As a nutritionist, I hear
many clients say they want to lose weight - to look better, have more energy,
improve their health. But losing weight can also help you increase your power
on the bike.
Ratios intrinsically
provide two ways to improve the ratio - by manipulating either variable. The
results of improving both variables can be dramatic.
As covered in a previous
article, efficiency - the ratio of work output to expended energy - can improve
with increased work output or decreased energy expenditure (or both).
In the same way, your
power-to-weight ratio on the bike (measured in watts per kg) can improve with
increased power or decreased body weight, or both.
Power is itself another
ratio, of work to time. If work increases or time decreases, the result is
greater power.
So that provides 3
variables in the power-to-weight ratio: increase your strength (work), increase
your speed, or decrease your body weight.
Why Lose Weight?
Even if you're not
overweight, weight loss may improve your power-to-weight ratio. It need not -
and shouldn't - involve a strict "diet" that leaves you hungry most
of the day.
It does involve careful
monitoring of your numbers - how many calories you burn (using your power meter
or, preferably, a wearable calorie counter 24 hours a day), and your calorie
intake.
The goal is to eat fewer
calories per day than you burn, but not by much, just 150 to 300 calories. If
that feels too restrictive, drop the deficit to 100 calories. The result would
be a slow decrease in weight that you can stop or reverse at any time.
These days, the general
recommendation for weight loss is rapid loss. (Is that to match up with HIIT
and the shorter-and-harder approach to fitness, I wonder?) Rapid weight loss is
said to keep the "loser's" motivation high.
Yet gradual weight loss -
while also training for power - has the advantage of maintaining fat-free mass
(FFM) so you won't lose strength, an important variable in the power ratio.
Holding On To FFM
Weight loss often decreases
muscle mass, especially rapid loss. But in the long-running (13-plus years)
weight-loss program for which I was both the nutritionist and a training coach,
we typically saw steady or increased FFM while the participants lost weight at
a slow, sustainable rate.
That helped them maintain
strength and power so they could do the training, which was frequently
high-intensity. The intense training, of course, was designed to increase
strength and power.
Maintaining FFM also
prevented participants from having to drop calorie intake more and more (and
more) for continued weight loss.
Don't Bonk
Make sure you don't
restrict calories on the ride itself. Whether you're riding outdoors or doing
tough power training in the studio, under-fueling before or during the ride
could cause you to bonk.
Even without bonking, you
may still feel week and have difficulty working up to your capacity - the power
you're trying to improve. Fuel as usual while riding.
Keep the calorie
restriction small. Cut back a little more on days that you're not training
hard, or at least save the restriction for after the ride. If your power ride
is late in the day, early A.M. calorie cutbacks may work. Just keep your
pre-ride meal about the same as usual, and eat or drink whatever you need on
the bike.
Be strict about refueling
within 30 minutes after training so you can train well the next day.
Technique and Efficiency
In all of this, don't
forget that better technique on the bike will help you waste less energy by
reducing the energy needed for pedaling, reducing energy lost as body heat, and
retaining more energy for your next pedal stroke. Your functional strength, a
power variable, will increase.
Combining good technique,
power training and gradual weight loss will help you dramatically increase your
power-to-weight ratio on the bike.
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