I am in the same boat. I weighed 135 in 8th grade. My ftp is pretty good, but when you stack it on top of my massive size for a cyclist, it makes 5w/kg almost impossible. I would have to lose 25# and gain some ftp and at 8%bf that’s just not going to happen. 5w/kg is awesome, but some of us are just to big. When it goes up hill, I wave and get ready for the snuggle struggle to the top of the hill.
Guys at 5w/kg keep up the good work and keep the good reading coming for us big bois
I’ll take some responsibility for that. My previous remark alluding to Gaussians/bell curves triggered the age-old debate about Hard Work vs Genetics (which, after you’ve seen them a few times, all go through the same journey and end the same… seriously!!)
To get it back on topic, I’ll follow up on my scenario. I’m aware I’m not 5wkg yet, but I’m close so I’ll lay more detailed cards on the table in two parts – “What I Did to Get Here” vs “What More I Can Do to Get There”:
Disclaimer: Some bad advice/questionable journeys coming up. I got some results, but if I had to do it again I’d do some things differently. Take it with a grain of salt.
Assessment of my “Burst” from (2wkg->4.75wkg) in 6mo
Early Life
Point 1: I primed myself for a natural Dirty Bulk, somewhat obliviously. Going into the start of my serious training, I was 155lbs/70kg @ 5’6"/168cm (considered overweight, but not obese). Two years of sedentary business travel doing sales helped me “achieve” this. I always ate typical American business dinners: Steak, Chops, or Chicken with a side of salad/soup, and rice or baked/mashed potato. Lunches were always Burgers, Chipotle, Chinese takeout, Indian buffets, Subway, fast food. Protein & Carb heavy. Along the way, was checked for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, but at the time I didn’t mind because I’m young, career was the top priority, and I’m well fed & happy.
Point 2: I cycled all my life and ran Track & XC. In ran long distance in high-school but I was never fast, often bottom 10% of each race/meet/heat. Kind of sad looking back on it, but at the time I didn’t think much of how downright bad I was performing. Was in SoCal, and the level within our district was high in the era I was growing up. Nearly everyone hit sub-6min miles, with a healthy chunk sub-5min. Anyway, I attribute these early fitness days along with my previously mentioned young adult bulking to the dividends that would pay off later.
Start of Serious Cycling
Point 3: Immediately got a PM / HRM Obviously.
Point 4: Training: 12.5 hours cycling a week - roughly 200mi/10k ft elev Three times a week without fail, I did a “20x2” style work out, but would add variety by doing a 15x2 higher intensity, or 30x2 lower intensity. The rest of the time was split as…
Pyramidal: Z2: 60% ; Z3/Z4: 30% ; Z5+: 10%
Point 5: Workout Plan, roughly looked like:
Sun: 3-6hr long outdoor Z2, with Z4 20~50min climbs + 10min of push-ups/crunches @ end
Mon: Rest
Tue: 20mx2 + 10min push-ups/crunches @ end
Wed: 15mx2 + 10min of push-ups/crunches @ end
Thu: 30mx2 + 10min of push-ups/crunches @ end
Fri: Rest
Sat: 3-6hr long outdoor Z2, with Z4 20~50min climbs + 10-20min of push-ups/crunches @ end
…
There was no deliberate plan I was following back then. I was doing it mostly organically and instinctively based on how my body felt and reading random articles/opinions online (thanks, Internet).
I’m far more knowledgable today, and able to breakdown, articulate, and assess what I was doing back then since all my data was tracked on Strava/Garmin.
Point 6: Nutrition: Key change was cutting out fast food lunches.
Breakfast was omelettes or overnight oats.
Lunch was either pasta or a salad (green leafs, beets, cheese, carrots, tomato, oil/vinegar).
Dinner I still ate the same “American Diner” style dinners of steak/chicken/chops with either pasta/toast/rice pilaf/baked potato.
Overall diet was still very protein/carb heavy.
Something I never changed is nearly every night I still ate 12~16oz bags of Doritos/Hot Cheetos/Pringles/Chip&Salsa, or a pack or two of instant ramen, or a quarter to half tub of ice cream at midnight right before bed. Yeah.
Point 7: Result per month: Approx 10-15w gained; 1-2kg lost… in half a year 4.75wkg (295w/62kg).
Point 8: Final Stats during the 6mo (Feb to Jul) building / training period
296 hours in saddle
4800 miles / 42,000ft climbing
Where do I go from here?
Few ideas jump out. My Achilles heel is I hate the taste of fruits, and lazy about meal prep. If I changed my protein/carb heavy diet to fruits/vegetables I could cut way more. Also, I eat tons of junk at night that needs cutting. I half joke I want to go vegetarian or flexitarian, but I think I’m half serious and working my way up to it. The lightest I’ve been is 62kg, but for a guy my height I should really be 60kg or slightly under if I were truly cut. I think there are way to break past that 300w threshold too.
