How effective is Lifeguarding and swimming for weight loss?

If you want to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. First of all, a healthy eating schedule for weight loss is crucial. That's because you can't compensate for a poor diet with exercise. But if your diet is in order, you can accelerate weight loss by exercising extra. By exercising you burn extra calories and you maintain your muscle mass more easily. In addition to walking, cycling and running, Lifeguard Class and swimming is especially popular for losing weight. But is swimming really that ideal to get rid of those floaties?

Is swimming good for weight loss?

Yes, swimming is really a great idea if you want to lose weight. Swimming for weight loss has a number of unique benefits:

Even if you are overweight, thanks to the load-bearing nature of water, it is little stressful for your joints. 

You not only train your condition, but also a portion of basic strength. 

You really train all the muscles of your body, unlike running or cycling. 

It is also very relaxing; in the water you forget all your worries for a while. 

How many calories do you burn swimming?

How many calories you burn with swimming depends on your weight, swimming level and the intensity with which you swim.

On average, you use about 590-930 kcal per hour while swimming. That is quite a bit, but of course you have to be careful not to compensate for this by eating extra. When you get out of the water you always have a huge appetite. A high-sugar sports drink can undo all your hard work in terms of calories. 

How much should I swim to lose weight?

A kilo of fat is 9000 kcal. If you burn an average of 700 kcal per hour, you have to swim for almost 13 hours to burn a kilo of fat. To lose 10 kilos, this is therefore 130 hours of swimming. If you swim a few laps for an hour twice a week, you'll be doing it for about a year. 

Only swimming to lose weight without paying attention to your diet is therefore quite pointless. A healthy eating pattern remains the basis and FitChef can help you with that. With a FitChef Premium subscription you get customized eating plans every week, adapted to your gender, age, weight, activity level and goals. Moreover, all recipes are very easy to make and super tasty! 

How often to swim to lose weight?

When it comes to losing weight, the more exercise the better. Sports such as running are very stressful for the joints and are best done no more than 3 times a week. Because swimming is not stressful, you can do it as often as you want, as long as your muscles recover. If you have a busy work life, 2 or 3 times a week is already very ambitious. But if the opportunity arises and you have a swimming pool in the garden or you are on vacation, for example, there is nothing to prevent you from swimming laps every day. 

If you find swimming the same laps so often monotonous, you can alternate between the different swimming styles. Or you can play a game of water polo, which will undoubtedly burn at least as many calories. 

Also Read About: Lifeguard Recertification Near Me Va

Does swimming in cold water help you lose even more weight?

One of the reasons why you burn calories easily while swimming and feel so hungry afterwards is due to cooling of the body. When you are in the water, your body cools down and your fat burning is greatly increased to maintain your body temperature. 

Fortunately, you don't have to swim in ice water to achieve this effect. This effect already occurs in a heated swimming pool. Yes, the effect may be greater in even colder water, but you'll give up swimming more quickly, so you won't burn more calories in the end. And the chance of muscle injuries is also increasing, so don't make it a competition.