Adult Skaters

[hopskipjump]

When you started ice skating, did you lose weight? It feels like a huge work out just to do laps around the rink. 

[Skittl1321]

No.  I've actually gained quite a bit of weight, and lost a good bit of muscle tone since I've started skating, but I've also gone from age 24 to age 29, and that is kind of when it hits...

Skating tires me out, and makes me sweat, but I've never had the feeling it is a good workout

[AgnesNitt]

Exercise alone won't make me lose weight unless I'm doing the 'hours a day' kind. When I was at skate camp and skating 5 hours a day plus walking around another 2, I lost weight. I was so hungry that at the end of the day one day I ate burnt cold lasagna out of the refrigerator, and still lost weight.

Want to lose weight skating an hour a day? It means food restraint for me.

I did get a bigger butt though. I don't think that's fair.

(Note: I lift weights, have a trainer and do regular pilates, for my age I'm very strong)

[Harleyboy]

I didn't loose any extra weight because I started skating, but I feel I get a good work-out in an hour of skating. There is an online calorie calculator that rates figure skating at 600 calories per hour. I don't know where they got the data, but I suspect that is kind'a high.

Like AgnesNitt, I do pilates & weight lifting just to help  support the skating so that helps keep the weight off. If I do nothing at all for exercise I gain weight fast so I try to stay pretty active. Skiing and bike riding are normal activities for me.

[Elsa]

I did, but I'm pretty sure that's because I also increased/changed my other workouts, and started eating better.  It definitely makes me stronger and changes my shape a bit, but I can't give it all the credit.

[SynchKat]

I lost a bunch of weight with diet and exercise (not just skating). However, I will say that skating helps me maintain the weight I lost. 

I would think if you watched what you ate and skated a lot you would end up losing some weight. 

[hopskipjump]

I've been walking a couple miles a day and changed what I eat - I've lost 45 lbs since August.  I have the last weight to lose over the next few months and was thinking about adding regular skating.

[Skate@Delaware]

I did, but I was also doing a lot of other things: watching my intake, working out with weights, doing cardio. My skating wasn't cardio (nowhere near fast/hard enough for that). But it was fun and made me feel better!

[AgnesNitt]

I should add that at one point in my skating, someone gave me one of those calorie monitors for christmas. I wore it to Jazzercize and working hard as I could, I could get 350 calories in an hour. I wore it skating, just tooling around, and I did 450 in an hour. There's a lot of stuff going on as you skate around, your body is making a lot of decisions to keep you up right and I think that adds up

[ChristyRN]

The scale didn't move for the first year that I skated, but friends told me I was losing.  I didn't believe them until I changed from summer to winter clothes and they were loose.  The scale did finally start moving after about a year.  Over two or so years, I lost about 45 pounds (before I ever modified my diet) skating 3x/week for about an hour each time. Went from barely squeezing into Lane Bryant 14/16 to comfortably wearing mainline 10s. 

I've always felt like it was a good workout, even when I don't don't seem to work all that much.  I'm usually both exhausted and invigorated after I skate.

I didn't skate for about three years and and now back to once a week.  I'd like to increase that and am trying my darnedest to get back out there.

[drskater]

I lost weight when I took power skating classes. Otherwise, skating (without supplemental workouts) just helps me maintain. I've noticed that skating really bulks up my muscles more than any other form of exercise.

[ls99]

I did not loose any weight. Fairly steady @ 173 +/- 2lb for the last 7 or so years.

I do other whole body stuff, Ju-jutsu, 2x week, often followed by some free weight work, summertime flat water kayaking for hours, walk 1/2 hour in hilly neighborhood 3 or 4 times a week.  Of course it takes up time, benefit of retirement.

Common to both Jutsu and skating 2 or 3x/week, both of which I do for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs each time is the "feeling good for hours" afterwards.

This was not true for the first 2 months of skating. Initially spent a lot of energy just standing up and balancing. Trying to to get the hang of stroking, turning, going backwards, rinse repeat. Until a technique is learned, at least at the rudimentary level, I find I use far too many sets of muscles, thus using more  energy than needed. 

The more I learn, the more fun it becomes. Now if I ever get the waltz three down, skating will be downright entertaining. Then to work on making it look effortless....   Yeah dream on

[bollyskater]

I lost weight when I could skate three times a week. Also, my leg muscles got bigger so I had to throw out most of my pants. Now, at two times a week, I'm about maintaining my weight and am keeping a nicer shape than when I don't exercise at all, except for shooting video at work.

[Doubletoe]

I've been walking a couple miles a day and changed what I eat - I've lost 45 lbs since August.  I have the last weight to lose over the next few months and was thinking about adding regular skating.

I think adding regular skating to what you're already doing would be perfect!  Walking helps keep your metabolism up, eating lighter keeps your calorie intake down, and now skating will build the largest muscles in your body (glutes, quads, etc), and we all know muscle tissue burns 5 times as many calories as fat tissue, even when you aren't exercising.  Also, skating will give you a shapely backside and legs!

