• Posted March 12, 2025

Splash Your Way To Weight Loss Through Water Aerobics

Purposeful splishing and splashing can help you trim your waist size and drop excess pounds, a new evidence review has concluded.

Water aerobics led to about 6 pounds of weight loss and more than an inch off the waists of overweight and obese people, researchers reported in the journal BMJ Open.

"Specifically, water aerobics interventions lasting over 10 weeks significantly reduced body weight and waist circumference, with a more pronounced effect observed in females," concluded the research team led by senior investigator Jong-Chul Park with Pukyong National University in Busan, South Korea.

For the evidence review, researchers pooled data from 10 previous clinical trials involving 286 participants.

Water aerobics is particularly good for people with excess weight, as the buoyancy of water helps reduce joint injuries that might occur during land-based exercise, researchers said in background notes.

The water exercises in these trials included aerobics, Zumba dance, yoga and jogging, six to 12 weeks. People exercised mostly two to three times a week, with most sessions lasting an hour.

While water aerobics did help people drop pounds and cut waist size, it wasn’t associated with a reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) or percentage of body fat, researchers noted. (BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.)

The studies included few men, making it hard to judge water aerobics’ effectiveness among guys, researchers said.

However, they concluded that the overall evidence “supports the use of [water aerobics] as an effective intervention for reducing overall body weight and central obesity, which are critical factors in managing obesity-related health risks.”

In conclusion, researchers wrote: "Water aerobics is an important form of exercise for overweight and [obese] people, offering significant benefits in improving body composition and overall health.”

Future studies involving more people are needed to better understand the full potential benefits of water aerobics, researchers added.

“Investigating the long-term effects of water aerobics and comparing its efficacy with other exercise modalities will provide valuable insight,” the study said.

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on the advantages of water-based exercise.

SOURCES: BMJ, news release, March 11, 2025; BMJ Open, March 11, 2025