Freediving and scubadiving

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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.

Replies

  • llaurenmarie
    llaurenmarie Posts: 1,260 Member
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    Water Resistant Activity tracker.
  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
    edited September 2016
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    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
    subakwa Posts: 347 Member
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    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
    xaryo Posts: 104 Member
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    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
    samwiserabbit Posts: 153 Member
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    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
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
    edited September 2016
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    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
    neohdiver Posts: 738 Member
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    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
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
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    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
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
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    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
    niblue Posts: 339 Member
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    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
    xaryo Posts: 104 Member
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    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
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 612 Member
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    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
    niallcavanagh Posts: 29 Member
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    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
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
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    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
    niallcavanagh Posts: 29 Member
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    I have a p-valve
  • xaryo
    xaryo Posts: 104 Member
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    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
    subakwa Posts: 347 Member
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    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.