VivaCafe VIP Premium Health & Nutrition Services Q&A Weight loss

Can swimming definitely help you lose weight? How to lose weight by swimming

Asked by:Beasley

Asked on:Apr 17, 2026 11:22 AM

Answers:1 Views:560
  • Midgard Midgard

    Apr 17, 2026

      What's going on? Can swimming help you lose weight? What should you pay attention to if you want to swim to lose weight?

      Can swimming definitely help you lose weight?

      Swimming has a very good body-building and shaping effect. “Swimming not only consumes a lot of calories, but it can also reduce the wear and tear on joints caused by exercise. But ordinary people are swimming exercise Many of them failed to lose weight, and some even rebounded violently. Why is this?

      Normally, energy consumption is greater in water. The buoyancy, resistance and pressure of water are an excellent massage for the human body. skin It can also play a role in beauty. The key reason why some people fail to lose weight despite swimming is because they do not exercise enough. First, we must understand the mechanism of exercise and energy consumption. During exercise, energy consumption is completed in three stages, namely sugar metabolism, fat metabolism, and protein metabolism. Weight loss is actually achieved through fat consumption. ”

      It turns out that swimming is in the anaerobic stage at the beginning. Energy consumption mainly relies on the anaerobic glycolysis of sugar. The exercise at this stage is very intense, people have shortness of breath and insufficient oxygen supply, so fat is not used at all. If you continue to exercise, your body will begin to enter the aerobic exercise stage. In the subsequent 1 hour, during moderate-intensity exercise, energy supply is provided by aerobic metabolism of sugar. If you want to lose weight, you should swim for more than 40 minutes each time before starting to consume fat.

      Solution: A combination of speed and slowness is effective

      Many people swim slowly, which consumes far less calories than swimming fast and short distances. But for most people, it is difficult to swim fast throughout the whole process, so you might as well swim slowly for one period followed by fast swimming, then swim two slow periods followed by two fast swimming periods, to improve the exercise effect in this way.

      Although exercise intensity is very important for weight loss, if people of different ages and physical conditions want to lose weight through swimming, they need to formulate their own training plans. "It should be different for each person and scientifically lose weight. This can not only achieve good exercise effects, but also avoid damage to the body caused by excessive exercise." ”

      As a rule, those under 35 years old healthy The length of each swim practice for people should be 2000~2500 meters; the distance for people between 35 and 50 years old should be 1500~2000 meters for each swim; those over 50 years old should swim 1500~2000 meters each time; elderly According to personal physical condition, choose between 800 and 1200 meters, and insist on swimming 4 to 5 times a week. In this way, if you insist on it for 3 months, you will definitely have a good weight loss effect.

      You can eat as much as you need

      After testing, if you swim 100 meters in the water, you will consume 100 kilocalories of heat energy, which is equivalent to running 400 meters on land, riding a bicycle for 1,000 meters, or skating for 1,500 meters. This is why you will feel hungry soon after swimming. Therefore, some people do not control their appetite at all after swimming, causing the body to consume more calories than they consume during swimming, which is naturally counterproductive and not conducive to weight loss.

      You must pay attention to your diet after swimming. “After swimming, people often eat well and sleep well, so the calories consumed are quickly replenished, and sometimes they even eat more than they consume. Therefore, some people find that they stop exercising after swimming for a period of time, and their weight may even exceed their original level! ”Therefore, she believes that swimming is not suitable for those who do not exercise regularly to lose weight. In addition, she suggested that after swimming, you should replenish a lot of water and a certain amount of protein, and pay attention to the intake of dietary fiber, “because dietary fiber itself has no calories and cannot be digested and absorbed by the human body, but it can reduce the absorption of fat in food. In addition, dietary fiber can expand 80 to 100 times after absorbing water, helping to enhance the feeling of fullness. ”

      Solution: Post-swimming meals should be based on vegetables

      Dietary fiber is mainly found in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fungi and algae. For example, red beans, peas, sweet potatoes, celery, spinach, cabbage, apples, bananas, etc. are all foods rich in dietary fiber. The meal after swimming should be mainly vegetables, with staple food and a small amount of lean meat. The best cooking methods for vegetables are steaming, boiling, and cold dressing, and try not to use oil. There is basically no limit to the amount of vegetables. This way, even if you eat more, you won't take in too many calories. ”

      Different swimming styles exercise different parts

      Although swimming is a whole-body exercise, different swimming styles focus on different parts of the body.

      Breaststroke – Leg strength. Freestyle and backstroke both use up-and-down thigh whipping, while breaststroke only uses kicking. The former can make the legs more slender, while the latter uses more of the quadriceps muscles of the thigh, so it is very effective in strengthening the legs.

      Butterfly – chest strength. When swimming in the butterfly stroke, the arms are stroked inward, which is similar to doing a chest expansion exercise. It exerts more force on the pectoralis major, back expander, and rectus abdominis muscles, and the exercise effect is also the best.

      Freestyle – Arm Strength. During freestyle swimming, the biceps and triceps muscles of the upper arm exert more force, which can effectively exercise the arm muscles and also promote the improvement of shoulder muscle strength.

      Backstroke – back strength. During backstroke, the back expanders exert more force, which can stretch the back muscles. In addition, you need to lift your hips and glide during backstroke, which is also an exercise for your buttocks.