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Weight Loss — How much does it help when skiing?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I need to lose around 38 pounds = a bit under 3 stone = 17Kg.

This will take me to the middle of the "normal" range for my height.

I'm male, 55 years old, 5 foot 7 inches = 166cm.

Have any of your folks had experience losing a fair bit of weight between two skiing seasons?

As part of my weight-loss plan I will be hitting the gym more, along with eating healthier and less.

How did it work out? Did it help? Did you notice a big difference?

Thanks for your feedback.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@PeDaSp, yes, lost about 30lb, massive difference for stamina and just being able to walk to the lift carrying skis. good luck
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@holidayloverxx, thanks.

So you found that your endurance was better? Could you ski longer? Did your legs hurt less?

Many thanks.
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@PeDaSp, hard to tell as I had broken my leg (not skiing) so the next season was after shedload of rehab and with a knee brace
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
My weight has gone up and down like a yoyo in the 12 years or so since I started skiing at 45. I was very light and fit when I started, ballooned, got down to something sensible and since the end of last season got down to around 11 stone and am also pretty fit with lots of walking, cycling and gym, I'm very slightly taller than you. I've also skied about 10 weeks in each of the last 2 seasons and will be skiing all winter in 2015/16.

Fitness and less weight definitely helps a lot but ski fitness and technique also plays a huge part in preventing leg burn. Last winter although I was about 10 kilos over I could ski hard all day with no leg problems and lasted a lot longer than fitter people.
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@Claude B, Thanks. I agree. I spend all day sitting down, and it's really my lack of fitness that lets me down. Need to get on the bike and get down the gym! Very Happy Very Happy
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Losing excess weight will make a massive difference all round, not just to your skiing. But as above, thigh burn is usually down to poor technique.
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@PeDaSp, I need to lose 70 . . . an YES . . . It make a F*** load of difference. Just pick up a 50lb bag of spuds and try to jump over a brick Evil or Very Mad
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You will have to increase the DIN setting on your skis, I found that after I lost about 30kg in 2006/2007.

It really depends how you ski though. My skiing prior to 2006 was mainly on piste, and all day long. I never really found it an issue as although I was overweight, (actually obese as my BMI was about 32), the only time I really noticed any fitness problem was climbing up the metal steps to the high platform at Zermatt when I felt out of breath due to the lack of oxygen.

Subsequent to that (i.e. 2007 onwards), I had no problems climbing up hills and skiing down, and then finding the energy to do it two or three times in one day. So lifts became less of a necessity.

However, age is more of a limiting factor than weight. Almost 10 years on, I still have a BMI under 25 but I cannot get up much enthusiasm for climbing up hills with my skis and boots and prefer lifts. It is after all the skiing I enjoy, rather than the climbing with skis and boots on my back.

However, if the weather is perfect, and the sun is shining, and I am out of bed early, I could still be tempted by the local hills.

I think the difference it makes is the strain you put on your heart. I found that by losing weight, I just tended to increase exercise so that the strain on my heart was probably similar.


snowHead
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I've recently taken up regular exercise partly on the basis of trying to lose some weight (6ft, nudging 18 stone) but also to try and get a better recovery rate and improved stamina. Where I think it will help me while skiing is actually off the back of when things go wrong. On my last trip in March I had a couple of times where I fell and struggled to get back up (my core strength is pretty low) but also my bindings were so tight that I couldn't clip out by using my hand (chappy at the rental place insisted it was because I weighed so much). So hopefully by being a bit lighter and a bit fitter I shouldn't have that problem....I'll also be working on not falling over Very Happy
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I lost about 2 stone before last season and will lose about another this season. As well as the weight loss im at the gym 3-5 days a week doing circuits and body pumps (weight conditioning). It makes a MASSIVE difference! Aside from not getting knackered the combination of strength work, plyo and fitness training makes a real difference. It helps maintain good technique on the slope (not improve it, only skiing will do that) as im not getting so bloody tired Happy
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Quote:

You will have to increase the DIN setting on your skis

Puzzled
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@Bigtipper, DECREASE!!!! The less you weigh the lower the inertial forces you unintentionally put into your bindings.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@Bigtipper, surely when looking weight you need to decrease the din setting not increase it
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I had to increase the DIN setting on my skis. I looked up on the internet what the DIN setting should be for my height and weight, and realised it was too low. I had never changed/checked the DIN setting on my skis since purchase up to that point. I also started servicing my own skis then.

My skiis did not fall off a lot, as I was a mainly on piste skier, who mainly skied on reds, and sometimes blacks. (excepting the yellow routes in Verbier which were unpisted routes between pistes)

The chap in the ski service in Verbier set the DIN settings for me. He also set one ski lower than the other, to make sure at least one ski fell off!


