Weight

MintID said:

this has been bugging me for some time now.

I'm 193cm and 78kg = 404 gr/kg
My Friend is 185 and 66 kg = 356 gr/kg

In order to reach the same gr/kg as my friend I would need to weigh under 70kg. I highly doubt that's possible.
my FTP is at 351watts right now, would dropping my weight to 70 have an effect on my FTP or ability to increase my ftp?
Maybe there's something i'm not accounting for, regarding tall people and gr/kg in comparison to smaller people.
I hope this makes sense to you guys.

Dang you need to work on your units, it's not gr/kg, it's grams per centimeter you seem to be talking about.

Anyway, you're ~6'4" and weigh 78kg (~172 pounds) and your buddy is ~6' tall and weighs 66kg(~145 pounds). First, your buddy is very light for his height with a BMI of 19.7 and you're pretty typical for a fit rider at a BMI of 20.9.

You might be able to get down to his BMI, but he's really light. Different body types are different and not everybody is healthy or able to sustain as much power when they get real light.

I can't find the link right now, but there's a good piece circulating on line that compares various tour riders in terms of BMI and weight per unit height. IIRC the rolleurs were typically at 2.2 pounds (1kg) per inch of height and the climbing specialists were around 2 pounds per inch of height. That would put you a couple of kilos away from a typical rolleur and your friend would be right up there with the climbing specialists in terms of weight and height.

We can't all be (nor want to be) as thin as Rasmussen.....

Lose a few kilos if it doesn't adversely impact your health, recovery or ability to sustain power but trying to match your friend might prove tough and it's probably not wise.

Good luck,
-Dave

daveryanwyoming said:

Dang you need to work on your units, it's not gr/kg, it's grams per centimeter you seem to be talking about.

Anyway, you're ~6'4" and weigh 78kg (~172 pounds) and your buddy is ~6' tall and weighs 66kg(~145 pounds). First, your buddy is very light for his height with a BMI of 19.7 and you're pretty typical for a fit rider at a BMI of 20.9.

You might be able to get down to his BMI, but he's really light. Different body types are different and not everybody is healthy or able to sustain as much power when they get real light.

I can't find the link right now, but there's a good piece circulating on line that compares various tour riders in terms of BMI and weight per unit height. IIRC the rolleurs were typically at 2.2 pounds (1kg) per inch of height and the climbing specialists were around 2 pounds per inch of height. That would put you a couple of kilos away from a typical rolleur and your friend would be right up there with the climbing specialists in terms of weight and height.

We can't all be (nor want to be) as thin as Rasmussen.....

Lose a few kilos if it doesn't adversely impact your health, recovery or ability to sustain power but trying to match your friend might prove tough and it's probably not wise.

Good luck,
-Dave

don't know what I was thinking with the units lol.
Thanks for your reply, if you come across the link I'd be happy if you could post it.

Do you know anything about why heavier people seem to be able to produce more watts than lighter people...
If I lose weight without losing any muscle, shouldn't I be able to maintain my current state of fitness?

MintID said:

... if you come across the link I'd be happy if you could post it....

Can't find the exact link I was thinking of, but here's a piece from the Hammer Nutrition site with some older tour data:
hammernutrition.comHNTOpen ↗

and here's another piece I found that catalogs some height and weight data from the 2006 tour:

2006 TOUR DE FRANCE
THE EIGHTEEN 6ft 0in RIDERS SORTED BY WEIGHT

KLÖDEN Andréas (GER) 1.83m 63kg 6ft 0in 139 lb
ZABRISKIE David (USA) 1.83m 67kg 6ft 0in 147 lb

SACCHI Fabio (ITA) 1.83m 68kg 6ft 0in 150 lb (nearest to 149 lb)

PORTAL Nicolas (FRA) 1.84m 70kg 6ft 0in 154 lb
VELO Marco (ITA) 1.84m 70kg 6ft 0in 154 lb
BENNATI Daniele (ITA) 1.83m 71kg 6ft 0in 156 lb
ASTARLOZA Mikel (ESP) 1.85m 72kg 6ft 0in 158 lb
VAUGRENARD Benoît (FRA) 1.85m 72kg 6ft 0in 158 lb
COUTOULY Cédric (FRA) 1.84m 72kg 6ft 0in 158 lb
EKIMOV Viatceslav (RUS) 1.84m 73kg 6ft 0in 161 lb
MOERENHOUT Koos (NED) 1.84m 73kg 6ft 0in 161 lb
POZZATO Filippo (ITA) 1.83m 73kg 6ft 0in 161 lb
Ullrich Jan (GER) 1.83m 73kg 6ft 0in 161 lb
QUINZIATO Manuel (ITA) 1.85m 74kg 6ft 0in 163 lb
ROGERS Michael (AUS) 1.85m 74kg 6ft 0in 163 lb
EISEL Bernhard (AUT) 1.83m 74kg 6ft 0in 163 lb
GRABSCH Ralf (GER) 1.85m 81kg 6ft 0in 178 lb
HUSHOVD Thor (NOR) 1.83m 81kg 6ft 0in 178 lb

Quoted post said:

...Do you know anything about why heavier people seem to be able to produce more watts than lighter people...

More muscle mass....

Quoted post said:

...If I lose weight without losing any muscle, shouldn't I be able to maintain my current state of fitness?

Yep, the question is whether you can actually do that. You also have to stay hypocaloric long enough to drop the weight but fuel your training well enough to maintain or gain fitness. It can definitely be done, but it is typically best to do it slowly so you don't bonk on training rides or otherwise do more harm than good. A pound or so per week is about as much as you should try to lose if you're training, maybe less if you're also racing.

I dropped a bunch of weight a couple of winters ago when I decided to renew my racing license. I was able to add substantial power while dropping quite a bit of weight over roughly a 6 month period but it was off season. I tend to stay fairly stable during the racing season with my weight varying by no more than a pound or two all spring and summer. Refueling during the critical half hour after exercise is key to maintaining glycogen stores even during a weight loss period.

Good luck,
-Dave

More muscle mass....

Only for sprints buddy. Bigger riders produce more power because they have bigger hearts and lungs. If you deliberately try and get bigger, you wont get any more power. The really fast riders are naturally big people with huge cardiovascular capacity that shed excess weight and get their watts/kg really high.

Unless you are a sprinter or are at 5% body fat, then losing weight will make you faster.

11ring said:

More muscle mass....

Only for sprints buddy. Bigger riders produce more power because they have bigger hearts and lungs. If you deliberately try and get bigger, you wont get any more power. The really fast riders are naturally big people with huge cardiovascular capacity that shed excess weight and get their watts/kg really high.

Unless you are a sprinter or are at 5% body fat, then losing weight will make you faster.

Losing weight doesn't necessarily improve you. I am very unscientific in my method but I have a hilly course 3 climbs (2km @ 9%, 2km @ 8% 2km @ 6%)

I used to time myself all the time but at 183 cm my best time for the hilly course was 71kg.

When I was 71kg I did the course in 50'45

When I was down to 65kg @ the end of training I could actually only do the course in 52'11

When I was 75kg I did the course in a best time of 51'53.