Any Scuba Divers?

Pseudocyber

So, out of curiosity, I was looking at logging scuba diving. 30 minute dive - 355 calories. Really!?!? Based on what?

I can do a 5mph run for 30 min and it gives me 406 calories ... I'm sweating, huffing, and puffing when I run for 30 minutes. I'm swimming pretty slowly and peacefully when I dive - to conserve air. How can 30 minutes of scuba diving be that many calories?

Just signed up for my PADI Rescue Diver, btw. :glasses:

Tomhusker

Do you think you would be sweating if the water wasn't so cool? Any swimming works a lot of muscles that don't normally get worked, so that may have a lot to do with it. You can look at several different sites to get their calorie count and average it out if that helps. I do that with a lot of things.

kimmerroze

That seems high to me too. But I do know that when I first started diving I was sore. Not so much anymore. and the above poster is right. They recommend water exercises to the elderly because it doesn't make you feel like you are working out as hard. so maybe. But I have no idea,.

superjae5

I'm a scuba diver. I'm not sure if it's accurate or not, but here's some speculation. I wonder if because the pressure is higher that movement requires more energy and burns more calories. I know it takes a lot more effort to breathe at 90 ft than at sea level. Plus we're using muscles we don't in regular activity, and regular swimming is typically a high-calorie burning exercise. I'm still inclined to think the added pressure could have something to do with it.

Doing a quick search on the internet, it's saying average of 7-8 cal per minute (but for certain body types), so MFP may be rating it high. It also mentioned more experienced divers will probably burn less than newbies.

I'd be curious to know, I wonder if you can take some kind of calorie counter underwater that deep--or if anyone has tried.

Awesome that you're doing rescue diving.

nikki_zav

If you are a new diver, you are probably working harder as well trying to figure out your buoyancy in the water, get used to the gear, breathing out of a cylinder strapped to you back...it's all pretty different. That does seem pretty high for a 30 min dive...also could depend on how much effort you are putting in. Personally, I try to move as little as possible - light fin kicks, arms crossed in front of me, and let the water do the work....love to be a fish for as long as 3000PSI will let me!!!! Depending on where you are diving and what kind of conditions, that may or may not be possible. Not to mention, the water is keeping you afloat. Like Tom said, I'd search around some more sites to see what others say about cals burned.

Congrats on signing up for your rescue!! I hope to do mine this summer too

Pseudocyber

Well, so far I'm up to about 60 dives - mostly warm, blue water - Carribean (St. Croix, Turks & Caicos) - we're going to Caymans in August on the Cayman Aggressor :glasses:

I'm trying to get under 200 (from 265 in Feb.) by August - don't know if I'll make it. Also started running training - for the Army 10 Mile in DC in October.

So hopefully, I'll have better breathing control than I've had before. I'll shop around for scuba diving averages - but interesting thought on a heart rate monitor/calorie counter - I wonder if they can go down to 100'. I'll look around on that, of course, I guess it would have to be under my suit to get the heart rate. But if heart rate goes up for anxiety or excitement, I guess that would throw off the calorie burning calculations. :drinker:

dbisko

According to my Diet Power program there are 4 different estimations for SCUBA diving:
SCUBA diving (Navy Seal) - 20 min = 219 calories
SCUBA diving, average - 20 min = 119 calories
SCUBA diving, fast - 20 min = 299 calories
SCUBA diving, leisurely - 20 min = 80 calories

It depends on the conditions of the dive. I'm an avid diver and when diving my lake here at home I am completely relaxed and exerting very little energy DURING the dive. Getting ready and hauling my gear to the water's edge and back (our lake has steep cliffs and lots of stairs) I am exerting MUCH more energy. But that only lasts for a short period of time.

If you are diving in the ocean against current... sure you could burn 355 calories in 30 min. Gear isn't exactly hydrodynamic . But who really dives that way? By contrast, if are you diving in Cozumel where the current does all the work... you aren't burning hardly any calories.

If you've ever dove the Flower Garden's (Gulf of Mexico) in 6 ft swells and tried to get back in the boat... you could feel like you've run a 5K.

Good luck with your Rescue Diver! That was my favorite class to help with during divemaster training.

Have fun blowing bubbles!

fteale

Fab, I did my Rescue Diver just before I got pregnant with my first. I have only been diving once since having children. It's just impossible these days. I miss it so much!

Pseudocyber

Ok - so maybe the calorie burn is an average. I'll tell you though, most of my dives are from liveaboards - boats.

