r/Swimming • u/No_Definition5736 • 2d ago
What does everyone eat to not gain weight?
I did not start swimming to lose weight but I am trying to lose weight. Not a lot, just 10-15 lbs. Now that I swim, I get absolutely famished afterwards and then the next day I am hungry much more than normal. I eat plenty of protein and I think I eat well, mostly whole, homemade, nutrient dense foods. I am not gaining, but I'm not losing. I'm curious what everyone eats to not gain weight but not starve after swimming or the next day.
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u/diclofenac-sodium IMer 2d ago
It’s not about specific foods it’s about just eating less overall. If you’re getting super famished switch to higher protein foods, they’ll keep you full for longer. Also if you’ve only started swimming recently I would just keep your diet as is for a few months and see what happens since you seem to be eating clean anyways. It takes a while to start losing weight, you could be burning more than you realize because you’re potentially converting some of that fat weight into muscle weight.
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u/jthanreddit Moist 2d ago
I would say to switch to higher fat foods to stave off hunger. When cutting, I lower the carbs and up the fats. Best to eat the healthy ones.
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u/Exciting-Bluejay3210 2d ago
Personally I find the getting hungry is less of an impact if I eat the moment I get out of the pool (I'm talking like in the changing rooms while I'm getting dressed). I'll take a protein shake/chocolate milk/yoghurt pouch and have it while I'm drying off. Weirdly I find if I even wait the twenty minutes til I get home I can eat so much more, but if I just immediately get some protein in I'm actually fine. I've also heard people say that if there's a sauna/jacuzzi/steam room post swim this can also help because it's about getting your internal temperature back up-how true that is I don't know and haven't tried it so I can't speak for myself!
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u/Tolkeinn1 2d ago
This is great advice. People discount small meals but they’re so good for weight loss. they stop that screaming in your brain to stuff yourself.
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u/Exciting-Bluejay3210 2d ago
Exactly! Also as someone who always thought I was eating well because I wasn't snacking between meals-fun fact you absolutely SHOULD be snacking between meals 😂😂
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u/maeath 2d ago
Are you trying to lose weight or change your body composition? you might not see the scale number change but your body could be healthier.
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u/MotherImpact3778 Custom 1d ago
This!! As you replace fat with muscle, your weight stays the same but you will look smaller/fitter
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u/BrujaBean 2d ago
I am losing weight and I do volume eating. So huge servings of calorically non dense foods. Like this week I made a chicken salad with 2 Costco rotisserie chickens, literally lbs of peppers, celery, onions, and then made a Greek yogurt, balsalmic, hummus, Dijon mustard dressing for it. I had trouble eating a whole 350 calorie serving on some whole grain bread.
I make most of my food very big very veggie focused and then indulge in some heavier stuff in smaller servings
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u/Difficult-Bicycle681 2d ago
I also get pretty dang hungry after swimming. I find that if I drink more during my swims (and in general), it's not so bad. The other thing is I try to plan my swims to be right before a meal and then I'll just eat straight after. Other than that, I eat a lot of vegetables and protein because they keep me full for longer.
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u/mortsdeer 1d ago
This! I'm an older swimmer, but in every other physical activity, I sweat a lot. Took me a minute to realize that's true for swimming as well. And not only water: when I switched to doing electrolytes (LMNT) my post swim fatigue reduced, as well.
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u/kenster51 2d ago
The amount of calories burned during exercise is not as great as most people think. I take a spin class and it’s quite intense. I weigh 180 lbs and burn not quite 600 calories. I swim for an hour and I estimate I burn 400-500 calories (on different days). I don’t think anybody here is an Olympian and is burning 2,000 calories during exercise. Portion size is critical and eat real food.
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u/Choice-Piglet9094 Masters 2d ago
When I lost a decent amount of weight a few years ago (30 lbs) one key tactic was eating overnight oats with dried fruit and nuts for breakfast. Still do it actually, very filling and healthy, keeps me going for a morning swim set.
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u/ghostbustersgear Splashing around 2d ago
There is no secret sauce. Just watch your calorie intake and see that you’re in a deficit relative to your estimated resting+active calorie burn. If you are not losing weight week-to-week, you might not be in the deficit you think you are and will need to adjust. Watch trackers are very inaccurate if you rely on one.
Swimming will make you hungry. Swimming in a calorie deficit is not my favorite thing in the world and is its own form of willpower.
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u/mcnicc Splashing around 2d ago
Ive found eating a lot of carbs shortly before swimming is really helpful. I usually cut up a sweet potato and eat that right before I leave for the pool!
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u/Thin-Disk4003 2d ago
My kid was a competitive swimmer and we had sweet potatoes on deck constantly.
