_{Swimming is an excellent form of exercise, both for boosting your cardiovascular fitness and for losing weight.Whether you are perfecting competitive stroke techniques or just swimming laps of freestyle, the sport works core muscles and requires flexibility and endurance.}

_{People who are obese or who think they must wait to lose weight before beginning an exercise regimen should consider swimming.}

_{When you swim breaststroke or backstroke, you burn about the same number of calories as you would by walking fast or jogging slowly. More vigorous swimming will, obviously, burn more calories. For the average woman, doing the front crawl vigorously for 30 minutes will burn about 350 calories.}

_{Faster swimming will help to burn more calories. Swimming for a long, extended period of time will help you burn fat. Plan to swim when you can allow time to get to the pool, swim from 45 minutes or an hour, shower and drive home.}

_{Swimming laps can easily burn more calories than walking or running, because of the water resistance, and the fact that your entire body is burning calories. The resistance will help you build strength in your arms and legs, and the effort will burn calories throughout your entire body.}

_{Arrange a swim schedule that you can sustain. Build in longer swimming workouts on the weekend and shorter swimming exercise during the week. Work in the use of hand fins or foot fins when you are swimming for only 15 or 30 minutes during your shorter swimming workouts, this will increase the calories burned during a short swim session. Monitor how your joints feel when using the swim fins so that you do not stress them. Use these swim accessories for only a part of your swim.}

_{Maximize swimming weight loss by avoiding the overwhelming hunger and food binge that sometimes follows time in the pool. Eat protein and drink a lot of liquids. Take a high fiber snack, like an apple, to the pool with you and eat it right away after swimming. Continue to drink lots of liquids.}