[Sk8Dreams]

I skated for a year before I began to lose weight.  It was skating regularly that gave me the shove I needed to change my eating habits.  A skater friend gave me some Weight Watchers materials and showed me how easy it would be to follow the point system (they do something different now.)  I lost about 45 pounds, slowed down, then lost a few more, and ended up about 65 pounds less than when I started skating.

After any kind of good workout, I eat more sanely.  I don't want all that effort to go to waste.

[turnip]

combined with slimming world, yes i did! Alas since then i've put on more weight  Off ice training also improved my fitness when my coach ran a class earlier in the year (weekly for a few months, then we had to stop  )

I'm very overweight (obese). My favourite comment ever from one of the kids is, when I was making a joke about me being fat, "you're not THAT fat." I took it in the spirit it was intended, which was as a compliment lol!

[sampaguita]

I didn't lose weight by skating. It did tone my legs though.

Unless you do training for competitive, Nationals-level skating, I don't think skating can make you lose weight, but it can help you maintain your current weight and tone your legs and backside.

[PrettySk8Dress]

I didn't lose weight by skating. It did tone my legs though.

I don't think skating can make you lose weight, but it can help you maintain your current weight and tone your legs and backside.

I didn't lose weight by skating either, but it did tone my legs, so that I can wear short skirts, short above-the-knee hemline ' maternity style ' dresses, and in warmer weather, denim mini-skirts, and look very attractive, so I'm told ! THANK YOU, SKATING !!!

[LilJen]

I lost weight when I took power skating classes. Otherwise, skating (without supplemental workouts) just helps me maintain. I've noticed that skating really bulks up my muscles more than any other form of exercise.

Ditto. The 20 minutes every Saturday morning with our skating director are a wonderful sort of hell. GREAT intense 20 minutes of working out. This plus weightlifting has helped me get back some muscle tone I've lost since going over the hilll-ish (42 now and "they" say the body starts converting muscle to fat at about .5 lbs/year after age 35).\

I think it all depends on how you skate and your level of fitness prior to skating. I hadn't lost anything because I was relatively fit; the butt and thighs never got bigger because they were already big from Alpine ski racing for many year as a kid; but weightlifting + power/edge class + Weight Watchers = I'm finally near the weight and (more important) size I would like to be. (ie, Gee, my clothes are starting to fit me again!!).

[ChristyRN]

I think it all depends on how you skate and your level of fitness prior to skating. I hadn't lost anything because I was relatively fit; the butt and thighs never got bigger because they were already big from Alpine ski racing for many year as a kid; but weightlifting + power/edge class + Weight Watchers = I'm finally near the weight and (more important) size I would like to be. (ie, Gee, my clothes are starting to fit me again!!).

This would make sense, because I was both terribly overweight and out of shape. 

[Orange]

When I started skating, I lost so much weight, that people started to say that I might want to put some back on. But I also followed a strict diet and a crazy off-ice workout schedule. But then I stopped watching what I eat it crept back little by little.

[karne]

Yes, I did - about eight kilograms in fact.

Then I got into some terrible eating habits that I'm still working on breaking myself of and now weigh at least two kilograms more than when I started 

[bollyskater]

It's a lot quicker to put weight on than it is to take it off. I got sick right before Thanksgiving and then went on vacation sick. So, I ate, ate, ate and ate, and did a little gentle walking. (My favorite was the shrimp and grits with pumpkin cornbread, but the matzoh ball soup made me feel better, too.) Needless to say, I'm afraid to get on the scale but I can see a difference. Time to skate!

[Adultsk8r509]

I'm 52 and I just started skating again this year on January 2, 2012.  I have been skating Mon-Fri except the days I go skiing or out of town and I have been dieting too and I have lost about 8 lbs.  Need to lose 20 more before I will be really comfortable in a skating dress, but I'm on the right track.  Losing weight is so much harder now than when I was younger.

Happy Landings.

Diane

waltzjump.com 

[PrettySk8Dress]

I'm 52 and I just started skating again this year on January 2, 2012.
Need to lose 20 more before I will be really comfortable in a skating dress, but I'm on the right track.  Losing weight is so much harder now than when I was younger.

Happy Landings.

Diane

waltzjump.com  

Good for you, Diane !

I know of and am friends with another adult female ice skater that was in her 50's and had the same goal. She told me that she would change from wearing frumpy sweat pants for ice skating practice, to wearing pretty skating dresses when she had lost ' X ' number of pounds. I am glad to say that she did indeed lose the pounds, a lot of them due to regular ice skating practices, and now wears skating dresses all the time to practice. ( She has also assembled a modest collection of practice and competition dresses in her wardrobe as a result of her promise to herself, too ! )