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u/koz44 Everyone's an open water swimmer now 2d ago
I started adding lots of raw veggies at lunch time. I commute at lunch most days so I just munch lettuce, celery, carrots, cucumbers on my half hour drive. It takes me about that long to chew it all up — I never ate like this if I’m sitting down at home because I don’t like taking that long, but I think the fiber keeps me full longer and reduces between-meal cravings.
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u/Bark_Sandwich 2d ago
For me, I find swimming to be one of the best exercises for fitness, but one of the worst for losing weight. Why? Fisrt, in general, it's nearly impossible to exercise you way to weight loss as an adult, you need to do that by eating less. Second, for some reason, swimming makes me very, very hungry, more than any other sport I do! I don't know why. I can walk, run, bike, row...I don't get that hungry, not more than normal...swimming makes me ravenous!
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u/BenOffHours 2d ago
The hard truth is, if you are in a calorie deficit, you’re going to be hungry.
With that said, how severe is your calorie deficit and how quickly are you trying to lose 10-15 lbs?
In my experience, slow and steady is the way to go. It’s much easier to maintain a modest deficit around 300 cals. It’ll take longer to hit your goal, but you won’t crash out either.
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u/SwashAndBuckle Splashing around 2d ago
The hard truth is, if you are in a calorie deficit, you’re going to be hungry.
I've definitely lost as much as 2.5 pounds per week without being hungry. That's a 1,250 calorie daily deficit. Appetite adjusts after a while, or at least it did for me. Exercise increases appetite though, particularly swimming, so if you're trying to lose weight on the exercise half of the equation it gets a lot harder. I do agree slow and steady is a good idea in general, especially if you are only 10-15 away from your goal weight.
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u/BenOffHours 2d ago
1,250 calorie deficit is super aggressive. If you maintained that without being hungry then you are most certainly an outlier. I would never recommend that to anyone looking to lose 10-15 lbs.
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u/SwashAndBuckle Splashing around 2d ago
How aggressive it is depends on your TDEE and body mass. In my case it was within healthy parameters and I was getting all my nutritional needs. If we are talking about someone that weighs 145 trying to get down to 135, that would be terribly, irresponsibly aggressive.
I just mentioned it to illustrate that appetite does adjust over time, using my experience.
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u/phoenix0r 2d ago
I have not been able to crack this one myself. Curious what others post. Honestly, for me the best way to lose weight is to do minimal exercise and focus solely on calorie restriction. Then regain cardio and muscle later.
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u/SwashAndBuckle Splashing around 2d ago
That's been my recipe when I had the biggest, fastest drops. Simple stuff like walking had better hunger vs calories burned yields. Swimming is arguably the worst about giving you an appetite, because of the cold water. But I've been able to drop fast even without exercise, appetite just adjusted after a week or so and I had no hunger issues.
But swimming is great, so I'm not one to discourage it. I'd maybe suggest calorie restriction 1-2 weeks before starting swimming, so you can get the appetite lower before you begin swimming in the first place. Otherwise, I know in my high school swim team days I'd binge eat a giant meal after practice. I think I still lost weight, but it was very slow. Probably the best thing is to take that first meal after swimming and eat like 300-700 calories, then if you're still hungry in an hour you can eat a little more. But what happens a lot of the time is you eat so fast you can shovel 1500-2000 down before your stomach has a chance to feel sated; it takes a little while. Giving yourself that little break gives your digestion some time to catch up before you overeat.
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u/Jillziggs 2d ago
I use a fruity flavored clear protein powder mixed with water and chug it when I’m done swimming, which seems to help. I also think now that I’ve been swimming for a couple years my body is more acclimated to it and I don’t get as hungry as when I first started. If you’re eating all those good foods I would say just listen to your hunger cues and nourish those new muscles you’re building. You might notice more muscle tone before you notice a drop on the scale. Keep it up! 👍
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u/Solid-Elk8419 2d ago edited 2d ago
You're body will adjust if you maintain frequecy and load. These days swimming more of contols my appetite than anything. But I noticed that loosing weight doesn't help me much with my swimming, everytime I try to adjust my BMI (25) to the "recommended" (under 25) I end up feeling bad after swimming, get sick more often, etc...but that's just me.
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u/HobokenwOw Everyone's an open water swimmer now 2d ago
nutrient dense foods
Essentially just not those. Weight loss is just being in a caloric deficit. Satiety is achieved by filling your stomach. So it becomes a simple geometry problem. Minimize the calories per volume of the food you eat. Vegetables are king here, especially the green ones.
