Lead and Lipids

There has to be a definate, objective answer to this question but I have not found it yet. It relates to the bouyancy of body fat.

How much weight (e.g. lead) is required to sink a pound of human fat?

Real life question: If one loses twenty pounds, how much weight can be removed from the weight belt?

It depends on if you are in salt or fresh water.

In freshwater you will need to remove 0.07 lbs of lead for every lb of fat you lose.
In saltwater you will need to remove 0.105 lbs of lead for every lb of fat you lose.

So if you lose 20 lbs of pure fat and do not gain any muslce mass you should be able to drop between 1.4 and 2.1 lbs of lead from you belt.

The inverse can be said if you gain weight as well.

Fat has a density of 58.9 lbs/cubic foot
Sea water has a density of between 63.9 and 64.3 lbs/cubic foot
Fresh water has a density of 62.4 lbs/cubic foot

You have to apply Archimedes Principal for bouyant forces using the above densities to get the math to work out.

It depends. Some people are sinkers and some floaters. In other words, everyone is different. The more you dive and gain experience the more weight you can drop off your weight belt as well.

There are differences in the weight of the human skeleton. For some reason, it is overlooked that fat people often have heavier skeletons. Additionally, differences in the buoyancy of lungs can be a factor. A gain or loss of ten pounds will probably not make a noticeable change in buoyancy. Well, GUE cave divers claim all kinds of things so you might check with a DIR sales rep for the latest.