Swimming To Lose Weight Fast

She's swimming to lose weight but her results stink! Discover why?... including an amazing "pool-temp" secret that can greatly enhance your results when you swim!

About two months back, in an effort to burn away some unwanted stomach fat, I began swimming 3 days each week.

I'm not talking just slow laps here - I'm talking the equivalent a high intensity sprinting. Basically, I would get into the pool, swim lanes back and forth to warm up, and then do sprints. It was the single most tiring form of exercise that I had done.

Seriously. Try swimming 2 laps (down and back) in an Olympic pool as fast as you can. You're ass will be breathing so heavy you'll find it hard to stay afloat!

Anyway, I did this for a month and found that I was on to something quite amazing.

You see, I had been used to doing "interval training" on the treadmill. Basically, I would run for 30 seconds, take a 30 second break, then run for 30 seconds and so on. Just repeating this for about 15 minutes. For those of you who don't know, interval training like this will burn exponentially more fat than just regular "steady state" exercise.

But here's the thing, swimming to lose weight - at least the "balls out" method I had stumbled upon seemed to be working better. I mean, after I'd get out of the pool ALL my muscles would be aching. A tell tale sign that this was truly a "total body" form of exercise.

My swimming workout looked like this:
- Olympic size pool:
- Sprint one lane down and back.
- Rest 90 seconds
- Sprint one lane down, back, down.
- Rest 2 minutes
- Sprint on lane down, back, down, back
That's it. That's all I was doing. I was
doing this two days a week after I was
done lifting weights and it was working great!

But not only that, I felt lose, almost like I had been stretching out. And after a month or so I seemed to be noticeably leaner.

So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a study that told me this shouldn't be happening.

Popular Study Slams Swimming To Lose Weight

Ok. So here's the thing with me - and any of you who've been reading my articles would know this about me. I take "research" with a grain of salt.

The cold hard truth is that most of it stinks. The typical studies are usually laced with flaws and biases and the quite frankly, we'd all be better off just doing our own research.

But in any event, I stumbled across an older study that basically slammed swimming to lose weight. The study (It was performed in 1987 so feel free to Google it) compared the effects of three popular forms of exercise: swimming, stationary cycling and walking. The participants were all overweight women performed an hour of exercise daily over the course of six months.

The researchers found that the overall weight of those who rode stationary bikes and those who walked decreased by 12 percent. However, it was found that there was no change for the swimmers.

More or less, what followed was that many people (including supposed fitness elites) stamped swimming to lose weight as bad practice.

But there were some MAJOR flaws...

The study did not track the diet or caloric intake of participants (I will discuss this in a second)

The intensity of the exercise was not tracked.

Can you believe that?!

Once again, here were a bunch of experts knocking swimming, and yet - my personal experience had shown it to be highly effective for producing RAPID results!

So the question becomes, why was I getting results?

The answer, of course, is very simple. I was swimming intensely, basically sprinting laps back and forth (the calories burned swimming like this are enormous) and my diet was spot on. This was the combination that gave me the great results.

Swimmers Listen: it is the intensity
of the swim that creates rapid
results. Higher intensity equal
more weight loss: all other things
remaining equal.

The truth is, that combination is what makes any exercise effective. The more effort you put into it the greater the benefits.

But in my opinion swimming has something a little more than most other traditional forms of cardio like running: swimming works all muscle groups. I would simply like those of you who are swimming to lose weight to remember two things, keep it intense and follow the diet information on the home page of Naturally Lose Weight Fast.

If you can do this, than I believe you will get some amazing results. Plus, this is a form of exercise you can do on a daily basis that is very "low impact" on your body. Where as running tends to pound heavily on your knees and joints, swimming does not.

With that said, there is also a pretty amazing little "pool secret" that you can apply to ensure you're losing as much weight as possible.

Amazing "Pool Secret" When Swimming To Lose Weight

So here's something amazing to consider if you're swimming and your sole aim is to lose as much weight as quickly as possible.

Generally speaking, there has been much research to show that he appetites of swimmers are higher than runners and walkers.

But some interesting findings about the affects of water temperature have also surfaced.

Basically speaking, science has shown that the colder the water the greater the urge your body has to consume calories! So, for example, when the study I mentioned above showed that swimming to lose weight produced far less results than walking or cycling, it's highly likely the participants were swimming in a cool water pool causing them to eat more when they were done!

Pretty amazing stuff isn't it!

This means, that if I were going to swim to lose weight I would follow two very simple secrets:

Make sure to swim intensely. (Like a sprint rather than a walk)

Find a "warm water" pool. (This will greatly decrease your body's demand for calories because it won't have to expend so much to keep you warm.

There is one last thing I'd keep in mind here, and this has more to do with your overall health than the amount of fat you'll lose.

If you can find a salt water pool than use it. Most all swimming pools you use at health clubs are heavily chlorinated. These chemical are terrible for your skin and body. A salt water pool has many health benefits and is just another way you can enhance your health when swimming to lose weight.

Swimming In The Lake

For those who don't already know, I moved to the lake when I was just 5. So I spend my entire life as a kid growing up on the lake. Summers were amazing and it's always been a HUGE part of my life!

Here's me having some fun in the water with my nephews...

I love the water, especially diving off my dock into the muddy brown water of Lake Wisconsin as a kid! That's where I grew up. Hell, I'm still a kid and still love the water!

Here's my family (brother, sister in law, nephews and rest of the gang) swimming off our dock on the lake (I'm taking the photo)...

Can you relate?

Anyway, I share all this with you to state an amazing fact - many people won't try swimming to lose weight because they think they need a pool! And in the winter months you do. But in the summer there's no reason you can't go to the lake and swim. The water is generally much better for your skin and the best part is it's FREE. You don't need to go to a health club. Plus, you never have to stand in line!

I have swam sprints in the lake many times. Back and forth from dock to dock. It's a great way to shed pounds and have fun at the same time.

personal swim photo

Just food for thought guys.

I can tell you, that swimming to lose weight is one of the primary exercises I recommend. I have personally used it to burn loads of fat and it just make me feel good.

But remember, as I indicated above - the intensity that you do it has dramatic impacts on how your body reacts. Generally speaking - the higher the intensity (the equivalent of sprinting) the more fat you're going to lose. It's all about that muscle contraction. (Those are the trucks I wear at the gym when I hit the pool. Nothing special!)

I hope you found this information on swimming to lose weight fast useful. If you really want to get rapid results combine this info on this page with the 5 steps I reveal on the Naturally Lose Weight Fast home page and you should be able to melt away your body fat very quickly!

At the very least, you can swim like this for 10 days to try it out. If you're not currently getting results with what you're doing, then swimming just might give you the boost you need.

- Jason

P.S. I would give this at least 10 days guys and keep an eye on your results.

I'd be willing to bet if you swam for the next 10 days (every other day) using the training method I explained in this article, than you're results would be outstanding. I'm pretty certain you'd see several pounds fall off rapidly.