So this weekend, first "shore dives" and putting on gear, full 3mil, wool lined, wetsuit, with gloves, and hood, and 10lbs weight, steel 120 - in 95 degree sun and then walking to the water - 80 degrees surface, 59 degrees at 30 feet (45 at 100' but we didn't go down into the "refreshing" zone") ... I will TAKE whatever calories MFP wants to give me, dang it!!!

I had a good time doing rescue diver - got attacked a couple of times by paniced victims - once grabbing my regulator out of my mouth at depth. Had a missing diver that got stuck in a wrecked car at 35'. Doing searches in 59 degree water at 30' with about 8' of visibility.

Good time, good experience. But need more practice.

WhiskeyBravo2GulfLimaPapa

I dive weekend at our local aquarium (NYC) doing maintenance work. Typical dive times are in excess of 90 minutes. Water temp varies from 40's to mid 70's. The greatest factor for me in calories burned while diving comes from conductive heat loss, low and slow, but it really adds up after an hour or two. It only stands to reason that your body will do whatever it needs to do to maintain 98.6. Even in a drysuit after almost 2 hours in cold water, I'm shivering and ready for a hot shower to bring my temp back up.

I just stumbled on this calorie calculator on Glamour.com using Google. It seems pretty accurate based on my experiences.

http://tinyurl.com/6dexolj

Victorian131

I qualified for my Advanced Open Water in 2007 and am now working my way through the PADI specialities to DiveMaster. I do most of my diving in the Caribbean (Aruba/Jamaica) but I really want to start diving in England and get qualified more here to get my experience up. Any divers from Devon or Cornwall about? I'm planning on joining a club down there in the next year or so, would be good to meet people from around those parts!

Pseudocyber

I qualified for my Advanced Open Water in 2007 and am now working my way through the PADI specialities to DiveMaster. I do most of my diving in the Caribbean (Aruba/Jamaica) but I really want to start diving in England and get qualified more here to get my experience up. Any divers from Devon or Cornwall about? I'm planning on joining a club down there in the next year or so, would be good to meet people from around those parts!

Hey Victorian131. We're about the same level & time. I've done PADI AOW, EAN, Rescue. Not seriously thinking about DM, yet.

Have you checked out www.scubaboard.com? It's like THE online diver hangout. I'm Pseudocyber there too.

midnightsukie

I'm a diver and I have to argee, that is high. i think i might burn that much putting a dry suit on and then trying to put fins on, always amusinig!

but generall under the water its too calm to burn that many cals.

I want to do my rescue this year

Any one else a diver from England?

girlinahat

me me!!

I do think it pretty high, because once I am settled underwater people have thought i'm asleep i'm so chilled. But getting your kit on board the RHIB, kitting up in a dry suit and clinging on to the boat at 20knots as you speed over to the site probably burns a fair few calories, not to mention trying to figure out where your buddy is in less than 1m vis, and keeping yourself warm in 14 degree C water.....

I wouldn't suggest diving as a weightloss activity - mostly because the bacon butty for breakfast and the post-dive rehydration beer are par for the course, but anything that gets a person out and about and not stuck in front of the TV is good in my book.

I did Padi AOW back in 2000 and then switched to doing BSAC to Dive Leader standard. Definitely everyone should get to Padi Rescue/BSAC Sports as it makes you so much more self-reliant.

And don't let my description above of UK diving put you off diving here - personally I rate it way above the soft pretty tropical dives - they don't call us rufty-tufty divers for nothing!!!

diverchic73

I'm a UK diver as well. I have only just figured out that there is a scuba diving calorie counter... I'd always gone for leisurely swimming estimated time before LOL.

I work it out as, calories used getting kit on and off the boat, calories standing on the boat while on way to/from dive site, getting drysuit and twinset on and into the water, doing the dive, staying warm during the dive and getting back to your spot on the boat... once I take all that into consideration it sounds about right to me.

If I was to log all the other movement/lifting/etc as well as the diving it'd be way over though. I also don't count all my deco time as that's just hanging about mid-water doing nothing LOL.

Am looking forward to burning a heck of a lot of cals during a week long dive camp I'm going to soon... none of it will be chilled relaxed diving as it's all about improving skills etc under water.

Oh, I'm doing my DM training now, have done my Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Theory courses and am looking at getting a rebreather and doing my trimix course within the next year.