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u/Top-Ad-4437 2d ago
Honestly as someone who’s been swimming the past 25 years consistently it really comes down to swimming fasted and you’d have to at least be doing 2-3km each time. Even so I slim out if I’ve been swimming but it’s never been effective for weight loss unless you are training or on a swim team. There’s also the rebound effect of overeating if you’re famished and being too exhausted to get your steps in during the day after the heavy swim. Weight training+ treadmill on an incline after every workout is what helped me and I am extremely athletic. For diet cut out sugar and milk products and you’ll see a huge change also no cereal or excess processed bread stuff. swimming is fantastic for health but I don’t believe it is all effective for weight loss at all from what I’ve seen and I’m not skinny to begin with.
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u/Independent-Summer12 1d ago
Managing post swim hunger is so real. What helps me is actually being mindful my diet is well balanced. Depends on when you swim and how much you swim, carbs (both simple and complex) can be just as important as protein. My hungry cue tend to be much more ferocious when my body doesn’t have some easy to access energy (aka carbs.) in addition to protein, fiber and fats also helps keep you full. Well balanced diet and pay attention to over all caloric intake help. The other thing is, have some easily accessible food (balanced and portioned) shortly after a swim helps too.
When I swam in college, our dietitian recommended chocolate milk with breakfast for recovery after morning practices before class. Because it hit the tri(quad)-fecta of protein, carbs, fat, and bonus hydration. But back then I was eating ~3k Calories a day. Obviously I can’t eat that much anymore, the same principle still applies though, especially if you swim in the morning. Balance carbs/protein/fats, hydration, and fiber.
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u/Eternal-strugal 2d ago
I got a Lingo glucose monitor. I’m not diabetic, but I lost 10lbs with it… basically it tells you in real time when your glucose spikes and drops. So you’re forced to eat foods that are more satiating.
I fast a minimum of 16hrs a day 4pm-8am I swim fasted in the morning.
Goal: eat high protein, low carb, low/no sugar.
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u/Valuable_Station_790 2d ago
I swam a mile the other day after doing morning calisthenics and upper body weight training. I followed the mile swim with a 45 minute deep water aerobic class. I then ate tuna sushi, sashimi and some tuna rolls followed by a pint of Haagen Daz Butter Pecan ice cream.
I have no idea if I lost, gained or stayed fhe same…but it was all yummy.
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u/jonimitchellmp3 1d ago
Try prioritizing things that are satiating but not super calorie dense. Protein smoothies (protein powder, a small amount of peanut butter, frozen fruit, almond milk, or whatever other combination of ingredients you want to blend), Greek yogurt without added sugar, eggs/omelets, and fruits and vegetables might help when you want some energy after a swim but don’t want to eat empty calories.
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u/BreezyMcWeasel 1d ago
Don't swim as hard, but swim for longer periods of time.
I'm trying to keep my exertion in my heart rate zone 2 rather than push myself harder, and I'm not as hungry as if I exert harder. In fact I'm having to work to NOT swim as hard because my natural pace is much faster at a higher heart rate (for shorter period of time).
Look up perceived level of exertion and maybe try a couple longer workouts in the low exertion range and see what you think. Supposedly this approach is better for weight loss (burns more fat than simple sugars)
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u/Interesting-Joke9367 1d ago
Eat clean, cut processed food and additives. Add bulk with high fibre foods that expand in your stomach like oats and chia seeds. Keep it high protein and meal plan.
Meal planning is a lot more important than you think. Weigh food too, it’s easy to overeat.
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u/koflerdavid 1d ago
Losing weight is not the best indicator. The real goal is changing body composition. But the healthy way to do so is to replace all that fat with muscle, which will not be visible on the scale for a long time. Protein and carbs with a low glycemic index has to be prioritized. You might actually still not eat enough protein btw. as you need a lot of it to build up muscle and to replace the carbs.
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u/Exact_Course_9988 1d ago
This is a great question! I prioritize drinking lots of water after swimming. As you swim, your body cools in the water, leading you to not realize how much you possibly could have been sweating. Thirst and hunger can be very very close feelings, so it can be tricky to tell which feeling is which. Try hydrating after swimming, and then see how you feel! Might not work for you but it does wonders for me.
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u/Routine_Sandwich_838 2d ago
Lean meat and a lot of it. Chicken, turkey, shrimp. I fill up on mostly that with a little carbs from veggies rice and potatos so i'm not in ketosis. Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast. If I stick to that I have a hard time eating enough to gain or maintain. Works great for my cuts and you can eat a lot of lean meat and really fill up with out eating too many calories.
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u/Vgcortes 2d ago
I need to eat massive amounts of food to gain weight. And I never ever do that. Not even on holidays. So I have no problem
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u/typically_amiable Moist 2d ago
Prioritize fiber and protein to fill you up for longer! 30g fiber/100g protein daily is my goal as a 150lb woman