Being too light is definitely overrated imo. Not only because of the looks but also how you feel. So important that you find a weight that actually makes you feel strong and healthy. The focus in cycling shouldn’t be all about shedding weight in order to increase w/kg, but also on feeling healthy and strong and making sure you have something left in the body to produce (more) watts.
My wife just told me she wouldn’t allow me to go lower than 85, because she didn’t like the look of it
Curious, how long did it take to come down from the field sports weight, to your current weight?
I was around 86-88kg before cycling, a “comfy” weight, wasn’t exercising much, got down to 75kg at my lowest now while riding, but lost power. Sitting happily now at 76.5-78kg.
Still only been riding for 4-5 years ish, last 2 ish years very structured.
Would be nice to lose some muscle mass but it doesn’t seem to happen. Ice hockey legs and ass still present.
around 71-72kg, and I’m 1m97. And no i’m not obsessed with low weight, I just can’t gain weight no matter how much I eat. Relatively good uphill for my length due to this so I’m not complaining. Most guys my length are easily 85-90kg plus.
I started tracking this, checking in on the w/kg equation, pining for the numerator to rise & the denominator to fall. Have noticed all the fluctuations so now do so on a this-is-interesting basis, & because I want it to be somewhat accurate in TR, which is currently set to 72kg. This is me over the last two years. 172cm for reference.
The dip at the start was a result of trying low-carb for about 6 weeks. (I was binge-listening the podcast from about ep 150 to 300 at that time.)
Since then, no calorie counting, being sensible, occasionally treating myself, & fuelling the workouts.
Biggest change from one day to the next was when I lost 3kg as a result of a 400km adventure (when gut distress on the ride prevented me keeping my fuelling up), then over the next few days my weight sought equilibrium. Then the next week I had anaphylaxis from a bee sting & suddenly put on 2½kg of swelling, which then dropped back in the ballpark of “normal” within a few days.
I hope nobody’s sweating the day-to-day or even week-to-week fluctuations. happens.
I’m the same, when I was powerlifting I never considered I might want to be skinnier for riding bikes can’t help it without starving myself but yeah if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it I guess.
Weird how easy It is to maintain muscle though! People worry they’ll lose mass after a weeks holiday.
1.89m and 96kg at the moment - and 60 years young this year. May go down a bit and loose some of the dad bod but my potential energy at the top of a big downhill is awesome.
Since posting this, did a weight reduction cycle that got me down to 83/84kg. Purely diet induced, tried my best to keep the protein levels the same and cleaned up the rest a bit. Also spent an horrific holiday season barely enjoying at the table. Result, felt like sh!t. My climbing didn’t improve, maybe even deteriorated a bit and lost a great bit of the explosiveness and power on the flats that was always my biggest asset. The abs were getting pretty good though…
Called it a day by mid January and I’m now sitting back at 87kg. Feeling way way better on the bike, go figure
It’s a VERY fine line building fitness and losing weight. This is why it’s generally recommended to do it in the off season and Base phase. You can lose weight as you Build but it would need to be heavily monitored and quite slow (1-2 lbs a month in my experience). Particularly if you’re trying to go beow your natural homeostasis. Unless of course you’re just losing out of season weight that just drops off once you start real training again