fat skiers?

It is helpful to consider BMI as a guideline rather than an definition of "normal". It does at times seem unrealistic. Some care providers are downplaying BMI a bit because of the sometimes fantasy nature of the "goal weight". I've heard one doctor urging people to aim for their high school graduation weight. People tend to accept this goal easier because they've been that weight before.

Another movement afoot is to emphasize physical fitness rather than weight. There is some evidence to indicates it is more helpful in the long term to be fit rather than thin. Thus the "fat but fit" movement.

This one hits close to home. I was always the fat kid growing up, but was always active as well, it was the pre-nintendo world and we played outside. In high school I started hiking, in college I started BC skiing. I was the fit but fat guy in the group, sure a little slower on the way up, but the quads I had from tele-ing with my 240lbs (5'10") were awesome.

About 7 years ago I did Weight Watchers and dropped down to 170lbs. While I was at that weight with my fat guy quad strength I was a trail breaking machine (my friends liked that period). I'm now up to the 190lb range, still fit and in need of a little more calorie policing I think my homeostasis is in the 180 range, which I feel is a good place for me given where I've been and my skeletal / muscle frame

Anyway, I agree that the BMI is a guide, a flawed guide, but it's something. If you go to Wal-Mart you'll feel like a bean pole, if you go to the Seattle Marathon you'll feel fat. Somewhere in the middle is OK with me. More bulk than the guy running up the mountain, less than the fudgies in the parking lot.

BMI is a guideline made from data collected from the herd (just like any other number you use to look at people) -

AND there are plenty of unfit thin people and plenty of fit overweight people.

But BMI IS part of the fitness equation. The higher your BMI the earlier your knees will fail you. We all know how a higher BMI makes it harder it is to climb.

I got to fly a helicopter into a ski hut in canada with a bunch of backcountry skiers once. The pilot laughed when he realized how light we were, averaging about 40-50 pounds lighter than his ussual heliskiier customers. That will pay off in the long run, we will get an extra decade or two out on the slopes because of our aerobic conditioning AND our lower BMIs.

High school graduation weight? 5'10 and 140ish... My kids won't take me seriously if I try to discipline them at this weight

Can be done - when I was running long(er) distances some years ago, I dropped down to 138lbs. But, maybe to prove Alisa's point - culturally this is 'too skinny' in the US today (unless you are with marathoners).

Don't even know my weight right now, probably 170 - 185 range, most people think I'm normal, except the friends from school and college - they tell my wife they can't believe how 'fat' I have become

I know many 'fat' people who are awesome skiers, and love going out. Re: surfing - Slater isn't skinny, imo. Don't worry, if people really want to ski - they can, pretty much regardless of weight. Maybe not much skinning, and not very aggressive steeps, but still out and having fun.

Hi, my name is JibberD and I'm a fat skier.

I am currently working on the first step, admitting that I am powerless over impulsive stops for McGriddle sanwiches in Spanaway on the drive to Paradise, and that my GoreTex shell is too tight.

Thanks for letting me share.

The BMI scale is a simplified, but imperfect measure -- I'm certainly packing plenty of extra fat pounds now -- However when I was at my peak athletically I was under 6% body fat using the underwater weighting method -- but on the BMI scale I was at least 5 lbs overweight. The BMI measure doesn't differentiate between lean mass and flab mass.