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How does body fat effect freediving performance

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Matt84

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Nov 22, 2008
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I was wondering how does excess body fat effect ones freediving ability ?
how does it effect oxygen consumption ? will losing body fat improve my performance?

thanks
matt
 
Body fat burns O2, and obese people have oxygen consumption rates that are dramatically higher than skinny people.

So, in general, excess fat will be detrimental to freediving performance. The only exception I'm aware of is if you are diving without a wetsuit in cold water. In some situations the extra insulation of the fat can outweigh the drawbacks. But even then only a slightly extra amount of fat would work -- too much would be bad even in cold water.
 
Although Eric is basically right, I believe that the topic is far more complex than it looks like. There are so many factors, that I think, it would be premature to make any conclusions about the influence of body fat on your performance. I mention some of them:
  1. As Eric told the extra insulation may reduce oxygen consumption
  2. Body fat not only reduces shivering, but also increases the rise of blood pressure at vasoconstriction, which in turn may help sustaining hypoxia better
  3. Also, after the diving response with vasoconstriction kics in, the blood circulation in the fat, and hence its consumption, is radically reduced
  4. At people with obesity tendency, the metabolism rates (and hence oxygen consumption) are often slower
  5. The increased mass may help you in some disciplines
  6. The body hydrodynamics may be influenced
  7. The volume of blood is higher, hence the obese freediver can stock more oxygen
... and there are many other factors in the metabolism, in physiology, but also in the psychology, that may influence the performance. Although being myself overweight, I do not want to advocate obesity, but want to point out that the relation between body fat and performance in freediving is not at all as obvious as at most other sport.

In our club, we are about 50 freedivers, and I am (with 80kg / 173cm) the one with most body fat (and with 47 years, the second oldest one). And although I can barely compete with the best ones in serial hypercapnic diving, I have the best results in dynamic apnea. Well, it is certainly true that it does not mean I would not have even better results if I were skinny, but I do not think it is sure. I'd welcome some serious research in this field.
 
Reactions: MsVitaminSea, DylansFinest, BrittanyP and 1 other person
We have a guy at our club who is probably in excess of 120kg's who dives to 30m, bear in mind that 30m in melbourne is a deep dive. He also has a pretty damn good bottom time from what I've heard.
 
I have kept a log of my body weight alongside with my freediving results for several years. I have no doubt that when my BMI is 22.5 my results are better than when it was 24.

That's about all one can say. To say that an overweight person can still do a good dive is not conclusive, because you don't know what the guy would achieve if he was less overweight (and a sudden drastic diet might leave him too weak). Also fat is not necessarily distributed in the same way for everybody.
 
Reactions: MsVitaminSea
Well, the log comparing your performance and BMI is not conclusive either, especially if the BMI sinks in time as the performance continually rises. The rise in performance at freedivers is normal even until relatively high age. If you've put off some mass during the time, it may have no relation to the performance increase. The log would be only interesting if both curves changed frequently, and in accordance, in both directions.

As I wrote, I believe the topic is much more complex than we think, and drawing any conclusions from simplified ideas is not necessarily correct.
 
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Reactions: emile.c
I have more questions than answers on this topic and one observation.

I know two divers that are very close in many ways except for age and body fat. Too many variables to draw any conclusions but fat doesn't seem to have much affect.

Do you think that body fat might help apnea by providing an extra place to store CO2 ?

Can the space occupied by internal fat reduce lung expansion ? In my case, ten kilos of excess fat is apparently stored externally and internally in a 50/50 ratio. I think that five kilos inside the body cavity occupies over four litres of space.
 
Reactions: trux
Excellent comments, Bill. Indeed, those are certainly additional factors that further complicate the final balance of the impact of excess fat.

