How Long To See Results From Swimming?

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Motivation for any reason is a powerful factor that spurs many people to change things about their lifestyle. But unfortunately, this motivation can fade away fairly quickly, and people get discouraged and stop their new habits when they don’t see visible progress.

Swimming for fat loss or muscle building is one such activity that many people start when they feel motivated but give up quickly because they don’t see results.

While it is an excellent workout, swimming still takes an average of 6 to 8 weeks to show signs of progress. Continue reading to learn more about why you might not be seeing results, what kind of results you can expect, and more.

What are the First Results of Swimming?

The first results of swimming are often the most immediate. Like many other forms of exercise, endorphins are released in the brain during and shortly after swimming. These chemicals promote positive feelings and reduce any pain felt from the swim session.

While this is often the very first result of swimming, it is also a fleeting result that only lasts a couple of hours. Swimming may also result in interest in other physical activities, which can be another early, fleeting result.

A more long-term result that is typically acquired early on is improved swim times from better posture and technique.

 

 

How to Speed Up the Process?

Speeding up the process and seeing results from swimming earlier than the average 6 to 8 weeks is possible. Three main factors can speed up the process:

 

• Your diet and eating habits
• The frequency of your swim sessions
• The intensity of your swim sessions

 

Achieving a caloric deficit is the goal of eating less and exercising more so that your body has to burn body fat for energy, which is why your diet can speed up or slow down the rate at which you see results.

When experimenting with the three factors above, great care must be taken because you don’t want to cause injury from overtraining, and you don’t want to collapse from hunger or poor nutrition.

 

Is Weight Loss the Only Result?

While many people use swimming as a tool for weight loss, it is not the only result you will see in the long term. By keeping a consistent swimming regimen, you will start building some muscle that replaces the excess body fat.

At some point, you may start to build less muscle, but the definition or tone of those muscles will become more prominent as you continue to swim.

Lower blood pressure, greater lung capacity, and tidal volume, as well as improvements to your mental well-being, can also be expected in most cases.

 

Can Swimming Help Your General Health as Well?

As long as you are swimming with the proper form and taking appropriately spaced breaks from the activity, swimming can greatly benefit your general health. In addition, by burning excess body fat as you swim, there are a variety of health benefits to be had:

 

• Lower blood pressure and heart rate reduce your risk of cardiac diseases and complications.
• Greater lung capacity and tidal volume can make other exercises easier to do and smooth drastic transitions in altitude.
• Endorphins and other healthy chemical signals in the brain become more common, and the brain is more receptive to them, improving your overall mental state.

 

Just be sure you listen to your body when it is tired because overtraining can be just as detrimental to your health as not doing anything.

 

Should You Measure or Weigh Yourself to See the Results?

There is no need to measure or weigh yourself to see the results of your swimming routine. With enough time, patience, and training, your physical results will be easy to see, especially for everyone around you.

Sometimes it can be helpful to measure or weigh yourself because it is easier to define ourselves by the numbers we see.

If you feel like you don’t see results, you might just not realize how much you’ve changed because you see yourself daily in mirrors and such. By weighing yourself at the start of your journey, you can easily compare it to your current self whenever you want.

Be careful about measuring and weighing, though, as it can often lead to unhealthy, obsessive weight loss habits when done daily.

 

Final Thoughts on How Long To See Results From Swimming

While swimming often takes 6 to 8 weeks to start seeing results, there are ways to see progress sooner. It also depends on your initial state – someone with an excess amount of fat will see weight loss much earlier than someone who just wants to lose a few pounds.

If you want something out of a workout other than weight loss, swimming can still be a great option since it provides many other benefits than just burning excess fat. Consider combining swimming with other workouts like weight lifting to get the best of both worlds.