Many endurance athletes are united by the desire to lose weight and achieve their ideal weight. After all, the mountain stages of the Tour de France The cycling world is usually dominated by skinny climbers and the Tour winners of recent years have all been extremely slim. However, our graphic on the body mass index (BMI) in cycling shows that not only ascetics are capable of top performances on the bike. Depending on the discipline, it is not just a matter of being as light as possible.
The BMI is calculated by dividing body weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. The value helps to categorise your own body weight as overweight, underweight or normal weight. If the value is below 18.5, you are considered underweight, from 25 you are overweight. The major shortcoming of the BMI: Muscle mass and fat distribution are not taken into account, even some professional cyclists such as track sprinter Robert Förstemann would be obese according to the BMI!
The BMI alone therefore says little about whether an athlete has an ideal weight. It is more important for endurance athletes to track when and why their body weight changes. The energy metabolism, which puts the calories consumed with food in relation to consumption, helps here. Using the following two formulae, you can calculate your own total energy expenditure in two simple steps and thus determine whether energy intake and consumption are balanced:
Calculate energy expenditure for ideal weight
1. Resting metabolic rate i.e. the amount of calories (in kcal) consumed by the body at rest
- Formula for men: (0.047 × weight in kg + 1.009 - 0.01452 × age in years + 3.21) × 239
For a 40-year-old weighing 75 kilograms, this results in a resting metabolic rate of 1712 kilocalories per day.
- Formula for women: (0.047 × weight in kg - 0.01452 × age in years + 3.21) × 239
For a 40-year-old woman weighing 70 kilograms, this results in a daily resting metabolic rate of 1415 kilocalories.
2. Total energy turnover calculate by adding physical activity
- Formula: Resting metabolic rate × PAL value* = total metabolic rate
A 40-year-old man weighing 75 kilograms consumes approximately 2397 kilocalories per day if he is not very active, or 2910 kilocalories if he exercises four to five times a week.
* Value for the physical activity level (PAL = Physical Activity Level). 1.4 stands for mostly sedentary office work without sports compensation, 1.7 for office work with 4-5 sports units per week, 2.4 for competitive athletes.
Conclusion: Anyone who consumes more calories than they burn will put on weight in the long term and will not be able to maintain their ideal weight. One key to weight loss success is therefore to keep an eye on your calorie balance. Our weight loss tips reveal how to do this and what else helps if you want to lose weight:
Lose weight properly: Three tips
1. keep a record
Those who document their progress with a food diary or fitness tracker are more motivated and know exactly where there is room for improvement. Apps make logging easier and often offer recipe suggestions. However, it is questionable how reliable the stored food databases are.
2. do not demand too much of yourself
Set yourself type-appropriate nutritional goals to achieve your ideal weight - not everyone has the physical abilities to mutate into a spindly climber. If you have too great an energy deficit, you won't be able to train efficiently. Losing about one kilo in a month is realistic - no more.
3. find like-minded people
If you have the same goals and motivate each other, it's easier to lose weight.
