FAT Chance!

 Today I would like to talk about fat.  Excessive fat is the enemy of the aspiring competitive cyclist.  In fact, for every extra pound of body weight a cyclist carries, they need to use an extra 5 watts to climb a hill.  So, if you are 10 pounds over your race weight, you will be sacrificing 50 watts on a climb... that can add up.  The picture on the right is not me... thankfully.  I am specifically concerned with how big that guy's belly button is.  It seems expansive.  I have to wonder about the process of removing the umbilical cord... is there any room for a doctor to botch this up?   Maybe they dug in too deep.  Does the belly button grow as your waistline does?  If so, can belly button volume be used to measure health?

Ok, back to my post.  So, I did weigh myself in on 'D-DAY' and decided that I am going to focus on body fat this season instead of my weight.  My new scale seems much less flattering than my old one (more fattering?).  It has me at 18% body fat.  Hmm?  My old scale never let me get that fat.  This left me with no choice but to obsess about what this number meant...  Please enjoy the following chart:

Classification:     Men (% fat)
Essential Fat       2-4%
Athletes             6-13%
Fitness               14-17%
Acceptable        18-25%
Obese               25% and up.

Ok, so I guess 18% is "acceptable" but far from "athletic".  I don't know whether or not to believe this scale, as I seem to be pretty skinny.  Most comments I get are sort of insulting and imply that I need to gain some weight... what to do? 

Being 'acceptable' is not acceptable if I want to be competitive in Cat 1,2 races next year.

An article from USA Cycling Certified Coach Jeff Vicario, suggested that the off-season is the best time to lose weight:



"Timing is critical because high-level training while trying to lose weight is not conducive to high performance. Losing weight is just one more stress on your body while it's already dealing with the stress of quality training. It's best to try and drop weight early, while the training is general and not race-specific. If you wait until after the New Year, the hole you'll need to climb out of will undoubtedly be deeper, with the race date circled on the calendar just that much closer. This is when workouts are becoming more "race like" as well. Once you enter this phase of training, it's best to accept your weight and focus on quality training. Trying to manage both will increase the likelihood of injury and illness."



Ok, makes sense to me.  I actually got excited reading this... I want to start working toward some sort of goal, but don't want to start race specific training too early.

GIVING 13 PERCENT
I will attack FAT!  I will obsess about fat.  For example did you know that fat has 9 calories per gram?  I never would have cared about that until now.  I am going to play this new scale's game... It is trying to convince me that my body composition is merely "Acceptable"... I find this hard to believe but I have no other choice, aside from buying another scale.  Well, game on buddy... game on! Somehow, someway I will make that scale tell me that I am "Athletic" in terms of my body fat percentage.