Weight gain-how much extra weight to add?

[sudsy]

Hi

I was wondering if i used 20lbs of weight in coz and my body weight 180lbs.

Now my question is. I gained 10 lbs now 190lbs how much extra weight should i add to my belt to compensate for weight gain? My friend says to add 4lbs weight bringing it to 24lbs on weight belt. Does that sound right?

thanks
Sudsy

 

[seaducer]

No, and for that matter 20 pounds in the tropics sounds like a whole bunch to much as well.

You will want to do a bouyancy check. Get in the water in your gear, empty your bcd, and exhale. Keep adding wieght until you start to sink. If your tank is full, add about 5 pounds.

You may find that even though you added cookie pounds, you can still remove lead pounds when diving. Especially in a warm place like Cozumel, where you are not wearing much for exposure protection.

20 pounds is what I wear with a 7mm FJ, and I can stand to lose quite a few beers from my belly

 

[oly5050user]

Hi

I was wondering if i used 20lbs of weight in coz and my body weight 180lbs.

Now my question is. I gained 10 lbs now 190lbs how much extra weight should i add to my belt to compensate for weight gain? My friend says to add 4lbs weight bringing it to 24lbs on weight belt. Does that sound right?

thanks
Sudsy

What are you wearing for a suit in Coz? A dry suit?
1 weigh in at 180 and use 6 to 8 lbs in a 3mm full suit and if I use a 5mm it goes up to 10-12lbs..Sounds like you are using the lead as ballast and the bcd for floatation.Ideally with a completly empty bcd and a breath of air in your lungs you should float.only sink on a FULL exhalation. If I used a 20 weight with a 5mm suit I'd sink like a rock and have to fill up my bcd more than 1/2 way to get neutral at 10' of depth...

 

[Teamcasa]

Are you diving the same configuration? If so, a single pound should do the trick. Just do a buoyancy check at the end of your dive to be sure.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

Right on with what Teamcase said......if what you have been requiring is 20#m even if that seem high, then go up 1# for the extra weight gain.

 

[mselenaous]

Straight from the instructors manual:

Basic Guidelines:​

Exposure Suit Type Begin With​

1. Swimsuit or dive skin 0.5 - 2 kg/1 - 4 lb.
2. Thin (3 mm/1/16 inch), one-piece 5% of your body weight
wet suits shorties or jump suits
3. Medium-thickness (5mm/3/16 inch), 10% of your body weight
Two-piece wet suit
4. Cold-water (7mm/1/4 inch), two-piece 10% of your body weight,
wet suit with hood and boots plus 1.5 - 3 kg/3 - 5 lb.
5. Neoprene dry suits 10% of your body weight,
plus 3 - 5 kg/7 - 10 lb.
6. Shell-style dry suits* (using light-weight, 10% of your body weight,
nonfoam underwear) plus 1.5 - 3 kg/3 - 5 lb.
7. Shell style dry suits* (using heavy-weight 10% of your body weight,
or foam underwear) plus 3 - 7 kg/7 - 14 lb.​

* Regarding shell-style drysuits the lead needed beyond 10% of your body weight is
primarily determined by the buoyancy of your underwear. The buoyancy of different
underwear types varies greatly.​

Conversion Estimates for Salt or Fresh Water​

Convert from salt water to fresh water (or vice versa) using the following estimates.​

Amount of Weight to Add
(Fresh Water to Salt Water) or
Body Weight Subtract (Salt Water to Fresh Water)​

45 - 56 kg/100 - 125 lb. 2 kg/4 lb.
57 - 70 kg/126 - 155 lb. 2.3 kg/5 lb.
71 - 85 kg/156 - 186 lb. 3 kg/6 lb.​

86 - 99 kg/187 - 217 lb. 3.2 kg/7 lb.

Sounds to me like you are overweighted to begin with...When I was working in the tropics I rarely put more than 10-12 lbs on any diver (8-9 on smaller women).

Do a proper weight check on the surface before (full tank) and after (empty tank) to fine tune your bouyancy.

 

[String]

Hi


Now my question is. I gained 10 lbs now 190lbs how much extra weight should i add to my belt to compensate for weight gain

Absolutely none. Thats way too small to have any real world effect. Agree with others too - 20lbs in those conditions sounds like about 15lbs too much already.

Best answer - do a proper full weight check and stop guessing. I'd ignore any of the so called formulae - ive yet to see one that comes even close for anyone.

 

[Garrobo]

All this stuff about only using 6 or 8 pounds of lead at 180 pounds and wearing a 3mm full is so much BS when you are at 30-35% (or more) body fat like most of the population. Now if you are a lean and mean 20 year old with 20% or less of fat I might agree with you. Most of us in the real world, like myself at 69 years old, can figure at least 10% of your body weight in lead. I weigh 180 and I can sink with 16 pounds. This is the minumum I can use to remain stationary at the safety stop. Any less and I can't stay down.

 

[oly5050user]

All this stuff about only using 6 or 8 pounds of lead at 180 pounds and wearing a 3mm full is so much BS when you are at 30-35% (or more) body fat like most of the population. Now if you are a lean and mean 20 year old with 20% or less of fat I might agree with you. Most of us in the real world, like myself at 69 years old, can figure at least 10% of your body weight in lead. I weigh 180 and I can sink with 16 pounds. This is the minumum I can use to remain stationary at the safety stop. Any less and I can't stay down.

I am 58 yr old and weigh 175 sometimes 180 lb and use 6/8 lb in a 3mm suit...same amount when I was a lean and mean -150 lb 20 yr old-but with a 25lb belly now!Every person that comes to me for a refresher class at the pool use's too much weight and I have been able to take off them usually half the amount of weight they use -sometimes even more-sometimes a little less-but always some off. Sometimes its because they do not know how to position themselves to dump all air out of bcd or they use the lead as ballast and the bcd as an elevator to ascend or they do not know how to RELAX and breath in a relaxed manner to control their buoyancy.

 

[sam1]

Well, I found this question interesting and surfed the web for information on the specific gravity of body fat (0.90). So if your weight gain was all fat (worst case scenario) your 10 pounds of fat would displace 9 pounds of (fresh) water. Thus, you would need an extra one pound of lead in fresh water (and a very tiny---way too small to worry about--- bit more in salt water). A bigger factor than the weight gain itself is if you need a larger-size wetsuit and thus more (buoyant) neoprene.