Weightloss = adjust the weight belt...

[UtahGetMe2]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I have some good info on potential starting points for the weight check and I plan to get to the dive ops early and tell them my situation and hopefully have time to figure it out. Not stressing about it though! Thanks again!

P.S. everything is 10,000X better/easier with the less weight and I can't wait for a more streamlined dive experience!!!

 

[freewillie]

Forgot to say congrats on the weight loss.

I weight about 135 lbs. Rash guard n board shorts I use 6lbs, with 3 mm 8 lbs, and in 7 mm full exposure either 20 or 22 lbs.

Calculations are for ballpark weights. Personally I prefer to be 2 lbs heavy than 2 lbs light. Start either 12 or 14 and do weight check. Have fun!

 

[tdtaylor]

I personally have found the "estimates" and "calculators" wanting. I weigh 235lbs, and with a skin and 80Alum, I use 12 pounds in salt water, or about 5% of my body weight. Now if I could loose that 40 pounds.....

Bottom line, weight check. Since you are a fairly new diver, you may have to start with a few more pounds. If you are diving for a week, you may be able to drop weight as the week goes as you become more relaxed in your new, svelte profile.

Enjoy the diving.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Just for comparison purposes, and we are all different, I am a 215 pound 60 year old male, active diver with almost 1000 dives. I use 14 to 16 pounds in a 3 mil in the ocean, in my normal bcd and with an aluminum 80 tank. The equipment you use, including tank type and size, will impact your weighting. But you will certainly use much less wight than you did before the weight loss. No calculation will substitute for a proper weight check. Also,you can adjust after your initial dive as necessary.
DivemasterDennis

 

[James R]

I weigh about what you weigh, and in salt water with my SS backplate & AL80 tank, I don't need any weight in up to a 3mm full suit. If I add a 3/5 hooded vest with the 3mm full suit I need 2lbs. I am a bit more negative than some folks, though.

My point isn't to boast about it, but to illustrate to you that a lot of new divers are over-weighted, some severely so. I have personally seen some instructors just pile weight on divers to get them under, do the skills, and move on. Proper weighting, in my opinion, should have more time allotted to it. Working with a guy a couple months back we got him from 18 or 20lbs down to 8lbs. This is a huge difference! Diving will be easier and you'll use less air.

 

[Them]

Congrats on the weight loss! Ok, so, a delicate question...

What did you lose? As in what type of weight. What you lost means more than how much you lost.

Personally, I'm cursed with a dense body. I was working with a personal trainer recently who, after doing body fat measurements, earnestly told me he could get me to 250lbs. I was a bit taken aback since my goal was about 195. When I laughed and said I was thinking about a lower target, he basically called me an idiot, saying that single-digit body fat is not healthy and the only way I could get much below 250 was to shed lots of muscle, which he thought was insane. It was a strange mirror world experience.

So I weigh 275 and on a recent dive I was using less total weight (lead, SS backplate, steel tank) than another diver who said he weighed 160.

If you lost a lot of fat your weight needs are going to be very different. If you lost a lot of muscle they may not be as different as you hope.

 

[drbill]

Congrats. With a 7mm wetsuit we use the rule of thumb of 10% of your body weight plus 5-7 lbs, so that would yield about 28-30 lbs. However you dove with 32 lbs when you weighed 320. I'm assuming you have lost a LOT of body fat and possibly increased your muscle mass, so that would decrease your personal buoyancy quite a bit.

 

[UtahGetMe2]

Congrats on the weight loss! Ok, so, a delicate question...

What did you lose? As in what type of weight. What you lost means more than how much you lost.

I like to tell people that I had a middle schooler peeled off of my back!... I lost mostly fat just eating amazingly well (but enough) and exercising a few times a week.

---------- Post added November 18th, 2012 at 09:23 PM ----------

So I have returned from my trip and the weighting went as follows:

I dove in St Maarten with Ocean Explorers who was an amazing dive operation. I told the dive leader about the predicament I was in and that I would like to start out with 15 lbs being that we were diving with steel tanks. He said that he wouldn't have give me more than 12 lbs and would probably end up taking weights off of me once we got down. He was right and wound up taking weights off so I had only 8 lbs remaining. I was absolutely floored by the low weighting and I experienced the best feeling while diving I have ever had. It was a noticeable difference when it came to overall movement, air consumption, drag and enjoyment as I was no longer the first one to the surface!

Thank you everyone for the responses and I will be putting up a trip report in the near future!

 

[farsidefan1]

I weigh 230 and use 14 lbs when diving in salt water. I wear a 3 mil wet suit shirt for exposure protection. With that getup I don't add any air to my bc. and can do all adjustments with breath. When I was 245 I used 16 lbs. Your lungs can make up the details. But by ALL MEANS do your own check. EveryBODY is different.