Originally Posted by rkwaki

When I was getting ready to be a 'real' bike racer I probably could not have been any thinner. I am 5'11" and I weighed 156 pounds. My arms were somewhere around 9.5" (that's what she said) and I had a sub 28" waist. I was riding 20+ hours a week and consuming +6,000 calories a day. I lived in sweatsuits to try and stay warm. If not on the bike I was constantly eating. It would be nothing to put back 5+ plates of chinese food at a buffet but I still looked sick. I did not at the time understand nutrition and didn't really have anyone to guide me though I wish I had.

In a perfect world you try and lose the weight/fat during your base phase then maintain it after that. Offseason should be used for dieting and/or putting on muscle. Then when it is go time it becomes about maintenance. At this point of the year as you guys are getting ready to start racing your diet should be stable and weight loss kept to a minimum as the focus should now be about speed.