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What is Your Ideal Race Weight?...

Friday, 31 January 2020 23:10

From Triathlete.com

Dr. Stacy Sims is a leading sports nutritionist and exercise physiologist who has worked with hundreds of professional athletes and age groupers to help improve their training, performance, and health. This week she addresses questions about race weight and snacking before and after workouts.

I’ve heard a lot about hitting “race weight”—how do I know what my race weight is and how should I achieve it?

There are always conversations around race weight: “I’m only eating X amount to get down to race weight” or “I’m doing fasted training to help me get to race weight.” You can even Google “Ideal Race Weight” and you’ll discover online calculators! But what exactly is race weight and is it necessary for the amateur triathlete? ...

Race weight is considered to be the optimal body weight for an athlete to produce maximum power for hill climbing and running fast while having the lowest body fat without compromising health. The mistake is the focus on being “light” at all costs. The focus should be on specific performance metrics, such as sustained power or running speed with physiological and psychological markers of fatigue, immunity, sleep, and recovery. Too many athletes strive for a specific weight on the scale to be their “race weight” yet have no idea how being a few pounds over or under this might affect their overall performance goals. Achieving an ideal weight for racing is multi-faceted; trying to simply lose weight is really difficult, for a myriad of hormonal, genetic, and psychological reasons. READ MORE