Lose weight in summer, a competition between swimming and running!

Modern people advocate a healthy lifestyle, so they will naturally choose healthy methods to lose weight. Therefore, many obese people now lose weight through exercise. Among the exercise-based weight loss methods, the two most popular ones are swimming and running. So many people ask, is swimming or running better for weight loss? Let’s look at the pros and cons of both types of exercise.

Swimming or running to lose weight

1. From the perspective of overall weight loss effect

In terms of the overall weight loss effect, swimming for weight loss, especially when swimming in cold water, the body will be stimulated by the cold water, so it will unconsciously store fat to keep warm. Therefore, many people will have an increased appetite after swimming and unknowingly consume too many calories. After running, people usually want to drink water or eat some fruit. Therefore, the overall fat-reducing effect of swimming is not as good as running, unless you can control your appetite after swimming, but persisting in doing so for a long time will cause hypoglycemia.

2. From the perspective of sports injury

People who are overweight are more likely to suffer damage to their waist and knee joints during exercise, and swimming can reduce the pressure on these two joints. Because these joints are not subjected to impact from the ground when swimming, but swimming too frequently will cause greater wear and tear on the shoulder joints. Running will increase the pressure on the waist and knee joints to a great extent, so people who are overweight are advised to do more swimming to lose weight, but they must master the correct method.

Is swimming or running better for losing weight? Through the above introduction, we can know that the final weight loss effects of these two methods are similar. In terms of the degree of calorie consumption, swimming is greater, but it is easy to consume more fat after swimming. Running is easy to damage the knee joints for people with a larger base, so everyone should choose the appropriate sport according to their actual situation.

The correct method and essentials of swimming to lose weight:

1. Practice in time periods

Swimming needs to be practiced in time periods. Like the training of professional swimmers, divide the swimming into four sections, and rest for 15-30 seconds between each section. The specific arrangement is to swim 1 back and forth first, then 2 back and forth, then 2 back and forth again, and finally 1 back and forth. You should swim fast at the end of each section.

2. Swim with all your strength

Don't think about other things when swimming, and keep your heart rate at around 80%. To ensure this standard, count your pulse on the watch every time you swim for a while, and how many times your pulse beats in 6 seconds. Add a "0" at the end to get your heart rate for 1 minute.

3. Minimize rest time

Reduce your rest time during the swim by half until your stroke or interval is down to 10 seconds. If you want to lose weight, each swimming session should be more than 40 minutes, which will have the best effect.

4. Use a kick board

If you want to achieve better weight loss results, using water toys such as kickboards, paddles, fins, lifebuoys, etc. during swimming will not only help burn more calories, but also exercise the muscles of the limbs.

5. Fast short distance swimming

Many people make the same mistake when swimming, that is, swimming slowly. In fact, the calories burned in this way are far less than those burned by fast short-distance swimming. However, fast swimming should not be done all the time, otherwise the physical strength will be consumed too quickly. You can do a slow swim followed by a fast swim, two slow swims followed by two fast swims, and so on.

3 ways to double the weight loss effect of swimming:

1. Maintain sufficient exercise time

When people choose to exercise to lose weight, it must be aerobic exercise to burn fat. Short-term exercise can only put people in the anaerobic exercise stage. For people at this stage, energy consumption mainly relies on the breakdown of sugar and fat has not yet been burned. Only by continuing to exercise will the human body begin to enter the aerobic exercise stage. Fat can only be burned at this time, so as to achieve the effect of weight loss. Therefore, swimming time should be more than 40 minutes before starting to burn fat.

2. Combination of fast and slow speed

Swimming slowly does not have much effect on weight loss, while swimming fast the whole time is too intense and can easily cause physical exhaustion and even threaten your health. If you want to lose weight quickly, you can alternate between fast swimming and slow swimming when swimming. This can improve the fat burning effect and will not cause harm to your body.

3. Eat in moderation after swimming

People experience a "super recovery" phenomenon after exercise. Simply put, in order to adapt to the increased exercise level in the next stage, the human body needs to consume more energy than before after each exercise. This is a self-protection measure of the human body. Therefore, people often eat well and sleep well after swimming, and the calories consumed are replenished, or even more than consumed. Therefore, if you do not pay attention to diet, especially if you stop exercising after a period of time, it is most likely that your weight will exceed the original level. This is an important reason why many people fail to lose weight through exercise.