Laughing
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Guess your skiing type had changed a lot which makes a big difference to DIN setting too.

Bigtipper wrote:
The chap in the ski service in Verbier set the DIN settings for me. He also set one ski lower than the other, to make sure at least one ski fell off!
Shocked
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@Bigtipper, The better you ski and the lower your weight as recreational skier . . . the lower you need you DIN setting to be. The better your technique the lesser the unintentional forces you will put into your bindings. As a result, if you do fook oop as a lightweight your body mass will not trigger a release early enough to avoid bone or joint destruction.
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I don't think that weight loss would make a huge difference to an skier who primarily enjoys cruising down blue and red runs. Once you move into bumps and powder, though, extra weight will make everything more difficult and tiring. It's true that good technique will mask this, but, for any given level of skill and fitness, an overweight skier will always tend to find difficult terrain much more difficult and tiring.
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Won't affect your technic but 38 pounds off your knee joints can't be a bad thing. Good luck.
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Lots of cycling - excellent for cardio and lung function. The added bonus is that you get real 'guns' for calves and gluts - ideal for fast carving, holding a tuck and generally bossing the fast stuff. And you become calorie obsessed Sad
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c44rver wrote:
Lots of cycling - excellent for cardio and lung function. The added bonus is that you get real 'guns' for calves and gluts - ideal for fast carving, holding a tuck and generally bossing the fast stuff. And you become calorie obsessed Sad


ill add to that doing strength work like squats and lunges are a good thing.

Its one thing losing fat but another thing keeping it off. Buy building muscle not only will you help support your joints but muscles will continue to burn fat long after you start resting thus helping to keep weight off (if you dont eat rubbish)
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Surely "just" losing weight will actually slow you down?

My logic being "Pie Eaters" on bicycles tend to descend quicker than "non pie eaters" as gravity/inertia has great effect on speed than aerodynamics?

(agree on the stamina and power stuff btw)
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marcellus wrote:
Surely "just" losing weight will actually slow you down?

My logic being "Pie Eaters" on bicycles tend to descend quicker than "non pie eaters" as gravity/inertia has great effect on speed than aerodynamics?

(agree on the stamina and power stuff btw)


are you being prejudice towards wiganers? Happy

That sounds like a fat persons excuse to me lol
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The problem with skiing is that, more often than not, it tends to take place in places where the food and wine ate very good.
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cameronphillips2000 wrote:
The problem with skiing is that, more often than not, it tends to take place in places where the food and wine ate very good.


What's the excuse for the other 50weeks of the year lol
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Quote:


What's the excuse for the other 50weeks of the year

How many do you want? Post Holiday Blues, celebrating booking the next one, a hard day at the office, a promotion at the office, your birthday, your cousin's cat's birthday, the sun is shining, it hasn't stopped raining for days and I've lit the log burner, I'm supporting a friend who needs a shoulder to cry on and doesn't want to drink alone, this steak is too good to eat without half a bottle of red........

I suspect that weight problems, for many snowheads who appreciate good food and don't eat too much rubbish, are a result of alcohol intake rather than food. I just spent nearly 3 weeks sailing with friends in the Channel Islands, Brittany and Normandy. We only ate out 3 times - all good food - we cooked good stuff for ourselves on board, we had plenty of salad and fresh fruit. But we drank wine, often with both lunch and dinner (though on the more hectic sailing days that was out of the question), had quite a few gins and tonics and the occasional brandy after dinner. I put on 3 or 4 lbs. It'll come off in the next week.
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@pam w, alcohol makes me eat more. I have a record of all the food I eat over many years now, and when I drink alcohol with food, I nearly always end up with a calorie intake of about 4000 for one day. (of course some of that is the alcohol, but of equal amount extra is food)

On average I will eat about 2700 - 2800 a day (using my measuring system which is sometimes inaccurate, but pretty good on average). This means a stable weight, given my normal exercise habits (I average about 2.3 jogs a week over the last year)

When I have a couple of weeks when I drink alcohol regularly, with more than 10 units a week, my calorie intake averages over 3000 per day for those two weeks (due to the days when I have 4000 calories)

Alcohol increases appetite. (although in some alcoholics the digestive system becomes so badly corroded that they lose weight) This is fine if you are exercising more than usual, say burning an additional 500 calories a day due to skiing every single day of the week. However, sitting on a boat, not exercising much, would cause you to put on weight.

If I cut alcohol out completely, I also find that I get less sugar cravings, and I also have more self control. In such periods I can average 2000-2300 calories a day.

If you really want to lose weight fast, and detox your body, no alcohol, no caffeine, limited sugar, and lots of redbush tea is what I would recommend. You will absorb more of the vitamins in food, especially iron, if you avoid caffeine and alcohol. Redbush tea in large quantities (I make a large pot with one tea bag and drink it all), hydrates and adds useful things to your diet("Rooibos contains polyphenols, including flavanols, flavones, flavanones, dihydrochalcones, aspalathin and nothofagin.")

