Freediving and scubadiving

xaryo

These are my main activities.
I dive generally in cold-ish water with a wetsuit or a dry suit.

These activities are not the most heart-rate accelerator, but the cold water factor and the time spent in-water must count for something in the energy consumption.

How much calories can be burned by theae activities? I'm always famish when I get out of the water.

I want to log my stuff as accuratly as possible.

llaurenmarie

Water Resistant Activity tracker.

jlahorn

There's an entry in the MFP database - "Skin diving, scuba diving, general", but it can't help but be an estimate. Calorie burn is going to depend on many unusual factors for SCUBA. If you're an experienced diver, you're barely using your arms at all for almost the entire dive, so the only activity an activity tracker would be able to measure would be your heart rate, and that would be largely useless since it's not steady-state cardio and because of the crazy conflicting ways that cold, stress, atmospheric pressure, etc. raise and lower your blood pressure at depth. (There's a good article on this on the Diver's Alert Network site.)

I use the MFP estimate, but I don't take it very seriously. If I had a waterproof activity tracker, I might wear it, but I wouldn't take its calculation very seriously either. I don't dive that frequently, though, so a few hundred calories every couple of months isn't that big a deal.

If you're a frequent diver, you can start by using the MFP estimate, track your food carefully, and see if the estimate is correct for you. If not, adjust

subakwa

Don't bother tracking scuba. The burn is almost nothing if you are a reasonably experienced diver and water temp doesn't add much of a factor, sadly. There was a while thread on this a few years ago on a scuba forum I was active on.

Free diving is a little more physical, but still probably less so than normal swimming.

Any reason for trying to log these? Unless it is part of your every day activity I would just take it as upside of a 100 cals or so.

xaryo

I was sort of using the mfp estimate, but not for the full time of the session.
Usually no more than 100-200 cal if a long session of freedive.

samwiserabbit

As a former dive master I know what you mean; by whatever combination of factors we must use significantly more energy diving than not diving, even though it doesn't feel like a work out per se. I second the notion of just tracking your calories carefully and using that to estimate the extra burn. i.e. if you're losing weight more quickly than you would expect, you're burning more while diving than whatever estimate you're currently using.

SonyaCele

i dive and i think lugging the equipment to and from the car and to and from the boat or beach , walking in the sand with flippers, dragging yourself out of the water, etc burns way more calories than the actual dive itself. I personallly dont log individual dives, but rather lump it up with the calories included in my "active lifestyle", in that setting when you set up your calorie plan.

neohdiver

SonyaCele wrote: »

i dive and i think lugging the equipment to and from the car and to and from the boat or beach , walking in the sand with flippers, dragging yourself out of the water, etc burns way more calories than the actual dive itself.

That matches my thoughts, as well. The dive itself is insignificant - but everything else isn't. I'd also add that fighting the waves on the surface also count for something.

(In October I'm going diving for the first time since I acquired a year's worth of vertigo starting ~2012 that I feared would end my diving activities. Once that cleared (and I'm medication/restriction free), I acquired diabetes (now completely under control without insulin or medications that can create hypos), hypothyroidism, breast cancer, and just generally an overwhelming life. Life is still overwhelming, but the vertigo is gone so I'm safe to dive & I desperately need a break!) Cozumel, here I come. Here's hoping to expend lots of calories fighting the waves!

SonyaCele

neohdiver wrote: »

SonyaCele wrote: »

i dive and i think lugging the equipment to and from the car and to and from the boat or beach , walking in the sand with flippers, dragging yourself out of the water, etc burns way more calories than the actual dive itself.

That matches my thoughts, as well. The dive itself is insignificant - but everything else isn't. I'd also add that fighting the waves on the surface also count for something.

(In October I'm going diving for the first time since I acquired a year's worth of vertigo starting ~2012 that I feared would end my diving activities. Once that cleared (and I'm medication/restriction free), I acquired diabetes (now completely under control without insulin or medications that can create hypos), hypothyroidism, breast cancer, and just generally an overwhelming life. Life is still overwhelming, but the vertigo is gone so I'm safe to dive & I desperately need a break!) Cozumel, here I come. Here's hoping to expend lots of calories fighting the waves!

How fun! congrats on overcoming all those issues. In October, i'll be diving in the virgin islands. i can't wait!

girlinahat

the downside of the calorie burn when diving is that the only fluid that satiates after a dive is beer.

and the bacon butties beforehand. Hang on, that's not a downside.

ps. fins not flippers. Dolphins have flippers, divers have fins.

niblue

I'd agree with the comment about the before & after equipment lugging etc. being the most significant exercise in diving - certainly for a beginner like me anyway. The dive itself I find quite relaxing and can't imagine would burn many calories.

xaryo

when freediving and doing deep-ish dive (30m, I started this summer), when finning up and down the line, I can feel that it is not that relaxing, in the fact of the lactic acid build up. that and the surface swim to get to the buoy.

it isn't just easy finning.

ScubaSteve1962

I don't put diving as and exercise. I do vigorous cardio for 1 hour, and usually burn between 550 and 650 calories. MFP gives me 630 calories for 1 hour of scuba diving. And I know I don't burn that much lugging that gear around.

niallcavanagh

girlinahat wrote: »

the downside of the calorie burn when diving is that the only fluid that satiates after a dive is beer.

and the bacon butties beforehand. Hang on, that's not a downside.

ps. fins not flippers. Dolphins have flippers, divers have fins.

Bacon butties are much too difficult. A flask of chicken soup is instant.
Something makes me think you dive on the cold side of the Atlantic, where just getting changed burns calories!

girlinahat

niallcavanagh wrote: »

Bacon butties are much too difficult. A flask of chicken soup is instant.
Something makes me think you dive on the cold side of the Atlantic, where just getting changed burns calories!

the downside of a flask of chicken soup can be summed up in one phrase - DRY SUIT.......

niallcavanagh

I have a p-valve

xaryo

I have a drysuit, when it is needed, but for now, I'm freediving, so wetsuit it is.
Jusr today, I was in the water (20C) for a total of about 3 h, swimming (finning) for about 1,5 km.

That's gotta count for some calories...

subakwa

20 degrees C? Tropical!

If you want to log something, halve the distance then log it as a swim. So 750m of swimming in 3 hours (ie V slow pace) which is going to be a couple of hundred calories.