Swimming substitutes workouts?

[Nandoo]

Hey!
I have a new question:
If I wish to lose weight, would 3 days at week of 1 hour semi-intense (I don't swim very well yet, so those 3 days are actually swimming lessons) swimming enough workout if you want to lose weight and gain muscle, or should I still do 2 or 3 days of HIIT and full body workout to getresults more quickly or would that just leave me exhausted? Keep in mind that I will have a good balanced diet also.

Thanks for reading.
Nando

 

[malkore]

Well, my swim lessons as a child were never intense enough for what I'd consider a real cardio workout. You'd maybe only swim 2 minutes, and then there'd be 4 minutes of instruction, then you'd swim again.

Play it by ear, but I don't think you'd be over-doing it by getting some separate cardio in aside from the swim days.

Of course, swimming laps for 20 minutes after the lessons would definitely count, if that's feasible. Like the crawlstroke or breast stroke...that'll wear you out.