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how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks?
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just finished with an A race and a small rest period following. i have another A race on August 17th (about 5.5 weeks away) which is basically a 1hr hillclimb. my math says on this slope, 1 lb = about 20 seconds. currently, i'm ~12.5% body fat and 146 or so lbs. how much can i realistically lose before the event without compromising power? i'm thinking about 5 lbs is realistic given that i'm not supersupersuper lean as is.

thoughts?
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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5 lbs. is probably pushing the envelope. If you lose 5 lbs., that would theoretically drop you to 9% body fat. You are at the end of the spectrum in which you have little fat lbs. left to eliminate.
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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I don't have a constructive response other than to ask if your plan will entail cutting back on pit stops at HGS on the weekends? lol
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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That is a loaded question! Cutting when you are already fairly light/fit isn't easy. You are looking at potentially a few weeks of mediocre training and terrible moods. Is it worth it for saving ~20 seconds over an hour long race...

Personally I would be more focused on the specific training required to do an hour long hill climb at effort. Maybe train yourself to not require as much fluid (ditch the water bottle and save a couple of pounds there). Just a thought.
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [347CX] [ In reply to ]
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347CX wrote:
I don't have a constructive response other than to ask if your plan will entail cutting back on pit stops at HGS on the weekends? lol

absolutely not. I'll compromise elsewhere hahah
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [tylerbcoaching] [ In reply to ]
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good point, I think doing a bit of water weight experimentation could be more helpful and probably less risky.
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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Lose 16 lbs in 3 days without changing what you eat. Just drink Dr. Oz's magic detox water:





Last edited by: HardlyTrying: Jul 10, 19 8:52
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [ericMPro] [ In reply to ]
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Putting the focus on weight loss is a mistake. Concentrate on quality productive training and you will be stronger, aerobically fit and likely the same weight or lighter.

"They know f_ck-all over at Slowtwitch"
- Lionel Sanders
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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I think it depends on your current diet. Last week I was 178 10% body fat and 3.5weeks from IM Canada. I cut carbs down to before and during workout, jumped up my green veggies, protein and good fats and have around a 300-500 cal deficit a day. I am already down to 174.4 and although likely only a pound is fat, I shed water weight while still maintaining strong 3hrs of training a day. Hoping to drop another 3lbs before the carb load but already happy with subtle drop.

Just focus on eating cleaner but not less and be happy with whatever happens whether 1 pound or 4
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [Fuller] [ In reply to ]
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Fuller wrote:
Putting the focus on weight loss is a mistake. Concentrate on quality productive training and you will be stronger, aerobically fit and likely the same weight or lighter.

Agreed. Unless you are already capped out on your potential fitness (lets face it...none of us are), then focusing on solely on weight loss comes at a sacrifice of focusing on fitness. Remember, it's not just a kg formula when climbing...it's W/kg. Meaning increasing watts (or not losing watts) is also important. How important of course depends on the grade of the hill. But from my guesstimate, 20 seconds for 1 pound on an hour-ish race sounds like about 5-6% average.

I do 3 major hill climb races a year. One is a true TT, and the others are basically treated as TTs. All of them average between 5.1 and 5.7% and basically it comes down to 1 pound plus/minus is the same impact as 1 watt. For steeper climbs, say in the 10% range, I find that 1 pound plus/minus is about 2-2.5 watts. Naturally on a shallow 2-3% climb, it's the opposite where 1 watt plus/minus is equal to about 1.5-2 pounds.

So in the OPs case, you need to figure out not just the time savings per pound, but the time savings per watt. Then ask yourself which is easier. Losing 4-6 pounds and maintaining your 1 hour power, or gaining 4-6 watts in 1 hour power and maintaining weight. Or more likely a combination of both is the best solution. Given you're already fairly lean, I would focus a little more on the fitness side since that's likely the lower hanging fruit compared so someone 25% body fat.
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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Depends ... How hairy are you? Shaving your legs and back may get you there!

<Pink where necessary>
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [prefersdirt] [ In reply to ]
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Maybe 5-8; that really all depends and like some say, your body may do better at your current weight but many racers don't lose much FTP as they go down in weight. Its based more on your aerobic engine so you can lose some (I went from 25 to 11% and my ftp went up).

