How many calories does diving burn?

[Papa Steve]

I just hope its a lot because I'm starving afterwards. And, I get this crazy craving for Lays potato chips during SI's

 

[String]

Impossible to give even an average

Could have 20 minute dives, could have 2 hour dives
could have dives against a current vs no current
Dive where you fin a lot vs a photo dive where you move almost nowhere
Dive where you are warm vs cold

When i was doing 3 dives a day, 7 days a week for 6 months without a day off i managed to lose about 30lbs in weight though.

 

[BGF]

Using blades or split-fins? With Split-fins you gain weight because they are so efficient it like sitting in your easy-chair eating a bowl of Cheeto's!

 

[dave4868]

There are probably too many variables to give a general estimate of calories burned in diving.

If you're really interested, here's a suggestion for estimating your personal calorie burn rate:

• Take your pulse several times during the dive to get your average pulse rate
• Later, take a slow stroll on level ground and increase your walking speed until your average pulse rate is close to that while diving
• Look up some figures for estimated calories burned at that walking speed
• Then come to the conclusion that the low number of calories burned must be incorrect....

IMHO, diving can really be more of an appetite stimulant unless you're cold, anxious, and/or finning like crazy....

Doing multiple or long dives can be probably be helpful since you won't be eating while submerged....

Dave C

 

[String]

Even not feeling cold the body will generally burn calories to keep its core up which you may not even notice.

Don't underestimate the work done on land such as kitting up, carrying gear and so on as well.

 

[Bryan]

Diving itself is not strenuous at all, unless you're fighting a current, etc.

At our local quarry, I look forward to the dive as a chance to rest from hauling gear around. After the dive, when we hit the steps, I instantly realize how easy the diving actually was!

Sometimes we'll purposefully end the dive on the opposite end of the lake so we can either walk back or so we can surface swim back... just to get a little more exercise in.

 

[Clammy]

As I understand, most running chart has weight and speed as the variables.

I don't see folks doing laps while scuba diving. You puts around, puddle around, muck around, occasionally sprint a short distance.... How the heck are you going to quantitate that?

Next, you add thermal protection, the kid who is shivering so you can hear his teeth chatter underwater, is going to burn more calorie than the overweight guy with his 7 mm.

Next, you add current.

So, you can see, you have the old guys like Thalassamania, who is finning along like a man pushing a walker.... to the young ones trying to impress his buddy by his torpedo speed (until he burned through his tank in 10 minutes).... You just can't quantitate such thing.

I agree with Halemano, scuba diving to me is more like a casual stroll down the park. Rarely do you kick it in high gear, and even then, it is only a short distance. Most folks don't even reach aerobic level, except if you did a shore dive and have to take the gears back up the hill to get back to the parking lot.

I'm a distance runner, and speed is not really a factor more than heart rate. Weight is a factor but not hugely significant on a per mile basis unless you start nitpicking. They still average numbers give or take a certain amount. I'm not trying to nitpick at how many calories are burned. I just want a number to work with. For example, If I were to say running a mile burns roughly 140 calories... if you are smaller and lighter, you will probably burn less, if you are larger and heavier, you will probably burn more.

Obviously lean muscle mass burns more calories at rest and people are pointing out that you just kind of "drift" around while diving. Also, people are saying exposure suits will prevent you from burning calories to stay warm. However, the act of swimming underwater, shifting and/or fighting current and surge with resistance, breathing under pressure while your body constantly warms the water around you for 45 minutes at a time must take it's toll. Even at 8 calories a minute, that's a very significant number considering that we are not doing this for just 10 minutes at a time. You're heart rate does not need to spike to near your maximum for you to burn significant calories.

 

[reefduffer]

Would SAC rate be an indicator of calorie burn rate? Let's say we exclude (or use a different relationship for) values that indicate hyperventilation, like anything over 0.8 or 1.0, or something like that. Would O2 consumed per minute allow you to calculate calories consumed per minute?

It seems reasonable that this would be possible when calibrated for one individual. Would it be a nearly universal relationship for all adults, or all men, say? How can you consume calories without consuming oxygen proportionately? I seem to recall reading that this is how they actually do accurate measurements of calorie burn rates for various activities, by measuring O2 consumption. Conveniently, divers are already instrumented.

But a few minutes googling didn't turn up any obvious tutorial I can point to, although there seem to be a bunch of related papers published.

Any physiology/metabolism experts in the house?

Edit: Yes, I know we don't use all the O2 breathed, we exhale some. I'm thinking this is either a constant percent, or maybe that plus a function of SAC rate. So that if we know SAC rate and O2 breathed per minute, we can calculate O2 consumed per minute, and then calories burned per minute.

 

[BlueC5Kitten]

8 per minute sounds plausible. I recall in my second pool session thinking that I must be burning 4 times as many calories putting the full wetsuit on than as I was actually diving.

:classic: And then after putting on the wetsuit, finishing the gearing up afterward before jumping into the cool water...ahhhhhh!

 

[reefduffer]

...
But a few minutes googling didn't turn up any obvious tutorial I can point to...

Look at Calorie Burning

"Caloric expenditure can be measured directly, which requires the measurement of the heat released by the body, or indirectly be measuring ventilation and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide by the body. These methods are termed direct calorimetry and indirect calorimetry, respectively, and the research and validation of these methods date back to the late 1890's (Lusk, 1928). For numerous methodological reasons, the method of indirect calorimetry is the most suitable and accurate to evaluate caloric expenditure during exercise."

It goes on to explain that you need CO2 expiration rates to be accurate, because O2 rate will be different for fat vs. carbohydrate calories, but the difference looks to be about 7%, and so O2 consumption by itself ought to be a pretty good first-order approximation of calories burned.

Now to see if O2 consumption can be reasonably calculated from O2 inhaled ...