Will swimming help me to tone up ?

[Ridarooster]

I'm doing on average around 250 lengths a week, breaststroke. My diet is around 75-80% good. Reduced alcohol intake to around 3 small glasses of wine a week, if that some weeks.

I've been swimming for around 3 weeks now but have not yet seen a difference.

No difference on the scales what so ever

Not really.
The best thing would be to make sure you're in a calorie deficit. It's easy to eat back the calories you burn swimming.

Toning is just another word for losing fat while gaining muscle. So as pp said, you need to be in a calorie deficit.

if 250 x 25m = 6.25 km / week hasn't toned you up already, then it's not going to tone you up if you do even more lengths.

How overweight are you?

The best way to tone up that I have found is working out with serious weights/dumbbells.

Have a look at Caroline Girvan on YouTube. Life changing!

Yes, but only if you're swimming hard. If you're pottering, probably not. Do you ever ache after a session? Do you mix it up with different strokes, drills and speed work?

Swimming will be good for zone 2/cardiovascular work, which is super important for health.

But to change your body shape, as PPs have said, you'll need to build some muscle (and maybe lose some body fat).

You'll need to be in a calorie deficit (I recommend following @TheFitnessChef on Insta) BUT you don't want to lose lean muscle.

To counteract that you should: 1) ensure you get 7-9 hours sleep every night, 2) lift weights (I recommend www.nobsapp.co.uk), and 3) make sure you're eating about 1g protein per kg body weight per day.

But don't rush into it thinking you'll drop a load of weight super fast, body recomposition like this takes time.

Think of it as lifestyle tweaks that will make you healthier for longer, with the bonus of increased satisfaction with your appearance.

I guarantee that whether you see body changes or not, you'll feel better in general and about your body. And you'll be reducing your risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and metabolic disease too.

I swim. Its going to take way more than 3 weeks. You need to be swimming hard not plootering about. If you are wanting to tone your stomach it helps to do core exercises and then be able to swim whilst enaging those muscles to see good toning. However, if you carry any fat it will all be nicely toned underneath. My middle aged stomach will testify to that. Swimming regularly at a good pace has made me the fittest I've ever been and I'm in my 50's so you should stick at it.

Also a swimmer but not doing as many lengths as you - how long is your pool btw? I am doing more like 1600m a week here. I see a big difference in my mental and physical health and weight when I swim and decline when I have stopped swimming for a month or more. Just lost 4kg after 5 weeks of this distance combined with stopping alcohol and eating only slightly better. I don’t rest at all during the swim and am pushing myself throughout. But I’m not toned - I think I need to start weights for that.