Swimming workouts for weight loss can be effective. Swimming and other water exercises, such as aqua aerobics, are also good physical activities that provide many benefits beyond maintaining a healthy weight.
This article describes how swimming can be a part of your weight loss plan and how much weight you can expect to lose when you swim.
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Is Swimming Good for Weight Loss?
Swimming is a physical activity that consumes calories and involves moderate to vigorous intensity muscular and cardiovascular exertion. Because swimming uses calories, it can help you lose weight.
Aside from burning calories, swimming also has the following benefits:
- It can reduce belly fat.
- It can improve muscle tone and strength.
- It can improve your endurance.
- It can enhance your coordination and balance.
Swimming and Appetite
A key feature of weight loss is using more calories than you take in in your diet. Swimming, like other calorie-consuming physical activity, can make you feel hungry.
If you’re exercising to lose weight, it takes deliberate planning and control to consume fewer calories than you burn. For a healthy eating plan, you should specifically avoid high-calorie foods that don’t have a a lot of nutritional content.
Research suggests that swimming does not trigger any harmful changes in the hormones that control your appetite or metabolism. Swimming can be a good part of a weight loss plan if you are mindful of your diet.
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Benefits of Swimming
In addition to weight loss, you can gain many rewards from swimming as a physical activity.
Swimming and other water activities are often recommended for people who are recovering from physical injuries or who are participating in cardiac rehabilitation. Additionally, swimming is one of the exercises that can help improve muscle control for people with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders.
Advantages of swimming include:
- Building muscle strength
- Toning muscles
- Improving coordination
- Being gentle on the joints
- Improving cholesterol and fat levels
- Enhancing mood
- Promoting social interactions
You may notice that you are experiencing several of these benefits if you regularly participate in swimming and water activities. Swimming has also been shown to improve overall longevity.
Cold Water Swimming
Cold water therapy and swimming in cool or cold water has received a significant amount of attention in recent years.
Some research suggests that cool temperatures may enhance calorie consumption, potentially increasing the benefits of exercise. However, the results are not consistent regarding the benefits of swimming in cold water compared to swimming in moderate temperatures. For most healthy people, cold water swimming is not harmful.
How Much Do You Need to Swim to Lose Weight?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults need at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, such as swimming laps. Additionally, the CDC recommends that adults get at least two days a week of muscle-strengthening activity.
If you’re trying to budget your calorie intake and exercise, it could be helpful for you to track your swimming time to reach a target goal.
According to the CDC, an adult weighing 154 pounds can expect to burn 255 calories by swimming for 30 minutes and approximately 310 calories for one hour.
You can expect to burn more calories if you swim at a rapid pace, or you may burn fewer calories if you swim at a more leisurely pace.
Most of the research examining the effects of swimming on weight loss has been done on participants who swim laps. But you could also lose weight by participating in other water activities, such as water aerobics, water volleyball, and water basketball.
Calorie Deficit and Weight Loss
A Swimming Plan for Weight Loss
People start swimming at different intensity levels and can comfortably swim for various amounts of time. It may take time and practice to build up your endurance so that you can swim faster or for longer.
Losing weight in a healthy way means that you follow a consistent and attainable plan with realistic goals and expectations. Having excess weight increases your risk of stroke, heart disease, spine disease, diabetes, and many more medical conditions. If you have excess weight, losing weight is beneficial for your overall health.
A Beginner's Plan
If you are a beginner, it’s important that you work your way up slowly and carefully so that you can avoid problems while swimming. You might start by swimming a few laps. Give yourself a day between each swimming session, and do other forms of exercise on the intervening days.
You can increase your swim time by one lap per session per week. Once you are swimming for 30 minutes in a session, you could also consider increasing your pace.
Intermediate to Advanced Plan
If you have already been swimming for exercise, you could consider increasing your pace or swimming for a longer period of time. You might also consider varying your pace during your workout and trying different strokes.
Safety and Preventing Injury
If you’re going to start swimming as exercise, it’s important that you consider safety so that you can prevent injury or health problems. If you have underlying health problems, such as heart disease, make sure to discuss your new exercise plan with your healthcare provider before you start.
Some tips for safety include:
- Swim where there’s a lifeguard or where there are other people around.
- Don’t push yourself too hard, particularly when you're just getting started as a swimmer.
- Avoid swimming if you are tired or if your muscles hurt.
- Don’t swim if you feel dizzy, are short of breath, or are sick.
- Give yourself time to warm up before you start swimming, and time to wind down and stretch after finishing your swim session.
Balancing Physical Activity and Food
When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to balance calories to create a calorie deficit (burning more calories per day than you consume). If you’re already getting the recommended physical activity, you may need to track the food you are eating to determine what adjustments are needed.
Consider whether you are eating calorie-dense foods or highly processed foods. Processed foods can quickly add up the calories without satisfying your hunger or giving you the balance of nutrients that your body needs.
Healthy foods you can add to your diet as you’re losing weight include:
- Celery, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, green beans, spinach, kale
- Tomatoes, oranges, peaches, pears, apples
- Lean chicken or turkey
- Fish, such as salmon, cod, and catfish
- Avocado
- Nuts
- Beans
- Whole grains, oats, brown rice, quinoa
- Low-fat milk
Consider making soups and adding fresh or cooked vegetables and lean meat to round out the meal. Another option is to make smoothies rich in vegetables and fruit.
If you are having a hard time losing weight, consider keeping a food diary and sharing it with your healthcare provider or a dietitian so you can get personalized advice.
Summary
Swimming is a healthy activity that can help you lose weight. Water exercises require effort, and they consume calories. If you add swimming to your exercise routine, you can lose weight—particularly if you also adjust your diet. Eating healthy foods and avoiding excessive calorie consumption is a key factor in weight loss.
When you balance water exercise and diet control, you can experience weight loss. Swimming also has many other health benefits, including improving heart health, balance and coordination, and mental health.
