‘Why swimming is so good with weight loss’
Advertorial Feature
Swimming is one of the best forms of low stress exercise you can do. Whether you want to lose weight or get back into shape after an injury or pregnancy, swimming can help you tone up and slim down.
The great thing about swimming is that you can mix up your strokes to exercise at an intensity and pace that suits you. Swimming allows you to have a short intensive exercise regime as well as a longer more relaxed swim; either way, you’re working out and improving your fitness.
As well as swimming lengths, many gyms and pools now offer water aerobics, using water resistance to help you tone up if swimming lengths of the pool gets too boring.
Swimming and weight loss
Swimming is one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise you can do, burning large amounts of calories in order to propel your entire body through the water. Being a low-stress, high-intensity form of exercise, swimming is the ideal exercise for both young and elderly people.
Swimming for 30 minutes can burn anywhere from 50-500 calories depending on the intensity of exercise. It is therefore advised that you always try some high intensity exercise within this 30 minute period.
Swimming is perfect for those starting a weight loss regime as the cool water helps regulate your temperature, making it more relaxing and easier than running on a treadmill.
Additional health benefits
The additional health benefits of swimming are also considerable: by going swimming at least 2-3 times a week, you can help reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
Swimming offers an all-round exercise for your body. Because you are swimming through water, the resistance helps build up your strength and helps tone your muscles. While most strokes primarily work out the upper body, performing kicks with a float is also a great way to focus your efforts on your lower body.
As you get better at swimming, you will undoubtedly begin to build muscle which helps burn fat. As well as burning calories during exercise, after you leave the pool, your body will use more energy to recover and rebuild muscle tissue.
Combine weight-loss tactics
Exercise is the most important aspect of a weight loss regime, and swimming is fantastic because it works the heart and builds muscles, which burn more fat and therefore increase your long-term weight control potential.
The best approach is to combine exercise with a number of other weight-loss tactics, such as changing your diet and using a fat binder.
If you visit a site like XLS Medical you can quickly input details to work out your all-important BMI (Body Mass Index) which will give you a weight loss target. By combining approaches, you should be able to hit your target BM 30 per cent more efficiently than through exercise alone.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Kilkenny
Sunday 26 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Heavy rain
Temperature: 6 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South west
