It’ll come down to diet. You haven’t mentioned whether your weight is stable, has been increasing, decreasing or anything else. If your weight is stable then it’s nicely balanced and just a small reduction in the amount you take in will see weight loss.
For me to lose weight I just need to cut the beers back and the weight falls away. I’m 184cm and 71kg.
Same for me. I was pushing 150kg 15 years ago and it takes incredible effort (and not drinking beer!) to maintain my weight anywhere sensible with the added complication that after I had part of my bowel removed, lots of healthy options are not available to me. Got into bad habits during the first lockdown and it’s been a slog just to get back to 95kg now. No science to it other than cutting down by 500kcal a day and allowing myself a couple of extra treats at the weekend.
I feel my best at around 85kg and any lower I just look ill. At least I’m hitting my best ever ftp so hopefully those next few kilos will make all the difference to my outdoor riding this summer.
Water weight you can lose quickly, but this is just a mirage.
There is no real substitute for making lifestyle changes, really. Sit down, look at your current consumption, where you would like to optimise, and go from there.
I can give some anecdotal tips from my experience(s):
Eat more fruit and vegetables. The fact the calorie density of these is so low, you will 100% optimise body composition.
Adhere to an eating schedule, i.e., try to eat meals at a fixed time. This can extend to Intermittent Fasting, though this is not for everyone. Personally, I like it as it gives my body a “rest” after eating mountains of food when training.
Track you intake approximately.
Apart from that, no silver bullet. Fast weight loss is not advised.
Rule of thumb from Anita Bean is limiting yourself to a maximum deficit of 500 kcals per day. This works out as 2kg loss per month, which is pretty rapid.
You know you have the balance right when you can still ride the bike. If your muscles are too tired, you aren’t eating enough.
can mean potentially you are glycogen depleted. Depleting carb stores during say fasted work has a role, but low glycogen stores can manifest in stronger hunger signals, hence the need for lower density whole foods to not overindulge, in say oreos 
I am planning weight loss strategy for next year. Should I go for lower weight or just continue working on the raw power?
This has been first year with structured training after two years cycling and the progression has been good. I have been healthy and slept well whole year. Overall stress has been a little lower too. So the result is that I have gone from 93-95 kg to 85 kg, but my FTP has gone from 360 W to 385-390 W. Estimated FTP by intervals.icu is 402 W which puts me to 4,72 W/kg which is a bit overestimated as it is based on shorter duration efforts. I can do about 90 minutes at 370 W if it’s a good day though. Nevertheless I feel like I am at a new level now. I have been doing mostly TTE work at threshold whole year with two short VO2max blocks. VO2max power has gone up about 40 watts too. Weight loss has been steady, I try to eat healthy and train so much I can.
I am a amateur gravel racer and with all time and life constraints I would like to see what would be the absolute fitness for me next year. I would like to aim for 5 W/kg which would be good for a large guy like me. In the races I have entered I have been able to climb quite well with the lighter guys, but the short accelerations are maybe my weakness. I think that won’t still be a limiter in the longer races because I can ride fast and steady on flat terrain and catch (or drop) the others there.
As I am quite muscular there is not so much anymore to lose. There’s maybe 5-7 kilos extra if I really bite my teeth and cut down the calories, then I would be very lean. I fear though that it would dent all the endurance I have acquired with hard training. On the other hand lower body mass would need a little less calories. The goal for next year will be Gravel Worlds in Nebraska (150 miles). There’s a lot of short and steep hills where lower body weight will help with saving energy.
Do you guys have any opinions for how should I progress? I know that the weight loss should be done carefully, as I have done now. I will have time to drop the weight from October to December when I won’t have to train at high intensity. I need to eat a lot though that my brain can function in a demanding job so I can’t be on calorie deficit during workdays, and in the evenings I need the energy to train.
I would carry on with what you’re currently doing, it’s clearly working! If you’re already pretty lean and muscular then further weight loss (if any - this might already be your optimal weight for gravel racing) should be quite incremental.
