Wanted to see if anyone else had experience with weight loss in the build phase. I seem to remember hearing on the podcast at some point that its not an ideal time to do it due to the high intensity of the training in build phase. However, I let my diet slip a bit during the base phase and have an unwanted 10 lbs hanging around now heading into Build. For reference I am 6’-1", 200 lbs (4.23W/kg) right now looking to get between 188-192lbs. Would I just be asking for sickness if I attempt to drop the weight now? Any one had any luck losing significant weight during Build?
I’m afraid that I can’t answer for build, but with good control of my diet I managed to lose 9kg during ssb2 lv…
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I would suggest that you can drop those 10 pounds pretty quick without much of a hassle. Eat well and fuel well for your workouts, that’s important. The weight will follow on its own and you don’t run any risk of being unproductive in training.
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I’m a big fan of what Amber said: Don’t diet on the bike.
If you do, don’t expect big gains in the wattage department. Some of my hardest rides I can remember were normal MTB group rides where I was low on fuel. Harder than most races I’ve done.
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I wouldn’t stress it. If you were lighter it would be a different story. Keep fueling for rides and eat healthy off the bike.
I’m 6’2” and down around 155lbs and know from experience that much lower and I’m just asking to get sick. I’m naturally very thin but at 150 it’s usually not good.
I always know I’m near my race weight because my wife starts commenting on my model cheekbones and bizarre leg/torso ratio…
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You lost 9kg doing SSB 2 LV (5 weeks)? That is impressive.
Yeah I was 121 kg on the 3rd January and 112 kg on the 4th February, I did clean up my diet a good bit which was the majority of the weight loss IMO, still another 20 plus kg to go though …
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That is amazing progress. Inspiring. 
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I put on about 1kg during a recent vacation and I’m midway through build. To remedy this I’m counting calories and macronutrients to 1) ensure I consume enough calories 2) ensure I consume enough protein. Doing the above also helps me avoid over-eating and is coming with the side effect of some progressive weight loss.
I’m trying to be really careful to avoid any reduction in training adaptations.
Thanks! I need to keep it up now!
I went from 179-150 in 55 days and I didn’t even exercise. I’ve put a few pounds back on but I can’t imagine how much quicker it would’ve been if I was cycling. Some weeks could be 4-6k cals burnt.
I couldn’t do it that quick again though. The exercise brings things in proportion with the enormous appetite that comes with it
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I’m trying to drop some fat during General Build and doing something different this go around. Instead of doing the usual MyFitnessPal “loose 2 lbs per week” approach, I calculated the calories it would take to maintain my goal body weight. In this case 190lbs and per internet maths this is 2500ish cals. Now I’ve been obese most of my life so I’ve found that calorie burn estimates are always a bit high for me, so I’m using 2300 cals as base minimum before any activity. From there I use MFP to track intake and focus on getting the majority of cals earlier in the day when I tend to do my workouts and making sure I’m fueling for my workouts. I am aiming for a 200-300cal max deficit most days. I used HRV data to dial that amount of deficit in for me. If I went to a 400-600 deficit I saw a big dip in my HRV Recovery metrics. Some days I won’t do any deficit if I have an important workout that I want to make sure I nail. So far I’ve found it easy to follow and I’m slowly loosing weight without impacting workout performance. Even though the scale isn’t moving fast, I’m visibly seeing a change, which is fine by me. My 2 cents.
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If you let your diet slip during base that suggests that you could probably lose a bit of weight just by improving your diet. As others have said, just make sure that you are properly fuelling your workouts to get the best from them. Fuel before and during if necessary to crush the intervals, and then make sure that you refuel appropriately immediately after. A recovery shake, for example, after a workout will replace some of the calories burnt and give you some protein, so that you don’t then crave snacks later on.
Outside of workouts, if you eat ‘better’ you will find that you are more satiated on fewer calories, so you can slowly lose a bit of weight and get healthier.
@TommyTomkins Could you share how you shed so much weight so fast?
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Sure, I just ate 1200-1500 calories a day. Only exercise I got was from work which isn’t a full-on labour intensive job like concreting but I’m on my feet 8 hours a day, plus I’d walk for 2-3 hours on the weekend, very very easy walking
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So underrated for fat loss - do at least an hour a day of walking if time permits!
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