All my peak sustained power is made at 72rpm. I’ve never invested long term training towards spinning.
Workout plan wise, I need to overhaul what I was doing. The 20x2’s, even with the modified variations, were monotonous although they really helped me dial in my FTP. The long outdoor climbing on the weekends helped a lot. I used those outdoor climbs as a way to test what I was honing via my 20x2’s/30x2’s – highly motivational until I started cresting.
Overall, I’m lucky because I’m short, sorta lightweight, have a history of aerobic exercise base, and I believe I’m a fast responder to exercise. All that allows me to more easily attain higher FTP’s, but there are several things I am still doing today that are holding me back.
I’m getting there… but deep down I have mental debates as to whether 5wkg is really the goal I should personally strive for. I alluded earlier, but I have an 7.8~9.5wkg 1min sprint which I can consistently hit at the end of long rides, and I think my strengths really lie more towards that direction. Can’t tell if it’s because FTP is what’s in vogue today, or if it’s truly the holy grail of cycling. It’s very much the talking point amongst cyclists, and 1min/5min power is left out of the spotlight.
I’ll tell you what though, FTP has definitely grabbed my attention again and it’s left me distracted from honing my other areas of the power curve. 
I’m not sure about road, but I think for mtb this is very true. I have a terrible w/kg (3.0) but my 1m power is damn good, so I can explode out of every corner and up small hills and finish mid pack or better cat 1. Skills also play a big part.
3lbs down from my last ramp test where I was 4.8
I demolished Shortoff +4 yesterday, so I’m thinking I should see at least a couple watts in my test next week. Hoping to see level 5 
I know this is an old post, but I was talking to some co-workers yesterday and mentioned I wanted to lose 3-4 more lbs and they already think I am too skinny, but it’s all relative. 5’9" 157 lbs current FTP 295 (down from peak 310 this season). They think you are crazy when you want to lose weight. It took me well over a year to drop 5 lbs. Im not sure how much higher I can push my FTP. Maybe 315-320 
? Once I had a power meter it was easy to hit 300 watts, just pushing it up from there, and then losing weight is the game right now.
Do we really need all those Ribs in the rib cage, maybe every other one? And how many fingers do we really need for gripping and are toes necessary once the cycle shoes are on… marginal gains
Yeah man you can definitely lose some more weight to get up to 5 watts per kilo. I’m 6 ft. 4 and only weigh 155 with an FTP of around 365-370. If I can do it you can do it too. Good luck man!
Wow, I’m feeling proper lean at 189cm, 73.5kg. 155lbs is very light! I’m getting new veins popping up everywhere for the last few months (Nate would be well jel of the quad veins)!
Pushing up against 4.8w/kg at 350w right now. I just need another 18w to get there, but each watt is hard fought for (see my recent anaerobic block). Saying that I should probably up my volume, as I probably only average 7.5 - 9 hours per week.
Yeah man I’m naturally a skinny guy. Actually was even lighter than this about two years ago. Got to down to 145 pounds and absolutely was trashed day in day out. Being a little heavier allows me to generate more power on the bike and have a lot more energy.
I have to eat a ton to maintain. I was down to 72kg the other day, and that spooked me a little! The hazard of having a decently high FTP is the sheer amount of KJs you burn. I suppose there are worse problems than having to eat a load!
Yeah starving yourself never works. Cycling and eating are my to biggest hobbies for sure!
After reading most if not all of this thread one thing is obvious, the 5w/kg filter will favor smaller, lighter, hill/mountain oriented riders so larger people will most likely never achieve that, and as such is not an objective way of looking at top cycling performance - at least on the numbers side. A heavy rider will most likely never get to 5w/kg, but that doesn’t mean she/he is not blessed / has worked their ass off. A heavy rider might only just tick the 4w/kg but when you take into consideration their weight, say 90kg+, the raw numbers start to get as impressive as the beloved 5w/kg 
So in all fairness I think the whole thread should be aimed at 5w/kg or 350+ watt ftp riders. Based on the Bell curve the 350w mark is more or less the spot where you get a similar drop off in terms of the number of people who are able to actually crank out so much power to those with a 5w/kg number or higher.
In short, you might be gifted for the mountains… but others will be gifted for the flats so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t get that 5w/kg ‘badge’
I’m your height but 132lbs, you can defo lose weight. 285-290 ftp currently.
Well I was hoping to be able to post here about hitting 5w/kg but seems I kind of burnt myself out pushing so hard during the ‘lockdown months’. Got to 4.85 (310/64). Started getting really fatigued and then I was avoiding the hard workouts as I knew i wouldn’t be able to finish them at my ‘vanity ftp’. So finally realised I need a reset and have dropped it 15w and starting to rebuild
Wtf? No one asked me How I got to 1.78 watts/kg. The trick is ice cream!
