How good is swimming for burning fat? There seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions on the matter (not backed up with fact). A few places seem to say its the best exercise because its a whole body workout and some others say its not great because the water keeps your body cool.
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It doesn't matter if your body gets cooled down during swimming. What matters is the number of Calories you burn during any exercise. Fat loss happens when you expend more Calories than you take in. Simple as that. Swimming is actually a very good Calorie burner. According to NutriStrategy, swimming at a leisurely pace for one hour can burn 354 to 558 Calories depending on your weight. |
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Keeping your body cool uses up quite a lot of calories because your body has to burn something to generate heat, and water drains heat quickly because it's a good heat conductor. Swimming (the movement) by itself is not very energy demanding, but doing it in cool water is. |
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For extremely obese persons who start with completely untrained bodies, swimming and aquafitness are preferable over many other activities such as, say, jogging. I read so in a book about aquafitness. |
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