i keep trying but.........

pinkpanther

I keep trying to loose some weight(2kg) but it seems nothing's happening.
I'm 1.75cm tall and 71,5kg with a 7% body fat. I know that the body fat is low and maybe that's why i can't loose weight but has anyone have any ideas what to do?

Thanks

BILLYHOLMES

If you are 1.75cm tall and weigh 71.5kg you must look quite strange – 1.75cm = <2 inches!

Seriously if you want to loose weight then I go on the following diet: -

Cereal for breakfast a banana for lunch and a Subway sandwich for supper.

I went on this for the weekdays and had a more normal diet on the weekend (without going nuts)

This probably will have people up in arms saying that it is a preposterous diet. All I know is that it works; I lost 10lb in three weeks on it.

Piotr

Considering that you have only 5 kg of fat on you (71.5 x .07) losing 2 kg of it may not be that easy to accomplish. If you're only interested in losing fat that means that you want to have around 4.3% fat. Personally, I think that's unhealthy for a cyclist who needs to utilize fat stores in training and racing.

OTOH, because your Body Mass Index is 23.3 (71.5kg/175cm) and body fat 7% (fairly low), I suspect that you're more muscular than an average cyclist. Thus, you may be able to lose more than 2 kg of muscle simply by riding lots (while not lifting weights) and being patient. Diet will not help here.

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daveryanwyoming

+1 on Piotr's post. 7% body fat is very low and you really don't want to go much lower. You need some body fat to simply survive not to mention its role as energy reserves in longer events. It sure sounds like you must have a weightlifter's build to have a BMI of 23.3 at 7% body fat.

Just remember cycling isn't a strength sport like power lifting. Big muscles won't get you up a long steep climb with the leaders. Powerful muscles will, but the two are very different. Power lifters develop very large, very strong muscle fibers with relatively low mitochondrial densities. Those are great for peak strength but lousy for aerobic efforts. Endurance athletes develop lots of small thin muscle fibers with relatively high mitochondrial densities. It's the mitochondria that convert fat, glycogen and oxygen to power and you need high densities to sustain high power aerobic efforts. Big thick Mr. Universe muscles won't get you there.

Train your aerobic systems, keep eating a healthy diet(gotta assume you're already doing this if you're down to 7% body fat) and don't be surprised if you start exchanging muscle mass and peak strength for greater power.

Good luck,
-Dave