I know others (and I) have said it, but you aren’t fueling enough. If you want to see progress, fuel your workouts properly.
W/KG is a two-sided equation and you are primarily focusing on the weight side. You can still run a calorie deficit and fuel your workouts properly.
For the sake of conversation, let’s suppose your current caloric intake is exactly 500 cal deficit per day.
Now, suppose you add in 60g carbs per hour. That is 240 calories for rides that are one hour. For 1.5 hour rides, you would be at 90g carbs per ride and 360 calories. By doing this you won’t be gaining weight, you would be losing weight less quickly. Initially you might gain some water weight if you aren’t eating very many carbs right now, but your power will more than make up for the extra kg.
Here is my experience with eating more on the bike while trying to lose body fat: I had been stuck at about 210 for a while and wanted to get down to 195. It was winter so I figured who cares about weight when I am on the trainer so I decided to increase carbs on the bike from 20ish to 80ish. At first, I went up to 212 (if memory serves), but within about 3 months I was down to 200. Increased power and repeatability means I lost more weight by doing intervals at a higher power and doing more of them. I was also able to hold much higher power for longer on my outdoor rides.
So to your question: Yes, you should start fueling better. You will increase power, could still potentially decrease weight, and you will feel better on the bike. What’s more, if you’re trying to do a long event, it can help you start to practice fueling for it. There really is no downside to this, to be honest.
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Ultra competitive is good. But can also be dangerous if it enables you to dig yourself into a hole because your desire to improve is overriding your ability to listen to your body telling you it needs more rest or fuel! Seen quite a few people go down that path and burn out of the sport quickly. What you’ve done in 4 months is great, but 4 months is a really short time in endurance sport, you’re barely getting started. If your approach is working then great, just be sure to keep an open mind so that as and when it stops working you’re able to adapt and not just double down on it.
Said here already several times but for importance: way too little calories!
Fuel the work, and then remember the most fundamental principles of periodization: progressive overload phases separated by recovery/adaptation phases.
Also, your race is in September. You have all the time in the world. Commit to fueling your rides better for 2 weeks and see how it feels. If you don’t want to do that, try doing it for your vo2 max workouts for a couple of weeks to see how it feels.
I think we’ve all experienced a season where we set goals that are slightly too high and pay the price when we don’t get there. OP, be careful about developing your engine, endurance is found through seasons, not just one. 4.5 w/Kg is like semi-pro status. It’s definitely achievable, but adding a full 1.0 w/Kg seems lofty at best. You’re also going through the “easiest” FTP gains now. They become more and more elusive the further you get. Heed the advice on progressive overload and fueling properly.
Thankyou , makes sense definitely and I know I do I just think I needed told !
Just a quick question , I’m still completing workouts without marking them over “hard” so would this not tell me I’ve enough in my storage and I’m eating ok ?
Again I’m not disagreeing with anyone here just trying to get answers and different perspectives .
Thanks for your answer
Training towards a goal or event is more than just completing each individual workout. You can train and complete workouts for quite awhile with a significant calorie deficit…until you can’t and the wheels come off.
So while you may be able to complete them now, that doesn’t mean it is the right strategy long-term. Also, if you are underfueling your workouts, then you are also likely training at a lower intensity than if you fueled properly. This also inhibits long-term progress.
No. It means you seem to be tolerating the deficit in the short term but says nothing about longer term. 5 weeks is nothing. I think you’ll crash and relapse in a couple months and gain a bunch of weight back when the wheels fall off.
What lifestyle changes are you adopting to keep the weight off?
I’m not sure what you mean in “ lifestyle changes “ I’m training 5 days a week some 6 and just eating sensibly , it’s took me longer than five weeks started this in jan , so that’s four months the wheels won’t fall off as I’m up at 6 everyday to train and that my lifestyle change .
Maybe do some research on RED-S - relative energy deficiency in sports.
I don’t think you understood my question about the weight loss lifestyle changes and sustainability. Good luck! The wheels are on for now… Plenty of people have taken a similar approach with not so great results.
They have indeed but everyone is different !
Congrats on your progress to date! Gaining watts whilst losing weight takes lots of discipline. Well done so far.
Looking at your progress, I do think as others have said, you could be missing some possible gains by better fuelling your rides. You’ve got loads of time left to lose the last few kg’s so can ‘afford’ to run a lower deficit and fuel your body. You might find that adding in some extra calories via carbs before and during your training sessions can help you reach new ftp levels at a faster level than in the more deficit state.
I used a well known calorie counting app recently and the way it worked was that the target calories for each day was adjusted upwards by half the amount of calories burned through exercise on that day. This was successful for me to lose weight whilst gaining power and it intuitively made sense to provide more fuel when exercising, but still keep an overall deficit. It could be worth trying this for a month or so and seeing how you progress.
Anyway, best of luck with it whatever you decide.
I’m 5ft 10 and have been at 11 stone in my twenty’s and early 30 s was around 12 stone and the way I look now at 74.5 kg I’m definitely not all skin n bones , so in my eyes there is plenty to lose .
I fuel my 1hr 30 rides with a gel just , and LMNT salts for rehydration
My perspective would be that you’re getting away with it for now. Which could be down to one or more of:
Which training plan are you following and what has adaptive training been doing?
I would experiment a bit. For the next couple of hard workouts just try taking on more carb calories before and during and see if it has an impact. You might just find that a workout that would normally be “hard” is now “moderate” or even “easy”.
So that’s at best 30g of carbs. For 1hr 30min rides I fuel with 150g of carbs. You are absurdly under fueling. Just think of what you could accomplish if you gave your body what it needed. One of my of favorite pro quotes is “Eating wins races”.
I was stuck at around 290 FTP plateau for a while. I saw huge gains (100w FTP increase) in the first year but then stagnated. I was at 60g an hour. What got me over 300 and above 4.0 w/kg was fueling at/over 100g and hour and moving to HV plans.
Not necessarily true at all if you are taking in enough carbs the rest of the day and prior, (although in the case above I would say it is true)
The general recomendation I have seen is 5 - 7g of carbs per kg of body weight if you are averaging 60 - 90 minutes of training per day. That doesnt have to be during the excerise, although why not, it is difficult to get that many carbs in so why not get a head start during the training sessions.
As a general comment, there are a lot people are consuming way to much protein or should that be Whey to much protein and fat at the expense of carbohydrates.
If you have been progressing at an acceptable rate then I would keep doing what you’ve been doing. The only things I would maybe add for you to consider are:
Keep your goal on performance and not just a kg or w/kg goal. They are only 1 aspect of performance. Lower weight does not always mean better performance or higher w/kg. And a higher w/kg does not always mean better performance either.
Long term weight loss can have negative side effects. Losing 12 kilos in 3-4 months is a decent weight loss. I would consider adding back calories to a maintenance level for at least a month or so. Not only will you be able to perform and recover better but there are hormonal and other benefits to not consistently eating at a deficit.
Drop the weight loss goals completely with 4-6 weeks to go before your event. That close you risk going too far and digging yourself a hole. At the event a couple kilos might make you a couple percent slower but if you go in under fueled, under recovered, or worse, injured you’ll be much much slower.