I can't help but notice....

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

The last one I dealt with, 2 weeks ago was his dive 1 of the day, 25 feet deep, no current. 59 yo wm with a history of heart problems. Warm - clear water. Not a fat guy.

This dive didn't even require exercise other than gearing up.

 

[The Chairman]

Plus, an obese, out of shape diver sucks as a buddy.

Ah, good ol' stereotypes. I am obese, but how out of shape am I? I can swim circles around most divers and even instructors. So please, if you're going to have a bias against me, don't bother diving with me. My heart rate is 55 right now, and I just got through unloading an engine hoist in the rain.

People die just as easily from being stupid as they do from being old or fat. So, go on that treadmill... my achilles won't allow it. Next time you see a manatee in the water, tell them they have no business being there. Think about it, have you ever seen a skinny marine mammal? But then, I'm done with your attitude, so I'll unsubscribe from this thread now. I don't like being stereotyped... no matter how well intentioned.

 

[Kharon]

So while obesity as a choice may be fine, ...

Nonsense. In many cases, obesety is not a choice - it's an effing burden. I work out in the gym 6 days a week, eat 1000 calories or less every day and I can't lose a pound. It's not my choice and anyone who says it is ... Well, I don't want to be offensive.

 

[Jack Hammer]

People who are older and get into scuba diving without a base level of physical conditioning are rolling the dice. Scuba burns a lot of calories, it doesn't do that magically, it requires a deceptive amount of energy. Do the math...

 

[Stoo]

I knew my comments would be offensive to some and I apologize for that, but sometimes the truth stings. I don't profess to be a fitness guru, but I also truly don't believe that it's possible to be fit and obese. If your "outer body" is laden with adipose tissue, then the arteries pretty much need to be as well... don't they? Anyone who I know well, who is obese is not in shape. They might be "strong" but that's a different thing.

And I also readily acknowledge than many people have trouble maintaining a healthy body weight, in spite of trips to the gym and watching their diet. Deferring to a friend who is a fitness coach, trainer, and who works in sports medicine and fitness training... If you are going to the gym six days a week, and "really" only eating 1000 calories a day, something isn't right. Pumping iron won't get you fit, or lose pounds. It just makes you strong. Similarly, plodding up and down a pool doing laps won't get you especially fit. Again, it will build upper body strength, but unless you are doing sprints part of the time, the cardio workout isn't huge. Maybe consulting with a fitness coach would be money well spent.

These days, there's a great movement to love our bodies, regardless of the shape. There's an entire industry that's reassuring people that "big is beautiful"... and it's great... but it's also BS to large extent.

Obesity leads to all sorts of health problems... diabetes, heart disease, arthritis... It's the largest cause of health problems and for the most part, it's preventable.

I am sorry to be offensive... and for those that don't know me, I am NOT some rakish freak who runs 1000 km a week and only eats kale. I could afford to lose a few pounds too. I should exercise more than I do. My comments are aimed at me as well!

I also believe that when it comes to diving, the real problem is the new diver, who is out of shape. Experience can help to keep us out of harms way simply by knowing how to avoid situations where "fitness" becomes a survival tool!

 

[Diver0001]

Ok.... I'm going to jump on Stoo's band wagon a bit here..... Being in Europe it's hard to relate to the acceptance of obesity the way an American can.

I agree with him that you cannot be "fit" and "obese". These things seem mutually exclusive to me. That doesn't mean to me that if you are obese that you are necessarily morbidly unhealthy apart from the obvious risk factors. There are also complications for diving from being too skinny. I have a student in training right now who has about 3% body fat. She is kind of like a humming bird. She needs to eat all the time or she will lose weight. It's hard for her to even gain a few kilograms and if she stops eating for a short time the weight starts to melt off again....

.... naturally .... this makes me feel the searing frustration of injustice. I am seriously jealous of her tall, blonde, skinny, well tattooed, looking amazing in a bikini guts for that. but that's another story. The complication is, of course, that she gets cold very fast.... She said that she would gladly trade with her boyfriend or me (both of us look like fat sad little bacon addicted hobbits compared to her) to which we scoffed in jealous rejection and she insisted that she was serious.... but ok. As you can see I get to know my OW students fairly well as we go

Back to obesity.

Of course you can be obese and strong (look at sumo wrestlers). You can also be obese and in tune with your body. You can be obese and highly agile as many dancing videos on youtube will prove. You can be obese an have a high degree of mental peace (many spiritual leaders have shown us). You can be obese and be a truly amazing human being ... you can be obese and be a utterly earthshaking lover .... but you cannot be obese and fit. Fit may, in fact, be the only thing you cannot be if you are obese.

I also agree with his suggestion that whether or not you gain or lose weight can be reduced to arithmetic. What goes in, what goes out and the different is either positive or negative.

How you choose to approach that (increase calories burned or decrease calories consumed) seems to be less important than keeping track of it. You know the two groups of people who keep the closest track of their caloric intake? Top athletes and people on weight watchers.

As for scuba diving, I've seen divers of every shape and size and I don't see any reason whatsoever that someone who is obese cannot be a diver. There are some complications, like needing extra ballast and finding gear that fits... but in general I don't see being obese as being incompatible with diving. I do see it as being something that generally makes life harder and may prematurely block you from continuing to be a diver as your body ages, but to disqualify someone for being obese alone is not something that I would feel comfortable doing.

R..

 

[DavidFL]

The OP invites correlating one thing with another, and sort of begs for stereotyping. I agree with Pete that stereotyping on one or two traits is not particularly useful.

I'm one year short of 70, have been diving for 50 years, and if you add the trait of body shape / fitness many would conclude I'm in good shape. One of the main reasons my BMI is what it is, is that I'm a lifelong long-distance, endurance cyclist. As a possible consequence of that lifelong activity, maybe even a causal relationship, I have osteopenia and have had two DVT's and a PE, neither of which is obvious from looking me over. Will either of those things increase my chances of having a medical-related dive incident? As far as I can tell, the data is equivocal, but it is certainly possible.

The tie breaker for me isn't body type or age, it's the brain. If I'm choosing a dive buddy or worrying about the other people on a boat or in a group diving, the critical determinant is the individual human beings: how they think and express themselves; how self-aware they are about their own capabilities and limitations, and how inquisitive they are about mine.

 

[DandyDon]

Hit the treadmill folks... it ain't that hard.

Well, I hike around town at times - but it's just boring. I really do have to push myself. Yesterday I did yard & cemetery work until I was beat, and that's more appealing.

I thought this thread was about age...??

 

[Jack Hammer]

It is very possible to be fit and obese, they aren't mutually exclusive. I'm not referring to the semantics of the definition of "obese" but what the general usage of the term means, big, round, flabby, and "overweight". I've known some extremely large folk who were fine in the water and surprisingly athletic. However, they aren't the norm.

 

[2airishuman]

It's kind of ironic... they want you to exercise and if you die while doing that, they criticize you for it post mortem.

I'm 60. I'm obese. I dive. How much more obese would I be if I couldn't dive? Would I like, er love, to lose weight? Hell yes. I haven't been successful in that regard, but I won't stop trying and diving will always be a part of my life.

Diving aside, in the broader population it is still not entirely clear to what extent and under what circumstances obesity contributes to morbidity. There are so many confounding factors, since obesity is closely correlated with lack of exercise, diabetes, lack of social network, etc. There is a growing consensus that a lack of exercise is the causal factor for much of the morbidity previously associated with obesity.