Another forum for divers in the uk is www.yorkshire-divers.com

For actual calorie count, would it be possible to wear a heart rate monitor under your drysuit with the wrist band/watch bit inside your drysuit to keep it dry and see what it comes up with? I don't have a hrm so don't know. but one of my old dive computers had a hrm in it and I do know that the kitting up and getting into the water portion of the dive could send hr rocketing!

girlinahat

Oh, I'm doing my DM training now, have done my Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Theory courses and am looking at getting a rebreather and doing my trimix course within the next year.

a couple friends of mine did the Mixed Gas course, then after their first attempt at using it on a deep dive (which was blown out) realised that the £150 they had spent on gas for ending up doing a normal dive wasn't worth the money. They both bought YBOD's straight after......


I agree- Yorkshire-divers.com is probably the most active online scuba community in the UK. For the Souith west some good sites can be found on SouthwestMafia.com. I do a fair amount of diving in Devon and Cornwall but am Bristol based - I can let you know some good sites/clubs/outfits down there whoever asked about it.

midnightsukie

I wouldn't suggest diving as a weightloss activity - mostly because the bacon butty for breakfast and the post-dive rehydration beer are par for the course, but anything that gets a person out and about and not stuck in front of the TV is good in my book.

Have to argee there. too much food and drink involved to class as a weightloss session

diverchic73

a couple friends of mine did the Mixed Gas course, then after their first attempt at using it on a deep dive (which was blown out) realised that the £150 they had spent on gas for ending up doing a normal dive wasn't worth the money. They both bought YBOD's straight after......

I'm booked on a trip to Malin Head next year and think that the rebreather will def be a good thing on that trip... otherwise the He cost will be around £500 (going by what someone who did it last year said guys on their boat paid). Would much rather be paying for mix for a 3l cylinder than 2 x 12l ones!!!!

Pseudocyber

Diverchic73 & girlinahat ... man, y'all are HARD CORE!!! I'm just a warm water wuss ... 80 degrees F (26C) for me ...

I've had a milestone/short term goal of hitting -65lbs (-29.5Kg) by August to go on my vacation to Caymans - a week on the Aggressor Caymans (maybe 50 dives) and then a week on the island (more diving & laying around in the sun). :drinker: :happy:

I'd like to get dry suit trained and pick one up so I can start doing some colder diving - I live in North Carolina in the US - and there's a lot of wrecks on the coast here - "The Ghost Fleet of the Atlantic".

Diverchic - you've only been diving since 2000 and you're doing HARD HAT!?!?

What made y'all want to go Tec/Commercial?

- Cheers

diverchic73

Pseudocyber - I think you got us mixed up. I've been diving since dec 2006 and am going down the technical diving route. I'm doing it because of wanting to be able to see / spend more time on some of the amazing wrecks out there - especially around the UK as there are sooooo many. All of the courses I do are to make myself a better/safer diver/buddy while enabling me to see the things I want to see.

I don't dive hard hat or commercial though, purely for the love of it.

I do dive warm water as well but diving UK enables me to dive much more regularly. I also like doing training here as i know that if I can handle the skills and drills in UK temp and vis I can handle them anywhere. The lowest temp dive I've done was 4 degrees C (39.2F). I do want to do an ice diving course though so am sure that will be a bit colder!

Nothing wrong with diving warm water only it tends to be much more reliable. Was supposed to have dived four different wrecks last weekend and did 3 - none of which were the ones originally planned - due to the wind and swell.

Oh, I'm also the kind of diver who is just as happy looking at little animals as I am at big wrecks so am versatile that way too.

girlinahat

LOL. That's not me doing hard hat professionally - that was a one day open water dive in Cornwall wearing full-on historical gear - 1904 Siebe-Gorman brass helmet, canvas (very leaky) suit and weights. I had to have extra weights as the suit was so big. My mates on land were controliing the pump (you have to turn the pump at a steady speed else the person in the suit gets too much pressure on them!!). Total weight I was carrying - 205lbs. I weigh 140......

well worth the day out but I don't fancy doing it again- you can barely move!!!!

I agree with Diverchic on the reasons for more techie diving. I'll twin up when I have the money, if only to do some better dives. In the UK we tend to dive in pairs and are more self-reliant than on a holiday dive. You have to be pretty felxible as Diverchic says you may end up doing something different than the dive planned due to the weather. In fact, you may even jump in and not find the wreck (been there, had a sand dive....).

I love to dive because of the physical and mental challenge. My key aim in losing weight and getting fit is to breathe less air underwater therefore longer and better dives.

I'm off to Southern Ireland in September (am jealous as my friends are in the Shetlands right now). I may squeeze in a warm water holiday soon too.....