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?
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.
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
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.
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
good point, I think doing a bit of water weight experimentation could be more helpful and probably less risky.
Lose 16 lbs in 3 days without changing what you eat. Just drink Dr. Oz’s magic detox water:
None
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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.
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
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.
Depends … How hairy are you? Shaving your legs and back may get you there!
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.
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.
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.
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/pmc/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).
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/sweet-lowdown-artificial-sweeteners-weight-gain/
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.
please let us know how you get on! I would like to know how much you can lose without compromising power!
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).