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I've also read about enhanced calorie burn in swimming due to higher thermal conductivity in water. With Olympic swimming pools being cooler (down to 22 degrees) the amount of calories required to maintain body temperature alone is considerably increased, particularly, if you are in the pool for many hours a day.
Isn't having an robust and efficient digestive system one of the most useful things to have as an endurance athlete?
Acliff-
I agree with the thermal conductivity thing (people get hypothermic and die much quicker in cold water) but I don't know enough physics to dispute the idea about the calories. What I will suggest though is that at a high work rate, humans are producing a fuck load of heat, so exercising in water is 'maybe' more efficient since your body doesn't need to work so hard to cool down? Also, there's bouyancy in water, so you're moving but body weight is part suspended. So you're working to go forward but not support yourself, like say, running. Need a proper scientist to answer this. I hate swimming though, unless I'm chasing a can of beer down a river...
hippy
"The U.S. Olympic swimmer told ESPN that he eats roughly 8,000-10,000 calories a day"
https://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20080813/the-olympic-diet-of-michael-phelps
So that's 4000 cal that's just disappeared into the internet...
"Bonci estimates that to support his 6-foot-4-inch, approximately 190-pound frame, Phelps' rigorous training regime requires roughly 1,000 calories per hour while he is racing or training; she suggests he probably eats closer to 6,000 calories per day."
As someone who has actually measured and consumed this amount of calories I'm calling bullshit on this one. Maybe one day he did but there's no fucking way it's regular and almost certainly not the foods he says he eats. For me to consume ~13000 calories I was awake and racing a bike for 24hr and eating almost all carbohydrates in mostly easily digestible liquid, gel (and some bars) form.
If you add fat and protein into that, as he claims, digestion slows right down and it would be heading towards spew time.