Sometimes I drink green tea as well, and I occassionaly overdose on a bag of strong filter coffee. (this invariably causes headaches, skin rashes, jitters, mouth ulcers, and hydration problems with my fluids in my nasal cavity) So I only drink strong coffee when I need some coffee granules for the slugs. (it acts as a barrier)

Apart from that, record and weigh everything you eat. Do not punish yourself if you overeat, just compensate by averaging down on your better days.

snowHead
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Quote:

If you really want to lose weight fast, and detox your body, no alcohol, no caffeine, limited sugar, and lots of redbush tea is what I would recommend.

Quote:

Apart from that, record and weigh everything you eat. Do not punish yourself if you overeat, just compensate by averaging down on your better days

Laughing Laughing Laughing I don't want to do any of that, and don't believe all that detox rubbish anyway. I shall simply cut out the booze for a few days, eat sensibly and lose it all by the end of the week. Meanwhile my BMI is a whopping 23.7. And I can manage my usual one or two cups of coffee a day without any perceptible negative impact on the fluids in my nasal cavities. wink
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I'm with you on that.

If you're going to eat and drink processed junk then you're going to get fat. Real food doesn't work the same way.

Although my weight's been the same since my early 20s my "size" has miraculously dropped from "medium" to "small", as manufacturers focus on trying to make the fat people feel better.

If you're a good skier then it can be a challenge to get a proper work out from a day in the snow - there is a lot of sitting around on lifts at least. A gym or pool, or a switch to a snow sport you're not good at may help get more of a work out. As above though, eating well in the first place is a better solution that eating garbage then trying to burn it off, in my view.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Quote:

If you're going to eat and drink processed junk then you're going to get fat. Real food doesn't work the same way.

If only that were true.... Laughing
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 Poster: A snowHead
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@pam w, well, it is and it isn't. Last week, OH bought a "Lamb shanks with Mint and Rosemary Sauce" ( or Jus? some liquid anyway). It was really sweet and horrible and I had to scrap it off. On looking at the label, sugar was the first ingredient of the sauce, after water. Another occasion he bought a chicken thing with chilli sauce. That too was horrible. Full of sugar. Any sauce in a jar whether it is curry, bolognese or whatever seems to have a ton of sugar added. I have no idea why except to prove to people that you have cheated with the dinner and have not cooked it yourself Laughing .
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@maggi, I do agreed that ready made and processed foods are full of rubbish and actually I very rarely eat them. However, I am simply not prepared to accept that the calories in food like superb cheeses, Creme Fraiche d'Issigny, unpasteurised fresh cream, confit of duck, almond croissants, hand made French chocolates, black forest gateaux, etc etc etc will not work in just the same way as a calorie in a tesco value beefburger with oven chips.
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@pam w, oh yes, a calorie is a calorie whichever way you look at it. But some are pointless, worthless, hidden calories. And some are worth all the exercise you have to do to get rid of the consequences Laughing . (Mmmm, cheese!)
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Well my input is that today im starting to focus on ski fitness for next year. Also wouldnt mind losing a bit of weight for a beach holiday in Jan too.
Similar to OP , want to lose at least 1 stone and up to 3 but more concerned with overall fitness.
Giving up the booze as its the killer , i binge drink once or twice a week and take in a shocking amount of calories , id do around 10 pints of cider and then eat crap out of the chipper and crave junk the next day with a hangover so that messes up my week.
6-8 weeks and see how i get on.
Im 209lbs and 166cm! and all on the auld beer belly
Sometimes these threads help others be motivated Smile
gl to anyone trying to get fitter
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Jeepers, @hawkwind, I'm 166cm and 138lbs...about 5 lbs above my "fighting weight"!!!!!

Bear in mind that volumetrically you'll not need quite so much (!) cider as your weight decreases. Oh and it's maybe a better idea to have the chip shop crap before the cider...
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You need to drink stronger vintage cider Wink
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Quote:

want to lose at least 1 stone and up to 3

If you lost 3 stone you'd only be a little bit overweight. wink Just think of all the ski holidays you could afford if you gave up cider!
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Should I be reading this having just polished off a doughnut? Very Happy
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I'm carrying four extra pounds over my normal weight. I can report, having skied all day yesterday, that my skiing is unaffected ie it is as mediocre as ever.
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under a new name wrote:
Bear in mind that volumetrically you'll not need quite so much (!) cider as your weight decreases.


Not true as you will still have about the same amount of blood in you. It doesn't really inhabit the fatty bits, just the lean ones (blood that is, not cider).
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