I’m an older triathlete (61) who used to be a somewhat competitive AGer at olympic and 70.3 distances. I’ve got well out of shape in the last 5 years but am looking to make a return.
Historically, I’ve always neglected the weight training side so to correct this, I’ve engaged a personal trainer. However, he and I disagree on my ideal weight.
I’m 5 feet 10 and currently weigh in around 174 pounds. At my peak about 5 years ago, my race weight would be around 167. I’d like to get there again but he disagrees. He thinks 174 is OK and says that losing weight and gaining muscle are mutually exclusive. (Note - my body fat is currently crazy high at around 20% - we both agree that needs to come down)
My view is - 174 pounds may be fine for a non-triathlete (and probably fine for a swimmer) but lugging that weight around the bike and run course is not going to win me many races.
I guess all this is a long way of saying - what is the ideal weight/body fat for a triathlete?
Personal experience : 55 yo, 6’, race weight is 164 lbs, fat measured at 8%, I was around 20% few years ago.
I arrived at this weight simply training mostly low intensity, little carb before and during training, full replenishement after. A classical method to improve fat ox, produce slowtwitch fibers, and naturally increase ultra endurance perf and reduce weight. Well described by Alan Couzins in his blogs (recently posted links in the “how I loose weight” recent thread). Applied by Kenyan marathoners, norwayan triathletes, german triathletes, …
Is your personal trainer an ultra-endurance specialist (knowledgeable about fat ox development, low intensity, well timed carbs, …) or a cross-fit fan (Instagramable muscles, HIIT, …) ?
My trainer has a swimming background - I picked him for this reason. Right now, I have the upper body of a Tour de France cyclist - I need to fix that.
Thanks for the pointers to Alan Couzens, I’ll have a read.
I’m no expert, but I doubt it’s as simple as a magic number that everyone should aspire to.
For one thing it’ll be different for men and women but similarly, all men are not the same build and neither are all women.
My brother and I are both 178cm tall (5’10"). He has been a good runner all his life and a very good cyclist since around 30. I have a less sport oriented background and have always been considerably heavier than him even as children when we were both very lean and fit. We’re both mid 40s now and in the last few years he’s typically 62-65kg, the same range as he’s always been, and I’m typically 82-85kg but have been down to 79kg when making an effort in advance of specific events. Realistically, I know I could get down to around 76kg or less just by reducing body fat, if I really made a big effort, and my performance would improve, but I’m quite sure i could never get to my brother’s weight without negative impact on health. I’m simply a different morphology (if that’s the right word). I’m just naturally bigger. My shoulders are wider, my wrists and ankles are much larger circumference (not much muscle or fat there to confuse things), and my feet are wider.
I think it’s probably reasonable to identify a reasonable body fat range, but I doubt it’s valid to state an ideal weight for an athlete based solely on the sport their doing and their age and height.
Unless you’re naturally pretty muscular, I’d expect your current weight is probably higher than optimum for most people your height if you want to optimise for most triathlon disciplines. Since you say your body fat is around 20% and the trainer agrees it should be reduced, it seems foolish for the trainer to say losing weight and gaining muscle are mutually exclusive. It simply requires that you lose more fat than you gain muscle. Surely gaining muscle mass is typically slower and harder than losing fat on a per unit weight basis!
Regardless, you can treat muscle gain and fat loss as separate entities and the resulting body mass is what it is.
I’m 5’10" and had my best results when racing bikes around 164 pounds. I’m 53 now and lost all motivation in 2020 with the pandemic and am now up to 185 pounds. Part of the weight gain is due to the fact that I’m lifting 3 days per week with my teenage son (family bonding), gaining strength and muscle. So I’m not sure I’ll ever get back to a healthy and fit 164 pounds.
7 lbs in 5 years is not much to worry about. I think your coach’s perspective is right as far as what to focus on. I don’t think losing weight has to be mutually exclusive to gaining muscle, but that is a different conversation.
Just by focusing on improving your performance, you may find that you drop some, if not all of the extra weight.
I am your same age and height. My racing weight has slowly inched down over the years. From 175ish in the 30s and 40s to 165ish now. However, I don’t have a target weight . . . I have a target fitness. I tend to believe that when you are doing the “right” things that your natural and best weight will find itself.
Welcome back - staying fit and healthy as we age is a true life bonus!
At you (okay, our) age, gaining muscle is going to be difficult at best without the aid of anabolics. So to say that you will lose an equivalent weight in fat as you gain in muscle is naive, no matter how you approach it.
This is why, as another poster stated, their race weight has crept downward over time – muscle loss while keeping bodyfat low.
Is there an ideal? Maybe, but that will be an individual number.
Go for a calorie deficit, if you are inclined to track things that closely. Use your workout performance as a guide to your effort/recovery balance, work to your ability, and enjoy the ride.
