How Swimming Can Help You Burn Belly Fat: Easy Tips!

Does swimming reduce belly fat? This is the topmost question on the minds of weighty people.

And the truth to this question is a little twisty. You see, there is no yes-or-no answer. Life, as it turns out, is never in black and white!

If you are determined, sure, you can lose belly fat by swimming. But then you would have to be very purposeful about it.

There are so many benefits of swimming every day. Losing weight is one of the benefits that you enjoy when you swim daily.

But does swimming burn belly fat? The most important thing is to make swimming a routine. Fat people will see faster fat burning from swimming, but after some reduction, they will hit a plateau stage. Muscular people will not see any change in their body weight from swimming.

Swimming does indeed reduce belly fat, hip fat, arm fat, thigh fat, et al. The only thing that swimming does not do is give you a spot reduction of fat (does any exercise really do that?).

Swimming is a resistance exercise

Swimming is a resistance exercise. In fact, you can lose more weight by swimming than by running or walking.

There is a good reason for this. When you run, air provides resistance. However, when you swim, your resistance is water, and water is harder to cut through. Thus, you do more work when you are swimming than when you are running.

Making swimming a regular, five-day-a-week thing will truly help you burn body fat.

You will lose weight by swimming. However, the problem with the human body is that when you do routine workouts, the body becomes too used to it. Thus, it reaches a point where you do not notice any gains.

You can prevent your body from going into the plateau stage by varying the way you swim. You can also combine swimming with other exercises, both in water and on land, to make fat-burning easier and faster.

Swimmers have strong muscles, and there is a good reason for this. The water provides the resistance they need to give their muscles more strength.

But the real benefit of swimming routinely is that you get awesome cardio workouts. If you want to increase your heart rate and enhance your lung health, you need to take up swimming straightaway.

The importance of enhanced circulatory health is that blood can transport oxygen and nutrients faster to all parts of the body.

How does swimming burn belly fat?

Swimming will not burn belly fat specifically, that is, unless you deliberately target the belly. At first, your sessions in the swimming pool will help your body lose weight as a whole. However, there are a few things you can do to burn belly fat.

Choose the best swimming techniques

Mainly, there are five swimming techniques. However, not all of them are going to help you burn belly fat quickly.

Experts say that backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke are the best swimming methods to help you burn belly fat.

Make sure you use the butterfly stroke more than the others because it is the most engaging. It is going to burn more calories. You can alternate it with a backstroke and a breaststroke.

The good thing about these swimming methods is that they engage the core more. The core muscles are the muscles that are attached to the spine, and the abdominal muscles are part of them.

When swimming to lose weight, you should engage the core fully. Unless you do this, you will not burn belly fat.

Swim more frequently and include HIIT

The keyword here is routine swimming. If you swim once a week, you will not see much change in your body.

Swimming to lose belly fat requires you to swim more often. In addition, you should swim harder and faster. You can also engage in HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), which is encouraged in cardio workouts.

To do this, swim slowly at first, then give yourself a burst of speed, and then swim very fast for about 30 to 60 seconds. This should do your heart and lungs a lot of good.

When you are swimming to lose belly fat, you should not swim casually for fun. You need to be very deliberate about it.

Your focus should be on swimming harder today than you swam yesterday. It should also be about swimming longer and faster this week than you did last week.

To do this, you have to start just right. The first thing to do is to warm up before getting inside the pool. This will prevent the onset of muscle soreness after swimming.

After a hard swimming session in the pool, you also need to cool down properly to prevent post-workout muscle soreness.

Tread water

Treading water burns calories. You would think it does not, but it takes power and strength to keep your body floating and motionless in the water.

The main thing with treading water is that the resistance keeps you working harder. Treading water is a lot of fun, so if you find it hard, focus on having fun.

Engage in swimming pool exercises for fat loss

Swimming alone can help you lose just so much weight. However, there are various fun water exercises that you can try to help you lose weight faster. Here are just a few of them:

Jogging in the water

This is actually jogging inside the pool. Stand inside the pool on the shallow end in waist-deep water. You can then start jogging in the water. The jogging and the resistance of the water are going to burn you a good number of calories.

If you would like to make this workout more exciting, you can jog with some weights. This will work out your arms and shoulders as well.

Pedal a “bicycle” in the pool

You do not need to get into the pool with a bicycle. Rather, it is an imaginary bicycle. Stand on the deep end of the pool, place your hands on the poolside, and then start pedaling or making pedaling motions with your legs. Since water has resistance, you will burn many calories.

Do water lunges

Lunges are easy to do on land as well as in the swimming pool. To do this, you need to stand in waist-deep water and keep your hands on the waist.

You should then lunge with one foot forward so that the thigh of that leg stays parallel to the floor of the swimming pool. Keep interchanging the legs and do about 20 repetitions.

Swim straight but engage your core

Swimming in a straight line can help you lose belly fat. However, you have to be very deliberate about engaging your core muscles.

To do this, you have to vary your style of swimming so that the power to make the strokes comes from the belly. This will be hard at first, but with practice, it is going to become easy.

Swim against the current

If you are swimming in open water or in the river, you can try swimming against the current. This is going to bring more resistance and force you to work harder. However, be careful so that you do not swim too far from the shore. You can have someone watching over you.

If you are swimming against the current in the river, get out as soon as you feel exhausted. That way, there is no danger of the water carrying you too far away.

Does swimming reduce belly fat? FAQ

Because this is a popular topic, you might still need more clarification on it. Here are the answers to the questions that people ask frequently:

Is swimming good for burning calories?

Swimming is very good for burning calories – actually, better than running and walking. In one hour, you can burn an average of 300 calories using the butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke. Overweight people seem to burn more calories at first before they hit the plateau stage.

Does treading water build muscle?

Treading water is not going to build muscles and if it does, the difference will not be noticeable. However, it is going to build strength in your legs since you will be working against the water resistance.

Is swimming better than gym?

If you are a gym enthusiast, you know you have to do many workouts focusing on different muscle groups. That is why you have leg days, arm, chest, and back days.

When swimming, you get to work out different muscle groups at the same time. This makes swimming more advantageous than working out in the gym.

Does swimming burn thigh fat?

Swimming involves a lot of legwork, so the thigh muscles will be the biggest beneficiaries. However, to burn thigh fat faster, engage in other exercises that target the glutes, the quadriceps, and even the hamstrings.

How long does it take to get abs from swimming?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you combine swimming with other exercises on land, it is not going to give you abs. Crunches are some of the best exercises for belly fat.

Since swimming helps the body to lose weight in an “overall” design, targeting the abdomen with crunches can give you abs.

Final thoughts

To the question of: Does swimming reduce belly fat? well, it does, but it does not target the belly region alone. In fact, there is not a single way to target the belly area alone.

Therefore, to burn belly fat faster from swimming, do the following things:

• Eat a good diet that is nutrient-rich and free of junk
• Engage in swimming exercises such as water jogging and lunges
• Do crunches at home since they target the belly
• Swim harder, longer, and faster using the backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke techniques