Kertrek

When I was in boot camp I got up to 140 pounds, which is heavier than I'd ever been, but I was eating cereal, bacon and eggs and pasta and salads every lunch and dinner. I've been out of the military and can't afford to get all that food, and with my college minimum wage job, I'm down to 120 lbs, and cycling 200 miles a week isn't helping. I'm gonna supplement my diet with tuna fish and peanut butter and jelly, which is cheap calories and healthy oils, and won't cost much.

Since I've started group riding, training for competitive cycling, I should put on some weight. I've read that a healthy weight for my height is 115-130lbs for climbers and 130-150lbs for sprinters. I want to be a good climber, but effective sprinter. Does 130 lbs seem like a weight I should aim for?

KBentley57

a good weight is one that lets you train without feeling weak or rundown IMO. I mean, I'd try not to go into the 'underweight' regime on the BMI scale, but I don't see why it would otherwise be unhealthy to maintain your weight. My wife is nearly the same BMI as you; slender but by no means 'bless the children of africa' infomercial .

Drew Eckhardt 

No.

The weight ranges are side effects as in "good climbers and sprinters tend to weigh this much," not prescriptions on how to get there.

If you were made to be a sprinter you'd be a mesomorph, at least 3-6" taller, and have heart and lungs built for a 150-180 pound lean weight giving you a good power to drag ratio. For better or worse you're not.

For cycling purposes you want to weigh as little as possible without your power to weight ratios dropping or recovery times increasing. Most amateurs compromise - getting sick often would be inconvenient, I occasionally mount 75 pound milling vises and move 100 pound sacks of rock, and felt like I was getting too lean once I had ab vascularity. At 5'9.5" before crashing that was around 136-137 pounds so I ate more than I needed to be full. With a month off plus another at just 7 hours a week at 135 I'm a little less lean than I was at 137. By itself weight doesn't mean much because it doesn't differentiate between fat, muscle, and other or where the muscles are.

bikebreak

no, 120 is good.
what matters is watts per weight

if you are looking for cheap calorie dense food to maintain lean mass or get eggs and butter
if you need to add muscle drink milk and get some creatine