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The Scuba Species
Scuba Diving, Does it Really Burn Calories?
Ever felt amazingly hungry or tired after a dive? Well that may be because scuba diving does indeed burn calories.
Although the usually peaceful act of gliding through the water may have you questioning it, just think of all the things divers deal with to get where they’re going like:
- Carrying heavy equipment to and from a dive site be it shore entry or from a boat. The more equipment you add the more this is a task.
- Surface swimming before and after a dive
- Getting back on the boat or to shore
- Strong surf, surge or current. You may need to work harder to stay in close proximity to the boat or stay out of the way of hazards.
- Helping a buddy out in need, either by towing or carrying gear.
But wait s second! Although these things require their fare share of energy none of them are the real reason we burn calories when diving!
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Why We Burn Calories When Diving
It is probably not something you have thought so much about especially in consideration of the more obvious physical challenges of diving. Temperature or more precisely our bodies thermo regulation is actually how we burn most of our calories.
Almost all the water we dive in quite a bit cooler than our our bodies core temperature of around 37’c. Bearing in mind water takes heat away from the body 20 times faster than air it means whilst diving we are going to be getting colder even in warm tropical water.
Now like lighting a fire to warm a cold house our bodies start burning more energy (calories) to stay warm. Exposure suits help slow the cooling but will not be able to stop it.
PADI estimates on a standard scuba dive in temperate water a diver will burn as much as 600 calories an hour. This is roughly the equivalent of going for an hour long jog!
Boat dives in warm waters burn a little less at approximately 300 calories and hour. Even so this means if you do 3 dives in a day you will burn about 900 calories, 36-45% the usual calorie requirement.
This also means that the colder the water and more challenging the conditions the more calories you will burn.
Bearing that in mind scuba diving should not be used as a way to loose weight. If that is your overall aim then it will obviously help but good physical fitness is something you should be striving for before diving. Poor fitness and high body fat levels can be an added risk factor in terms of decompression sickness.
That being said I have never met someone who dives purely for the calories it burns!
It almost seem like a dream come true to think you can stay in good shape doing something you love but the answer is yes! You burn calories whilst diving.
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