Weigh In

[mca80]

My mistake, but I used to be closer to 150 and still didn't have much fat to grab. So, which is more useful, bmi or windchill???

[Manney]

My mistake, but I used to be closer to 150 and still didn't have much fat to grab. So, which is more useful, bmi or windchill???

So you lost 12 lbs of fat? Maintained the same muscle mass? That’s impressive. Fat can’t perform work. Muscle can. Must have impacted skiing. Endurance, power, movement.

[bauerb]

BMI riles me up because while it may be relevant to the sedentary masses, it is completely irrelevant to athletes. ever seen a pic or vid of Kilde doing a gym workout? that dude is built like a brick shithouse. no way his BMI is under 30 and he just won the WC alpine overall. every single lineman in the NFL would be classed as "morbidly obese" and some of these guys can run a sub 5 sec 40....and they do it over and over and over in a 4hr game. maintaining my racing weight takes full time focus...but it also keeps me healthy: whole foods only, nothing processed, so sugary drinks etc. I do have a massive sweet tooth which sometimes wins. but I look around sometimes at my work colleagues who "look and act their age" and I don't want to be like them.

[Manney]

It’s highly relevant to athletes. Find a linebacker at bmi 20. A bmi 30 ultramarathoner.

Studies on DH and XC end up in different places for a reason. DH favors higher bmi. Speed events (super-G) usually include skiers at the high end of bmi norms. It’s the gate spacing, vertical drop and energy of a heavier skier. Those same skiers wouldn’t do as well on slalom. Too technical. Control of weight on tighter gate spacing and all that. Lighter skier event.

https://www.scirp.org/pdf/aa_2017051014202917.pdf

It’s one index. One. Indicates potential and limitations. Doesn’t determine it.

[bauerb]

I maintain that BMI is only useful as a generic parameter for the sedentary masses.

[wabene]

I would say it's not much use for anyone. Some people are just more stoutly built and can have very low body fat and a high BMI. It is not only the tall willowy endurance athlete types that are in shape. Just to see it listed on my chart from my healthcare organization makes me shake my head and question why I'm even there. And that's before I see the bill

Not impressed

[wabene]

Ok @Manney BMI could be used in the fashion you mentioned to match different body types for different activities. Not on it's own though, you would need many other baseline fitness metrics established for the athletes to make BMI useful as a relative comparison. Since BMI is just a ratio of height to weight I'd argue it would be the least sophisticated info in this study easily surmised by eye.

[Manney]

Height and or weight inform ski sizing charts. Length and width. Camber stiffness in some cases. Not BC skis. Track skis though. Not the final word but height and weight narrows things down to ~1 or 2 skis per model. Asnes lists height and weight for each ski length. Look at the Gamme chart. Use the mid point weight and height. This is the bmi the seem to be focused on.

170mm 26 (full range is something like 23 to 27)
180mm 25
190mm 25
200mm 26
210mm 26

Tight range. Most buy off the charts. Most stores sell off the charts. So bmi is sort of a factor. Only to a point if your weight is low enough to moving up the chart. Ski companies not focused on linebackers or fence posts. They have a type in mind. Plus a factor for gear weight. Start running out of ski at 220# regardless of height.

[CwmRaider]

Height and or weight inform ski sizing charts. Length and width. Camber stiffness in some cases. Not BC skis. Track skis though. Not the final word but height and weight narrows things down to ~1 or 2 skis per model. Asnes lists height and weight for each ski length. Look at the Gamme chart. Use the mid point weight and height. This is the bmi the seem to be focused on.

170mm 26 (full range is something like 23 to 27)
180mm 25
190mm 25
200mm 26
210mm 26

Tight range. Most buy off the charts. Most stores sell off the charts. So bmi is sort of a factor. Only to a point if your weight is low enough to moving up the chart. Ski companies not focused on linebackers or fence posts. They have a type in mind. Plus a factor for gear weight. Start running out of ski at 220# regardless of height.

Which makes it easier for me at 240 lb wo gear, I just buy the longest skis available for any given model . follow the trend and I would need 230cm gammes...

[Manney]

An excuse to get a set of long skis the Finns use. Serious looking.