I am now 77kg, 187cm, low fat percentage, and an FTP of around 200. I am aimed at centuries (150-160km), and doing week 2 of SSB. I hope to gain 40 watts doing SSB, sustained power build, and endurance specialty over winter.
I wonder whether I should really hard to try to loose weight, or whether 77kg is ok. The point is, it is difficult for me to loose weight because I gain muscle mass quickly (also did body building previously). I wonder how much difference, for example, 1kg of weight makes in an endurance effort (I am not really aimed at climbing for the moment).
EDIT: I easily ride 4-5 hours at around 70% of my FTP. I just wonder whether I should try to lose a bit more weight over winter when I do not have nutrition and refuel requirements as strongly as when I am doing regular endurance rides (when I just have to eat a lot to keep up).
Work on your FTP, don’t worry about your weight. 77kg isn’t heavy for your height, particularly if that’s a lean 77kg with plenty of muscle. Focus on doing the work on the bike that will increase your FTP, fuel that work properly to ensure the training is high quality. If you have excess muscle that isn’t needed for your cycling goals, then just doing the right bike training is going to help you lose that muscle over time. Unless you’re still doing bodybuilding stuff which is providing a training stimulus to build muscle - if so, then tone it down to a maintenance plan.
As a side note I would try to avoid setting specific watt increase goals if it’s uncharted territory for you. I.e. if in the past you know that doing a particular volume and plan has got you to a certain FTP, then it’s reasonable to assume that a similar approach will yield similar results. If you’ve never been at 240W FTP before then you really have no idea how easy it will be to get there or how long it will take. Based on your body weight it should be an achievable goal, but depending on genetics and a bunch of other stuff it might take longer than you think or might take quicker than you think. Focus on the process and on hitting all your key workouts, the improvements will come in their own good time.
Thanks! I don’t really focus on body building anymore, besides improving my core (lower back, abdomen, neck, and shoulders). I am really 100% focused on improving my endurance output.
Thanks for the FTP tip. I’ll work through the training plans first and see where that’ll get me.
Its much more fun to improve power and fitness and eat properly, than trying to cut weight.
I’d only ever think about deliberatly targeting weight in two cases: if you’re an experienced racer and know that being lighter for a hilly race will help you.
Or if someone is actually very overweight, and losing weight first will help them become more active.
Otherwise, most of us are cycling to have fun, and that should always come first.
I second the don’t sweat the weight thing. I shed 15 kilos on an already slim frame last year for a tour ride. More by accident than intention, I overshot the goal I had because I was habituated to the process. In the end it sucked. I put 5 back on this year and feel much better and started hitting more PBs. I think that the only real reason to loose weight catabolically is if you are a pro going for long long climbs. The rest of us don’t need that sort of hassle.
Ignore your weight and fuel on the bike. As your FTP increases your weight will take care of itself. I was similar to you this year, at 78 kg/172 lbs and 188 cm/6’1”, I peaked at a FTP of 300. I never concerned myself with how much I weighed and just focused on fueling before, during and after workouts.
you’re fine at 77kg. Def work on the FTP as 200 is low for your weight. It’ll be easier to bring that up than worrying about losing weight and staying near 200.
If you have a background in weights you’ll understand your body and how it is adapting, work in the areas you need the strength.
Anecdotally I have weighed between 63kg and 73kg (175cm) whilst in racing shape in years gone by when I raced a lot.
I was fairly nimble at 63 but far more powerful and faster everywhere at 73