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that 2,000 calorie maintenance number might be the average, but that number swings widely from person to person, and changes based on how much you weigh, how fit you are, etc. For me at my goal weight of 140lbs, maintenance is about 1600 calories or so.
Anyway, don't count on burning enough calories to lose weight. You can undo your whole workout with one snack. Increasing your level of fitness increases your base metabolic rate, which over time will help with weight loss, but at the beginning it is pretty mucy all about what you eat.
Swimming is great excercise, even though it doesn't burn the kind of calories other excercise does because you have to do it with a controlled breathing pattern. That builds lung capacity, and it forces you to build stamina and cardiovascular fitness. Also, it's fun and pleasant, and the only excercise that does you any good is the excercise you actually do. So swimming is 3 times a week does you more good than saying you're going to run but then finding excuses not to.
anyway, good luck! There's a lot of us here in the same boat.
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