How much weight to lose for climbing?

I've read a lot about people generally needing to lose weight for climbing. Since you're hauling your own body weight up rocks, a lower weight would be easier to haul, right? Thing is, I haven't found a guide or any good information on how much I should lose to be the "right" weight. Is there even such a thing as a "right" weight?

How much excess weight do you feel you have? What age? Have you gained much since athletic high school or college years? I know if I lost 20-30 lbs, I'd be rocking it so much better and have more energy first of all, not just the strength available for less weight, but total body energy when you lose wasted pounds off the body. Never hurts to get a solid pre season workout in to firm up muscles, and lose some of the fat from winter.

I think I might have 5-10 lbs of excess weight to lose. I tell this to people I know and they think I'm crazy for trying to lose more. I'm 45, and weigh the same now as I did when I was 18 (123 lbs, I'm 5'8" if that helps). I had gained 30 lbs after my mom passed away 10 years ago, but I lost all that weight as of last month, but wonder if I need to lose more or not.

There's no "right" weight. It's different for everyone depending on natural body shape/size and what they want. I've seen some bigger dudes crank harder than me and I'm pretty damn skinny and kinda small. Experiment and try to figure out what works for you.

Low-level starvation isn't sustainable or healthy.

Nancy, your weight is better than fine. You're worrying about the wrong thing. Focus on building strength and developing technique, as long as your diet is healthy, your weight will take care of itself.

James Piotrowski wrote:Nancy, your weight is better than fine. You're worrying about the wrong thing. Focus on building strength and developing technique, as long as your diet is healthy, your weight will take care of itself.

I guess people talking about their winter weight just got me thinking about it too much. Thanks!

My wife's about the same height, and for her, going below 110 would be WAY too low. People carry weight differently, and your climbing muscle is going to play a big role, but my general guess is dropping 5 pounds wouldn't be terrible but going much below 115 is probably a bad idea unless you're trying to climb at an elite level. Then again, I've never seen what you look like, so this estimate could be totally off.

For what it's worth, I've dropped 20 pounds and my endurance is through the roof.

ETA: what VaGenius said is really the most important thing though

Hey Nancy,

search the forum for my earlier post 'hypergravity diet'.

Gain some weight and you will crank hard after you lose it!

the serious response:

Certain people I climb with think about this a lot. We always get into a conversation about body composition, lifestyle habits, commitment to climbing, etc.

I used to train and train and train. my fingers hurt and I would get dizzy a lot. I'm 6'2" and weighed 172. I could crank out pullups on crimps, but couldn't even climb v2. My technique sucked. Now I weigh 195 and suck on super tiny holds--I climb in the gym and workout for overall fitness and core strength but don't do much grip strength specific training--but overall I'm a way better climber than when I was light.

Also, if you are asking this question on this forum I'm guessing you are not pro, or even sponsored (me neither). Given this fact, it's probably not worth the effort to lose more than a few pounds. If you weigh the same as when you were 18, you're doing great and you can probably improve your performance by climbing, climbing, climbing.

It's easy to get sucked into the anorexic climbing mentality where you starve yourself so you can send 'hard' (and I know some real crushers that do this who are miserable all the time). I also know some real crushers who say 'eat hard, train hard' and don't watch their diet or try to lose weight. They just try really really hard every burn on every climb outside or in the gym, and get out as much as possible. That's the mentality I'm shooting for.

So what is your goal in climbing? If it is to boulder v10, then yeah maybe you should lose as much weight as possible, get those fingeys strong and get your technique dialed to the max. If it's to send a sport project, get more confidant on gear or just have fun climbing then your weight doesn't matter quite as much.

I've even seen short women of stocky build who don't look like lean crushers waltz up the route technosurfing (12b sport at rumney, NH) because their technique is so good and they have it dialed.

Personally I always feel like I could lose a few pounds, but when the season rolls around and I'm getting out as much as possible, I lose the weight pretty quick and start improving. I do try to focus on getting as strong as possible before a road trip that i'm psyched about, so that I can enjoy all the new routes during a limited window of time that I have, but chasing numbers isn't the goal. It feels good to tick a new hardest grade of course, but the more you let your ego get involved in how hard you climb, the more happiness and enjoyment you risk when you start struggling.

remember:

In climbing, everyone sucks at their own level.

I'm definitely not anorexic skinny like some pro climbers I've seen videos of but I am thin. I've always been on the low side of BMI, but at the same time I can typically eat other people under the table. My body fights to stay at whatever weight I stabilize at, so even as I gain muscle, I more than likely won't change weight unless I start restricting calories again (which I'm not doing anymore).

Way back I was an expert-level skier for 15 years, and always felt stronger when I was thinner, so that's the best gauge I have as fitness goes. I'm not at all fit right now, as I'm just starting out at climbing.

I don't have a goal for climbing other than "just do it" at the moment since I'm so new at it.

You've got a good weight to height ratio for climbing. For perspective, I am about 5'9" and 145 lbs.

As others have said, focus on maintaining that ratio while building general fitness, cardio, core/back/finger strength, flexibility in the hips and shoulders, and strengthening your technique. Even if you gain a few pounds in muscle, you'll still be in good shape to send.

Eric C pretty much nailed it, but I'll just reiterate a little... Technique is the most important area to improve. If it'd make you happier to have better body composition (I think your weight itself is fine), you may find climbing easier by working on your muscle and maybe dropping a little body fat %. The only question would be: do you actually have enough body fat to lose. It's pretty easy to google charts that give healthy ranges for body fat that take age into consideration. My gf is a good example of a possible situation. Her body fat % is low, and her weight is really low. So for her the question is not "how much weight do I need to lose?" It's actually "how much muscle do I need to gain?" Sometimes power is necessary to crack certain types of problems.

You are just fine. My wife is 5.9, 140lbs and can redpoint just about any 5.10 c/d and work most 5.11+. She does not climb harder because she is not a fan a taking a lot of whippers.
My point is go climb and have fun. You are plenty thin for climbing. It is time to start climbing not dieting. you will get stronger and as your technique improves you will become a better climber.

All of it.

NancyN wrote:I'm definitely not anorexic skinny like some pro climbers I've seen videos of

Those pro climbers may take issue with that, lol. My recommendation is to aim for a specific upper body strength level (it can even be body weight based, say 10 pull ups, 10 dips, etc). And if you can still lose weight, all power to you. Not that climbing is strength dominant, but with a specific level of strength, it prevents injury, and you'll less likely to get below healthy weight.

reboot wrote: Those pro climbers may take issue with that, lol.

And this is why I didn't name names :-P

Pics needed

LOL

5.samadhi wrote:Pics needed

Someone had to ask. Surprised we made it this long.

I would think the "right" weight would vary depending on your goals.

For me, a few years ago I achieved the goal of red-pointing 5.13a and one thing I did was drop about 5 lbs. However, in the years prior to this, I had a BMI of 20 (which is much higher than your current BMI) and I was consistently red-pointing 5.12s sport and 5.11 trad.

I would guess you could focus on a lot of other things to achieve your goals.....

Bill Czajkowski wrote:All of it.

stop wearing pants that make your butt look big