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Are you carrying less weight or just putting it somewhere else?
I am not sure that I understand people when they say "you can carry less weight by using a stainless steel backplate and weighted single tank adapter for singles diving or steel tank." The net effect of using steel tank, backplate, etc. is that we are still carrying the same load on our body/back U/W anyways!!! A diver would have to "stand up" with the net weight on his body and carry their body and the weight on it to the water.
I have had the same transformation. Going from my bulky BCD to my stainless stell BP/Wing I have gone from 20 lbs to 8 lbs of lead diving in salt water with a 3mm wetsuit. The difference in weight between the rigs is negligible.
Did your OVERALL weight you are carrying on your body change by 12lbs???? That's a lot of weight due just to the bulkiness of a BCD. Something wrong here.