How Swimming Helped Me Lose My Love Handles
Like many middle aged men my weight and girth has been slowly increasing as I traversed my thirties into my forties. I tried changing my diet but that didn’t result in any weight loss. More exercise was what I needed.
My weight gain became painfully apparent when I tried to put on a pair of summer shorts that I had not worn since the previous summer. I simply couldn’t do them up. I began to think that I’d reached the age when the only option was elastic waistbands.
I immediately changed my diet, cutting out all those snacks between meals and particularly the sugary, fizzy drinks that my dentist had been telling me were rotting my teeth for about a decade. While my change in diet did lead to my sleeping and feeling a lot better it didn’t lead to any loss in weight. My love handles stubbornly refused to be moved.
Exercise was the only answer. Now I am not averse to a little vigorous physical activity, but I am not one to go to a gym or join in with a Sunday football league. The two forms of exercise that I most enjoy are walking in the countryside and swimming.
So my girlfriend and I decided to try and get out for a long walk at least once every fortnight. This may not seem like much but when you have a busy working life and only the weekends free it is quite an achievement. But the most significant thing we did was to purchase our own above ground swimming pool for our back garden.
This was nothing short of a revelation. No more tripping over children in the crowded changing rooms at our local swimming pool. Our new garden pool meant that we could swim at any time, for as long as we wanted. During the warm summer months I think I swam pretty much every day at least once.
The result was that my love handles disappeared over the course of about two months. Not only did I lose those troublesome, flabby pounds but my general fitness improved noticeably. Our weekend walks across the Sussex downs became even more enjoyable as we both had so much more energy. And when we got home we could plunge into our own private pool.
Swimming pools are not really sold as a way to lose weight but they should be. Having your own swimming pool, right outside your back door, means you can swim whenever you like and swimming is such an excellent, all round aerobic exercise. If you have the space (and you don’t need much) I can strongly recommend a garden swimming pool as an aid to your weight loss and fitness program.
April 14th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Great post. It’s given me some hope. I too am a middle aged man with expanding love handles (my wife calls them my no love handles). I’d been trying to get used to the idea that middle age meant getting fat and there was nowt I could do about it.
Your post has highlighted how little exercise I actually get compared to what I used to do about 10 years ago. Its a no-brainer really.
April 20th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Good advice, Swimming is a great low impact way to get every single muscle in your both stretched and used!
May 7th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Swimming is actually very good exercise, you work out almost every muscle in your body when you swim. So yeah, the swimming pool should be sold as exercise equipment :)
May 29th, 2009 at 2:19 am
I personally love to swim. However I do not have my own swimming pool, it would be nice though. I have to swim at the Ymca. Nice post!
May 31st, 2009 at 7:10 am
It is a very good decision for you and for your girl to have a swimming pool in your garden. Nowadays, it is really hard to find time to go to a fitness center and do our regular exercises. Swimming is indeed a very good exercise, it helps our cardiovascular a lot. Maybe i should try and get one in my backyard.
June 7th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I agree! Swimming is really a good form of exercise. Most especially if you want to improve your cardiovascular muscles. I’ve been swimming for quite some time now, and it helped me to out grow my asthma. I’d definitely recommend it to anybody.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Swimming is King when it comes to losing weight. It is even recommended for people with heart problems as a way of keeping fit without the physical impact on the body. Getting your own swimming pool is the best way of ensuring you keep up your exercise regime, but a lot of local swimming pools offer free swimming from time to time.
September 16th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Swimming, a good exercise for our lungs and at the same time to become physically fit and to relieve stress.
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 am
Yeah but not everyone has a swimming pool, try to get a membership somewhere where you can go and swim otherwise try some other exercises out but keep yourself busy with it. I mean Exercises won’t show their effects immediately but gradually you’ll realize how active and refreshing you feel each day.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Swimming really is a great way to lose weight and keep it off. It’s enjoyable and you’re more likely to keep it up and keep the weight off for good by making it part of your lifestyle. Swimming 3-5 times per week coupled with a healthy diet is a great way to get slim and stay slim. Sure beats sweating it out in the gym!
October 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Swimming is a great way to keep fit, access to good swimming facilities can be difficult though. Hopefully the olympics coming to London in 2012 will help with this in both London and the rest of the UK