How does body fat effect freediving performance

[myfish]

Personally i went through a big weight loss about 4 years ago.

wasn't freediving then or measuring breath hold but i seriously doubt that at
21st 12lb i would have been any good.

Thousands of miles of bike training and dieting brought that down to 13st 12lb or around there give or take a few pounds depending upon hydration.

Aspartame ?
Steer clear. I switched to 'diet' soda's as part of my extensive diet. Very bad reaction to it i had and it took over a year to track down why i was suffering from raging headaches.

My brother is sub 11st and he gets cold in the water way faster than me.
2 hours is more than enough and he often wears a 7mm suit as opposed to my standard 5mm.

Body fat percentage for me is around 17% and much less for my brother.
When he gets chilly, apnea times decrease for him through a session but mine generally improve over a 2 hour period as i don't feel the cold at all in current sea temperatures ( 17 C ).

However, back when it was only 11 - 12 C, a 20 minute session was tough for either of us until, we'd done a few dives when down times would improve quite quickly until we both started to get cold.

Even though i'm still around 194lb i wouldn't classify myself as fat !
sure, i have residual body fat from my life as a couch potato but i do really keep fit and often ride 100 mile cycle rides in sub 4:30 times.

So fat, and fitness are relative.

A guy can be BIG and fit or BIG and FAT and unfit.
We often swim over a mile,sometimes 2 or 3 on a spearfishing trip.
This is when you know who falls into which category and strangely, its not always the thinnest guys who have the best apnea or swim performances.

 

[FreeRestriction]

yea i too notice the weight keeping me warm. when i started free diving about 4-5 months ago the water was 59F and i could stay in there aslong as i wanted without getting cold... and i didnt even have a wetsuit. just a pair of swim trunks. my friend on the other had who is alot thinner can only last so long in 67F water with a 2mm spring suit before he starts shivering.

 

[falaahart]

Please note most obese people have high vo2max. This means higher oxygen consumption. Another thing to consider is obese people lung volume. One more thing is bad hydrodynamics of most obese people. I say "most" because there are some people who are muscular but still lean. Then we must look at the majority of elite free divers. Almost all of them lean with very low belly fat ratio.

 

[Pinniped72]

One thing to keep in mind after any real weight loss, especially if the loss was in combination with exercise is the buoyancy difference, it can be really marked! I am now negative in fresh water and barely neutral in salt were before I would struggle to stay under without weight. I have had to drop Kg's from my weight belt. Luckily the first time I really noticed this was in the pool a few years back. I had been out the water for a while and the negative buoyancy in fresh water was alarming till I got used to it.... just something to keep in mind

 

[Mr. X]

Please note most obese people have high vo2max.

Hi, do you have a reference to back-up this comment? Also, which definition of V02Max do you use: wiki says:

"VO2 max is expressed either as an absolute rate in (for example) litres of oxygen per minute (L/min) or as a relative rate in (for example) millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body mass per minute (e.g., mL/(kg·min))."

Although I have only seen the latter used, which takes into account body mass.

 

[Pinniped72]

Personally i went through a big weight loss about 4 years ago.

wasn't freediving then or measuring breath hold but i seriously doubt that at
21st 12lb i would have been any good.

Thousands of miles of bike training and dieting brought that down to 13st 12lb or around there give or take a few pounds depending upon hydration.

Aspartame ?
Steer clear. I switched to 'diet' soda's as part of my extensive diet. Very bad reaction to it i had and it took over a year to track down why i was suffering from raging headaches.

My brother is sub 11st and he gets cold in the water way faster than me.
2 hours is more than enough and he often wears a 7mm suit as opposed to my standard 5mm.

Body fat percentage for me is around 17% and much less for my brother.
When he gets chilly, apnea times decrease for him through a session but mine generally improve over a 2 hour period as i don't feel the cold at all in current sea temperatures ( 17 C ).

However, back when it was only 11 - 12 C, a 20 minute session was tough for either of us until, we'd done a few dives when down times would improve quite quickly until we both started to get cold.

