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body fat and apnea

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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ruddyduck

New Member
Mar 24, 2003
30
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I just reviewed 18 pages of thread topics but didn't see any addressing body fat and how it affects underwater performance. I'm a little overwieght and enjoy exercise in the water because it's so easy on the joints. I don't know my fat percentage, but I sink with empty lungs in salt water and half-empty lungs in fresh.Do any of you know how body fat affects breath-hold times or diving physiology?
 
I have been wondering the same thing. I've tried looking at the people that have the best times. This works with most sports,
if you want to sprint you need big muscle legs. I think for simple
breath holds mind over matter is the biggest thing. For depth
strong legs, a slim body and practice seem to be common among
the best. I've never seen a dolphin with a pot belly.
 
I am constantly battling the 20+ lbs of cold water insulation that I have acquired.

I am constantly trying to figure out a way of losing that middle section of my torso that looks out of place in relation to the rest of my body.

If anyone has a key to burning this !#$@! fat off and keeping it off, I would love to hear from you. I gained about 12 - 15 lbs back over the last year and I think it is affecting my static apnea times adversely.

I can't get anywhere near my PB now for Statics and it is becoming very discouraging. :head

But then again, have you ever seen the physical make up of freediver Dieter Baumann???
 
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My key to losing weight is to remain hungry for 30min before
eating. Then eat only enough to keep you from being hungry for
awhile. It has worked for me for a few years, I lost 15% of my body weight. I also increased the running portion of my workout
to include 5 miles instead of three.
The basics, eat less, workout more.
 
Originally posted by ramstam
My key to losing weight is to remain hungry for 30min before
eating. Then eat only enough to keep you from being hungry for
awhile. It has worked for me for a few years, I lost 15% of my body weight. I also increased the running portion of my workout
to include 5 miles instead of three.
The basics, eat less, workout more.

The only problem I have is running - my knees do not handle the impact from running :head
 
Ramstam:
I've never seen a dolphin with a pot belly.

They are pretty sleek animals, but they have a layer of sculpted blubber over their bodies. I think they have more body fat than the average american.Does fat store oxygen, or CO2?

Cliff- I lost 40 pounds, kept 35 off, now I'm about 15 pounds over my target. I just quit eating carbohydrates, started eating a lot of fat. At this point the only way I loose is to exercise more. I don't do enough, but I sure won't run, too much damage already. Skating, biking, the pool and the sea all seem a lot gentler .

Meanwhile, I don't think that spare tire adds much drag. It smooths out when I'm in the water, and forms a nice fairing over my abdominal muscles: no ugly , drag-inducing ripples here! Perhaps the skinny guys are leading the pack because they're in better over-all condition.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Good Point ruddy...

It's hard to give up carbs when you like to eat sushi like I do - in fact that's what's on the menu for dinner tonight...

Due to the economy, haven't been able to afford to go to the gym for awhile, hence my weight gain...

But I still practice my deep breathing skills that Rudi Castineyra taught me and am working on using the static tables that Aharon & MT Solomans have made available.

It's about all that is saving my sanity and my self discipline with freediving ;)
 
Exercise "in apnea" good for burning calories

My suspicion is that exercise in apnea burns more calories than the equivalent amount of aerobic exercise, since the reduction in available O2 forces the body to rely on anaerobic glycolysis. I was unable to easily find any resources that compared the relative efficiencies of the anaerobic vs aerobic glycolysis when treated as a cycle. If I remember correctly, anaerobic glycolosis has something like 1/18th the energy yield per molecule of glucose, but there is a certain amount of "recycling" that takes place when the oxygen debt is repaid, so the overall efficiency of anaerobic glycolysis is greater than 1/18th that of the aerobic cycle. If anyone knows the relative overall efficiency of the two cycles, I'd be very interested.

At any rate, I'm pretty sure that the anaerobic effort burns more calories than an equivalent amount of work performed aerobically and I do know that the "love handles" disappear when I do a lot of diving. I've been attributing this to the tremendous amount of anaerobic effort that is exerted in a day of diving.

Can anyone confirm, refute or elaborate on this idea that exercise in apnea burns more calories? If it is true, then being a little heavy should be all the more reason to get in the water.
 
I have found that I lose weight when 'deep' diving a couple of times a week. This is apparently quite normal, but test have shown that body fat remains constant, implying that you lose muscle - bummer...
 
Go Diving!:D

The last city I lived in had me only two blocks away from one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. That means I could dive 2-5 days a week year round. Weight was never a problem. I could eat whatever i wanted to.

Now that I have moved about 90km away I don't get to hit the water as much as I would like to, plus a new baby takes away some time as well:D. I now find myslef watching what I eat and planning to exercise more- something I didn't have to worry about in the past.

My father-in-law dives a couple days a week year round and he eats WHATEVER he wants. He still has managed to stay pretty trim. It is not genetics because his 3 brothers are all pretty huge. The only difference is the amount of time he spends diving in cold water.