At 230 lb I am super gifted for the downhill!
Hope my story can help someone avoid mistakes I made.
Got the cycling bug aged 17 after a background playing team sports all my youth (rugby, football (soccer) ect.). Naturally a “sprinter” build, I was on the bigger side for junior riders and had a great kick to go with it. But naively decided I needed to lose weight to be a successful cyclist. I think I thought I wouldn’t be a cyclist until I looked like Bradley Wiggins. Lost 14kgs (from 72 to 58kg at 175cm) in a few months of training and starving myself and had no power. Super weak and overtrained.
Had some time off and started eating more. Enough to train and race at an ok level. FTP moved up to around 310w. Next couple of years I still tried to keep my weight down at or below 65kg and FTP managed to improve to 330w (5.07w/kg).
Then actually started fuelling my body and training adequately. Weight went up to 68kg and FTP to 340w. Slightly lower w/kg for FTP but all top end improved massively. Was a much better racer.
Graduated from University and had a nasty crash severing my patella tendon. Had a long recovery, and had to rebuild a lot of muscle mass. Came back heavier and stronger than ever. 355w ftp at 70kg. Interesting that this was the same w/kg that I had when restricting calories (now I climbed the same but was faster on the flat).
Massive gains have come this year with the luxury to focus on training without races. FTP at 375 (393w for 20’) at 71kg. Current w/kg= 5.28.
I’m 23 so still hope to improve from here 
I had a vo2 max test done a few years ago and I was at 68 ml/kg/min. But hoping this has improved with a bit more glycogen in the legs!
My take-home lessons:
Unless you have hit your genetic fitness ceiling focus on building power over weight. You’ll go faster everywhere but uphill and in my case even improve w/kg. Limiting calories can really slow down performance, even if restricting carbs away from workouts (gotta look at fuelling from a bigger picture imo). This is especially true for juniors or younger riders who are still developing.
Ride your bike a lot but make it quality. I don’t do that many group rides anymore (even before covid). I pick and chose them wisely for some race-specificity close to training. But not an endurance ride (apart from one friend who is very similar fitness level and rides strictly endurance pace with me). A group ride with surges is not proper base training, nor is sitting on wheels in z1 for hours.
Don’t be afraid to take it easy. Smashing yourself in training feels great. Gets the endorphins pumping and makes it feel like you are really pushing yourself towards your goals. If I’m ruined I must be improving right? Nope. Some of the best gains I’ve had are when I think I’m taking it “too easy”.
Make sure each ride has a goal (in terms of training stimulus). So if the goal is to build some aerobic conditioning through tempo intervals, just warm up do the efforts and go home to recover. No bonus sprints or strava segments thrown in afterwards. They’ll just take away from the message you’re trying to tell your body to adapt to.
Experiment with training and nutrition to work out what works for you. No one size fits all. For me I go best off some long z2 rides at low intensity (55-60% ftp)plus rotating blocks of long z3 work (low end of z3, not SS) and Vo2 work (4 and 8 min intervals). And eating a diet high in carbohydrates, low in fat and moderate/low in protein works best for me.
Believe in yourself, put in the work and you’ll be surprised how good you can get. I don’t think I have amazing genetics but to quote Wanye Gretzky - “Maybe it wasn’t the talent the Lord gave me – maybe it was the passion.”
In all fairness, I think the 350ftp benchmark really only starts to get impressive at lower weights.
And I say this as someone who just tested at 354 in my latest ramp test. When I couple that result with the revelation that I’m 6’6" and 100kg, it no longer seems so interesting. More like I’m an outlier for size, so of course my “ftp” is pretty high.
Maybe if you couple it with some of my handicaps (3 kids, tech job, unwillingness to give up powerlifting, >40) it starts to look interesting, but this thread is about how to achieve the pinnacle of cycling performance and I’m not sure how useful “have you tried just being much larger than everyone else?” would be.
However, I definitely think that there is probably some allometric scaling in between w/kg and just plain watts that would better account for the limits of physiology as weight varies (e.g. https://www.strongerbyscience.com/whos-the-most-impressive-powerlifter/.
Not to reply to my own post, but it appears that the allometric scaling for cycling of w/kg^0.32 (link) gives a reasonable predictor of TT outcomes. Of course, this still misses the mark on the question of similar physiological limits.
A quick spreadsheet gives these FTP and w/kg being roughly equivalent with that scaling factor.
65kg 325 (5 w/kg)
75kg 338 (4.5 w/kg)
85kg 352 (4.14 w/kg)
95kg 365 (3.84 w/kg)
100kg 371 (3.71 w/kg)
(definitely gives me a reasonable target to shoot for though)
And when you find the 5 w/kg riders that are heavy, they are usually national champions! Very rare breed.