Physical fitness and Diving.

I've been getting myself ready to dive. I've gotten all the equipment needed for the class; I've read all the books. I've been to the doctor and everything seems fine there. My only issue is that I'm overweight. I know that being overweight can increase the risk of DCS. I'm currently 5'10 and 236lbs. I know I could stand to loose about 46lbs of it at the least. So the question is am I ready to take the class or should I loose the weight first before even thinking about. I've seen other people diving that look like they weight lot more than I do so and I making something out of nothing or what???


Thanks for you input in advance...
Rob

rpayne:

I've been getting myself ready to dive. I've gotten all the equipment needed for the class; I've read all the books. I've been to the doctor and everything seems fine there. My only issue is that I'm overweight. I know that being overweight can increase the risk of DCS. I'm currently 5'10 and 236lbs. I know I could stand to loose about 46lbs of it at the least. So the question is am I ready to take the class or should I loose the weight first before even thinking about. I've seen other people diving that look like they weight lot more than I do so and I making something out of nothing or what???


Thanks for you input in advance...
Rob

Click to expand...

You don't need to lose the weight before you start the class. Scuba is not an extremely strenous sport depending on the water conditions. However, you will likely need to do some lap swimmng at the beginning of your dive training so it would help to have some degree of cardiovascular strength. Also, your additional weight will decrease your air consumption.

Therefore, you don't need to lose the weight before you start but a healthy and reasonably well-conditioned diver will be a more comfortable diver.

Bill Schindler:

Also, your additional weight will decrease your air consumption.

Click to expand...

We'll assume you really meant to type just the opposite,right?

rpayne:

I know that being overweight can increase the risk of DCS.

Click to expand...

Not quite.
DAN says:
"There is no strong body of evidence to suggest that overweight individuals have a greater risk of DCI or that they suffer more dive-related injuries than divers who are within 10 percent of their ideal body weight.
The best indicator of diving fitness is the individual's general health and level of physical fitness."
source:
http://diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.asp?faqid=144

Your conditioning is more important than the numbers on the scale. Remember, you’ll be nearly weightless in the water. Enjoy your class.

knotical:

Not quite.
DAN says:
"There is no strong body of evidence to suggest that overweight individuals have a greater risk of DCI or that they suffer more dive-related injuries than divers who are within 10 percent of their ideal body weight.
The best indicator of diving fitness is the individual's general health and level of physical fitness."
source:
http://diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.asp?faqid=144

Your conditioning is more important than the numbers on the scale. Remember, you’ll be nearly weightless in the water. Enjoy your class.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the input. It really helped. After reading that article and I actually went ahead and called DAN to talk to them about it too it seem like I should be ok to go ahead and start my classes. I still need to get in shape and hopefully diving will help me do it... Again thanks for the information... and I hope to see you all under the water..


Rob

knotical:

DAN says:
"There is no strong body of evidence to suggest that overweight individuals have a greater risk of DCI or that they suffer more dive-related injuries...

Click to expand...

I think that is true but there is one situation where there is a greater risk: Let's say a lean diver and an obese diver have both been diving the same profile and both lose their weight belts and have a rapid uncontrolled ascent. All else being equal, any deleterious DCI effects of such an accident will be more pronounced in the obese diver because of the accumulation of nitrogen in faster tissue (fat).

So, the obese diver only has the potential for greater risk but the rarity of such a hypothetical accident should not scare anyone from diving. A normal dive wouldn't pose a risk.

knotical:

Not quite.
DAN says:
"There is no strong body of evidence to suggest that overweight individuals have a greater risk of DCI or that they suffer more dive-related injuries than divers who are within 10 percent of their ideal body weight.
The best indicator of diving fitness is the individual's general health and level of physical fitness."
source:
http://diversalertnetwork.org/medical/faq/faq.asp?faqid=144

Your conditioning is more important than the numbers on the scale. Remember, you’ll be nearly weightless in the water. Enjoy your class.

Click to expand...

While I agree 100% with the general recommendation to go ahead and enjoy your class, I must mention that many researchers might disagree with Mr. Dovenbarger's statement as quoted above. There are many studies that do indeed show a relationship between body fat and/or BMI and risk of DCS and only a few that don't. I have listed some below.

I post this not to deter you from taking your class, as the total risk of DCS for any one diver is very, very low. However, I don't think that Mr. Dovenbarger's opinion of the relationship between body fat and DCS does justice to your initial question.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15241540
2004- "Metabolic disorders are of concern, since adiposity is associated with both, higher bubble grades in Doppler ultrasound detection after scuba dives when compared to normal subjects, and an increased epidemiologic risk of suffering from decompression illness."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15267082
2004- "By demonstrating the dependence of DCS risk on body tissue parameters, the model explains why resistance to DCS in mammals increases with a lower body mass and greater specific blood flow in tissues."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12546293
2003- "Age and height showed no significant influence on DCS incidence, but persons of either sex with higher body mass index and lower physical fitness developed DCS more frequently."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12235035
2002- "Younger, slimmer, or aerobically fitter divers produced fewer bubbles compared with older, fatter, or poorly physically fit divers. These findings and the conclusions of previous studies performed on animals and humans led us to support that ascent rate, age, aerobic fitness, and adiposity are factors of susceptibility for bubble formation after diving."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10496123
1999- This study found no direct correlation with % body fat, but found a strong correlation with relative VO2max. This is strange because relative VO2max is inversely correlated with body weight, by definition. In other words, if you change nothing but reduce your body fat (and hence, body weight), your relative VO2max will go up and your predicted risk for DCS will go down. Researchers provided no explanation for this discrepancy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11766705
1999- "Incidence of decompression sickness was significantly higher in subjects aged 30-36 years than in those aged 19-20 years under the same experimental conditions. In the older subjects body-fat, blood cholesterole and noradrenaline in urine during experiment were significantly higher than those in the younger subjects."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=2773160
1989- "Obesity and past number of bends were therefore important risk factors for DCS after taking into account MWP and number of exposures. The age effect observed in univariate analysis could be due to obesity."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=6535316
1984- "These findings suggest that obesity may be a contributory factor to the occurrence of decompression sickness."

Cameron

Hmm.. I look like a buddah statue and still dive quite comfortably. Actually.. I take that back, I weigh a LOT more than people think and ironically its only a 20% fat ratio.

From what I can tell your body is supposed to have a certain amount of fat on it, its a fact of life. It attunes itself to what you do and what you eat. If you eat excessively and exercise less than moderately, your physique is going to be representative of that. If you exercise regularly and eat moderately, your also going to represent that...

The best way I heard it put was by Walter - "ESE Man... Eat smart and Exercise!"

I lost about 50 lbs in the past year, at least 40 lbs of which was fat... on cbulla's ESE diet. I started eating better, and I started exercising.. and damn, does it work.

It's not just being more comfortable diving.. you're more comfortable in every aspect of your life.

Funny, I lost 42 pounds in the last year on the same diet!

Not only has my SAC rate gone down, having 4# on the belt (in 7 mil in cold water) does NOT suck