how many cals do you burn in an hour of diving?

[Spoon]

guys im really curious one of the instructors mentioned in passing that you burn 800 cals an hour diving. as to what type of dive he dint mention, ive been researching on the net but couldnt find any hard facts or any info on this. can some of you guys fill in thanks?

makes sense that we are famished for food after diving?

 

[Scuby Dooby]

on your average calm dive without fighting big currents, etc. I'll bet that the main determining factor will be water temps. It takes a lot of calories to keep your body temp up in cold water. I grew up in a cold climate and a full day out in the snow being even moderately active helps work up quite an appetite - i get a similar feeling on a day with multiple dives, even in the warm water temps we are used to here in SE Asia.

That said, when i use the calculator at caloriesperhour.com (just googled it) it says that I will burn about 525 cals for a 45 minute dive and about 600 cals for the same amount of time playing singles tennis. Hard to believe keeping my body temp up can burn that many cals but I guess its true!

 

[ch0ppersrule]

guys im really curious one of the instructors mentioned in passing that you burn 800 cals an hour diving. as to what type of dive he dint mention, ive been researching on the net but couldnt find any hard facts or any info on this. can some of you guys fill in thanks?

makes sense that we are famished for food after diving?

I am sure it depends on how much you exert yourself. Probably won't burn too many calories on a lazy drift dive unless you are going opposite the current. I use fitlinxx and my calories burned are always different depending on the dive time and how strong the workout is. You can probably find something on google to calculate your dives/calories for ya.
Melissa

 

[padiscubapro]

guys im really curious one of the instructors mentioned in passing that you burn 800 cals an hour diving. as to what type of dive he dint mention, ive been researching on the net but couldnt find any hard facts or any info on this. can some of you guys fill in thanks?

makes sense that we are famished for food after diving?

its a combination of workload and water temperature..
You burn lots of calories trying to keep your bosy temperature up...

 

[Spoon]

thanks for all the replies guys! so if i was wearing a thick neoprene suit, id burn less over the same dive, same condition and temps as opposed to the same but wearing a 1 mill? starting to make a lot of sense now.

 

[CameronMartz]

thanks for all the replies guys! so if i was wearing a thick neoprene suit, id burn less over the same dive, same condition and temps as opposed to the same but wearing a 1 mill? starting to make a lot of sense now.

Maybe, but the alternative (using less insulation in an effort to burn extra calories) would be setting yourself up for a larger-than-average perfusion difference between the on-gassing and off-gassing portions of your dive. As your body chills, blood will be shunted away from your peripheral tissues. This will reduce your ability to decompress and is not accounted for in table calculations.

Burn the calories on the surface and dive to see the fishies. <g>

Cameron

 

[devolution365]

Fitday.com says 350 cal/hr, but then they lump it in with snorkeling, so...

Even from my limited number of dives I know by watching the people I'm with that the guy who swims in the crawling position and keeps bouncing off the bottom is burning a heck of a lot more calories than the guy who's gliding effortlessly and pointing out the cool stuff.

I personally wouldn't strive to make my diving an aerobic activity. I'd be out of air before I got to see anything!

 

[Spoon]

im not interested to burn calories while diving was just interested in the statement i heard.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

I don't think I burn many calories when I dive. Not many at all. I use a drysuit, barely kick and air lasts forever.

On the other hand you'll consume plenty of calories for every hour you spend at McDonalds.

 

[TSandM]

It's often said that you burn a lot of calories staying warm, and that can be true, but you have to think about it.

As you begin to lose body heat, the body doesn't have a lot of ways to combat that. It constricts peripheral blood vessels to try to slow the loss (that doesn't take any energy). Your body can't just "dial up" your metabolic rate acutely . . . which is why, if despite efforts to slow the loss, you keep getting colder, you eventually begin to shiver. Why shiver? Because the muscle activity involved generates heat. At THAT point, you begin to burn calories -- a lot of them. But nobody rational wants to dive to the point of shivering routinely . . . now, wait a minute, almost all my dives end that way

Swimming is an inefficient form of propulsion and burns a fair amount of energy. But, outside of current, there isn't all that much swimming in scuba. I would really be surprised if the calorie consumption is as high as the OP read.