Even though i'm still around 194lb i wouldn't classify myself as fat !
sure, i have residual body fat from my life as a couch potato but i do really keep fit and often ride 100 mile cycle rides in sub 4:30 times.

So fat, and fitness are relative.

A guy can be BIG and fit or BIG and FAT and unfit.
We often swim over a mile,sometimes 2 or 3 on a spearfishing trip.
This is when you know who falls into which category and strangely, its not always the thinnest guys who have the best apnea or swim performances.

I totally agree, I was at the pool one evening, its a no fin pool and there was this bloke swimming lanes, he looked heavily overweight and had a hairier body than me, which means he had sasquatch DNA in the mix and he was flying, I mean proper flying length after length non stop machine! It was impressive actually, in water whatever sport or activity your doing the excess weight will not be as negative to performance as for land based sports and there is definitely the manoprene effect, without doubt! To be honest my spearfishing would probably benefit from a bit of excess weight, I am just so damn vain! ....................... minus the hairy body, obviously, American werewolf eat your heart out type body hair.............its not good!

 

[MarcinB]

Please note most obese people have high vo2max. This means higher oxygen consumption.

VO2max is the maximal possible rate of oxygen consumption that is achieved during extremely intensive exercise. This has nothing to do with resting oxygen consumption which is important for freediving. It's not true that obese people have higher VO2max. It depends primarily on muscle mass since fat does not consume much oxygen. This is the reason why relative values of VO2max (expressed per kg of body mass) are usually lower in obese people compared to lean ones.

 

[Lyoshka]

Seals are fat, whales are fat, i'm fat.

Were all top divers

There proveth my theory.

Fat is good

I heart you
preparing to take my Level I course with FII in a month and I know i won't be where i want to be, weight-wise. Your post makes my heart happy

 

[Lyoshka]

Personally i went through a big weight loss about 4 years ago.

wasn't freediving then or measuring breath hold but i seriously doubt that at
21st 12lb i would have been any good.

Thousands of miles of bike training and dieting brought that down to 13st 12lb or around there give or take a few pounds depending upon hydration.

Aspartame ?
Steer clear. I switched to 'diet' soda's as part of my extensive diet. Very bad reaction to it i had and it took over a year to track down why i was suffering from raging headaches.

My brother is sub 11st and he gets cold in the water way faster than me.
2 hours is more than enough and he often wears a 7mm suit as opposed to my standard 5mm.

Body fat percentage for me is around 17% and much less for my brother.
When he gets chilly, apnea times decrease for him through a session but mine generally improve over a 2 hour period as i don't feel the cold at all in current sea temperatures ( 17 C ).

However, back when it was only 11 - 12 C, a 20 minute session was tough for either of us until, we'd done a few dives when down times would improve quite quickly until we both started to get cold.

Even though i'm still around 194lb i wouldn't classify myself as fat !
sure, i have residual body fat from my life as a couch potato but i do really keep fit and often ride 100 mile cycle rides in sub 4:30 times.

So fat, and fitness are relative.

A guy can be BIG and fit or BIG and FAT and unfit.
We often swim over a mile,sometimes 2 or 3 on a spearfishing trip.
This is when you know who falls into which category and strangely, its not always the thinnest guys who have the best apnea or swim performances.

Myfish, you do a century ride at a 22mph pace? RESPECT!!!!

 

[Davos]

I think cardiovascular fitness is probably more important than body fat percentage. Most important - how quickly your heart rate recovers. As people have stated, some extra body fat won't get in the way of that.

In fact, dropping body fat is 90% cutting calories. You could probably do HIIT training everyday and still sit at 20% body fat.

Personally I feel better when I'm leaner, but it's not something I'd put a lot of stress on. For most of us it's more important just to focus on relaxing and becoming efficient in the water.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HLanger1955]

Perhaps it needs both, excercise & diet. Otherwise one looses to much muscles. And I feel more relaxed in water being in good physical shape.