First thing I'd do is cut our processed food and junk, especially artificial sweeteners. To get under 10% you need to eat clean af, cico just isn't good enough. Although many athletes drink diet soda and other low calorie drinks with sweeteners, a lot of studies show it adds excess belly fat.

**Edit** Since your race is so close I wouldn't make weight loss a priority but a cleaner diet.
Last edited by: furiousferret: Jul 10, 19 10:52
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [furiousferret] [ In reply to ]
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Can you point to some research that shows the part about artificial sweeteners and weight gain? Not observational studies? I can't seem to find any.
Last edited by: offpiste.reese: Jul 10, 19 11:46
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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johnj121591 wrote:
just finished with an A race and a small rest period following. i have another A race on August 17th (about 5.5 weeks away) which is basically a 1hr hillclimb. my math says on this slope, 1 lb = about 20 seconds. currently, i'm ~12.5% body fat and 146 or so lbs. how much can i realistically lose before the event without compromising power? i'm thinking about 5 lbs is realistic given that i'm not supersupersuper lean as is.

thoughts?

The conservative recommendation is approximately a pound of body fat per week. The rationale is that a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, necessitating a deficit of 500 calories per day, which is often well tolerated in terms of discomfort and maintenance of lean body mass.

---------------------------------------------------------------

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [offpiste.reese] [ In reply to ]
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offpiste.reese wrote:
Can you point to some research that shows the part about artificial sweeteners and weight gain? Not observational studies? I can't seem to find any.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC5120853/

There's plenty out there. It may not meet your guidelines but its enough for me. I don't think its a major factor if you're not trying to min max performance, but for getting at an elite bf percentage cutting it out is almost necessary (especially if you're over 40).
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [furiousferret] [ In reply to ]
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In controlled studies, artificial sweeteners help people lose weight. They do not contribute to increased appetite. But they do tend to be associated with crap diets, so sometimes when you compare groups, the artificial sweetener folks look worse.

Here's a pretty good summary: https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/...eteners-weight-gain/
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [HardlyTrying] [ In reply to ]
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That is because people lie/fool themselves when they report what they eat. Studies based on self reported food intake is as valuable as flipping a coin for deciding the weather forecast.

And the fatter they are, the lesser the food intake, according to the reports.
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [Schnellinger] [ In reply to ]
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please let us know how you get on! I would like to know how much you can lose without compromising power!
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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I'm roughly in the same spot. Also 6 weeks out of my A-race. But it is a full distance triathlon, and I do the math in metric weights :)

I'm 178cm tall, and weigh about 74-75 kilo, so I seem to have more too loose than OP. I've been to 72 kilo before, but feel like I'm still not really on raceweight than. I'd like to try sub 70 kilo (especially for my running, since the bike course is flat and weight might not be really important). Would that be realistic (I recon losing 3 kilo is easy, but the last 2, not so sure with only 6 weeks to go)?

To get there I will cut alcohol (sad to say, but I find that pretty hard) completely and stop eating snacks (no peanuts, chips, cheeses as snacks during movies, evenings, etc.). Next to that I'll try to eat smaller portions (with more vegs) and fuell up healty if needed (fruit, yoghurt, etc.). I hope to achieve a calorie deficit, without hurting my training too much. Next few weeks will concentrate on longer bike rides and run, with less hard speed work (less 5k-pace interval running, more 20+ kilometer LSD runs, longer bike rides).
Last edited by: Cnasta: Jul 11, 19 1:40
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [johnj121591] [ In reply to ]
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It’s a tough question. While losing weight may get you a better w/kg ratio and in term make you even fitter and faster others are right when they say losing weight = under eating = mediocre training. And the COULD have the opposite effect.

I still lapped everyone on the couch!
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [domingjm] [ In reply to ]
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domingjm wrote:
johnj121591 wrote:
just finished with an A race and a small rest period following. i have another A race on August 17th (about 5.5 weeks away) which is basically a 1hr hillclimb. my math says on this slope, 1 lb = about 20 seconds. currently, i'm ~12.5% body fat and 146 or so lbs. how much can i realistically lose before the event without compromising power? i'm thinking about 5 lbs is realistic given that i'm not supersupersuper lean as is.

thoughts?

