I have recently had a 4 week base block steadily increasing TSS from 580 → 770 and maxed out at 17hrs a week (im very used to 500+ TSS weeks)
This period was focused on base endurance specifically, with some sweetspot stuff to make up for “excess” volume on some days.
Before this period, my body weight has been around 70 kgs all year round without any decrement to performance or calorie counting and ate as I felt (I follow a wholefoods plant based diet).
After weighing myself yesterday (after a very easy rest week) I found myself at 76kg.
With no change in diet, I’ve gained 6 kilos and I’m not very happy with it.
On the other hand I’m pushing more Watts and breaking all my PBs.
After a 20 min test, I’m still 4w/KL but pushing more Watts with more weight.
Can someone tell me how this is weight gain possible? And how can I tweak my mentality to eat less (I feel very hungry if I reduce my meal sizes).
Unless you have a hill climb event I wouldn’t worry about your weight. If you are lean and your power is improving then that is all that matters. You are “breaking all your PBs”, so make sure to direct your focus and energy in the right places. You are stronger and fitter now and your w/kg has remained the same, most would and should revel in this. Weight will not effect the outcome of your races/rides unless you have excessive weight to lose or are leading a mountain stage of the TDF.
I am in a similar situation as you, I was down to 76 kgs in the middle of my race season and performing very well. Now I’m up to 78-79 kgs but hitting power PBs constantly and have set an all time high FTP. So what am I chasing, a certain w/kg or performance? Obviously the latter and I have to remind myself that w/kg is informational but not a indicator of fitness.
Fuel your workouts, continue to eat responsibly and continue your power growth, your body will settle on it’s ideal weight for performance.
Training consistently and fueling consistently increases your body’s ability utilize and store carbohydrate, which as you know, also binds with water at a 1:2 ratio (2g of water for each gram of carb). The regular fluctuation can be quite large depending on how depleted on glycogen you are.
Chances are a good portion of that is water weight, although some of it may be a bit of fat. I wouldn’t worry about it.
For example I regularly gain around 3kg the following days after a long endurance day, even if I was calorie negative for the day.
It’s possible because it’s really hard to strike a balance between eating enough to fuel yourself when you’re asking a lot of your body but not so much that you add weight. There’s a reason pro tour riders have nutritionists that take care of this for them.
I don’t have an answer for you, but can say the same thing happened to me. I’m four or five pounds heavier after build and specialty than I was finishing base, at which point the training was leaning me out. During a base phase I can eat pretty carefully and still perform. By the time specialty came around I was ravenous all the time. I try to make sure I increase veggies first, not junk, but at the end of day if I actually reduced calories my training tanked quickly.
As others have said, focus on performance not the scale. Offseason is for focusing on the scale.