More power or less weight? Which is better?

tonyzackery

Hey everyone.

This question has been causing quite a quandry in my mind. I've vacillated with this query for some time now (about a year) and have come to the conclusion that I MUST lose weight (about 5kgs down to 80kgs) in order to be competitive on the road here in British Columbia. Because I'm relatively new to the cycling scene (6/06 got my first road bike) I'm still in the mindset that I want to be pretty good at all the disciplines - road races, crits, time trials, track racing. I've had some decent results in all the disciplines this past season, but I want to really turn it up a notch or two for 2008 and get an upgrade to Cat. 3 on the road and be able to dictate the outcome of race rather than endure it.

I'm coming from a background of American football so I have fast twitch muscles in great abundance, couple that with the fact that I naturally have a low body fat percentage (~4% at 85kgs), I have really struggled in trying to lose weight since I've got to this point. I'm basically embarking on trying to lose muscle that took 20+ years to build (I'm 40 now and when I got on my road bike I was 96kgs). What's been working for me the past month is keeping track of EVERYTHING I eat and making a balance sheet of input versus expenditure. I'm seeing good, albeit slow, results.

So, for I what I want to achieve (good all-arounder in all disciplines) how do you guys feel - everything else being equal, is it more important for one to lose weight (but keep same or a little less power), or would it be more advantageous for a cyclist to try and improve his power (but at the same weight or a little more)? Both serve the purpose to improve the almighty power to weight ratio, but is one more effective than the other????

FYI, my FTP at present is in the low 340s and this is with very limited focused Level 4 work.

daveryanwyoming

Do you think dropping 5 kg is a realistic goal or would it leave you anorexic? If you think 80 kg is a reasonable and healthy weight for you then definitely drop the excess, especially if your races have substantial climbing(seems likely in BC). Dropping 5 kg and holding your FTP at 340 watts brings you from 4 w/kg to 4.3 w/kg. Keeping your weight the same at 85 kg means you'd have to get your FTP up to 365 watts for the same net result. Ideally you'll keep working of FTP and do both. If you were purely working on time trials and flat events it might be a tossup, but it's sure been easier for me to drop weight than to add watts to my FTP. To a point that is, I got down to 70kg and even down to 69kg for a while this season and power stayed steady or even increased a bit but I leveled out there and think I would have had to do some serious dieting to get much lower. I doubt my FTP would have continued to climb if I'd gone into serious calorie restriction mode mid season.

Anyway, I'd definitely work on dropping a few kilos and I'd do most of it during your winter base work so you can eat a stable diet and refuel yourself during the season. Is 80 kg a good target for you, hard to say. Only you know whether that's reasonable or if you can go even further but I'd definitely try to drop weight if you can safely do so.

Good luck,
Dave

frenchyge

The 2 most obvious answers would be:
1) both together
and then
2) whichever one you feel you could change by the larger amount

Beyond those, increasing power will help in every racing discipline that you could engage in, whereas dropping weight only helps while riding uphill or trying to accelerate quickly. I'd give the edge to increasing power for that reason. There are lots of races where big guys are just as competitive.

acoggan

If you're really only 4% body fat then it is highly unlikely that you can lose any additional mass w/o seeing your absolute power actually decline. Your climbing may still benefit from an increase in power/mass, but other aspects of your performance may very well go backwards.

daveryanwyoming

Yow! Missed that part

tonyzackery

Thanks for the replies thus far, gentlemen.

The reason I've targeted weight loss as my primary goal is due to the fact I have an abundance of upper body muscle (chest and back) that is of absolutely no benefit to me while cycling. I realize one can not necessarily target weight loss but I'm willing to sacrifice (in the short term) some leg mass to get the accompanying loss of mass in my upper body. I'm hypothesizing that I can regain the leg mass/power after I've lost the desired amount of upper body muscle. Am I on the right track??

The road races in the BC area definitely are of the hilly variety and while I can presently power up a hill with the smaller guys, it's the repeatability that is giving me a hard time.

Body fat percentage was measured with a computerized machine similar to an MRI machine. It provided a total body scan (lean mass, fat mass, bone mass, bone density, etc). Can't recall the name, but the test was comprehensive and almost as accurate as a dunk test.

Lionfish

As a 225lb powerlifter I will say Leg strength can obliterate a smaller rider in some areas. I can out sprint a 155lb friend on flats, downhills & shorter climbs.

Problem is on longer climbs (or rides for that matter), I burn out due to the extra upper body muscle that my heart & lungs has to try to feed therefore my heart rate skyrockets as he casually passes me. Smaller guys have better cardio which is what's needed in distance cycling.

Needless to say I won't be doing any double centurys anytime soon.

frenchyge

Heh, tell that to the "Core Strength" apologists.

NM87710

Just my '02 pesos here but isn't accelerating quickly and/or riding uphill at the crux of most races(TT excl) since that's when the split, break or sprint occurs that ultimately decides the final outcome?

tonyzackery

LOL, needless to say you won't be entering any road races that have even the slightest hill... I will however...

wiredued

IMHO an increase in power will help you in more ways than a decrease in weight can. The toughest hill I have to ride around here makes a decrease of 10 lbs roughly equal to an increase in power of 24 watts in FTP. But the 24 watts would also be more useful in a flat TT.

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frenchyge

I wouldn't put quick accelerations into that category, no. In any case, my point was that while either an increase in power or a decrease in weight will help in the situations you mention, an increase in power will also help with flat TT's and crits.

rayhuang

Wouldnt it be wise to see what power to weigh ratio you desire or require and then calculate how much weigh loss it would take to achieve it then what increase in watts to also achieve it? Although the answer is obvious I 'll say it anyways, I am sure its a bit of both.

I too am very early in my development of ftp and I have easily lost 31 lbs. But since hitting my current weight, I am finding it very difficult to budge the last 5 lbs I want to lose (and I dont have much if any excess upper body mass. So I for one have to increase watts more than lose weight. 5 lbs lost and 36 more watts would make me near unbeatable in the State TT. Both will be very hard to achieve anytime soon.

Ray

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tonyzackery

I appreciate the replies thus far although there doesn't appear to be a consensus. Because I'm relatively early in the development of FTP, it could be possible I could have both (having my cake and eating it...). Time will tell...

At present, with the weight loss that has already occurred I subjectively feel I indeed have lost some power, but I have not tested this.

I will also add that the road racing is going to be my primary focus next year (I take my sprinting ability in crits for granted as my muscle composition is predominantly type 2 muscle fibers and my neuromuscular power is very good - power profile slopes downward). Ergo, going well in the hilly road races is going to be of utmost importance. I believe the weight loss should be my primary focus...