# BMI in elite level climbers

Body weight in climbing is a hot topic of discussion and has been for a long time. It’s widely acknowledged that carefully controlled body fat composition can help in some situations, but is lighter always better? We have looked [at this in the past](https://www.facebook.com/latticetraining/posts/485123185153344) but it’s always good to have more data, so we’ve teamed up with 8a.nu to have a little look at some of the climbers in their database. As a starting point we’ve looked at the distribution of BMIs for all (non-anonymous) climbers in the top 100 female/boulder/route rankings (183 females and 124 males). The female average is 19.3 and the male average 21.1. The ‘healthy’ BMI range is typically given as 18.5 - 24.9 so, 85% of the women lie within the healthy range and of the remaining 15% of women the majority are only just below the ‘healthy’ mark. For the men, 99% are in the healthy range. It is interesting to note that the average BMI for women here is lower than men. This is potentially because in a 'normal' population women carry a higher %bf (% body fat) compared to men, whereas in this very athletic population women carry a lower %bf but not as much lean muscle as their male counterparts. It is also worth noting that BMI is a relatively crude measure of body composition, and thus misses some potentially relevant points. However it is exceptionally easy to collect data on and is thus a good starting point. We'll be looking at the 8a.nu data in more detail so keep your eyes peeled! ![](https://34.242.140.1/app/uploads/2017/10/bmi-elite.png)![](https://latticetraining.com/app/uploads/2017/10/bmi-elite.png)Note: an abridged version of this post was originally posted on [8a.nu](https://www.8a.nu/?IncPage=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.8a.nu%2Fnews%2FAllNews.aspx%3FCountryCode%3DGLOBAL%26NewsId%3D45227).