Swimming is an amazing cardiovascular exercise that involves the entire body. A lot of earlier research has shown that swimmers have less weight loss than runners or cyclists.

Effective weight loss can only be achieved if the calories consumed are less than the calories burnt. It seems that this could also be the reason most swimmers do not get weight loss.

The Earliest Research

A lot of research has been carried out on the effectiveness of swimming for weight loss.

Some of the earliest research was done by Dr Grant Gwinup. His findings were presented in a paper entitled “Efficacy of different forms of aerobic exercise”

Dr Gwinup enlisted minimally to moderately obese women who wanted to lose weight. They were made to do the following 3 exercises;
- Brisk walking
- Stationary bicycle
- Swimming laps

All women slowly but progressively increased the time spent in daily exercise to 60 minutes. After 6 months , the women assigned to walking lost 10% of initial weight, the women who cycled lost 12%, but the women who swam lost no weight at all.

Swimmers Carry More Body Fat Than Runners

Jang published a paper in the Journal of Swimming Research in 1987 that consisted of college swimmers and runners. He stated that despite the exercise energy expenditure of the runners and swimmers being similar, the swimmers carried more body fat. Male runners averaged body fat of 7% as compared to male swimmers at 12%. Female runners averaged body fat of 15% as compared to female runners at 20%. One of the shortfalls of this study was that it depended on the participants to self-report food consumption. Research has shown that people under-estimate food consumption by up to 40% when self reporting.

Swimmers and Runners Have Similar Energy Expenditure During Training

It was also postulated that difference in hormonal patterns and fat oxidation mechanisms may explain the difference in fat levels in swimmers and runners. Flynn published the findings of his study in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Both the swimmers and runners showed no difference in total energy expenditure during training or recovery. There were some differences in substrate utilization and hormone levels. Flynn found that swimming resulted in lower blood glucose levels than running. There was apparently a greater reliance on carbohydrate as a fuel during swimming. Also, it was found that fat oxidation tended to be greater after swimming than running. Flynn concluded that  these differences were small and could not explain why swimmers have higher body fat levels.

The Effects of Swimming on Body Weight

Tanaka conducted a study in 1997, where one of the objectives was to investigate the effects of swimming on body weight. The training group swam at 60% of maximal heart rate reserve for 45 min per day for 3 days per week for 10 weeks. The control group remained sedentary. Tanaka did not find any substantial decrease in body fat.

“It is regrettable that swimming does not seem to be as effective as other exercise modes in reducing body mass or body fat since swimming would be an ideal exercise for obese individuals”, Tanaka said. Incidentally, Tanaka is conducting a further study to investigate the effects of swimming for body fat reduction and cardiovascular health improvements.

Swimmers Need Land Training to Trim Fat

Dr Louise Burke, head of Nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sports has quoted in his article as follows;

“Swimmers, especially female swimmers, face an energy balance conundrum. Elite swimmers typically undertake 4000-20,000 m per day in training, burning thousands of calories. However, the typical body fat levels of these athletes are significantly higher than runners or cyclists who spend similar or even smaller amounts of energy in their training. Many female swimmers have fought well-publicized battles with their body fat levels and with their coaches! They are generally prescribed “land training” (running or cycling) in addition to their many laps of the pool in the belief that it is a necessary treatment to produce lower skinfold levels”

Do Not Discount Swimming Yet

Swimming is still a fantastic exercise. It is very energy intensive and is extremely beneficial for weight loss. Watch out for Part 2 which elaborates further on how someone could actually make swimming a very effective exercise for weight loss.

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