Have you heard the rumour that swimming can actually make you gain weight? If you’ve been thinking of taking up going to your local pool this New Year to help you improve your fitness and boost your wellness and wellbeing with a trim figure, you may be a little perturbed at the idea that the very thing you are doing to help you lose weight could actually help you gain it.
The huge caveat to this, however, is that it is not the physical act of swimming that makes you gain weight. It is more about how you think after you have been in the pool. Many people feel so hungry after a swim that they end up overeating immediately afterwards. They often have a mistaken idea about how many calories swimming actually burns, and so feel justified in having a treat afterwards.
Swimming is a great exercise, and providing you also watch your diet very carefully, it can help you to lose weight, but it is important that you realise that swimming doesn’t burn as many calories as you think. The reason is that you are not weight bearing whilst you exercise. The buoyancy that the water provides is great in many ways, as it helps you to exercise if you have an injury and also helps to avoid injuries as you are not taking any strain on your joints, but it also means that you are not having to work as hard as you would on dry land.
The water creates a resistance, and pushing through this makes you feel like you are working harder than you actually are. Having said that, you may still end up burning more calories whilst swimming than you would doing other types of exercise, because of this resistance.