In the summer time around here I will wear my 3mm suit, even if the water temps call for a 5-6mm. My early dives have nice long statics, for me, and when I start to chill they get shorter and shorter. When my teeth chater later it scares away some of the fish that I am trying to shoot. When this happens I just swim around a bit.

It isn't that bad a deal and I know I am burning a ton of calories when I start to shiver. I could wear my winter suit, but then I would be loosing out on the weight loss opportunity.

I don't try this in winter because hypothermia is more critical when your diving in ice and it's below freezing outside. Caution is the key during that time of year, but in the summer time it's all fair game to loose weight. If I could get in the water everyday I know I could be as thin as Pierre, Eric and the rest. Since I can't, I watch what I eat and hit the pool and gym a couple days a week.:waterwork

Jon
 
look at the seals

seals have alot of body fat and it dosen't seem to bother them...

i don't know what effct does body fat have on boyancy -- there is something that Effatah said about that (don't know where)..

Jure
 
Don`t worry

One of the guys training with me has got a little "belly" and doesn`t seem to make a lot of endurance sports while I am rather thin and go running several times a week. I can reach 3.30 in static apnea and he reaches 6.00 Minutes! Even in dynamic he is much better. Don`t worry about BMI! Just forget it!:mad:
 
I have heard that "fast axe wood chopping" is the only sport that burns more calories than freediving.

how true that is I would never imagine to know.

herman
 
I took the Advanced Free Diver course at Divetech a few weeks ago and learned a little more about body fat. Fat absorbs more CO2 than muscle or bone. Blood seems to be the primary organ for oxygen storage. I haven't worked out the implications for apnea exercise yet.

Cliff:It's hard to give up carbs when you like to eat sushi like I do - in fact that's what's on the menu for dinner tonight...

If you wanna try a low-carb diet you could try substituting shredded cucumber or other low-carb vegetable for the rice in sushi. You'll probably want to dress the vege with oil as well as vinager. Most fish doesn't have enough oil to satisfy. E-mail me if you want any more recipes. I've been off carbs so long rice doesn't even taste good anymore . And this from a guy who used to eat Oriental/Cajun quantities of rice.

As far as diving for weight loss, four days of freediving off Grand Cayman led to 8 pounds lost. If I could dive every day I'd disappear in about 3 months.
 
Here is the answer you will either love it or hate it.

You will swim in the water.

You will swim in the cold cold water.

You will swim in the cold cold water with no wetsuit. Nor a dry suit.

Swimming in cold water (I do swim in 2° celsius with no wetsuit) burns massive amounts of calories, I estimate at least 1000.

I was about 2-4kg over weight, started regularly swimming in cold water and now can eat all i want too.



Cliff Etzel said:
I am constantly battling the 20+ lbs of cold water insulation that I have acquired.

I am constantly trying to figure out a way of losing that middle section of my torso that looks out of place in relation to the rest of my body.

If anyone has a key to burning this !#$@! fat off and keeping it off, I would love to hear from you. I gained about 12 - 15 lbs back over the last year and I think it is affecting my static apnea times adversely.

I can't get anywhere near my PB now for Statics and it is becoming very discouraging. :head

But then again, have you ever seen the physical make up of freediver Dieter Baumann???
 
I've been reading Terry Maas' book lately and in it he claims that freediving is second only to wood chopping in burning energy. If I recall correctly, he claimed that there's research that shows that it consumes up to 1200kcal per hour for an average diver (which would be way more than for example jogging). Most of that is of course heat geneartion. Could this be right? Sounds very high and also contradicting to my own physique ;)

With that kind of consumption, we should all be pretty sleek. So how come I'm also packing a respectable gut? (yes I know, the obvious answer is because you eat more than a small family) If anything, I'd say I gained during the summer season although performance wise I'm in the shape of my life (lots of jogging and working out in addition to diving) and watch what I eat.
 
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I once weighed 120 kilo's and I'm a short ass, I now weigh 85 kilo's which is just right :

No booze, can't burn it off easily
No wheat or associated products (eat beans and pulses instead)
raw vegies (for breakfast, lunch and dinner) no cooked vegies
NO RED MEAT!!!!! only eggs and fish (hard for me as I'm a BBQ freak) but a good excuse to get in the water
Drink only water, 2 liters a day minimum

The first week was hell I had massive cravings and was grumpy, after that I noticed that I was waking up in the morning refreshed and started waking up earlier each day (no alarm clock) my stomach was no longer bloated and the thought of junk food and soft drink was"yuck" Two weeks on and the weight was falling off me (no exercise) after a month I started to eat red meat again and could feel the slugishness returning so I kept the consumption to a minimum.

Beeing free from processed foods did two things for me, no body odor and gave me energy like I was 15 again.

The key for me anyway was to detox and clean out my system (caffine, alchol, processed sugars and wheats) the whole weight loss took no effort or energy just the will power to stop putting crap into my mouth.This hleps your body become efficient and like apnea efficiency is the key. I think of it like this; your body can only do so much so if its cleaning all day your not processing fat (not scientific I know but the less of the said groups of food I ate the more efficient I burned fat and the cleaner I felt)
 
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