Can You Lose Weight by Swimming?

Some people crave the ideal weight, but are lazy to exercise because they do not want to be tired, afraid of overheating, or lazy to move. If you are facing the same problem, you can try swimming to lose weight.

Certain swimming styles are believed to burn more calories so that it is powerful to reduce excess fat. Is this scientifically proven?

How can swimming lose weight?

Swimming is an activity that involves all the muscles of the body, including the upper body muscles, core muscles, and back muscles.

Muscle work requires energy. So, there are many calories burned by the body to provide energy when you swim.

The use of muscles while swimming can also train muscles stronger and increase muscle mass. This can make the metabolism increase so that the body can burn more calories even though it is not swimming.

You may not realize you have expended a lot of effort while swimming because you don't quickly feel tired.

In fact, swimming makes the body move more so that it is effective for weight loss. Because water has a buoyancy force, you will not feel heavy when moving in it.

Basically, water can withstand gravity so that the body weight feels lighter and you are easier to move without much effort.

Swimming also has a very low risk of injury. You can swim almost every day without having to worry about injuries. This is what makes swimming superior to other weight loss sports.

Swimming style for weight loss

The calorie burning of swimming depends on the style performed, distance, and speed. The farther and longer the time you spend swimming, the greater the calorie burning that occurs.

Likewise with swimming style. The faster you swim with the right technique, the more effective you can lose weight.

With the same distance and speed, here is a comparison of calorie burning based on each swimming style.

1. Frog style

Frog-style swimming makes the upper and lower body muscles equally active.

When you pull this style of hand to the front of the chest with all your strength, you move the pectoralis muscle, which is the muscle that is in your chest.

Once you have pulled your hand to the front of your chest, you should push your hand back forward in a straight position. This boost involves using your shoulder, chest, and triceps muscles.

Alternately with the hands, the breaststroke legs are moved. The lower muscles, namely the legs, buttocks, thighs will be involved in the movement of the breaststroke. Doing this movement for 10 minutes can burn up to 60 calories.

2. Backstroke

This is one of the most effective swimming styles for weight loss. This backstroke can burn 80 calories in 10 minutes.

Backstroke swimming trains the core muscles to hold the balance of the body on the surface of the water and make the biceps muscles on the arms move most dominantly.

Your hands should rotate continuously in turn to push the water with all your might while moving your feet. Because of these movements, the backstroke involves more lower body muscles.

Trained muscles include the buttocks, thigh muscles to hamstring muscles (3 types of muscles that are along the back of the thigh, under the pelvis to the bottom of the knee).

3. Freestyle

Swimming with freestyle can burn a lot of calories so it helps to lose weight. Calories that can be burned through this freestyle about 100 calories every 10 minutes.

The way freestyle swimming works is similar to the backstroke. The difference is, you are not on your back, but on your stomach. This movement will train the muscles of the upper back, shoulders, chest, and other muscles around it.

Freestyle requires rotation from shoulder to hand. The hand needs to be swung forward as far as possible in order to be able to pull the water back as hard as possible.

The legs, hip muscles, buttock muscles, thigh muscles moving actively make your swimming rate faster.

4. Butterfly style

Butterfly style involves a lot of large muscles so that the work of the heart and lungs will increase. You will also burn the most calories.

The muscles involved in butterfly style are actually similar to freestyle. It's just that, when you do butterfly style, you use all the muscles of the right and left hands at the same time.

Swimming for just 10 minutes in a butterfly style can burn up to 150 calories from your body. This means, swimming with this style tends to be more powerful for weight loss.

Tips for losing weight by swimming

Swimming is indeed a powerful sport that burns calories and fat. However, if you want optimal results, swimming alone is not enough.

Here are some tips that can make the swimming exercises you do more effective to lose weight.

• Start swimming 15–20 minutes every two days, then increase to 30 minutes five times a week.
• Get used to swimming until you can do it 4-5 times a week.
• Take swimming lessons so that you can do the swimming style appropriately.
• Do different swimming styles so that all muscles are trained.
• Swim harder and faster until the heart rate increases.
• Do other water aerobic exercises whenever possible.
• Set your diet according to your exercise program.

If you are not a fan of jogging or sports in the gym, swimming can be the right alternative.

In addition to helping to lose weight, swimming is also powerful to build muscle and strengthen the heart.