Am ideas what the “ideal” lean body mass should be for an AG triathete? I just did OK in a local 5k (19:49), but want to go faster. I’m thinking that I’d be faster on the run if I drop 5-10 pounds off of my current 161 lbs and 5’8" frame. My region is hilly, so lighter is also better on the bike. My weight has been very stable at this point for years, but as I look at the people in front of me at the finish line, they’ll all leaner than me! I’m sure some of their speed is due to more training time and likely better/harder training, but it does look like a straight correlation between body fat and finish time.
well this is kinda random, but I did meet with an exercise phys. guy and so did a good friend of mine. At the beginning, my friend was at 9% body fat and training for sprint tris. The phys. brought him down to 6%. I started at 15% and his goal for me was 9% which I am sitting at right now heading into LP. Does that help?
edit to add this – it’s not just about % body fat, it’s about losing fat and increasing lean muscle which increases your metabolism and makes you a calorie burning machine. The lean guys aren’t fast because they are lean, they are lean because they train all the time so they have a low fat/muscle ratio. Diet will help get you there, but not as much as 15+ hour training weeks will.
"Diet will help get you there, but not as much as 15+ hour training weeks will. "
Everything I have seen says the opposite. You can work out like a maniac and never get down to single digit body fat. I’ve seen plenty of examples. Some of the SEALs I’ve worked with were in fantastic shape but carried a little body fat to help keep them warm on long cold swims. Diet is what gets you lean. Working out is what gets you strong and gives you good muscles to show off when the fat burns away.
Whats your current body fat??
It’s really both. Pretty simple equation, if you burn more calories than you eat, your body will deplete fat stores for energy. If you eat more than you burn, it will store calories as fat. You can maintain high body fat with tons of exercise if you still consume more calories than you burn (and vice versa). Similarly, you can lose tons of fat without exercise, just don’t eat.
The key is to understand the difference between weight and body fat percentage. Body fat is specific, weight includes things such as muscle mass, water retained, etc… One can lose body fat and still gain weight if you build muscle mass at a higher rate than you lose the fat. So SEALs (and swimmmers in general) can retain a higher layer of body fat and still be in awesome shape, they just need to eat enough to avoid depleting fat stores.
The problem is we think of diet as being protein, carbs and fat, but the first thing does something very different than the last two. Protein builds and rebuilds lean muscle mass; carbs and fat are fuel sources. Protein can be used as a fuel source, but not very well (It will be converted to fat to be stored as fuel if there’s too much, but again, this is not efficient).
BTW, the negative side of higher body fat for triathletes is that it can just add weight on the bike and run, but it can help in swimming with improved bouyancy.
11% per tanita scale, seems about right.
I think in terms of endurance sports, and especially running, it really comes down to BMI, as outdated a measure it really is. Percent bodyfat certainly shouldn’t be overlooked, but if you’re an athlete, I’m sure you’ll have some muscle mass anyways. I did a quick fly through the ITU website, looking at the Elites’ profiles and calculating some BMIs and found that damn near ALL of them (~15 or so) were between 20.5-21.5BMI… So if you’re an athlete with some muscle, then look at BMI. If you’re at 5% BF but still high BMI, your joints will suffer in the long haul…
Thoughts?
I did a quick fly through the ITU website, looking at the Elites’ profiles and calculating some BMIs and found that damn near ALL of them (~15 or so) were between 20.5-21.5BMI.
Thoughts?
20.5 - 21.5 sounds like a pretty narrow range.
BMI for 2008 TdF riders.
BMI for 2006 TdF riders.
And, as long as we’re at it…
for the 17212th time…why are we using BMI on an thletic based forum ???
Are you saying it’s 100% irrelevant?
Ronnie Coleman:
Super low %BF… but how would he do in a tri?
We ARE in an athletic forum, and since we’re talking slowtwitch and endurance, I think with all of those factors present, BMI IS in fact somewhat relelvant to performance.
I only looked at 15… and both of those graphs seem to be more or less clustered right around that 21 line. Also, I’m guessing BMI for pure cyclist would be higher than for triathletes as they probably have considerably more muscular (“heavy”) legs, as they don’t have to run… is that stretching it?
A week or two ago I calculated the BMI of 7 males of TeamTBB (Brett Sutton’s team). The range is: 19.87 to 22.86. One thing to note is that these may not all be short course athlete’s like the ITU group. Also, I agree BMI is a pretty good yardstick since elite triathletes, cyclists or runners are not going to be carrying a lot of muscle. I also suspect the triathlete’s on average will be a little leaner than the cyclist’s due to their need to run off the bike. Of course the climber’s in cycling will have very low bmi’s and the time trialist’s will probably have higher bmi’s. The elite long distance, runner’s would likely have among the lowest bmi’s.
I only looked at 15… and both of those graphs seem to be more or less clustered right around that 21 line. Also, I’m guessing BMI for pure cyclist would be higher than for triathletes as they probably have considerably more muscular (“heavy”) legs, as they don’t have to run… is that stretching it?
I’d say less clustered rather than more, and I wouldn’t describe most TdF riders as having “heavy” legs–maybe you’re thinking of track sprinters? Most pro cyclists could probably slip their torsos through a tennis racket, and I think “elite” triathletes would tend to be a bit taller than “elite” cyclists (though there are certainly exceptions). The latter matters because BMI doesn’t scale linearly with height for “equivalent” body shapes.
Are you kidding?
Many of those athletes are packed with muscle. It doesn’t take a whole helluva lot of muscle - you don’t have to be a BBer - to bust up to a hgher BF. Muscle is much denser than fat.
Any guy who is a professional has gotta have 10% or less. If they are serious about it, they are around 6% BF. I mean, that’s what they do for a living, and they are big on depriving themselves of food when it comes down to cutting. It’s free speed.
Example. My BMI is 23.6 but my BF% is under 10 and you can see most of my abs. But if you saw a picture of me you’d say I look pretty lanky.
Yea whatever mate.
Make your own mistakes.
Terry
I just wanted to say how awesome RChung’s graphs are… gotta love data
A quick update. Well through slightly more training and much better diet control I dropped 5 pounds over the summer and will likely lose 1-2 more before the last race (Diamondman - HIM) of the year. Mostly I just eliminated sugar and grain snacks during the day, and reduced grains at dinner. I think I ate as many calories, just less grain/sugar based CHO. I’ll see how the race goes. I’ll see if lower BMI makes me faster.