Hello Emilyk318 and All, http://www.bicycling.com/...weight-loss/thin-man 
Excerpts:
"After absorbing these lessons, Riebl put himself on a restricted diet, lost weight and found that being lighter made him considerably faster up the hills. "As the mantra goes," he says, "you train like a horse and eat like a rabbit." The equation clicked: Less weight equals more speed. But this bit of math led not to Grand Tour glory, but to full-blown anorexia.
According to the paper he published in the
Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 20 percent of the cyclists studied showed signs of abnormal eating behaviors. But fewer than half of those men grasped that the way they ate—or didn't—could be called a disorder. Now a renal dietitian who does sports-nutrition consulting on the side, Riebl is increasingly concerned for clients who believe that the desire to win, at any level, justifies unrealistic and unsustainable thinness.
The possibility that a man could be anorexic or bulimic—two syndromes long seen as endemic to females—entered the mainstream only about five years ago. Researchers say the number of men seeking treatment has suddenly exploded, though their actual figures vary. "In the past five years, we've seen more than twice as many men," reports Theodore Weltzin, MD, who directs the country's only residential treatment program for men, at Rogers Memorial Hospital, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. He attributes some of the upswing to the proliferation of idealized male images—an abdominal six-pack on every half-naked spokesmodel. Pro athletes may succumb to the additional pressure involved with making their livings with their bodies, Weltzin says. "Cyclists are right up there with gymnasts," he says. "Always looking at how they perform based on the power-to-weight ratio."
But it looks like a fine line to get that power to weight ratio right ................ although some of Rasmussen's success might be chemical ...
Wiki:
"On 31 January 2013, he admitted to the use of
performance-enhancing drugs from 1998 to 2010 during a press conference.
[31] He stated that he used
EPO,
growth hormone,
testosterone,
DHEA,
insulin,
IGF-1,
cortisone and did
blood transfusions.
[32] He also stated that his cycling career was over and that he wanted to cooperate fully with the Danish anti-doping institutions.
[33] The Danish Authorities stated that they would be looking to enforce a two-year ban, reduced from the normal eight-year ban in exchange for revealing what he knew about other illegal doping actities.
In September 2013 it was confirmed by Danmarks Idrćts-Forbund (DIF) that he would receive a 2 year ban from 8 February 2013 to 7 February 2015 and would be stripped of results from January 2005 to March 2010.
[34] This decision has yet to be ratified by Danish Anti Doping (ADD) or the
UCI."
.
Cheers, Neal
+1 mph Faster