And yes, CO2 as well as nitrogen are soluble in body fat. I do not know how well exactly, or how fast the process occurs, but I definitely think you hit one of the clues with this question. I found a study about the solubility of CO2 in body fat,so perhaps someone with full access to medical literature can tell us the details:
Solubility of carbon dioxide in body fat. [Science. 1957] - PubMed Result

And as for the lung volume limitation, I think you may be right too. Though on the other hand, as far as I remember my vital capacity did not really change from my younger days, when I was still pretty skinny. Unfortunately I have no spirometry data to compare.However, there are some documents speaking about the influence of body fat on the respiratory volumes, so I am going to look at it:
lung volume body fat - Google Search
 
BTW, I also found several documents about slimmnig therapies using injections of carbon dioxide into the subcutaneous tissue (for example this one: Slimming by CO2)

I see a great commercial potential in offering slimming apnea courses instead of these injection therapies
 
Reactions: MsVitaminSea
BMI is the most useless piece of information that has ever been put down on paper and been certified for anything. My current BMI is 25/26 somewhere in that region, and I am 184cm tall and weigh around 85kg, I have 10% body fat yet the BMI scale tells me that I'm over weight. Go get a skin fold test, stop wasting your time with BMI as it's old technology that has been outdated and is worthless.
 
Reactions: Easy G
Thats okay Matt. No problem.

Trux, i hope your not wearing your new signed hat outside of the house. You will get a nice matching white coat with long arms if you do rofl
 
Reactions: Lyoshka
Hmm, new coat! Who wants to sign my new white coat?! Plenty of room remaining!
 
Reactions: Lyoshka
well i was going to ask what a good diet would be to lose weight and help my performance best... but with what ive read it seems fat is the new thin..

but aside from losing weight what would be maybe somthing to avoid eating like sugars or what?
 
In general, the more organic, less processed, food with the least chemicals, will allow you body to combat illness, and recover from strenuous work the best.

You need foods to recover properly (proteins), and to be fueled properly ahead of workouts, but out of all things a less artificially influenced diet will do more than you think.

It's a process and that will develop usually out of need or realizing how terrible average food is for an athlete requiring consistent high levels of performance. It's one of the reasons why most athletes drop off and can't compete after their youth...diet/hydration/lifestyle/....takes commitment.
 
well my normal diet consists of fast food (mainly bugers) 3 meals a day.. ive eat'n this way for a few years now... ive made the decision to cut out soda tho.... its just water for me now.

but as far as the food goes... i have trouble finding good hardy meals that taste good and are good for you. i bassically end up eating lettuce with ranch and tuna sandwiches... but that gets old fast.
 
I hear you, and I know the food people don't make it easy.

(Your energy levels will even out without soda if you get over the slump of not having it.)

I can say, try little by little to get away from the fast food, and refined sugars, ...go to the grocery store, grab vegetables that look good, and hopefully are organically grown, blend whatever you like in a blender with nuts/seeds/fruit/... drink it up for a meal a day or every other day to start.

no kidding, eat as much raw food, as you can. maybe make your own meals ahead of time for the next day.

separately, seafood is good for protein, try doing things different, than you do already.

read about food when you can, look up things, try to take an interest in it some and it will come easier. The main point is it a huge effort to really eat like an athlete and the food companies know it and have taken advantage of how far towards convenient and away from healthy society has gotten. Most food is drastically bad for you and taxes the body to the extent of poor recovery athletically and early disease.

Do you actually know what is in your food that you eat regularly?

Most people can't transition away because it seems like too much to do but it's possible. Good luck- I am trying to get better at it myself.
 
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Reactions: Lyoshka
well thanks for the info, ill do my best...

how long will the "withdrawls" be getting off soda before it starts to help me more then hurt me?

and also what would help me not get muscle cramps as bad... ive gotten some pretty serious ones (mainly in my calves)... once i was diving and my left calve locked up pretty bad... i had to swim to shore with one that leg useless. the muscle must have torn because it was sore for over a week. then another time the worst one i have gotten to date... i was in the pool after practicing blowing all my air out and sinking to the bottom at one point or another i pushed off the bottom on my toes and my calve locked up. if that one woulda happened in the ocean id be screwed. i had to lay on my back in the water and my friend massaged it out with my leg on his shoulder. it hurt so bad i was laughing. plus the sight of a baseball sized knot in the back of my leg was pretty amazing.
 
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