How important is weight

mikesbytes

When I started "club" cycling training in April 06, I weighed 74kg (163lbs), now I weigh 82kg (180lbs). Should I do something about it ?

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JAPANic

Are you riding faster or slower?

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mikesbytes

About the same

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tomdavis80

Weight matters much more on hills. You'd definitely be slower on the hills if you have any in your area.

mikesbytes

I'm about the same on the hills. I'm assuming that my increase in performance has roughly matched my increase in weight.

The trick for me would be to loose weight without losing performance.

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JAPANic

You should then be able to lose 'bad' weight and improve your speed...
I put on muscle fast and it doesn't help me going up hills...
I'm the heaviest guy in my club and although I can beat any of them on a flat sprint I often get dropped after a lot of hills...
I want to lose weight and I don't even care if I lose some sprint speed as long as I can fly up the hills a bit better...

Unless you were underweight to start with you probably have gained a lot of muscle and lost no or little fat...

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mikesbytes

I'm trimming a small amount of carbs out of my diet, hopefully not enough to affect performance but enough to slowely loose a small quanity of fat. I have some extra reserves. Whats the recommended minumum fat levels for a male ?

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tomdavis80

I'd probably say that safe for a good athletic male would be probably 6-12%. This number might be different for different people, for instance, my safe number is probably around 7-9%. No less than 7 for me.

mikesbytes

Perhaps I should find someone to measure my fat levels.

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Eastway82

If you were fairly unfit before you started cycling last year, then you've probably replaced fat with muscle, and muscle's heavier. As well as cutting down on carbs, try and cut out some fat from your diet too.
Also, look at your training. If it's predominantly short, hard sessions, you're going to build more muscle. That's fine for sprinting and flat TTs, but for road racing, and especially climbing, it's not ideal. If you want to lose bulk but keep the strength, you need to be looking at regular longer endurance sessions (two hours plus).
Also, do you use recovery/energy drinks or food? They tend to be very high carb - a strong one of those and you could be taking in more calories on a ride than you're burning!. Look for a recovery drink that's just for recovery, not energy, so it replaces the minerals you sweat out, but doesn't 'feed' you.

You might find some cross training helps - running's good for weight loss and is especially good if you're pushed for time. Horrible though...

Of course, I can say all this, but I can't seem to get down below 80kg myself, and I'm only 5ft7... :-(

mikesbytes

I was fit before I started club riding and wasn't carrying a huge amount of fat. Most of the weight increase will be extra muscle, I would say that I have put on 6kg of muscle and 2kg of fat. I'm a cross trainer, so not all of that muscle can be attributed to the legs, probably 4kg with 2kg going to core and upper.

I know where my calories come from including any hidden ones, so adjusting the diet shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Lets say I get tested and I've got 15% body fat and at 82kg, that means that 1% = 820gms. If I reduced my body fat to 10%, then that would be a 4kg saving.

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rayhuang

It better be important cause I am losing weight and losing weight and losing weight!! But seriousely, I will be racing hilly road races and Time Trials primarily where more muscle mass isnt really beneficial. Its all about power to weight ratios. You know like in Monty Python!! SO I am hoping that say my FTP is 300 watts, then I'd be better off producing that at 66 kilos rather than 80. I am at 69 right now. WOuld I gain back 2 or 3 lbs MAX to have a 400 watt higher sprint (assuming i get to the sprint fresh) then I might.

Sub

I think weight is very important. I have gone the opposite direction.. from 180 lbs down to 155 lbs.. i've gone back up to 163 as i have no hilly races for 6 weeks but i've just started to get back down again. The difference has been huge! I went from going off the back on the deciding climb every time... and early. This year, i've managed to stick with the top 10 leaders over the decisive climbs. I'm now a weight weenie and want the lightest bike I can get once I can't lose any more weight off the body. I also think that your body becomes more efficient cardio wise not having to supply that extra mass, be it muscle or fat. Upper body mass does nothing for you in cycling... I haven't touched a weight since I started cycling 5 years ago.

mikesbytes

I've dropped 2kg

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