I wouldn’t think about trying to lose another 5+ kg. I would think about carrying on with good sleep habits, fuelling your workouts well, and your body will find it’s natural weight in response to that training stimulus. I see a lot of lean muscular people come into cycling who gradually shed some of the muscle mass over a couple of years as their body responds to doing lots of endurance training. If you really do feel you can lose weight and still be healthy and nailing your workouts, then with the time frame you’re talking about you can target small deficits e.g. Losing 1kg a month (or 0.5lb/week) is slow enough to give you time to dial back if you’re starting to see a negative impact on health or performance, but still plenty enough to get you in best shape for next season.
Yeah this is what I’m thinking about too. This year results in racing has been quite ok already and I haven’t lost so much time in the hilly parts, in fact the most gains I would get from riding the singletrack and technical sections faster.
Because I do this for fun I won’t like to go full monk mode with food for whole winter. There’s a risk for burn out if I train hard and cut the calories. Maybe that calorie deficit will come naturally with longer workouts as I try to fit one 3-4 hour long ride on Tuesdays or Thursdays plus a longer one in weekends.
I am not as fit nor as big as you are. I found myself with too much of a spare tire after the winter I have not significantly decreased calories, and have managed to drop from 75 to 70 kg by adding a 1 hr morning walk right out of bed before coffee or breakfast. Best part is that my wife has joined me. I have lost the bulk of my body fat without loosing any muscle or power.
That sounds like a good plan. I have been doing some walks with my wife too, but these have been in the evenings. In the morning I just want to sleep 
That’s massive. If you can do 370 W for 90 minutes, I think an FTP of 400 W (370 W = 92.5 % of 400 W) is much more plausible than 390 W (= 95 % of 390 W, i. e. threshold).
For a guy as “heavy” as you, these numbers would not be good, they are spectacular. To give you some perspective, world-class sprinter Marcel Kittel peaked at 4.9 W/kg in his career. Yes, he was more powerful, but he was also a few kg heavier than you are now.
On the flip side, aiming at 5 W/kg might be out of reach. But I think you are just setting yourself the wrong goal.
Are you nuts? I wouldn’t try to lose any weight if I were you. Whatever you are doing is clearly working for you! 
Cutting weight could be very risky for your training. I’d continue what you are doing now and just race according to your strengths. I reckon few if anyone in the field can match you in terms of raw power. Even in terms of W/kg you’d like be at or near the top of the peloton. Plus, raw power helps offroards, because you need to overcome friction between tires and the road surface.
Thanks, this sounds encouraging 
I have long TTE at FTP as I have done a lot of work to improve it. If somebody wonders if my power meter is calibrated - I’ve got Power2max meters on both bikes I train with so the numbers should be consistent. The downside for this weight is that I have to eat loads on the bike, but I just have to live with it.
I know that I won’t ever be a climber so the races where I would be good are flat and long. In fact I went from the gun four hour long solo breakaway in the first gravel event I entered, no problem with those kinds of efforts. I have noticed that the most of the time lost comes from the technical parts, but it is more due to poor bike handling than weight. Just need to do all CX races that I can this autumn!
Next race will be a UCI gravel event, I did just improve my 4 min power PB so I hope that I do well there.
This is definitely something I’d work on. Being able to take in 120+ g/h would be a big benefit for you, especially in longer events. My FTP is nowhere near your (currently 339 W), but I can also feel the difference between fueling correctly and being a little on the low side. Fueling longer events becomes harder, because you can’t necessarily just replicate the strategy that you use on the trainer.
E. g. I usually like to drink carbs while on the trainer, and since I sweat more indoors, that’s has a double benefit for me. Outdoors I am much more limited e. g. by bottle size and the fact that at a certain point my stomach is just full.
