Thoughts on Weight

Over on the tri forums, questions about weight come up a lot. First, what is the "right" weight?

I'll paraphrase Dan Empfield:

When your family and friends start asking if you've lost weight, you're not even getting started.

When they ask if you've been sick, you're within maybe 10 pounds.

If they start whispering to your spouse/partner and asking if you have AIDS or cancer, you're within 5 pounds.

If they actually stage an intervention, you're about done.

I am merely at Stage I of this cycle. Dropping to 170 pounds leaves me with ample love handles, and I won't be posting any beach pictures of myself on my Facebook page. But, a few people have noticed I lost weight.

I've been down another 10 pounds -- to 160. At that weight, people thought maybe I was sick, and a few even asked my wife if I was OK. But I still did not have a "six pack" and had plenty of healthy body fat. I was simply smaller than I used to be. Not even what I would consider "lean." When I think of "lean" I think of a rock climber or gymnast or ultra runner. Those folks are lean. At 160lbs, my 5'11" frame is not even close to lean. Simply healthy.

Is there a tipping point? Of course there is, and my suggestion is to get familiar with your own body and be realistic about how much body fat you can drop. Pinch at your waist. If it's just skin, you're pretty lean. If there's a half inch or more of fat pinched in there, you could still go a little lower. The limits of race weight are far lower than what the modern developed-world adult holds as the "norm" for healthy weight. Only you can decide if you want to go really low.

Now, how to do it...

No matter what you read or hear or think, it always and everywhere comes down to caloric balance. If you take in less than you burn, you will lose body fat. Period. No other rules apply. At all. Ever.

But, what about cutting sugar, or wheat, or eating "paleo"...? Those are strategies to accomplish caloric deficit. The simplest steps are to cut out foods that are calorically dense. And...that means processed foods that contain a lot of added sugar, as a starting point. So, does cutting sugar help lose weight? Yes as an initial step. But it's not because sugar is some special force of the apocalypse...it's because foods with added sugar are engineered to get you to eat a lot of it.

Rather than cover all the detail here, I'll keep it simple. Eat food you have to prepare. Vegetables, lean meats in their natural form, some legumes and grains. If you eat grains, stick to the whole versions that you cook yourself. Nothing wrong with bread -- just get whole grain.

A great resource is the website, books and blogs of James Fell. His main website is www.bodyforwife.com.

I like his stuff because he really gets it, and he gets it right. Funny, irreverent and well-researched. Probably the best popular-media guy active when it comes to diet and exercise. No shortcuts, no bullshit, no marketing lies.

Remember, so long as you stay above the "intervention" level of race weight, losing body fat is the best and most cost-effective way of racing faster. People spend multiple thousands of dollars to lose a pound off their bike (which barely makes any difference) when they won't take an extra 10 minutes a day to eat right and lose 10-15 pounds over the course of a few months. Those 10-15 pounds make a heck of a big difference in your run split -- far more than any expensive bike parts will make on your bike split.