With summer in full swing, finding a workout that’ll allow you to keep moving while beating the heat can seem like a struggle. Taking up swimming to maintain a healthy lifestyle is actually pretty simple and is incredibly beneficial for meeting weight loss goals. This blog explores the ease of swimming for weight loss and what to expect when you start.
Benefits
While mostly a cardio exercise, swimming also provides you with a full body workout. With the added resistance the water gives, you’ll be able to burn major body fat and calories with even as little as 30 minutes of swimming a day.
Woman swimming laps in a pool.
Pick a Simple Stroke
You want to start simple. Choosing to start with either breaststroke or freestyle will allow you to build towards the more advanced strokes such as butterfly or backstroke. These different strokes will help you build your endurance and get you accustomed to moving through the water.
Use a Kickboard
The act of swimming, no matter the stroke, is amazing for building flexibility and endurance. If you’re beginning a new swimming regiment, using a kickboard to swim your laps will open up the range of motion in your hips and reduce the discomfort you might experience.
Vary Your Speed
Once you raise your endurance and can swim comfortably, it’s important to introduce varying speeds to make the most of your laps. When you want to see the best results in your weight loss mission, be sure to vary your speed from easy strokes to faster sprints.
Underwater look at a lap pool.
Manage Your Breathing
To improve your lap time, make sure you’re breathing properly. If you’re not careful about finding the right breathing pattern, you’ll run the risk of tiring out quicker than expected. Furthermore, it’s more difficult to break into a rhythm in your laps if you are not breathing properly.
Thoughts
When you’re on a mission to meet a weight loss goal, enjoying a swim can be a fun and great form of exercise. If you want to learn more ways of getting to your weight loss goals and want to work with a team that’ll help you reach it, call on the team at BeLite Medical Center.
BeLite can help patients translate emerging obesity-medicine evidence into an individualized plan that considers efficacy, tolerability, nutrition, muscle preservation, long-term maintenance, and access.BeLite Medical Center has provided physician-supervised medical weight management in Fairfax, Virginia since 1995. Our clinic offers in-person medical supervision — with the ability to adjust medications and monitor your progress in real time — that fully virtual services cannot match.Booking appointments is simple with our online scheduling portal, available 24/7. You can also call or text us at (703) 359-9200, or email belitemed@gmail.com. We offer free consultations for new patients — if you choose not to enroll, there is no charge. We serve patients across Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., the DMV area, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Patients do not sign treatment contracts and can stop coming at any time
Medical Disclaimer
This blog post is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is not intended to substitute for consultation with a licensed healthcare provider. Readers should not use this information to diagnose or treat a medical or health condition without consulting an appropriately qualified healthcare professional. Any reliance on the information in this blog is at the readers own risk. Individual weight loss results vary based on personal health status and adherence to medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is created by accessing or reading this content.
Reviewed by Richard Rothman, MD, PhD — Medical Director, BeLite Medical Center.
About Richard B Rothman MD, PhD, Medical Director, BeLite Medical Center
Dr. Rothman is the Medical Director of BeLite Medical Center, which has been helping patients lose weight in the Northern Virginia area since 1996. Board certified in Psychiatry, Dr. Rothman earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Virginia in 1982.
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