How much weight?

[cloudswinger]

Interesting (well, for me) this thread popped up. I was using 14 pounds for my local dives here in South Florida and moved to 12 about a year ago. Attributing it to experience (and trying to get a bit leaner and in better shape) after this weekend's dive I decided it was time to move to 10 pounds.
DevonDiver said it quite well, "Anything more than a couple of quick 'squirts' and you are just adding air to compensate for being overweighted." I realized I was needing far too much air in the BCD to get bouyant and keep off the bottom.
Also, as he recommended, I'm going to keep an eye on the safety stop to make sure I didn't take too much out. But all things being equal, less weight has got to be better than more weight.

I started at 14 lbs and now I'm at 7 lbs, although I think I could possibly drop another lb. This is with al80s and a 3mil shorty. I have tried as little as 2 lbs, but that made the safety stop a little challenging. My question now is that since I have 4lbs in the trim pockets and 3 lbs on the weight belt, how will dropping the weight belt make much difference?