Losing weight makes a significant difference. After a long year with no riding, and living in an area with some of the world's best restaurants, all the sudden (not really), I found I had gained a pretty good amount of weight.

I did two things to lose weight. First, I stopped eating and drinking sugar, and I got on my bike for at least an hour every morning. The weight came off quickly, and I could feel the difference in everything I did. Walking was easier, stairs were easier, getting in and out of the car was easier, climbing the hill on my favorite cycling route became easier, and I could do it in a steeper gear.

Really, the OP just needs to lose the weight and report back.

Really though, gaining weight and then reporting back would be just as informative. Easier for him, probably more fun for everyone else.

That experiment has been done ad nauseam ... as in, I am nauseated by how much weight I have gained.

Eighty pounds ago I could climb any hill anywhere at any time with a fully loaded touring bike----I might not have always been fast, but I used to be able to spin 120-130 rpm all day long, and my touring bikes had triples and endless gearing it seemed.

Now I can barely haul myself up Any hill, no matter the gearing. I have gained about what my full touring load used to weigh ... but in losing fitness in order to gain weight more quickly, I gave up lung capacity, cardio capacity (to almost a terminal level) and strength. I probably couldn't climb a mile-long five-percent hill in 22x36 right now .... i'd pass out half way up from oxygen debt, or insufficient blood to the brain and lungs, or I would just fall over because of no more strength in the muscles.

Sorry I didn't keep a log of what I lost with ever ten pounds gained.

In the interest of science, I guess you should repeat my experiment to see if my results are valid ... but get good health insurance first.

[MENTION=423651]Maelochs[/MENTION]

Forgive me because you didn't ask. But MFP is a really great tool that makes weight loss as easy as it can be. There's a phone app and a web site, you log the food you eat, it has a database with calories and nutrients. It's kind of a hassle at first but gets easier quickly. It builds or refreshes a sense of how much satisfaction per calorie you get from different foods and that knowledge can help you find a way of eating that works for you. I've lost plenty of weight this way myself.

[MENTION=116887]seattle[/MENTION] Forest---Thanks .... It can't hurt for me to check it out.

I might give it a go to tackle these stubborn 5-10 lbs that really, really don't want to go anywhere.

I know what kind of eating works for me, and generally stick to it...but I think I have a habit of losing track of how much I cheat...intentionally or otherwise.

[MENTION=423651]Maelochs[/MENTION] & [MENTION=445996]Abe_Froman[/MENTION]

I'm NorthCascades over there. You can send me a friend thing if you want kudos on your weigh ins or whatever. Honestly I don't use the social part of the app, I just use it refresh my sense of food-as-a-budget occasionally when things get out of hand. But we're all in this together, and I like you guys.

Hey Berger, I got my first fixie in 1999. I've had at least 6 of them over the years. Road and mountain.

Outside of a flat city situation or commuting, they suck. What's your longest ride on one? Mine was a century.

There is a reason all cars also have gears.

Lose weight and get more gears.

I can no longer keep up with one of my primary cycling partners, who recently lost about 15 lbs, and now is down to about 150 lbs.
So now I need to drop a few too, to keep up with him.

I agree about My Fitness Pal.

Just watching where the calories come from was an eye opener. For me it was nuts and cheeses.


-Tim-

I'm skinny, always have been, and haven't changed weight much when totally lazy and when doing things like crazy. For me that is 140lbs. I'm 5'9".

When I was fast, I was jealous of my friends who would show up at the March crits with a little chunk on their cheeks and some adipose in the abdomen.

As the season wore on, they returned to their lean self and got fast. In reality noone was ever more than 10lbs above the ideal but oh man, losing that weight made such a huge difference. It's not just the weight, it's the journey of getting there.

Don't even try to tell me that 10lbs won't make a difference. I've seen too many examples to the contrary.

1 beer is 150 calories, 2 is 300, 6 is zero. Maybe even negative calories.

How are you able to discern whether the difference was 10lbs, or whether they just got strongrr on the bike?

Find one of these people after they've lost weight and gotten faster. I'd bet anything if you filled their bottles with 10lbs of ball bearings, they'd still be much faster than when starting the season out of shape.

That's not to say weight doesnt matter. But I think a lot of people are misinterpreting what racing into shape for the season actually does...

Yup. I think that a lot of people are conflating the two and giving more credit to the weight loss than is due. I came in to the season with decent legs and lungs, but with additional winter weight (I did some trainer work, but not enough to offset the calories). I'm about 15lb down from a few months ago and, while the riding has gotten better, it's not nearly as dramatic as the times that I've returned from a complete winter hiatus, in poor shape in terms of legs, lungs and love-handles.

At one point I got faster going up hills while I was gaining 15 pounds. For exactly the reason you say.

More like 0.1 mph.

Bicycle Speed (Velocity) And Power Calculator

100 watts (hands in the drops)

150 lib rider + 20 lb bike -> 16.3 mph
175 lib rider + 20 lb bike -> 15.9 mph
200 lib rider + 20 lb bike -> 15.5 mph

But how much does it matter?

That's not the issue. My post was in response to the claim that weight has no effect unless climbing/descending or accelerating.

Interesting. Those numbers are higher than I would have expected. Not completely out of wack. I suppose it depends entirely on the quality of the tire used......

What if the roads are pervaded by non-existent cyclists riding along at 39 mph? This seems like a very profound thought so I just checked a Strava segment leaderboard and sure enough, they're not there!!

It's the issue that matters.

Who cares if it isn't "no effect" if the effect is tiny?

Discussing an effect without any idea of the magnitude of the effect is pointless.

If the effect is very small, then it's closer to "no effect" than it is to "a significant effect".

Actually, we're agreeing. If one begins with the premise that any effect is 0, then there is no way to calculate its magnitude. The first step is to recognize that the effect exists (which is what I was saying), the next is to determine its magnitude (a step I didn't feel like taking).