The conservative recommendation is approximately a pound of body fat per week. The rationale is that a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, necessitating a deficit of 500 calories per day, which is often well tolerated in terms of discomfort and maintenance of lean body mass.

This is the best answer on the thread. Start with a daily 500 calorie deficit and adjust as needed. When I've cut body fat for bodybuilding comps in the past I used to aim for a 500g per week loss. I noticed no appreciable drop off in training performance until I got down to around 8% or lower body fat.

I have also done mini cuts which were much more aggressive with a drop of around 800g-1000g weight per week. But I felt terrible for the 3-4 week period.

If you want to maintain performance err on the conservative side rather than the aggressive side
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [rock] [ In reply to ]
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these are all excellent points. the only reason i'm opting for weight loss over power is that i think i'm bumping up against the ceiling of what is realistic for me power-wise for the event given how much time i have to train. i'm currently riding ~20-25hr per week (as i also compete in the USAC Pro Road Tour and need to have a big base) with some really good quality work in there - much more and i'd probably get fired haha. i set a power PR last year with similar training and i think mayyyybbbeeee, i could add like 5w for the full hour but that's about it. last year i raced the event at a decidedly un-lean (for me) ~149lbs so this year, i'm thinking that if i can maintain about that power and just drop a few lbs, that is an automatic minute or so off the time. FWIW, i'm right on the edge of what i think would be a top-5 time and i'm willing to take a bit of a risk to get over that edge instead of a forgettable placing.

unfortunately, my diet is already pretty clean but because i do so much volume, i eat an enormous amount of carbs - especially fruits and vegetables - which obviously means a ton of water retention. it's not uncommon for me to have ~10lb fluctuations within a single day if i eat a ton of fruit or whatever and am especially stocked on glycogen.

after reading the responses here, i think the strategy will be to attempt a very conservative weight loss of maybe 3 lbs (i.e. 1 minute) but also focus on getting my water retention strategy down so that i'm not on the starting line bloated with a ton of excess fluid. in the pro road races i've done i typically purposely try and start a stage ~5 lbs heavier than my "base" weight because i know that the extra hydration and glycogen are way more important than bonking at mile 73/100. however, this would obviously not be optimal for a 1hr hillclimb where i will only do ~1200 kj so dont need all that excess
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [Fuller] [ In reply to ]
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Fuller wrote:
Putting the focus on weight loss is a mistake. Concentrate on quality productive training and you will be stronger, aerobically fit and likely the same weight or lighter.

If he had 6 months I may agree with this, given his time frame I'd argue that weight loss is the only thing he can do that will make a significant difference
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Re: how much weight can i realistically lose in 5.5 weeks? [rock] [ In reply to ]
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rock wrote:
domingjm wrote:
johnj121591 wrote:
just finished with an A race and a small rest period following. i have another A race on August 17th (about 5.5 weeks away) which is basically a 1hr hillclimb. my math says on this slope, 1 lb = about 20 seconds. currently, i'm ~12.5% body fat and 146 or so lbs. how much can i realistically lose before the event without compromising power? i'm thinking about 5 lbs is realistic given that i'm not supersupersuper lean as is.

thoughts?


The conservative recommendation is approximately a pound of body fat per week. The rationale is that a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, necessitating a deficit of 500 calories per day, which is often well tolerated in terms of discomfort and maintenance of lean body mass.


This is the best answer on the thread. Start with a daily 500 calorie deficit and adjust as needed. When I've cut body fat for bodybuilding comps in the past I used to aim for a 500g per week loss. I noticed no appreciable drop off in training performance until I got down to around 8% or lower body fat.

I have also done mini cuts which were much more aggressive with a drop of around 800g-1000g weight per week. But I felt terrible for the 3-4 week period.

If you want to maintain performance err on the conservative side rather than the aggressive side

I came from that world also. High-level weight lifters and wrestlers are experts at manipulating body composition for the preservation of strength. I was actually going to reference 8% body fat as a target end-point for the OP.

---------------------------------------------------------------

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm
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