Doge

Top left is dehydrated. Much below 7% causes health issues - at least in my kid. No 8%-10% picture - but that is a good spot for a cyclist. Maybe 10-15% for the flat racers.

f4rrest

Dropping 15 lbs is about 8% bodyweight.

Same as shifting from 23 to the 25 cog.

So every 15 lbs you lose allows you to climb with the same effort in a smaller gear ascending 8% faster.

That's motivating for a cyclist.

Doge

I answered your BMI question in composition/BF. I have no idea about BMI, and not so useful at the more competitive level. Clearly Sagan is much higher BMI than Froome - might make more money too.

Yea, I posted that before he won his National TTT on those heavier wheels.

UmneyDurak

There is truth to that.

On a more serious note. I have heard it before from my best friend and his wife. I love them like my family, but they are fat (borderline obese). Their circle of friends and family are fat. So for them that is the "norm", so anyone who is actually normal weight is "too skinny".

Machka 

I get this all the time now from my coworkers.

I've lost weight back down to what I weighed most of my life ... at the low end of my normal BMI range. But my coworkers met me when I was a bit heavier and so this lighter me is all new to them. And I'm forever being told I'm too skinny now ... especially by my larger coworkers.

The other day I was walking out of the kitchen at work with a glass of water when one of them stopped me, glared at the water, and said, "You're not STILL on that diet are you???"

Campag4life

You talk about the difference between Froome and Sagan. Agree there is a body fat difference between the two riders. But lets see if Sagan wins the TdF where climbing prowess and lower body weight not affecting endurance is rewarded. There is a reason why a guys like Wiggins, Froome and Contador have won the TdF and beefier riders haven't.

Campag4life

I believe many cyclists get this. I know runners do and if anything, perhaps even more...many runners being even thinner than cyclists in my experience. Lets face it....average Americans in particular I know are fat and their sense of normal is skewed by this as mentioned. Honestly for many Americans their pastime and pleasure is eating and drinking.

Machka 

Yes ...

It's OK for my coworkers to corner me every few days and tell me I'm so skinny and to interrogate me about what I'm eating and doing etc. etc.

But for some reason it's not OK for me to corner my coworkers every few days to tell them that they are overweight and to interrogate them about what they're eating and doing etc. etc.

Machka 

Mine are.

Rowan

Err.... I mean

kbarch

That really made me laugh, but it's kind of sad if you think about it. Sad that people think that the only way to lose weight is to suffer some through some unpleasant "diet," and don't realize how happy one can be to eat healthy and exercise, and that they resent it, or scoff if you point that out.

Doge

I didn't say there was a body fat difference, I said there was a BMI difference.

My post - the one responding to plus size women that you quoted was saying in the very low body fat (not BMI) fat, that a higher body fat resulted in a better cyclist.

So I would say Froome, Contador, Wiggans do better in the TdF than at 7%-10% than at 5%-7% (although both too hard to measure).
Lemond, Ulrich would go into the tour heavier. Ulrich was near 10% when he won. Indurain was ~170# all 5 wins.

noodle soup

he was also 6'2"

Doge

And a full 20# heavier than other winners Wiggans 6'3", Schleck.

Here Wiggins is about his weight gain that let him hold 485W. Heavier Sir Bradley Wiggins adds weight to the idea that his Tour days may be over | Cycling | Sport | The Independent

banerjek

That's what I try to help people understand -- life is simply easier and more pleasant.

The dynamic is not entirely unlike dealing with credit cards. You can get away with doing with what you shouldn't only for a short while. After that, you have to work harder than you otherwise would have to just to prevent sliding backwards even further.

Un Cycliste

I lost 130lbs recently...when I got a divorce.

J/K. Actually, I am 5/9 and currently weigh in at somewhere between 210 and 214 depending on the day, and whether we ordered pizza the night before...

I am working on a fitness plan to get myself down to a fit and "lean muscular" 185lbs, with somewhere between 10 and 15 percent body fat. Apparently that would make me unfit to be a competitive cyclist or endurance athlete. But that's okay, since I have no desire to be either.

WhyFi

I had a conversation with a friend, a therapist, about exercising the other week. She had mentioned how one of her mentors was very adamant about the importance of exercise w/r/t stress, anxiety and overall mental health. I related how my anxiety levels shot through the roof when I spent too much time off the bike last year, and that one of the only things that kept me in check was the knowledge that it wasn't normal. I asked her if other people, those that are chronically inactive (of which there are a lot), are oblivious and think that that state is completely normal. "Yes and yes. Lots of folks don't make the connection between exercise and mental health, and lots of folks have felt a certain way for so long, they no longer know what their baseline is...they just know they are incredibly uncomfortable." Pretty ****ing sad (and probably explains a lot of social ails).

Machka 

On another forum I'm a member of, I've learned that there are a number of people who quite literally go to work, then come home, eat dinner, and go right to bed. They might sleep, watch TV, play CandyCrush, or whatever it is on Facebook on their phones, on and off throughout the night, but the only things that will get them out of bed from 7 pm until 7 am or whenever they've got to get up for work, are more food and the toilet. On weekends they stay in bed all day too.

The lack of Vit D alone would be enough to send these people into a depression.

But fortunately this forum I'm referring to is about changes, and I read with interest when someone decides to go for a walk after dinner for the first time in years, maybe decades, and discovers how good that feels and how much more energetic they feel.

bakes1

You really are special. Myself, and I believe everyone else in the thread knows in what context the word was used. The joke was you feeling the need to point it out and try to explain it several posts in.
Would you also care to explain the context of the word 'potbelly'??

big john

Indurain was a good climber, not great, but he would crush all of the climbers in the TT, sometimes by 10 minutes. There were a lot more TT miles back then, the courses were tailor made for Big Mig.

BillyD

Alright how about you two guys nip it in the bud now. You know who you are. Agree to disagree, or whatever, but stop the conflict. This informative thread doesn't deserve this.

loky1179

This thread is making me HUNGRY! Luckily, I have some healthy snacks available.