I suspect these people are doing drastic caloric restriction, possibly even low carb, eating the wrong foods, which is of course going to kill recovery and ability to perform. They are equating the power loss to getting smaller, when in reality it’s their poor methods. Getting to single digit bodyfat and high performance is not super simple, or something that happens very fast.
I’ve found the same thing as well, I always perform best when leaner, so long as how I’m getting there is supportive of maintaining recovery and high energy.
As a taller, broader, 100kg+ average rider, I don’t stand much chance on the flat or uphills when “racing” or riding hard with smaller riders. Your assumption to ignore aerodynamics is very flawed as most humans are equally dense. Also 100kg at 12% bodyfat and 100kg at 40% bodyfat will be very different.
That being said, I don’t think its wise to starve oneself at the detriment of cycling performance. There is certainly an optimal range of weight, power and caloric intake to be found.
There’s a proper weight most people should be at to perform optimally. And you body doesnt just go there on it’s own with the quantity of food easily available in western society. It takes work to get there.
I had this issue with Leadville. Absolutely monstered the climbs, but there was far more flat than I had realised… and good god am I slow on the flat (60kg rider).
It’s the aisles full of processed garbage foods and fast food / restaurant culture that are the issue. Everybody is eating plenty, and yet we are still hungry. It’s not us, it’s the food supply.
It’s both though, right? The food supply is stacked against the idea of humans being healthy. But the individual DOES have input on this. It really comes down to whether you’re looking at it from an individual, or population level.
Of course it really falls apart completely when you bring poverty into the mix…then things skew decidedly towards high calorie garbage because it’s often cheaper, and the only thing budget allows.
Yes, you can choose.
But the choice is hard. Starting from hyperbolic discounting till huge marketing pressure, passing through personal life situations and food availability, eating healthy is not always easy and sometimes not even a choice.
Personal accountability is on top, surely, but we can’t blame solely the single person, because, well, you had a choice.
For food like for many more bad decisions in life.
Humans can fail.
I mean don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. You can get 90% of the way there just by eating a well rounded diet of whole foods, lots of veggies and lean meats or plant protein.
That or consult with a reputable sports nutritionist to get better recommendations more tailored to your specific situation.
you are correct and I assume as well you recall that weight is due to gravity and mass is a constant regardless if you are on earth or the moon the 32 kg mass is the same. Thus a scale uses gravity to determine weight (and therefore weight changes as you move further or closer to the centre of the earth) and a balance determines mass by comparison to a known mass. Most people do not have a balance as would be the case in a doctor’s office with the mass slider and therefore they are in fact weighing themselves. Good scales have a correction factor for the acceleration due to gravity to account for elevation that should correlate to mass. Though I doubt it does.
To the question of watts/ kg it probably leads to more spending disorders…
People run/determine the food supply. We are them, they are us. The problem (as I see it) is that the majority rules when it comes to policy (and drive culture to a large extent). And the majority is getting fatter and fatter and it drives demand and acceptance for the foods they like.
I was pretty fat for much of my life, but it drives me crazy when I see obese and unhealthy body types being celebrated these days. I’m not a fan of shaming either, but you should be able to constructively confront these issues just like other unhealthy behaviors Celebrating overweight body types is not much different than celebrating cigarette smoking, drug use, alcohol use (basically any addictive activity that is well known to be unhealthy). Smoking was killing a lot of people for long enough that it has fallen out of the “acceptable” bucket and there is now pressure from society/culture not to smoke. You pay more for your health insurance if you smoke. Why don’t people who are obese pay significantly more for health insurance? Because the majority rules and the people making these decisions would rather have healthy people subsidize their insurance costs. Will we eventually get a bounce-back on our attitude toward obesity as more and more people die from the resulting health issues? I have no idea, but it’s a shame it has to get to that point before changes happen.
