How much better or faster would losing 15kg be?

[pivoxa15]

I am 5'10 at 90kg. If I lose 15kg to 75kg how much faster will I be able to ride? Is there a quantitative answer?

Any advice on how to lose that 15kg?

 

[KellyT]

I am 5'10 at 90kg. If I lose 15kg to 75kg how much faster will I be able to ride? Is there a quantitative answer?

Any advice on how to lose that 15kg?

It isn't that simple. Sure you could construct a model to calculate the speed difference. But, there are too many variables that you couldn't account for. If you lose 15 kg and have the same strength, of course you would be faster. But you haven't said if you are muscular, or (forgive the bluntness) fatty. If you are really muscular and you lose 15 kg of which some of it would be muscle mass, you would possibly be quicker on hills, but probably actually slower everywhere else. Boonen and Cancellara aren't all that light, but they are seriously strong.

In short, you need to think about the question a lot more, since a lot of your answers are already there in thinking about the question more thoroughly. As for the mathematical model to calculate the outcome, perhaps try sci.math on usenet, but you are going to need far more inputs to calculate a valid outcome.

 

[NomadVW]

I am 5'10 at 90kg. If I lose 15kg to 75kg how much faster will I be able to ride? Is there a quantitative answer?

At the end of the day, the goal is to lose the weight and maintain strength, as mentioned above. That's not nearly as hard as you think provided you lose weight in a steady manner. Also not knowing where you carry your weight, there are some questions you'd need to ask yourself. When I started this season back in October, I was 80-82kg @ around 8% body fat (187 cm). I carried some muscle in the upper body and opted to lose that so I simply stopped working those muscle groups.

I'm 75-76 kg pretty steady now @ 6% for the last three measurements on calipers. But my upper body is pretty much useless for any strength type stuff. I've been able to maintain and see improvement in on-the-bike strength with a 6-7kg loss.

So... if you can maintain strength as mentioned by the previous poster, then it becomes a mathematical question you can answer using either:

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm
or
http://www.analyticcycling.com

Either of those can give you a power/weight/speed change.

Any advice on how to lose that 15kg?

That's a loaded question. But at the end of the day, calories in < calories out is what you need. You can help sorta fool your body's metabolism by eating smaller meals more often in the day.

Still, the most important thing remains calories in less than calories out , and a slow steady loss - 1 lb per week is easy to maintain during and after weight loss.