swimming & steaming

irishrog

My master plan to lose a bit of weight this year is to swim 3 or 4 days a week at lunch time, and to use my bamboo steamer a bit more when I am not egging.
My traditional Irish breakfast fry is gone since the start of the year, and has been replaced by steamed fish for breakfast, salmon, brill, monk, haddock or whatever is fresh from my fish supplier.
A little balsamic vinegar with the fish, or even a squeeze of lemon juice and I will reluctantly admit that so far I have not missed my bacon, eggs, and sausages in the morning.
Also simply made soda bread with flour, baking powder and buttermilk, and flavoured with semi sun-dried tomatoes, some wall nuts, or some grated parmesan, which I made for myself has proven very popular with my teenage boys, and indeed a few evenings when I made a loaf for breakfast it almost disappeared before I could lock it away for safe keeping.
Heres hoping a little discipline, clean!! living, and a touch of moderation can help to make me the babe magnet that I know that I am, DEEP down!!!.
Best of luck, and a strong will to anybody who is taking on the challenge.
I hope to lose 14 pounds before I go on holidays to Spain with my dear wife in 5 weeks time, (now thats motivation)
Greetings from Ireland,
Roger

emilluca

Sound like a good plan. I tried swimming again but it had been 40 years since I did swim and ended with a torn rotator cuff. So everyone be careful.

Boilermaker Ben

I also enjoy swimming laps. I need to re-up at the gym and get back into the habit of swimming regularly.

However, I read an article about a study that showed that people who exercise by swimming don't lose weight as easily as those who do other cardio routines. The theory is that increased body temperature caused by most cardio routines acts as an appetite supressant. Since the cool water keeps swimmers' temps low, they tend to crave food immediately after exercising and thus eat more than, say, joggers. So if your goal is weight loss (particularly quick weight loss) you might want to pick a different strategy and jump back in the pool after you get back from Spain. But apart from the weight loss goal, swimming is a great low-impact cardio exercise and works almost all your muscle groups. And personally, I love that I'm not steaming hot afterwards. Now if I could stop cramming my face after getting out the pool, maybe I'd lose weight!

Rascal

How about the calories burned to maintain your boby temp while swimming (unless you're in a heated pool)?

fishlessman

heres something interesting, ditch the blankets and cool the room abit and you lose a pound a week
http://calorielab.com/news/2006/08/11/lose-the-electric-blanket-and-lose-the-weight/

crghc98

forgot my sneakers the other morning at the gym...decided to swim rather than work out in a pair of snow covered boots...

After 15 minutes I was dying and I could barely lift my arms over my head in the shower...forgot how tough of a workout swimming laps can be.

Cpt'n Cook

Me too! I started swimming laps about 5-6 years ago, I averaged 1 mile in about 30 minutes 4 times a week. I would be starved when I got home and never lost an ounce.

I looked better, felt better and had much better wind. I read that swimming uses mostly upper body and is good for burning off blood sugar, but not the best for weight loss. Weight bearing, lower body type exercises were much more effective than swimming for weight control.

I did like swimming as I had pretty good technique and could blow off most young guys in the pool fairly easily. It did start to bother my shoulders though.

FrankC

As a teenager, I was a competitive swimmer, and did fairly well, IMHO. I've been a regular at the gym since my 5 year old was born, but always did elipticals, stair climbers, etc.

My city of Omaha hosted the Olympic swim trials this summer, and it inspired me to start swimming again. After 3 days, I couldn't raise my arms above my head, and was in a considerable amount of discomfort. After a few months of staying away from the pool, I still had significant pain in my right shoulder.

Long story a little longer, I got an MRI and xrays, and my new orthopedic doc just gave me my first steroid shot yesterday; thankfully I'm feeling better already. He says that with PT, I probably won't need more than one more shot to get over it.

Long story just a little bit longer....be careful! I'm 45, and apparently a prime candidate for what he called calcific tendinitis of the rotator cuff. It's caused by repetitive motion of your arms above your head...puts a lot of strain on your rotator cuff. Hope this helps somebody!

fc