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Weight loss Vs Training

A little history of me: A rugby player by trade, recovering from a knee injury got me into triathlon, I play second row which will tell you enough about my general physical shape and size... I’m about 188cm and I currently weight around 110kg (not an ideal triathletes weight [;)]) I’ve entered a couple of Olympic Tris next year in June and August and I’m about to start training over the winter – obviously I need to lose weight but should I put weight loss as a priority over base training or just assume that training for the Tri will cause the weight loss I desire? On the flip side - dieting is an easy way, but how do I balance exercising lots with reducing my intake – I guess I’m hoping for a magical answer from people that doesn’t include putting a spreadsheet together to calculate calorie /protein/carb etc.. intakes What’s an ideal body fat % for Triathletes? This is what I’m working towards rather than specific weight... Scott

Comments

  • Hi Scott,ideal body fat percentage for triathletes is between 5-12% well according to some websites...as to weather losing weight or training more is better though question i started training for tri's and actually put on weight and it wasn't from the extra muscle it was flab! then i lost some weight pre season and aimed to maintain my weight during competetive season.now that competitions are over i'm gonna try lose a little more weight so that i'll be extra fast naxt year.....
  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    I love that 'ideal' figure, not being an elite & enjoying my food, I would discount that figure (in every sense of the word), I am guessing that being a rugby guy that you tend toward a ectomorphic body type & would find a low % difficult to get to, impossible to maintain & possibly detrimental to try to whilst maintaining a good training program. I would gradually incr training, monitor diet whilst not neccessarily increasing intake unless required to sustain recovery & see how that goes.
  • TommiTriTommiTri Posts: 879
    I second britspin on that, don't be drawn into the trap of trying to actively lower your BF%, with the training it will happen on its own, in a natural way. I have met many endurance athletes especially runners who have done themselves and their training harm due to the pursuit of a low bf, mostly concentrating on stupid low carb diets.



    Just put in the training, eat the right stuff and it will come.
  • treefrogtreefrog Posts: 1,242
    I have a lightweight rowing background so weight loss/management was second nature for about 15 years. I found take a hard month to start with when you cut your food intake. All the time you should be training - plenty of running 10km plus and long cycles with NO FOOD afterwards (just go to bed). Also cut out the beer completeley. In fact By just being careful about what I eat and by cutting out all beer whilst training I can lose up to 8kg in a month.

    Basically Energy in must be less than energy out

  • BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    I could never not eat after a session..a) I cannot sleep hungry...b) refuel, rest, recover. Surely one must eat at least to aid recovery, if you eat only enough to reach energy balance at that point, then you can (if you must) cut the odd calorie out in other meals or as you point out, lose the beer or silly snacks.
  • I can sympathise with you there Scott, as I'm a fairly big lad too weighing around 92kg. I've been previously more into weight training and body building and find it easy to put muscle on, but harder to strip off the fat, being more on the Mesomorph/Endomorph scale of the Somatotype scale, as I think Britspin is also meaning you to be too.



    To be honest mate, on a personal level, I simply train to do as well as I can for the shape I am, and accept that I am better in some areas than others. In a recent race for example, I placed in the top 50 of 1200 for the swim and cycle, but was quite rubbish in the run. I'm improving on that with every run I do, but there's no way that I'd diet hard, or risk losing any more muscle than I have, simply to improve my run times slightly. I'm with TommiTri on the 'train hard, eat good and good things would happen' style of things.



    I definitely wouldn't advocate cutting the beer out completely. A man needs something to look forward to!!!! [:D]





    Flipflopman
  • BopomofoBopomofo Posts: 980
    A man needs something to look forward to!!!!


    Amen

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