"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Weight Management

In the off season, how does your weight fluctuate? Do you try to maintain, allow some gain or lose? For next season, I plan to drop 7lbs (from 162 to 155). Last season, I dropped 16lbs (178 to 162) during the first part of the season (April to June). I think it adversly affected my recovery from training session to session. This year, I thought I would try to lose it during the off season. When do you make weight adjustments?

I think losing the weight in the off season is definitely the better plan for a bike racer. Personally, I am at a good weight. I may gain and then lose 3-4 pounds between Sept and Feb, but for the most part I'll stay the same.

The only time to lose weight is during the off-season before you start training above your LT. Cut back on the food intake by 500 calories per day and workout every day even if its just a light spin on the bike and or light weight lifting.

I get up to 7-8% body fat during winter, and aim for as low as I am comfortable with (5-6%) for my most important race in september. I don't want to maintain that low a body fat all year.

While I agree that it'd be better to lose weight only in the winter, that doesn't seem to work for me in practice. I don't think that it hurts to lose weight during the season as long as you are doing it gradually so you are losing fat and not muscle.

I was told that losing weight in the off season is the best time to do it. After thinking about it for a few years, I agree. You deal with the weakness and irritability in the off season, not when you're trying to train. It's easy to gain strength after losing weight. It's slower to lose weight while gaining strength.

Knowing and doing that are two different things.

A couple other things I heard.
1 pound is lost every 5 hours of riding (approx 600 cal/hour) with no additional food.
500 cal/day deficiency means losing 1 pound a week.

This means if you eat 500 cal less a day and ride an hour a day for 5 days in the week (at a very reasonable pace) you'll lose 2 pounds a week. We have 8 weeks left in the year - that could be 16 lbs.

Personally I have a hard time losing weight until I start doing long rides (2+ hours for me). My portion control and food tracking isn't very good. Put me on a bike for 3-5 hours a day and after a week or two the weight starts to melt right off. I hope to adjust my weight in the next two months. If not, Jan and Feb will really suck.

overweight,
cdr

Trianing for speed and training for weight loss (fat) are just about opposite techniques. Training for aerobic capacity and training for weight loss (fat) are very similar. Weight loss is optimised doing aerobic activities.

It's tough. I was nice and light a month ago, promptly gained 6 pounds with a trip to SC (all that damned fried food and no bike), and now it's candy and pie season. I'd like to be 4 or 5 pounds lighter by January 1, with another 4 to go after that. We'll see.

gaining *good* weight is tough, too.

I'm hoping to hit 200 by February. 185 now.

^ Unless you're 7'0" or you're a track sprinter, you're in the wrong forum.

I'm just trying to hold on to what I've got, and that's proving very difficult right now.

One of my greatest talents is gaining weight. I've been in good form for the past month.

I get up to 7-8% body fat during winter, and aim for as low as I am comfortable with (5-6%) for my most important race in september. I don't want to maintain that low a body fat all year.

While I agree that it'd be better to lose weight only in the winter, that doesn't seem to work for me in practice. I don't think that it hurts to lose weight during the season as long as you are doing it gradually so you are losing fat and not muscle.

Pics?

Changes in diet make a giant difference. Not only eating less, but eating quality foods. In the winter, I eat alot of fruit, nuts and cereals. Kashi has a new cereal out called 'Vive' that's high fiber and probiotic. I've lost a bit of weight since trying a probiotic diet, but I feel much better. All of the bad stuff that sits in your digestive tract is a root cause of many things. Cleaning yourself out aids digestion and helps you to lose weight.

And self-control is a big thing. I'm not saying not to eat a piece of pie, but make it a small piece and only have one...

Stop drinking beer...empty calories
Stop drinking soda...empty calories

I actually practice no calories from fluids during the winter months...

yes, this is what I'm doing also. I raced this season at 192cm (6'3.5") and 208-210 lbs and 12-13 % BF.
I'm trying to get to 190-195 (9% BF) before the new year. Over the past 2 moths I've whittled down about 6-7 pounds. Hopefully my biggest race of the year I'll be at 185 in sept.

Trying to cut calories durring periods of hard training is not my idea of fun. I need the food energy to recover.

For me, goal setting is a huge help. I set goals of 3 pounds of wt. loss every 2 weeks (or 6 lbs per month) and these smaller goals have helped to keep my motivation high. I think about these goal every time I want a scone with my coffee or ice cream at night. I also keep myself thinking about whay being lighter will help me to be a better bike racer. Thoughts of tearing up the cat 4's this spring/summer keep me on track.