The trick is to keep losing weight until your friends and family ask you if you’ve been sick. then you know you’re within 10 pounds. if they start whispering to each other, wondering if you’ve got cancer or aids, you’re within 5. when they actually do an intervention, you’re at race weight.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
Originally posted Feb 20, 2006, but quoted often
In fact, I think it’s now a ST Rule that whenever “race weight” or “weight loss” is mentioned, this post must be applied
Your trainer is probably trying to get you to gain muscle to increase your baseline metabolic needs to then lose weight. Fat and muscle are definitely not mutually exclusive.
I like that there are so many “average height” athletes in this thread!
As another 5’10" triathlete, my goal is to race at 162 this season. But, I’m hovering at 180 right now. I find I need to go into a winter block or two of HIIT, CrossFit style, and just plain heavy slow compound lifting in order to be big enough to cut weight in the endurance blocks. The key for me is plenty of clean protein and then not overeating when I taper into the race.
Depends on your goals though. It’s super hard to add muscle and lose fat at the same time. Recomposition like that puts me into a funky state where it’s hard to sleep. So, I prefer to bulk up, not go crazy with the diet, but feel satiated, then when I really start to build mileage, I lose muscle and fat together.
I like Dan’s quote. Some of my teammates at 70.3 World’s last year looked nearly sick and gaunt the days leading up to the race. They were fast. I looked a bit chubby in my kit at about 168 to 170 and I was slow. N=1, but I gotta control my diet in the taper this year.
It is possible to gain muscle while losing fat when you’re at 20% body fat, but it becomes extremely difficult below 15% (naturally anyway).
I notice very little difference swimming or cycling (flat course) when between 13-18% body fat, but a pretty large difference running. Below 13% I run even faster (or, in my case, even less slowly), but around that point my cycling FTP starts to decline. I still climb faster, but flat TT speeds suffer.
It is possible to gain muscle while losing fat when you’re at 20% body fat, but it becomes extremely difficult below 15% (naturally anyway).
I notice very little difference swimming or cycling (flat course) when between 13-18% body fat, but a pretty large difference running. Below 13% I run even faster (or, in my case, even less slowly), but around that point my cycling FTP starts to decline. I still climb faster, but flat TT speeds suffer.
I like the way you look at it. A lot of nutritionists believe in looking at it exactly how you do. Maintain whatever weighr you are fastest. If you gain 5 minutes on the run and lose 10 minutes on the bike, you might as well stay around 15+%.
Most AG are fat, the answer for most AG is less than what you weigh now Western society normalized being fat though so fat triathletes don’t look as fat.
Everyone’s ideal weight for being fast in a triathlon does become an interesting optimization problem, where the weight where you’ll be fastest overall isn’t necessarily the weight where you’d be fastest at any one of the three.
I don’t tend to have the time or patience do that much testing on myself, so my plan is always to get as fit as possible, eat well, and let the weight fall where it may. This usually results in me being 5-8 pounds lighter around race time.
I’m an older triathlete (61) who used to be a somewhat competitive AGer at olympic and 70.3 distances. I’ve got well out of shape in the last 5 years but am looking to make a return.
Historically, I’ve always neglected the weight training side so to correct this, I’ve engaged a personal trainer. However, he and I disagree on my ideal weight.
I’m 5 feet 10 and currently weigh in around 174 pounds. At my peak about 5 years ago, my race weight would be around 167. I’d like to get there again but he disagrees. He thinks 174 is OK and says that losing weight and gaining muscle are mutually exclusive. (Note - my body fat is currently crazy high at around 20% - we both agree that needs to come down)
My view is - 174 pounds may be fine for a non-triathlete (and probably fine for a swimmer) but lugging that weight around the bike and run course is not going to win me many races.
I guess all this is a long way of saying - what is the ideal weight/body fat for a triathlete?
Fire your trainer immediately
It is 100% possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time
I’m an older triathlete (61) who used to be a somewhat competitive AGer at olympic and 70.3 distances. I’ve got well out of shape in the last 5 years but am looking to make a return.
Historically, I’ve always neglected the weight training side so to correct this, I’ve engaged a personal trainer. However, he and I disagree on my ideal weight.
I’m 5 feet 10 and currently weigh in around 174 pounds. At my peak about 5 years ago, my race weight would be around 167. I’d like to get there again but he disagrees. He thinks 174 is OK and says that losing weight and gaining muscle are mutually exclusive. (Note - my body fat is currently crazy high at around 20% - we both agree that needs to come down)
My view is - 174 pounds may be fine for a non-triathlete (and probably fine for a swimmer) but lugging that weight around the bike and run course is not going to win me many races.
I guess all this is a long way of saying - what is the ideal weight/body fat for a triathlete?
Fire your trainer immediately
It is 100% possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time
The guy this video is very open and honest about his use of prescribed TRT, turkesterone and the OP is 61 as well. An age where the body doesn’t naturally produce as much testosterone.
Be mindful of where you get your information and how to apply it.
What works for one person may not work for another.