How fast you use your gas is determined by two things: How much CO2 you are generating per minute, and how efficiently you use the gas you breathe to accomplish gas exchange in the lungs.
To address the second idea first, I'm going to describe a little anatomy. Your respiratory system includes your mouth, larynx, trachea, large bronchi, small bronchioles and then the air sacs where gas exchange actually takes place. Until gas gets into the air sacs, it's just passing through -- it's not delivering any oxygen, or taking away any CO2. If the volume of air you breathe with each breathe is only the volume of your larynx, trachea and bronchi, you're moving a lot of air, but not exchanging any gas. That's why shallow, rapid breathing runs through your tank quickly (and also leaves you feeling short of breath). It's also why slow, deep breaths are routinely recommended by instructors.
Tension and anxiety tend to make people take quick, shallow breaths, which are inefficient. Relaxation tends to allow people to slow their breathing . . . but the funny thing is that slowing your breathing also tends to bring relaxation with it. That's the essence of yoga breathing, or meditation.
Assuming your breathing PATTERN is an efficient one, then you have to look at your CO2 production, which is a result of metabolic activity in cells. You have a certain basal metabolic rate, below which you really can't go. It's actually HIGHER in fitter people than it is in the unfit, so you'd think that getting fit would make your gas consumption worse. But at the same time that your basal metabolic rate increases, the amount of muscle effort you need to accomplish a given amount of work goes DOWN, and that's a much bigger influence. So fitness does pay off.
But efficiency pays off even better. Every motion you make underwater, you pay for with some gas used. Therefore, the less motion, the longer your gas lasts. You can reduce motion by becoming horizontal, so that all your kicking effort succeeds in propelling you forward. If you are tilted at a 45 degree angle to the bottom, each time you kick, you drive yourself upward. To compensate, you have to keep your buoyancy negative, so you will have an equal tendency to sink. At that point, you are expending energy for a net displacement of zero! Very inefficient, and a very common new diver error.
Use your fins, not your hands. Hands are great for swimming on the surface, without fins, because your feet aren't very efficient propellers. But fins are, and that's what you should be using underwater. Flailing wildly with the hands uses a lot of muscle effort and produces very little net propulsion, so people who swim with their hands tend to suck gas.
Master your buoyancy. Although the volume of gas going into your BC or drysuit is relatively small, if you are putting it in and letting it out and putting it back in and letting it back out . . . after a half hour, your BC has breathed a lot of your gas. To master buoyancy, you have to start with proper weighting, because being significantly overweighted will make you unstable in the water column, and result in a lot of yo-yoing that wastes BC gas and ALSO makes you breathe harder. So reducing your weight to the proper amount will, in the long run, make your gas last longer.
And finally, move slower! One of the major strategies of sea life is camouflage, so if you move quickly, you miss many animals you might otherwise find. Unless you have a specific purpose for rapid movement, like spearfishing (and spearfishermen are NEVER going to win any awards for low SAC rates!) slow swimming will result in a much more productive and interesting dive.
Finally, recognize that body size and muscle mass will have a detectable effect on gas consumption. My favorite dive buddy is 6' tall and very strong. He's an absolutely beautiful diver -- quiet, relaxed, balanced and efficient in the water -- but he will never equal my SAC rate, because I'm a little old lady. If you habitually dive with people who are much smaller than you are, then buying bigger tanks may be your best answer.
