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Over loaded divers are, unfortunately, very common. We are talking about using too much lead on the weight belt.

The common misconception is that more better than less. Well, up to a certain point but not too much. Excessive unnecessary lead will drive the lower part of the diver down. To compensate for that, lots of air will need to be pumped in to the BCD, making the buoyancy control rather difficult.

The more air in the BCD, the more volume changes with depth and the more complicated to adjust your buoyancy. Besides, the inflated BCD pulls up and the heavy weight belt pulls down, so we have a vertical diver, instead of a perfect hydrodynamical diver.

The rule of thumb is that you should be able to do a safety stop at 5m with an empty BCD while hovering perfectly.