to maintain your internal body temperature. Or something like that. It says that at around the 3 minute mark and after.

I personally like interval training for myself. I also lift weights to failure with 45 second to 1 minute rests, timed. But I'd cut that back if I could get myself to take up boxing or panantukan.

Short answer:Yes

Long answer:Yes