I get a free calorie monitoring program from work called: calorieking.com and it has helped me to see how much crap I was eating, particularly at night. now I plan a late meal (eggs w/veggies, e.g.) instead of ice cream or beer or bar food.

Tea drinking and gum chewing are very helpful too at breaking my habitual eating durring the night time.

I'm also running 2X weekly and lifting weights twice a week to help with fat burning.

Good luck on you wt. loss and the increaced power to weight ratio that accompanies.

-Leo

I drop 6-8 lbs in season simply because I'm riding more. Its not really a plan; thats just the way it works out.

Changes in diet make a giant difference. Not only eating less, but eating quality foods. In the winter, I eat alot of fruit, nuts and cereals. Kashi has a new cereal out called 'Vive' that's high fiber and probiotic. I've lost a bit of weight since trying a probiotic diet, but I feel much better. All of the bad stuff that sits in your digestive tract is a root cause of many things. Cleaning yourself out aids digestion and helps you to lose weight.

And self-control is a big thing. I'm not saying not to eat a piece of pie, but make it a small piece and only have one...

Stop drinking beer...empty calories
Stop drinking soda...empty calories

I actually practice no calories from fluids during the winter months...

any relation to macro-psychotic?

I got married last spring and my new wife has started baking bread. This is going to be a tough winter.

I got married last spring and my new wife has started baking bread. This is going to be a tough winter.

work it off with the new wife.

I got married last spring and my new wife has started baking bread. This is going to be a tough winter.

I married an excellent baker too. It's a killer.

I drop 6-8 lbs in season simply because I'm riding more. Its not really a plan; thats just the way it works out.

You should be riding less in season.

Trying to cut calories durring periods of hard training is not my idea of fun.

It's not really cutting calories; more like the difference between eating a lot and eating a whole lot. When I am training a lot (and for me that's ~16 hours a week, not that much compared to some people here), I'm eating a big breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, a healthy sized dinner, and maybe some munchies. And food during rides of over two hours. If I don't eat quite so much for dinner, I lose weight.

Of course you should do what works for you.

I don't believe in taking a season off but I find it easier to loose weight when I'm off the bike.

any relation to macro-psychotic?

No, it's the opposite of the amateur-biotic diet...

I'm just trying to hold on to what I've got, and that's proving very difficult right now.

Oh that's rough Nomad. Give us a break. I eat one friggin Pizza in November and I gain 5lbs.

Currently not planning on changing much. No gain, no loss is the goal for the off-season. Training is pretty heavy, though, so that shouldn't be a problem. Things would be different if I were on a reduced-hour schedule somewhere in the frigid north.

I will try to lower my bf% a bit, though. Through assiduous tracking of intake and outtake, a 200-300 calorie deficit per day ought to do the trick over time, without really being noticeable or difficult to achieve.

A bit surprising, actually, tracking intake. I've literally been eating all day, and am at about 3000 calories. I still need to eat another 800 to make it 300 below maintenance.

I have a hopelessly unhealthy system of eating breakfast, and skipping lunch, while maintaining discipline to keep my dinner intake the same as before. It's been hard but it's also worked. I certainly wouldn't do this during non-base phases of training.

Another, much healthier, way to lose poundage is to simply 'graze' all day, eating 6 to 8 smaller meals. I find that works for me too.

Oh that's rough Nomad. Give us a break. I eat one friggin Pizza in November and I gain 5lbs.

See... pizza is banned from my diet. Flat out. Though, a local restaurant makes a greek pizza with feta cheese, pesto, olives, tomatoes, onions, and a few other things tossed on that's pretty hard to resist. But it's MOSTLY banned, along with ice cream, burgers, or well.. pretty much anything that I would want to eat if I walked into the local shopping mall food court.

That's not to say I don't have my vices. But even doing well to eat enough to maintain for October, I seem to be dropping weight slowly.

October


Avg Intake Avg Cal/Day Cycling Resting Metabolic Rate
4332 2043 2052


It's apparent from this I should start living a more dormant lifestyle to prevent non-cycling related caloric burn. That's what I'm telling my wife now.

Oh that's rough Nomad. Give us a break. I eat one friggin Pizza in November and I gain 5lbs.

i think about eating pizza and i gain weight. :(

i dont gain weight. i control my diet and continue to workout 5 days a week. later.