We only used the support (suicide - more later) strap when wearing our dress blouse uniform. The blouse itself had hooks built into the sides slightly above the waist that actually supported the weight of the gun belt. Without those hooks, the weight of the fully loaded gun belt hanging from the support (suicide) strap would get uncomfortable in short order. I'm not sure what our fully loaded gun belt weighed as the equipment that we carried changed so often, but I would guess 12 - 20 lbs. From talking to officers from other agencies that permitted the use of suspenders, it was pretty evenly split among those who liked them and those who didn't. While it won't be an issue for you, most of us that worked the road and had to lay hands on people hated the suicide (support) strap, because more than once an arrestee was able to get hold of it and then the fight would be on in very close quarters.