Are there any SCUBA divers out there?

_CowgirlUp_
_CowgirlUp_ Posts: 585 Member
edited October 2024 in Motivation and Support
My husband and I are getting our PADI SCUBA certification this coming weekend and I accidentally found a couple of divers on another thread that I was thrilled to find! I thought it would be nice to hook up with a few others if there's any out there that would like a new friend.

I think the calorie estimation here on My Fitness Pal is WAY off for diving but at first I was happy that I could burn so many calories having so much fun and not sweating! LOL Much to my dismay, I wore my heart rate monitor yesterday and didn't even come out of my resting zone so I'm not counting SCUBA diving as exercise until someone can convince me my hrm is wrong.

Anyway, we're doing our open dive certification this weekend at a lake here in Missouri...wearing 7 mil wetsuits...I'm praying for a warm week and an even warmer weekend for this! Our dives from here on out, most likely, will be off the coast of Florida and in the Caribbean. We'll see how the lake diving goes...from what I'm reading, there's a lot of cool stuff that's been sunk for divers at this particular lake but the visibility isn't the best.

Replies

  • moonfayri
    moonfayri Posts: 6
    Hello!

    I don't have a lot of time right this minute, but I just wanted to say that I am a SCUBA diver too! I haven't enjoyed a dive in over a year as I have almost-2-year-old twins.

    Good luck and have fun on your cert dives! I dive mostly in the ocean here in NJ, but I did my NAUI cert dives in a quarry with lots of cool things that were sunk in it. I had a 7 mil wetsuit with hood :-( for my cert dives too.

    Kelly
  • Krific
    Krific Posts: 2
    Hi Phyllis! How exciting - you will love diving in warm water. :)

    Based on my personal experience, scuba diving burns a LOT of calories, especially if you are carrying your tank and gear around. Most of our diving has been on the island of Bonaire (near Aruba) and it's almost all shore diving. We park by the road, then carry our gear out near the water, suit up, and then walk into the water. This by itself burns calories (as opposed to boat diving when others carry all your gear for you.) Then, you are constantly moving underwater, keeping your bouyancy neutral, using your leg muscles to propel you, and generally burning calories. Your heart rate won't be a good indicator here - the exercise is different than if you were to go for a run or do other aerobic exercise.

    Don't try to diet while you are on diving trips - eat normally, because you need adequate calories for safety underwater. Fainting would be bad! :)

    The amazing thing for me was that I ate and drank a lot on my first scuba trip, and I actually lost a couple of pounds in two weeks. We were diving three times a day on average.

    I don't know how many calories myfitnesspal says you burn while diving, but the more dives you do and carrying your own gear will burn quite a few!

    Hope that helps - have fun.

    Kelli
  • rininger85
    rininger85 Posts: 131
    I'm an avid scuba diver, been diving for about 4 years in the cold waters of Michigan... I've dove a couple times in St.Croix (USVI) and gulf of mexico (Florida) but most of my dives are in Michigan's frigid waters. I'm really looking forward to wednesday next week when my dive shop starts their weekly fun dives to get people out diving, we dive every wednesday night from mid may to the end of october and usually have 20-30 divers show up every week... then we go out for food/drinks after diving...

    I was a bit surpised by the calories it claims you burn diving on here... but i don't know if its accurate or not. I'm actually questioning my HRM right now because it always says I burn about 400 calories spending 30 minutes on the treadmill doing a weight loss program, whereas my treadmill says about 200 calories... if my HRM is accurate (I'm wearing it for 24 hours right now to see if it matches my basal metabolic rate to see if I think it is accurate or not) then I don't think the 570 calories that MFP says I would burn diving for 45 minutes is really that far off... I'm always pretty warm and the first couple of years that I dove I only had a 3mil wetsuit (in michigan!)... last year I bought a 7mil wetsuit and I sweat while I dive... you can see the steam rolling off me when I take my suit off a lot of times (and I smell sweaty some times too!)
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