Under weighted New Diver

[gnat]

Hello Scuba board. I have a question regarding whether I'm being underweighted for dives. During my OW dives in the ocean I used 4Kg in weights. According to PADI, this is less than the recommended weighting for someone of my size and gear config (71kg male, 3mm full wetsuit, jacket bcd, 80l tank), which is around 5% of my body weight + 2 kg, which is 5.5kg. I did fun dives with 5kg since I weigh 80kg now.

I had no issues with weighting during training and fun dives dives since but I wonder if there are risks to being underweighted and if I should increase it?

 

[TMHeimer]

Do the weight check. Also, don't let anyone tell you you are overweighted if the weight check says you are not. People vary a lot due to body make-up. One diver may need like 40 pounds and another of similar weight/size like 30 pounds. Some say that you will be able to drop a few pounds once you are experienced and have really good buoyancy, breathing, finning, etc. I could never understand that-- would not the weight check say the same thing whether you have 4 dives or a thousand?