Loosing weight but not power

[BeirutTaxi]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any advice on loosing weight but not power? I'm trying to drop a good few kg at the moment however if I cut down on carbohydrates then the power loss is very quickly noticeable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Kind regards,

Matt

[nammynake]

I assume you're already relatively lean and worried about losing muscle mass? If you're losing fat there should no loss in power. Cycling power (apart from short neuromuscular efforts) is almost entirely produced by your aerobic system (heart and lungs) and shouldn't weaken just because you're losing fat.

The only time I've noticed a loss in power is when I dropped from 63kg to 60kg during a week-long stage race.

[nacnac]

You have to fuel your training, if you try and go out carb depleted and go hard it won't end well.

Over the last few years I have shed as much as 8 kg both in muscle and fat and seen a slow uptick in power over that time so it certainly can be done although it gets harder the leaner you get.

In the lead up to a hard session, during and immediately after you probably shouldn't be trying to restrict but that should still leave you with plenty of other opportunities to cut back on food.

[Scabutz]

If you go low carb your glycogen gets used up. This causes weight loss of its own because glycogen is held the muscles with water. What you are probably experiencing is a lack of energy to complete your workouts rather than actually losing power.

If you do too much catabolic exercise and are on calorie deficit you can lose muscle but it will take a long time to impact your power.

I have been able to lose weight and see an increase in FTP in the same period so it is possible. I consume my carbs around training and during and generally avoid large amounts of them between sessions

[227bhp]

[Get Karter]

227bhp said:

Technically, losing weight will make his pants loose.

[jontysafe]

I lost 25% of my own body weight and power increased.

What training do you do off the bike?

[BeirutTaxi]

Sounds like I am worrying about it too much... Basically I think I can drop a good few kg of body fat before I drop power.

RE: questions about exercises off the bike. I'm currently following my own training plan after much reading of Jo Friel's 'Training Bible'. At the moment I'm doing a lot of core work in the gym 2-3 times a week as well as riding the bike.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone

Kind regards,

Matt