Given your numbers that comes to a surprise to no one 
This is exactly playing to your strengths rather than, as you correctly point out, trying to become a climber. Just try to figure out how you can deal some damage to your competitors in a smart way. One way that comes to mind is that if you meet someone who is a stronger climber than you are, you could keep the gas on a little while longer when you crest.
That’s how I cracked a junior on a test race (our team did it for his benefit, so I wasn’t being an a-hole, he specifically asked me to give it the beans). He is about 10, 12 kg lighter than me and our W/kg might be comparable. And he had a tendency to let off the gas too much and too rapidly after climbs while I tried to be smooth and reduce from VO2max power over 15–20 seconds to sweet spot. Even if he did the same, he’d have to work harder since his absolute power numbers are lower than mine — again, I weigh more. I don’t know whether your competition makes those simple mistakes, but even if they do not, if you have to make 10 % more power to climb at the same rate, you can use that to your advantage on the flats or the downhill segments.
Yeah, this is a second point where you could improve. I reckon that in many races you could simply overpower this weakness, but not wasting energy on descents would be super helpful to conserve (mental and physical) energy.
Good luck! Tell us how it went. At least I am very curious. What category are you starting in?
It took too long for me to answer but I’ve raced now and it went quite ok! I raced in 19-34 year olds. I did some recon before the race and in fact I was faster than I thought in the trail sections. Lost some time in the start as I am not so confident riding in a pack, but got away without any crashing. I sagged every climb and didn’t got dropped, but was still at the limit because I lost one of the bottles quite early. The flats were easy though 
Now I just need to continue with the good training after a offseason break which I’ll have in the end of October and drop my weight carefully.
Not sure if there’s a better place to put this, so figured this is as good as any. It may have been discussed earlier too.
When during a year would you focus on weight loss, and during which training blocks? In my case, I have roughly 10 lbs / 5kg I’d like to lose, beyond that I think would be too much, but after next week my next “B” Event will be June 2023, and hopefully next year’s A event in August, So, I’ve got 10-11 months, but to be honest, I may need the fall for recovery and not worrying about it.
I’m good on the how and clean eating, that’s no problem, but it’s more the strategy for when while I’m trying to continue to train and make gains and recover. Front load this fall and winter during base? Gradually over time with a slight deficit and clean eating? During Base cycles but worry about fueling the work during Build / Specialty?
For what it’s worth, I do have a goal to boost FTP too as there is definitely head room there, and will be doing LV Sweet Spot Base, Sustained Power Build, and Century / Gran Fondo Plans plus extra endurance rides each week as I feel I can handle it and lifting at certain points during the year too. Goal target for me is +35W (or more?) over the next 11 months and I’m up 45W over the last 7 months on a LV plan with fairly steady gains, no lifting, no weight loss.
I would not overthink this. Make sure you do your hard workouts with enough fuel before/during the workout and aim for being calorie neutral that day. Then on the rest days aim for a slight deficit of about 500 kCal.
It all depends very much on how close you are to max biological FTP and how close your body fat is to the minimum that you need. If the answer to both is, very far, then I would just take a straightforward approach and try both getting stronger and loosing fat at the same time.
Agreed. By way of illustration:
Let’s say on Tuesday you do a sweetspot workout and burn 1,000 calories. If your required baseline calorie intake is 2,500 calories, that means you can get your snout in the trough to the tune of 3,000 calories and still run a deficit of 500 calories.
On Wednesday you do nothing, eat 2,500 calories, and run zero deficit. The difference in calorie intake btwn your working and recovery days is just 500 calories.
On average for those two days, then, you’re running a 250 calorie per day deficit. If you ride 5 days per week, that’ll average out over the week at about 350 calories per day.
If you have the deficit on non-riding days, then you swing btwn 3,500 on working day and 2,000 calories on recovery day, which is probably harder to achieve on both days.
If you ride 5 days per week, that’s an average deficit of only about 150 calories per day. Even if you only ride 3 times a week - 285 per day.
Seen 
It was totally self-referential
… as I walk to the kitchen to make risotto for dinner. 